Must Love Wieners (25 page)

Maybe Piper could have done more to prevent it, something different. She remembered Aiden’s check. If she had cashed it, she could have gotten a security system right away instead of having to wait for the donations to roll in. Would the fire have happened at all? She felt sick at the thought that her refusal to accept help might have caused this.

Aiden brought a hand up to her cheek and turned her worried gaze toward him. He gave her an even stare. “Everything will be all right.”

“Wishful thinking.”

He opened his mouth to speak but then grimaced, like whatever he wanted to say caused him pain. He seemed to think a moment longer before asking her, “Do you trust me?”

She looked him in the eye and considered all he’d done for her so far, how he’d been there. After knowing him for only a couple of weeks, the answer surprised her. “Yes. I do.”

“Then everything will be okay.”

As overwhelmed as she was, deep down she knew it would be. No one, and no dog, was hurt. Except, of course, for the goldfish. Her heart hurt when she thought about their tragic end, but at least all the dogs survived.

“Okay. You’re right.” She took a deep breath. “Now, if only the guests could put themselves to bed.”

Aiden pushed the ambulance blanket aside and swung his legs over the stretcher. “Don’t worry. I’ll help you.”

She opened her mouth to say she would be fine, but he seemed to read her mind. Reaching out, he held her face in both of his hands, his eyebrows drawing together to form a stern line. “Piper. I’m not going anywhere.”

She bit her lip, battling her instincts to turn him down. If there was ever a time she should accept help, it was that night. “That would be great. Thanks.” But she couldn’t stop herself from adding, “I owe you one.”

Aiden focused over her shoulder at someone approaching. She turned to find a man, maybe in his late fifties, headed their way with a determined walk. He was in plainclothes—a pair of dark jeans and a tucked collared shirt under a light rain jacket.

There was going to be a lot of questions to answer. Some that she didn’t want to explore, moments she didn’t want to relive. She wanted to block it all out. To go shower, stuff Colin with treats, crawl into bed, and snuggle with Mr. Wiggles, the stuffed bear she hadn’t slept with since her father died. But something told her the night was far from over.

When the man got closer, he flashed a badge. “Inspector Samuels,” he said. “Are you Piper Summers?”

“Yes, I am.”

He tucked the badge away and replaced it with a notepad. “I hope you’re feeling up to answering a few questions.”

Did she have a choice?

“Are the dogs okay?” she asked.

“Yes. They’re all still in the courtyard.”

“Do you think I’ll be able to move them back into their kennels tonight if we don’t go into the front of the building?”

“Not possible, I’m afraid. Both myself and the fire inspector will need to do our independent investigations. It will be tomorrow at the earliest before it’s handed back to the building owner, who is, I believe”—he flipped a couple pages back in his notepad—“a Mr. Aiden Caldwell.”

“That’s me,” Aiden said.

“Oh.” Inspector Samuels’s bushy eyebrows twitched. “Well, that’s convenient. And rather unfortunate for you.”

“What happens when it’s released to him?” Piper asked.

“Well, then it’s the insurance company’s call. They’ll perform their own separate investigation. I suspect the damage is severe enough that health and safety will have to get involved. Then you’re looking at claims adjusters, contractors—” He started to count on his fingers, but Piper interrupted.

“How long? I mean, I can’t keep them cooped up out there forever.”

“A few days at least.”

“Right, the neighbors are going to love that.” Not that she cared at the moment.

“Is there nowhere else they can go?” the inspector asked.

“Why do you think they’re here?” Her shoulders slumped. “Need a pet dog?”

He chuckled. “No, I don’t. I bring my job home enough as it is. Sorry.”

“Yeah, me too.” She shook her head. “I’ll figure something out.”

“You know, you’re very lucky you got out of there alive, not to mention all the dogs.”

“Luck had nothing to do with it,” she said. “I had help.” She glanced at Aiden, who squeezed her hand in return.

“About that,” the inspector said. “I’d like to ask the two of you some questions about what happened tonight. I’d like to interview you both separately.” He gestured to a quiet area on the sidewalk. “Piper, if I could start with you first.”

