Once Burned (Task Force Eagle) by Susan Vaughan Read Free Book Online Page B

the backyard, a seagull landed on the gas grill. It
gazed around with its beady eyes as if waiting for Jake’s response to her
statement. In the neighbor’s yard, a dog barked, and the gull took off.
    Jake pondered his next words carefully. He didn’t want
Lani haring off into more danger than she already had. “Let’s not leap over the
Grand Canyon to that conclusion. But I’ve found enough discrepancies that I
believe the case should be reopened. Looks like the fire investigator started
out thinking arson was a possibility. Why the final report turned a one-eighty
to accidental fire, I’d like to know.”
    “I was going to Augusta to file a request for the
investigator’s report but—” As if realization struck, she held up her bandaged
hands and sat up straighter. “Wait. Sounds like you actually have reports and notes.”
    “Some of the case files, yeah. Departmental courtesy.
I’m waiting for the rest.” He placed a hand on her forearm. Gingerly, taking
care not to hurt her. He felt her tense before relaxing a fraction. “Be
careful, Lani. The truck last night could be an accident but—”
    “I told you; it was no accident.” She heaved a long
sigh. “Okay, if I want your cooperation, I need to level. There was another
incident three days before the burnt cat. First I went along with the police
chief’s conclusion it was teenagers, but no more.”
    “Incident? Not an overt attack, you mean.”
    “More along the line of threat. I woke up to find a
doll house burning on the front lawn—a big homemade, wooden one, the size of a
dog house. The officer who came suggested bored teenagers. Everyone local knows
about the Cameron fire, he said, but he’d look into it. Chief Galt knows about
both dirty tricks but apparently the officer who came Friday didn’t.”
    “Damn, both seem like twisted teen pranks, cruel ones.
But damned sophomoric for a believable threat.” He scraped knuckles along his
jaw.
    “If not kids, maybe calculated to look like pranks but
created to scare me. Someone sees me as the weak link. The surviving sister,
emotionally fragile, easily frightened.”
    He shook his head. “Frightened, yeah, and you should
be. But if I the woman I see now is the same Lani Cameron I used to know, not
easily frightened away .”
    She smiled. “My apologies to your mom, who ruled a
tight ship, but the current D Harbor librarian’s volunteers could give lessons
to the online social networking sites. As soon as I followed your lead with the
old news stories, word spread faster than 4G around the peninsula.”
    “Delinquents, maybe.” He had his doubts. “But not the
ramming on Devil’s Elbow.”
    “Exactly.” She tilted her head, her smile waning to
something more serious. “I did some other research on the Internet. Found a
news story in a New Hampshire paper. An ATF agent was killed and another
wounded in the leg during a search of a suspected arms smuggling dump. The
wounded agent was Jacob Wescott. Fixing this house is only one reason you’re
here. Recovery’s the other.”
    “You’re right, but that’s no secret.” He clasped her
hand and placed it gently on his left thigh, on the hard ridge of scar tissue. “I
have scars, Lani. Just where you don’t see. I lost a friend in that explosion.
I don’t want to worry about you too.”
    “I’m already in this. Like you said, they can scare me
but they can’t scare me away. Together is more efficient. Safer, and we can
help each other. I’m good at research. Case in point, I’m waiting for a call
back from two of the reporters. We both need answers, to know if what we
suspect is true.”
    He slugged down the rest of his cola. Watching her, he
ran his tongue around his teeth. He set his empty can on the floor beside the
wicker seat. “No, I won’t have you help me investigate. I can do my own
research or hire somebody.” He clamped his mouth into a tight line and drew a
deep breath. “I told you I’d share anything I find out.