Forever Saved - Kathleen Brooks Page 0,37
taking a picture of the truck. He wanted to make sure Matt and Andy saw the word scrawled in spray paint along the side.
Jace hooked up the hose and sprayed down the grass and the front of the house. The small fire extinguisher wouldn’t be enough to fight back the roaring fire on the truck. Instead, he tried to prevent the fire from spreading by soaking the area all around it so nothing else could go up in flames.
Soon enough he heard sirens in the distance. Thank goodness. He didn’t know if what he was doing was right or wrong, but he’d do anything to help save whatever he could for Stella.
Jack drove the fire truck as if it were a sports car. The second it stopped, Colton, Conley, and Kane were out of the truck. Kane covered for Flint when he was off duty and was a part-time volunteer firefighter as he finished up college.
Hoses were attached and then Colton was tapping Jace on the shoulder and moving him out of the way. “The size of the hose matters along with how you use it,” Colton called out to Jace. You could always depend on Colton to make you smile, even in the middle of an emergency.
Colton looked over the blaze and then ordered Conley and Jack to handle the foam sprayer to control the engine fire. Colton and Kane took over spraying down the interior once the engine fire was extinguished.
Jace waited with his arm around Stella off to the side. The house was safe, and before too long the fire was completely out but the truck was a total loss.
Colton and his team looked over the truck as the sheriff’s department arrived. Cody Gray was the first to arrive with Matt just minutes behind.
“What’s going on?” Stella asked as they watched Cody and Matt walking around the truck with Colton pointing out things as the rest of the firefighters cleaned up.
“I’m assuming they’re collecting evidence since this was clearly an arson case.”
Stella shivered. “Did you see what Rick said about me? It was the same as the texts messages.”
“Have you checked your phone? Do you think he sent another message?” Jace felt the anger building in him and nearly exploding. He wanted nothing more than to make Rick hurt for the pain he was causing Stella.
“I’m afraid to. It’s in your car.”
“I think we better take a look.” Jace dropped his arm from around her and opened the door. He found her phone, but when he looked there were no new messages. “Nothing.”
Stella reacted physically. Her shoulders slumped with relief as if one more text might knock her down. A short distance away, the three men nodded and then turned to look at Stella. Jace knew his friends and cousin well enough to know it wasn’t good. They walked toward Stella and Jace with their jaws tight. Jace put his arm around Stella in silent support.
“Hi, Stella. This is my deputy, Cody Gray,” Matt told her. “Colton has been showing us the damage. Colton, tell them what you found.”
“I’m sorry, Stell, but this was definitely intentional. More than that, it was done purposefully to completely destroy the truck. There were gas-soaked cloths lying on the engine under the hood, on the front driver’s seat, and then two in the bed of the truck.”
“Then you saw the word written on the side of your car.” Matt jumped back into the conversation and took over for Colton. “Andy has kept me up to date on his investigation and we’re going to see if we can get a warrant for the last three months of your ex’s credit card records to see if we find proof he started the fire. However, I will tell you that it’s going to be hard to get. We have no real evidence it was him besides him being the most likely suspect.”
Cody hooked his thumbs into his utility belt as he cleared his throat. “Could it be anyone else?”
Stella instantly shook her head. “I thought Rick was more of a love ‘em, leave ‘em, move-onto-the-next-one kind of guy. And then he does this. I didn’t think he was capable so now I’m second-guessing everything I thought I knew. Could it be someone else? I guess, but if it wasn’t Rick, who knows who it could be?”
“Any other boyfriends or men you turned down for dates?” Cody asked.
“I dated Irwin Weller before Rick, but he moved to Missouri almost two years ago. Plus, he’s the