With an exasperated look at Aiden, Piper followed until they were out of earshot. She took a deep breath. Becoming all too familiar with the drill, she explained what happened. It all went down in probably less than ten minutes. Yet as she retold it, there was so much information to relay that it could have happened over the course of an hour or two.

Yes, she saw the guy start the fire. No, she didn’t see his face. She gave guesstimations about height and weight, but it had been dark, and it happened so fast. The only helpful thing she could recall that might identify him was that he’d have, she hoped, a large goose egg on his head and a nasty dachshund bite-mark anklet to match.

Piper watched the inspector scribble his notes onto his pad, serious and attentive. Two great bushy eyebrows with long strands of grey drew together or arched during her recounting, like a pair of thoughtful furry caterpillars crawling quizzically on his face. Already she had more confidence in Inspector Samuels than she did in Officer Sucker Tucker.

“So now that there’s a detective involved, does that mean an actual investigation is under way? Or are you going to tell me to hire a security guard too?”

“I’ve been briefed on this case already. I think that whoever is targeting this property isn’t going to stop.”

“Yeah. I’m starting to get that message.”

“Tonight, you interrupted him before he could finish his task. This could have been much worse.”

Piper remembered the second canister of fuel and grimaced. She thought of the dogs trapped in their kennels as the place burned down around them. “And there might still be a next time.”

He held up a hand. “Now, I’m not saying this to scare you. I’m trying to prepare you for the possibility.”

“You mean the eventuality.”

“We will do everything we can to find and stop whoever is doing this. But after tonight, it’s obvious that he’ll go to any lengths to get you out of this neighborhood, if that is his true motive. If we don’t catch him sooner rather than later…” He didn’t finish.

He didn’t need to.

They could raise funds, rebuild, add new locks, buy a new security system, but at the end of the day this guy was going to keep coming.

Her blanket had lost all of its toasty oven warmth and the soggy cold sank in, deep, like it had seeped into her bones. She thought she would never feel warm again. “Then our only option is to give him what he wants.”

“You don’t need to worry about all of this tonight,” Inspector Samuels said. “You’ve been through enough, and I realize you’ll need to discuss this with the property owner and business manager. In the meantime, we’ll be placing a patrol car outside to monitor the premises twenty-four hours a day for the next few days.”

“Do you think this guy will try something again? So soon?”

“Arsonists have a habit of coming back to see the results of their work. It’s common for them to even return while it’s still burning.”

Piper examined the crowd gathered outside the police tape, searching each face, wondering if the arsonist could be out there. Watching. Waiting to try something again. She shivered at the thought.

And to think, she’d been face-to-face with the slimeball, had been so close to seeing him. She might have been able to identify him, to put a stop to all this.

Suddenly, it occurred to her that while she didn’t see his face, he might have seen hers. In a way, she’d been there to thwart him both times, to undo what he did. He could have seen her on the news after the break-in, asking for donations. Maybe that’s why the car had tried to run her over in the alley during her date with Aiden. Maybe the guy wasn’t after both of them. Just her.

The inspector said the arsonist likely wouldn’t give up until he got what he wanted. What if this guy saw Piper as the one standing in his way?

24

Newshound

“Hi. Marilyn. It’s Piper. I have some bad news. You remember that dog shelter you asked me to look after? It burned to the ground. Oh, and all those sweet, homeless puppies that were inside? Yeah, they’re horribly traumatized. Hope you’re having a great time on your cruise. Cheers!”

Piper realized she looked crazy pacing back and forth in front of the rescue center, talking to herself—well, to Colin. The cops who were parked across the street for surveillance on the building were glancing over at her. They probably thought she was nuts. Hell, she felt a little nuts. Maybe they’d already put in a call to Inspector Samuels to tell him she should be the lead suspect in the arson case.

She wanted to rehearse what to say to Marilyn’s voice mail. To get it just right. Piper still hadn’t been able to get ahold of her since she’d left for vacation. Boy, was she going to get a bad string of voice mails when she finally checked them.

Piper turned to Colin, who watched her from the front steps. In Colin fashion, he sat just behind the bright yellow tape wrapped across the stair rails that said:
POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS
. Rebel without a cause.

