Studfinder (Busy Bean #5) - L.B. Dunbar Page 0,53

next details about the blast. Glass shattering. Windows exploding. The heat of flames pouring from the school. “Video surveillance of the schoolyard caught me walking away from a side door I checked for entrance and around the back of the building, but I swear on my life I never entered that building that night.”

Rita continues to hold her coffee mug with both hands, eyes forward as I speak to the side of her face. Her red-framed glasses hide her eyes, and I desperately want her to look at me.

“Rory thought he and his friends set the fire.” Rita finally faces me. “He thought a firework gone wrong might have broken through a window, but it just didn’t add up. And when the investigation discovered the fire alarm had been dismantled—”

“The fire alarm was dismantled,” Rita repeats, her voice quiet and low, processing what I’ve said, before adding, “I don’t recall hearing about fireworks.”

“I told the boys not to mention it.”

Rita stares at me. “Why would you do such a thing?”

“Because Rory was only seventeen. I didn’t need him admitting to something out of fear or guilt. He was almost eighteen and would have been tried as an adult, even if it was an accident. His chances of pre-law would be ruined.”

“Ruined,” Rita echoes under her breath.

“It didn’t make sense that a stray firework started the blaze.” I pause for a moment, recalling my own doubts about the possibility of a firework setting the building on fire. It wasn’t an impossibility. We’d heard of it in the department, but it was rare unless the explosive was already within the building. Rory admitted a few of the explosives the kids used were self-made, which was all kinds of dangerous in its own right, but it still didn’t explain if one fired into the school. He was adamant they had aimed all the fireworks away from the structure. Still, a loose cannon is a loose cannon.

“When Nolan was injured in the fire—”

“Nolan?” Rita questions, shifting slightly on the cushion to face me better.

“My brother was one of the first responders. The second floor collapsed and narrowly missed killing him. Remember I told you he injured his back.”

“Yes, but you said he was injured in a building . . .” Rita lets the rest of her statement drift. The building was a school. I guess I hadn’t specified.

“While my brother was still in a medically induced coma because of severe burns and his injuries, I was arrested. I never believed Rory and his friends did it, but I also couldn’t even hint at the suggestion. The prosecutor was looking for a fall guy, and I couldn’t risk Rory being taken from Nolan on a possibility rather than fact. My brother needed his son.” I couldn’t risk separating them on suspicion. Nolan had already lived without a father. Rory would not suffer the same.

Rita’s eyes widen. Her brows lift. “You withheld information.”

“A firework didn’t start that blaze,” I repeat.

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.” It was my job to understand fire, and a firework did not do the damage caused by that blaze. “The investigation said faulty wiring started the fire, but was it an accident or tampering? The blaze started in the chemistry lab where chemicals aided in the explosion.”

“I don’t understand how you were accused, then,” Rita emphasizes a word I don’t mistake, and her eyes narrow at me.

“The evidence was circumstantial. My appearance on camera, along with my presence as the first on the scene, perpetuated potential. Plus, my knowledge of fire, all the way down to my skill with electrical wiring, caused probability. I could have done it, had I entered the building, had I had intent, which I didn’t on both counts.”

“Your nephew could have been an alibi. Maybe he saw something or someone else.”

“He didn’t.” The boys were too busy getting high behind the maintenance shed and reveling in their fireworks to notice someone sneaking in or out of the building. Plus, I didn’t want Rory linked in any way to that fire. “The judge concluded that the circumstances of the fire department at the time warranted additional motivation.”

“What circumstances?”

“The State didn’t think an arson investigator was necessary. Some departments were being shut down. Others were being consolidated. Cutbacks in paid positions occurred, which included job loss for chiefs and increased the need for volunteers.”

Nolan had been up for a chief position. He was just as upset as I was when the State’s discussions dwindled to us. I’d be losing