Into the Fire (13 page)

“
No ma’am. Thank you for
taking such good care of us.”

The older woman tutted in response and
walked out of the room with a purposeful stride.

Nate picked up where he’d been
interrupted. “I agree with Captain Reynolds.” He held up a hand
when Charly began to protest. “Not because I believe, in any way,
shape or form, that you’re not up to the job, but because this is
about me, not you. If anyone is going into harm’s way, it’ll be
me.”

“
She’s not
baiting 
you
, Nate. She’d’ve trashed your place if that was the
case.”

Reynolds rose to his feet. “I’m
pulling your buddy CC in for questioning, regardless of what you
think. Maybe he’ll remember something when you’re not threatening
to emasculate him.”

Nate groaned. How in the hell had the
Captain found out?

“
Next time you’re going to
squeeze the truth out of someone, don’t do it in a watering hole we
all go to. Jim Ryan and I were having a drink when you two showed
up yesterday afternoon.”

Nate felt like banging his head
against the wall: her captain and his battalion chief. He had no
doubt that, if Charly hadn’t been threatened this morning, he’d be
in Ryan’s office right this second, getting one hell of an ass
chewing. Again.

“
It had to be done,
Captain,” Charly said calmly. “He’s been maligning me for too long.
If I’d let it go and rumors started again, the rest of the precinct
would never respect me.”

“
I know, I know. Let’s get
this serial and keep both of your hides intact. Until we run
Andrews’ names and any evidence, both of you will stay at the
precinct. There’ll be no argument on this, Davis.” Reynolds’ tone
was adamant. “I’ll have a uniform take you there and deposit your
friend at home as well.”

The captain walked out of the house
without another word, leaving Charly and Nate in a vacuum of
silence.

Nate turned to face her. “I have no
idea who she could be, Charly. Honestly.”

She studied his face for a long
moment. “I believe you. But it’s not like you were a virgin when we
met. It has to be a past lover.”

“
Maybe, but there’s no one
left here from our old days.”

“
How can you be sure? You
didn’t know I was still here. We need to put out some feelers and
fast. I need names, Nate. You’re not going to offend my delicate
sensibilities. I may not like seeing a list, but I’ll suck it up to
catch this chick. What I don’t get is how she knew. You said you
hadn’t played like we do, and I certainly haven’t, so how did she
know, unless she was after you years ago.”

Nate blew out a frustrated breath. He
could still see the blood-red words on the wall in Charly’s
kitchen, smell the smoke, and feel the thrum of terror that had
flowed through him at the sight of her underthings lying in
smoldering heaps.

“
All right, you’ll get your
list, but I sure as hell hope the CSU guys pick something
up.”

* * * *

They thanked Mrs. Montgomery for her
hospitality, bundled into the black-and-white, dropped Emma off at
her place, and killed time in the precinct break room while Nate
compiled his list. When he was done, he handed her a slip of paper
with six names. The list was shorter than she’d expected, to be
honest, but she’d never admit that she was secretly
relieved.

She scanned the list quickly to see if
she’d known any of them as well, but each name was a stranger to
her. Handing it over to Reynolds ten minutes later felt like sweet
relief. Their baddie had to be on the list. ... had to be. Now,
they had to sit on their hands and wait. She’d never been
particularly good at that.

She looked up to find Nate staring at
her. He was embarrassed; his face tinged a light shade of red. This
man, who’d tied her up, who had made her scream and beg for his
touch, was embarrassed because she’d seen his list of former
lovers. She didn’t know whether to be touched or amused.

“
Charly,” he began, then
dropped his head into his hands for a moment before lifting it and
meeting her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

She didn’t pretend to misunderstand.
“I know, but there’s nothing to be sorry for. Whoever did this is
sick and needs to be put away before she really hurts someone.
That’s what I do. You and I being involved just complicates matters
a bit.”

He barked out a strained laugh. “Ya
think? This isn’t exactly how I envisioned spending the day, you
know.”

She smiled thinly in response. He was
trying to charm her, and it was working, marginally. “What did you
have in mind?”

“
A long, hot bath, for
starters,” he looked around, making sure they were alone. “I know
you must be sore.”

Despite their surroundings, their
circumstances, a flare of heat shot through her. The reaction was
inappropriate as hell, but there nonetheless.

A muted bellow echoed through the
hallways, making Charly flinch. It had to be CC; no one else
hollered like that. She caught a glimpse of him, red-faced and
sweating, as he was shoved past the break room. She felt a surge of
relief when he didn’t catch sight of either her or Nate. This was
something Reynolds could handle.

The ringing of her cell phone pulled
her sharply into the moment. She looked at the display, thinking it
might be Emma. It was a local number but not one she
knew.

Shrugging, she pulled the phone to her
ear. “Davis.”

“
You’ll never figure me out,
bitch,” the voice on the line breathed. Charly strained to catch
anything distinctive, an inflection, a tone, but the voice was
frustratingly neutral, neither male nor female, with no distinct
accent.

“
Don’t wanna figure you
out,” she taunted, hoping like hell she was taking the right route,
even as a chill skated down her spine. “Just want to put you away
before you kill someone. Guess I just missed you this
morning.”

The caller laughed, a shrill, edgy
sound. Charly knew then that it was a woman and that the woman had
completely lost her mind.

“
But you undoubtedly got my
message. Leave him alone. He’s mine.”

“
I think Nate’s a big enough
boy to make up his own mind.” Nate’s head came up sharply at the
mention of his name, his eyes sharp.

“
Leave well enough alone,
bitch. I should’ve taken care of you eight years ago. You couldn’t
catch me then, and you won’t stop me now.” The line disconnected,
leaving only dead air.

