Fatal Secrets - Desiree Holt Page 0,40
at Zoe.
“We need to hustle. Alex is on his way to White Oak.”
She nodded. “He told me. It seems between he and Hank they might have opened a can of worms. I’ll be ready in a few.”
She had dressed and was throwing stuff in a small overnighter when they heard a loud explosion. They stared at each other.
“What the hell?” Sean headed for the door. “Stay here.”
“Oh hell, no.” She was right behind him.
He raced down the stairs and through the open hallway to the back of the building. He didn’t have to wait until he got there to see the flames, though. They lit up the sky. When he saw her car engulfed in flames he wasn’t at all surprised..
He yanked out his phone.
“Hank? We might be a while getting there. We seem to have a little crisis here.”
Chapter 8
Although it was far from cold, the night air still hot from the flames of the burning car, Zoe had grabbed a sweater and now stood hugging it around herself. Sean had done his best to get her to go stay inside, but she had grabbed her sweater, run back down, and leaned against one of her neighbor’s cars. And she wasn’t moving.
Whatever had been used to blow up her car consumed it and had also set fire to the cars on either side of it. Several of her neighbors were also gathered in the parking lot. She hadn’t made it a point of meeting people so she wasn’t sure if any of them had cars affected by the explosion.
The maintenance people had left a hose curled up in one of a group of shrubs, so Sean had grabbed it and turned it full force onto the burning car. Zoe, hands shaking, called the fire department while Sean called Hank and Alex in that order. The fire was mostly contained by the time the other got there. The local police had also arrived and Zoe was very glad to let Alex handle the whole thing.
She was in shock, unable to wrap her mind around what someone had done.
“What if I’d been in the car?” she asked Sean.
“My guess is they didn’t want to kill you,” he told her, “just frighten you. If you died, the investigation would be no holds barred, and I don’t think whoever this is wants that. They just want you to forget the book and go quietly away.”
She snorted. “They don’t know me very well.”
“They may not know you at all, except by reputation.” Alex had walked up to where they were standing. “Although my itchy neck tells me someone involved in this whole disaster knows you and has figured out what might scare you off. Someone who thinks they can convince you writing the book isn’t worth it.”
“Then they definitely don’t know her.” Hank joined them. “Sean, I’m exceptionally glad you chose this time to come talk to me about my offer. Zoe needs protection now more than ever.”
“Me, too.”
Zoe noticed that he’d moved over to stand right next to her, guarding her with his body. Not that she thought anyone would try and get her here with so many people around. Still, whoever blew up the car could still be in the parking lot, watching.
“I talked to the local police,” Alex told them. “Without giving too many details, since I don’t know what might leak from that office, I asked them to list me as the contact for everything having to do with this. I’m sure they’ll have other questions as they investigate. The story I gave them was it could be someone you’ve written about in a story who’s been holding a grudge. Hank said you’d gotten some kind of hate mail before this, so it’s believable. ”
She lifted an eyebrow. “You don’t want to tell them what we really think is going on?”
Hank shook his head. “Alex and I talked it over. Wait until we tell you what we’ve uncovered. I don’t know who we can trust, although I’d say Bozeman is pretty safe. Still.”
“We should get out of here,” Hank told them. “They don’t need us, and Zoe, in case whoever this is might be hanging around, I don’t want you in their line of sight. Let’s haul ass to the ranch, and Alex and I will let you know what we discovered.”
So, they’d thought the same thing.
“Well, I guess I don’t have to worry about driving my car. I gathered up a few more things in the apartment. Let me