Little Girl Gone - By Battles, Brett Page 0,18
Better with, don’t you think?”
“You couldn’t have done anything to stop him?”
“He was very insistent.”
On the other side of the car, Barney was helping Tooney get out. Harp used this as an excuse to end the conversation, and headed around the car to join them. Logan watched his dad for a moment, then followed.
Looking out at the traffic, Barney said, “This is why Glenda and I moved out of the city. Where are all these people going?”
“The road’s blocked up ahead,” Logan said.
“Accident?” Harp asked.
“Something like that.”
A ten year old Cadillac pulled into the lot, and stopped right next to them. The driver’s window rolled down, and Logan could see Jerry behind the wheel, and a few others inside.
“Jesus, I thought we’d lost you,” Jerry said.
Logan looked at his dad. “What? Did you bring everyone?”
“Just Barney and Jerry,” he said. “The rest of those guys are protection.”
“Just park right there,” Barney told Jerry, pointing at an empty spot two cars down.
“Protection?” Logan asked.
His father shrugged like it was no big deal.
Jerry and the three guys who’d been riding with him walked over a few moments later.
“Logan, this is Ken, Jack and Dev,” he said.
They were big guys, tough looking, like Hollywood’s idea of a biker gang, if the members of that gang were all over sixty. As Logan shook their hands, he said, “I think I’ve seen you guys around town.”
“Probably,” Dev said.
Harp leaned over and whispered, “They’re in the VFW. Marines in ’Nam. They know what they’re doing.”
“And what exactly are they supposed to be doing?” Logan asked, not lowering his voice.
“Later.”
Before Logan could push any further, Tooney said, “I want you to show me where this boyfriend lived. I want to see what you saw.”
“I’m not exactly sure he was her boyfriend.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean there’s a little confusion between her friends about that.”
Tooney looked at Logan for a moment. “This boy, his house is near, though.”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“Show it to me.”
“That’s going to be a little difficult.”
“Why?”
“The reason the street up there is blocked off? The house he lived in burned down sometime in the night.”
“What?” Tooney, Jerry and Barney all said at once.
“But you were there late last night. That’s what you told me,” Logan’s dad said. “What time was that?”
“Around midnight. A lot of hours between then and morning for someone to light a match.”
They all fell silent, then Tooney said, “I still want to see it.”
Logan frowned, but nodded. What choice did he have?
He led them back to Pacific Avenue, glancing over his shoulder a couple of times to make sure he wasn’t walking too fast. They were keeping up just fine, his dad and Barney at the head of the group and Jerry at the rear. Tooney was in the middle, surrounded by the Cambria Marine Corp.
Some of the excitement on Pacific had dissipated by the time they reached the spot where Logan had been standing earlier. Two of the fire trucks had left, and it looked like the police were getting ready to open one of the traffic lanes.
“Don’t tell me that’s it,” Harp said. He was staring at the pile of burned wreckage across the street.
“I did say it burned down.”
“But you said you were inside it last night. That it was empty.”
“What part of this aren’t you understanding, Dad? Do you see the fire engine? Do you see the police? This only happened a few hours ago.”
“So you were able to get inside,” Barney said.
“Do you guys think I was lying?”
“No, of course not.”
“Definitely not,” Jerry added.
Logan looked at his father, waiting.
When Harp finally felt his gaze, he said, “What?”
Logan shook his head. “Nothing.”
Tooney hadn’t said a word since they got there, his full attention on what was left of the bungalow.
Logan squeezed by one of the marines, and stepped beside him. “You okay?”
“There was nothing inside?” Tooney asked.
“No. It was spotless.”
“Do you think this fire could have been an accident?”
“No way to know that for sure.”
Tooney turned to Logan, his eyes suddenly hard. “I did not ask what you know. I ask what you think.”
Looking back at the house, Logan said, “It seems kind of convenient to be an accident.” He could feel Tooney’s gaze a moment longer, then the older man turned away.
“What are you going to do now?”
Logan took a breath, and let his eyes drift along the perimeter the police had set up. It was like a big, half-circle jutting out from the properties neighboring the scene of the fire, and curving across the street