Chapter Ten

Mia re-read the preliminary report from the fire department and tried to make sense of it. She couldn’t.

Because it didn’t make sense.

Someone had intentionally set the fire, using gasoline and a simple timer that anyone could have set up after getting the instructions from the internet.

Well, anyone with a motive, that is.

And that was her sticking point. She was having trouble figuring out why anyone would have done this.

“You’re sure the CSIs got everything they could from Kenton’s room?” she asked Angel.

He was on the other side of his office, working on his laptop at his desk, and she’d taken his office sofa while she used her tablet. And they’d been at the research since arriving back at his place after having to give their statements once again about the fire.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “SAPD and the CSIs wouldn’t have agreed to let Ruby do the reconstruction if they weren’t finished.”

That’s the conclusion Mia had drawn as well. So, she was back to this not making sense. Setting the room on fire didn’t eliminate any evidence that had already been collected, and the blaze hadn’t been big enough to destroy other areas that might have held something forensically important.

“Are you getting anywhere on this?” she asked.

His sigh told her the answer was a big fat no, and on that sigh, he swiveled his chair around to face her. “There are no traffic or security cams with feed that’ll show if anyone sneaked into the house. Added to that, the person could have been there for hours. Hell, for days.”

That was another truth. The house was plenty big enough for someone to find a hidey hole and wait. But wait for what? To hear what they all had to say about that shitty night with Kenton?

Maybe.

But then she thought of the two people who were known to have been in the house and had had the opportunity to set the fire.

RJ and Dwight.

RJ could have done it during that bathroom trip shortly after Birdie’s arrival. Dwight, before he even showed up in the kitchen.

“I did turn up something interesting on Roger,” Angel said, turning back to his laptop and pulling up something. “Six months ago he was investigated for using hired muscle to intimidate a former employee who was scheduled to testify against him in small claims court.”

Mia frowned. “There must not have been a huge payout at stake if the case was being heard in small claims. And he used hired muscle for that?”

“He was accused, investigated but wasn’t charged. There wasn’t enough evidence, and the hired muscle vanished. But the former employee claimed she was wrongfully terminated because she’d bad-mouthed Birdie, his then fiancée. Apparently, Birdie and she had crossed paths during Birdie’s wild child days.”

Mia gave that some thought. “So, Roger would maybe go to some lengths to protect Birdie.”

Angel shrugged. “It appears that way. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’d hire someone to burn that room, especially not while they were in the house. He could have hired someone to set it before Ruby ever got there. Or hell, do it last night when it would have been empty.”

That made sense unless… “What if Roger chose the timing of the fire so that Birdie and he would be excluded as suspects?”

“It could have played out that way. The front door was unlocked and obviously stayed that way since Dwight was able to walk in. And there were no signs that the lock had been tampered with.” He stopped. “My money’s still on Dwight.”

“Mine, too. He could have come into the house while we were in the kitchen, set up the fire on the timer and come back down, pretending that he’d just arrived. What I’m stuck on is his motive unless he killed his own son and then wanted to make sure there was nothing around that could incriminate him.”

“It’s possible,” Angel agreed. “But this could have been his warped way of stirring things up, or perhaps even bringing more media attention to Kenton and therefore himself.”

He turned his laptop so she could see the social media page on the screen. And the profile photo on the page was none other than a very young Dwight with his arm slung around a very young Kenton. Mia was guessing he’d only been seven or eight in the picture.

“Dwight’s already set up a GoFundMe page to pay for Kenton’s funeral expenses,” Angel explained, “and I suspect none of that will be used for anything else but to line his own pockets.”

She considered that as well, remembering something in the background check she’d done on Dwight. “He’s flat broke, and while I couldn’t find any debts to a loan shark, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.” Mia paused. “I just don’t want it to be RJ who set that fire,” she added in a mutter.

She couldn’t understand a motive for that either. Still, sometimes people panicked under stress.

“I wonder if RJ and Melanie could be going through something similar to what we did,” she threw out there. “RJ could be believe Melanie killed Kenton and wants to protect her. And vice versa.” She stopped, shook her head. “But I just can’t believe either of them setting a fire in their own home.”

Mia groaned, set aside her tablet and went to look out the window. Maybe all those pretty flowers would ease some of the sense of dread that was claiming every inch of her. Of course, that was asking a lot of a beautiful view.

“Anything back from SAPD yet?” she asked, and she didn’t clarify what the anything was she was talking about.

No need. Along with the fire, it had to be weighing on Angel’s mind, too.

