since the beginning of the year, referencing the police reports for the details. The first three were empty garages, and the first two had occurred on Friday nights in January—a traditional night of no good for the teen crowd.
The third was on a Wednesday the first week of February. The Wainwrights’ barn had been a week ago—a big step up from a small garage fire—and now the marina on a Saturday. He tapped the notebook with his pen, scanning his list. After staring at it, he went back and added “Hamarsson cabin” between the last garage and the Wainwrights’. What was he missing?
The obvious conclusion was that someone was trying to claim insurance money—but that was a lot harder than it sounded these days. Insurance companies didn’t just hand out checks, as Niall knew. The marina was a disaster. There were so many claims from that fire alone it would take months to investigate. If this was about insurance, which fire was the one? Mat could rule out Niall’s cabin; Mat had witnessed Niall’s pure grief.
And where the hell was Duane? That was another burning question—Mat chuckled at the tasteless humor. Deputy Holstrom had had Cooper’s home under surveillance since the morning, and Deputy Radden had been patrolling the island. There was no sign of Duane or his truck. Duane’s second boat was snug in its mooring in Hidden Harbor—and yet no one had seen him. Mat would think someone would’ve spotted his truck.
Yes, Cooper could’ve taken the ferry and left Piedras, but Mat and Birdy had already looked at the terminal’s video feed, and between the time the marina fire was reported and now, no one driving a truck like Cooper’s or a pedestrian looking like Cooper had boarded.
“Where is he?” Mat asked out loud, though he wasn’t expecting Birdy to have an answer.
“He knows his way around boats. It’s possible he could’ve taken another boat,” Birdy commented.
Mat rubbed his eyes, unsuccessfully stifling a yawn. He looked at his watch. It was just after seven. “True enough. And with all the boats destroyed last night, it will be hard to figure what’s missing and what simply burned.”
Mat didn’t want Duane to be the one behind the fire. He’d known the man most of his life. Duane had been one of the first people to encourage Mat to go into law enforcement when he found out Mat was interested; he’d been to Dempsey family barbecues and birthday celebrations.
He needed to steer himself away from the past and focus on the present.
“If he’s responsible for the fire and on the run, I’m surprised he didn’t take the boat moored here—what did he name it?” Mat thought for a moment. “Pirate’s Dream?”
When Birdy didn’t immediately respond to his speculation, Mat glanced over at her. Her cheeks were red, and she was biting her lip. He raised his eyebrows, a trick he’d learned from his mother.
“I think his fuel tanks might have been empty.”
“You think his fuel tanks might have been empty,” Mat parroted.
“Yes, sir. Very possibly. And maybe a spark plug or two went missing.”
“How odd.”
“Yes, Duane always brags about how he’s ready for everything, that he’s never caught off guard. He quotes the Boy Scouts a lot: ‘Always Be Prepared.’”
He did actually say that a lot, so much that Mat had started to tune it out.
“I wonder what could’ve happened.” He stopped any confession from his deputy with a raised palm. Whatever Birdy had been up to between leaving Sharleen at the emergency room and right this minute, he didn’t want to know.
Taking his hint, Birdy said, “And of course, when you issued the BOLO, I took steps to impound the boat pending the investigation.”
“Of course.” Mat wasn’t sure why he hadn’t done that himself. To be fair, he’d been a bit busy and maybe distracted. Birdy was on the ball, as usual, even if she had apparently started tampering with suspects’ property.
“Should we keep Deputy Holstrom at Cooper’s?” she continued, giving him a look of wide-eyed innocence.
Mat thought for a moment. They needed to be careful—the last thing he wanted to happen was for Cooper to get a whole bunch of evidence excluded because of police overreach.
No. The last thing he needed was for Duane to hurt anyone. The marina fire could easily have killed someone, it was pure luck no one had been working on their boat. It made sense to have Birdy keep her eye out for the missing man. “Holstrom’s still recovering from the flu; he could