Burn You Twice - Mary Burton Page 0,49
not wasting my time with the small stuff anymore. This one will free me of all my troubles and set me on the righteous course I deserve.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Missoula, Montana
Monday, September 7, 2020
3:30 p.m.
Gideon was relieved when the doctor pronounced Kyle fit for duty. His X-ray looked great, the bones in his right arm completely healed and growing as they should. He was a lucky kid, as far as hit-and-run accidents went.
“Ann said you’re welcome to have dinner at her place,” Gideon said. “Does that work for you?”
“Yeah, sure. Can I spend the night?”
“The plan is for me to pick you up, but this case might keep me late.”
Kyle shrugged, already adapting to his dad’s busy schedule. “I’m hungry now.”
“What do you want?”
“Take-out pizza.”
“Done.”
“And can we eat it at the station with Joan?”
“What makes you ask that?” Gideon asked.
Kyle shrugged. “Just did.”
“I don’t know, pal.” Gideon did not want his kid falling for Joan Mason. Once her demons were exorcised, she would be on her way.
“Why not? She seems lonely.”
Sharing a pizza with Joan would not kill him. Besides, Kyle was asking, and he rarely asked for much. “Sure, why not.”
When they pulled up to the Pizza Shack, he ordered two large pizzas. One cheese and pepperoni for Kyle and the other with mushrooms and onions for Joan. Jesus, ten years and he still remembered how she liked her pizza.
When they pushed through the back door of the police station, he was not surprised to find her still hunched over an open file with a picture of her freshly burned hands. He remembered the cop at the hospital taking the picture as she’d sat on the gurney in the emergency room.
When she looked up, her hair looked as if she had been running her fingers through it. She quickly closed the file and carefully tucked it back in the box. “Do I need to clear out? Do you guys need the room?”
“We brought you pizza,” Kyle said.
“Pizza?”
“Mine is cheese and yours has mushrooms and onions.” Kyle made a face. “I hate onions.”
Joan’s gaze shifted to Gideon. “You remembered. Thank you.”
Gideon set the pizzas on the conference table while Joan removed the file boxes to a corner on the floor. She grabbed a handful of napkins from the credenza. He and Kyle took their seats while Joan passed out napkins. He flipped open both boxes, and the aroma of pizza filled the room.
Joan reached for a large slice, folded the piece in on itself, and took a big bite. “Delicious, guys. Thanks.”
“You can thank Kyle,” Gideon said. “It was his idea.”
“Well, thank you, sir.”
Kyle shrugged but pursed his lips, as he did when he was trying not to smile. “Sure.”
The three ate in silence for several minutes, until Gideon headed off the coming lull. “Find anything in the files?” he asked.
She finished chewing and swallowed. She looked at Kyle before she nodded. “A very similar device was used to set both the College and salon incidents.”
“You can say fire,” Kyle said.
Joan raised a brow. “I’m going to have to work harder to talk over your head.”
Gideon grinned. “A PG-13 explanation is okay.”
“Somewhere between X-Men and Harry Potter?” Joan asked.
“Or Last Jedi and Black Panther,” Gideon said.
“Haven’t seen either of those,” she said with mock exasperation.
“But you know Harry Potter?” Gideon asked.
“Stupid movie,” Kyle grumbled as he shook his head. “Magic is not real.”
“My partner has an eight-year-old granddaughter,” Joan said. “She just had a birthday, and Hermione appears to be her idol.”
“Silly,” Kyle said.
Gideon could not picture Joan being attached to anything as fanciful as a fantasy character. But he also had never guessed she would return to Montana. “Tell me what you’ve learned, and I’ll let you know if it’s too much.”
“Understood. The investigating officer at the time, Henry Jefferson, initially theorized that the fire was random. He found no connection between Ann or me to Elijah Weston, other than I had been a teaching assistant for one of his professors. Elijah never made any threats either in person or in writing to Ann, me, or anyone else. And then the DNA test came back linking Elijah to the device.”
“Jefferson later hypothesized that Elijah was targeting the trash can near your window,” Gideon said. “We had Elijah’s DNA on file as a result of earlier arson episodes targeting rubbish piles.”
“He was fixated on overflowing, rat-infested trash cans. Ours was neat and had been dumped the day before.”
“One of those early trash fires nearly burned down a trailer.”
“The photos of me they