After they’d given their statements about the fire, Angel and she had also given their full statements to SAPD. Specially to the homicide detective, Asa Walker, who was in charge of the investigation into Kenton’s murder.

It hadn’t been easy.

In fact, it’d been damn hard to go through all of it yet once again, but now everything was out in the open, and they had to prepare themselves for the consequences. Because of the statute of limitations, they couldn’t be charged with anything involving the crime scene.

But that didn’t apply to the murder.

Mia didn’t believe there was enough evidence to charge anyone for that, including Angel or her, but the cops would want to keep looking. Keep digging. And maybe would find enough circumstantial evidence to initiate an arrest. If so, Birdie had to be a top suspect since her blood had been found on the knife—even though that wasn’t admissible because of the chain of custody issue with it.

“Nothing from Detective Walker,” he said.

Of course, she’d known there hadn’t been. No way would Angel keep something like that to himself.

Angel stood, too, and went to stand beside her. He might be hoping for that same mood lift since it felt as if they were getting nowhere. They were certainly no closer to finding Kenton’s killer, and it was obvious that someone wanted to make sure they never found out.

“Who’s doing this?” she murmured.

She turned to Angel just as he looked at her. And she saw it. The frustration on his face that had to mirror her own. But that expression seemed to change when their gazes locked.

Damn it.

There it was again. All that heat that seemed to have a life and mind of its own. Angel must have felt it, too, because he cursed under his breath.

“If I kiss you, we might not stop,” he spelled out. “We never did have much willpower when it came to each other.”

“I agree,” she couldn’t say fast enough.

They’d become lovers within a month of meeting each other and had stayed together for over two years. Mia had never thought for a second that the attraction between them had died when they’d gone their separate ways, and that look he was giving her was proof of it.

The logical part of her ordered her to go back to the sofa so she could continue to dig. The illogical part of her didn’t do that.

Cursing herself, and Angel, she moved in, hooking her arm around his neck and pulling his mouth down to hers.

And, yep, there it was.

Instant scalding heat despite it not being as hard and hurried as their earlier kisses. But the intensity was there. Building, building. Building. And it only took a couple of seconds before there was no logical part of her left.

There was only the need.

So much need.

She fully turned toward him so that she could press her body to his. Angel was already helping with that anyway because he’d slipped his arm around her waist and was easing her forward. Her breasts landed against his chest, giving her another shot of that heat.

Not that she needed more.

But she took it, and let his touch and taste work magic on her mood. She certainly wasn’t thinking about, well, anything but Angel.

He slipped his hand underneath her top, his fingers brushing over her bare skin while his mouth continued to torment and tease. He’d been so right about the direction this kiss would take, and Mia knew one thing for sure.

She didn’t want it to stop.

She wanted to continue this scorching foreplay until it led them straight to bed. Or rather the sofa since it was closer.

He deepened the kiss. And kept touching. Sliding those clever fingers up her body to her breasts. Over her nipples.

A fresh round of heat fired through her, and if he hadn’t been holding onto her, Mia thought her legs would have buckled. She didn’t care if they did. Or they dropped to the floor. As long as he kept touching, kept kissing, she was up for anything. In fact, she would escalate things by touching him as well, but even through the sexual buzz and her thrumming heartbeat, she heard a sound that she knew was going to bring all of this to an end.

Angel’s phone was ringing.

“Incoming call from Presley,” Danno announced.

Both of them cursed, and Mia forced herself to step away from him. A call from Presley was too important to ignore. Even if ignoring it was exactly what she wanted to do.

Angel took a moment, gathering his breath. Doing more cursing before he finally spoke. “Danno, answer the call on speaker.”

The AI app did, and within seconds, she heard Presley’s voice pour through the entire room. “I figure I interrupted something nonwork related,” Presley drawled right off the bat. “And I’m sorry about that.”

His serious tone let her know that he meant it. And that something was wrong.

Angel picked up on that vibe, too, because he quickly asked. “What the hell happened now? Is this about the statements Mia and I gave?”

“No, but it is about Kenton.” Presley groaned. “Remember those DNA samples the CSIs took from everyone?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Well, there was an…unexpected match.”

Oh, God, no. Mia hoped that Angel’s or her DNA hadn’t been recovered from Kenton’s room.

“What match?” Angel came out and asked.

“Melanie’s,” Presley said, surprising them both. “Are you ready for this?” Again, he didn’t wait for a response. “Melanie is Kenton’s birth mother.”

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