Nate was about two inches from her
now, his face drawn taut with concern.

“
Well, she’s just upped the
stakes,” Charly said, trying to make her tone light but failing
miserably. “We need to let Reynolds know what’s going on and then
trace the call.”

Since it had been her phone, the phone
company should have no problem in doing the research, and quickly
when she related an active threat, and that she was a police
officer working a serial arson case. All of Ludington knew of the
arsonist, and no one wanted their home or business to be next. The
phone company would be no exception.

As she exited the room, Nate’s hand
settled at the small of her back, just above her Beretta, and, for
the life of her, she couldn’t summon the Ice Queen within to shrug
him off.

She caged Reynolds in his office,
relaying the conversation concisely, and wasn’t so very surprised
when he blew a gasket. He lit a fire beneath the phone company rep
and then browbeat the crime scene techs into checking the paint can
for prints yesterday.

Through it all, Nate was at her back;
she was glad for his comforting presence. That call had brought the
truth home to her: She could still be a strong woman, someone her
colleagues respected, and have a man in her life. It had taken her
eight years to figure that out, but she was glad she’d realized it
before she lost Nate again, despite the extreme
circumstances.

The number turned out to be a pay
phone, directly across the street from the site of the second fire.
The crazy bitch was taunting them, specifically her. But why? And
what was the reference to “then?”

Okay, she had a good idea as to the
“why,” but the reference to “then” bothered her. It bothered her so
much that she asked the desk sergeant to pull up any unsolved
arsons from eight years ago.

* * * *

“
Jesus, it’s all right
here,” Charly all but shouted.

Nate had been pondering the past. He’d
stayed at her side pretty much non-stop since they’d been
sequestered in the precinct break room, wondering what the fuck, or
who the fuck, he’d done, to bring this all crashing around
them.

He scooched in close to her, the
wheels on the crappy chair he was sitting in squeaking as he did.
“What?” he crowded into her space, trying to see what she had up on
the computer.

“
Desk sergeant pulled all
the cold arsons. Eight years ago, same set of parameters. Shit,
Nate, she was trying to get your attention, way back when. While we
were going to school. Hell, we weren’t even real firefighters yet,
and she was going to these lengths.”

Charly swung around to face him, and
try as he might, he couldn’t discern anything but her “cop”
mode.

“
What the hell did I do to
inspire this fanaticism?” he asked, pure disbelief coloring his
tones. “I mean it, Charly. I have no freakin’ clue who this might
be, even after looking at the names.”

Her expression went cunning, cop-like,
and, as much as he might have mourned the loss of his lover from
last night, right now he wanted her as a peace officer. “Who’d you
turn down?”

“
Huh?” he gaped at her, at a
total loss for words.

“
Do you remember turning
anyone down for a date, for coffee, for anything, after we hooked
up?”

He rocked back in the chair. What
she’d asked made total sense, and widened their suspect field
exponentially, because he honestly couldn’t remember. “It was too
long ago, Charly. Hell, we’re lucky I could remember the women I
slept with, let alone the ones I wasn’t interested in.” As soon as
the words left his mouth, he realized how arrogant they sounded,
but the truth was, he could have been a total whore then, if he’d
wanted to. And, he had been ... in Detroit.

“
Ah shit,” he breathed. The
possessive tone of the vandal’s words shook loose a distant memory.
“We restricted our search to here, right?”

“
Come again?” Charly asked
with her pen poised over a notepad. “C’mon, Nate, don’t waffle on
me now.”

“
You asked me for the women
I’d been involved with here in Ludington, because that’s where we
set our baseline. But dammit, we forgot about Detroit.” He blew out
a long breath and searched his mind, knowing what he’d find, even
as he did. “Audrey Benson. We were high school sweethearts. She was
heartbroken when I left Detroit, but dammit, Charly, heartbroken
teens don’t equate to semi-homicidal arsonists.”

She regarded him through eyes he
recognized; eyes that had seen combat. “Of all people, you
shouldn’t assume what makes someone snap.”

He shook his head, negating the
thought that he very well knew might be a reality. “It’s different
when you know them.”

“
You’ll need to tell
Reynolds all of the past details,” she said, absolving him of the
responsibility of laying it bare to her.

“
No need,” he held up a
hand. “I’ll say the same thing to you I do to him. We dated,
nothing more. She was a nice girl, not someone who’d go all the
way, even in this day and age.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe
it, but she’s the only one it could be. The rest were consensual
fun ... no strings. I know we still have to look at them, but this
feels right, no matter how it feels wrong.”

Charly looked at him with compassion.
He would have thought it was a bit of pity if he hadn’t known her
better. No, his Charly knew exactly where he was coming from. The
world was crashing down upon them, and he had to depend on her.
That reliance would have felt like an emasculating crutch if she
hadn’t submitted to him so fully the night before.

* * * *

“
What do you mean, ‘She’s
dropped off the grid’?” Charly’s voice was short of incredulous,
but not by much.

She sat in Reynolds’ office with Nate
at her side.

“
I mean, according to
everything we can tap into, she disappeared eight years ago. No
known whereabouts. Her parents filed a missing person’s report over
eight years ago. Probably when you left Detroit,
Andrews.”

Charly shot a glance at Nate, who
looked like the floor had dropped out from beneath him. “She never
contacted me, not once,” his voice was shell-shocked.

“
So we’ve got a probable
arson suspect stalking a firefighter,” she said, trying to sum it
up without involving herself personally.

Reynolds shot that all to hell.
“Negatory. Stalking a firefighter, and his lover as well. If she’d
gone to Andrews’ place, it would have been a whole different story.
As is, she’s after you both. What the hell we do about it is all
that matters.”