After taking him home from the center the night before, she had assessed him thoroughly, patting him down, manipulating his joints. Or at least, she’d tried to, but he seemed to have mistaken her face for a lollypop. It seemed he graciously forgave her for yelling at him during the fire. Either that, or it was his five-minute memory span at work.

After her assessment, she was relieved to discover that other than being a bit sulky—nothing a treat couldn’t fix—he’d fared a lot better than she had. She had quite a bit more than a limp, but hell, at least she was alive.

The rest of the animals were fine—physically, anyway. Who knew how the traumatic event would affect them mentally long-term? But at least they were safe. She’d found temporary homes for most of the guests. A lot of the center’s usual foster families stepped up to help them out, and she managed to find a few of the other no-kill centers that opened their doors until she could figure something else out. Addison was out delivering some of the guests now. Unfortunately, Zoe was working a wedding gig that weekend. She couldn’t be at the center to help, but she sent her love and checked in frequently.

“So?” Piper asked Colin. “What do you think of my speech?”

He grumbled before laying his head down and covering his face with his paws.

“Yup. That’s what I thought. It’s perfect.” Taking her phone out of her pocket, she searched for Marilyn’s number and hit
dial
. She’d hoped—and dreaded—that she might actually pick up, but like usual it rang until it went to voice mail. The beep sounded, and suddenly, anything Piper could say about the fire in a few sentences sounded so inadequate.

Until they caught the asshole responsible for the attacks there was no telling how bad things would get. Piper had never felt so helpless, so powerless. It was the worst kind of feeling. However, being thousands of miles away, somewhere in the Caribbean, Marilyn would feel this even more. When Piper thought about what it would be like to get a message like that, unable to ask any questions, she decided that less information was better.

“Hi, Marilyn. This is Piper. Listen, I’m not sure when you’re going to get this message. I’ve tried the cruise line a few times, but I can’t seem to get ahold of you. Please call me as soon as you get this, no matter what time it is. Hope you’re having a good vacation. Bye.”

As she hung up, Aiden rounded the corner of the building. He smiled when he saw her. She stopped pacing and took a deep breath, her muscles unknotting themselves.

That morning, she’d dragged her butt out of bed after only a few hours of sleep, wondering how she would get everything done. But then she arrived at the center, and Aiden was already there. While she and Addison sorted out temporary homes for the guests, he dealt with the business end of things.

To say he’d been amazing was the biggest understatement of the century. Without him, the center might have burned down completely. There might not have been anything left to sort out. Hell, she might have died. But she thought it was best not to dwell on that particular anecdote for now.

“I just left Marilyn a voice mail,” she said. “Did you want to leave a message? I could call her back.”

He shook his head. “No thanks. I e-mailed her earlier.”

“Really? Did she respond? What did you say?” She didn’t like the idea of Marilyn hearing about the fire from anyone else. She’d left Piper in charge of the rescue center. She wanted to be the one to answer for what had happened to it.

“Oh, nothing specific,” he said. “I just had some things to discuss with her about the center.”

“What things, exactly?” Piper asked, aiming for airily.

“Business things.” By his pointed tone of voice, she knew he wanted to end it there.

Piper’s eyebrows arched. “Business things?”

“Yes.” He countered with an eyebrow of his own. “Marilyn’s business and my business.”

“As in, not
my
business?” Irritated at being shut out, yet again, Piper’s jaw clenched. What was he keeping from her? Did Marilyn know what it was? “I guess I have no right to know what’s happening to the center?”

Aiden groaned, like the last thing he wanted was an argument. “I know I sound like a broken record, but I was serious when I said that I don’t like mixing business with pleasure.”

She remembered his motto all too well. “And I’m what? Doing all this”—she waved a hand at the general destruction—“for pleasure?”

“I don’t know,” he said testily. “I guess that’s your business.”

“Fine. Then excuse me while I go help feed the dogs. Unless, of course, that’s none of my business, either.” Whistling for Colin, she turned to head for the back, but Aiden grabbed her arm.