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“They didn’t, baby.”Baby.Why the hell had he called her that?It wasn’t even the first time the endearment had slipped out.“Not a single one went off.I was awake.”Awake and using his laptop to dig deeper into the mystery that was Naomi.“I smelled the smoke.Then I went to get you.”
But what if he hadn’t been awake?
A new Naomi fact that he’d discovered…she truly slept like the dead.When he’d rushed into her room, she’d been out hard.Then she’d been confused.Afraid.
Don’t hurt me!
That cry had pierced right through him.
Of course, she’d followed up that desperate plea with a very demanding…
Where’s the knife?
And he couldn’t help but think of Hudson.Who’d been found stabbed three times.Twice in the side.Once in the heart.The knife had never been recovered.
Where’s the knife…indeed.It was the question every cop and the DA had certainly wanted to have answered.But when he’d been in that bedroom with Naomi, Eb hadn’t seen a killer.
He’d seen a victim.
He didn’t buy that the blaze tonight was an accident.Not with the smoke detectors failing.“I’m checking the scene.”He had to get in that house.
“What?”
“Stay here.”He looked to the right.“Henry, guard her.”
The dog just watched Eb with his steady, dark gaze.The dog had been remarkably well-behaved during all the chaos.Even now, he didn’t rush toward any of the firefighters or bark to get attention.He just waited with Naomi, a constant presence at her side.
“He’s not a guard dog,” she muttered, disgruntled.“And I’m not a dog, either, so how about you drop thestaycommands, huh?”
The woman was going to be the death of him.Eb was increasingly convinced of that fact.“Naomi, will youpleasestay here?I need to search your house.”Not an easy task considering the massive size of the place.Over six thousand square feet.
“I’ll come with you,” she immediately offered.“Not like I enjoy sitting on the sidelines.”
Yes, he’d noticed that about her.Naomi was certainly not a sideline sitter.
But before he could convince her to stay out of the still smoking house, a police cruiser rolled onto the scene.
“Crap.”She exhaled.“Now it’s gonna be a real circus.”
Like it hadn’t already been?“Stay here.Try not to piss off the cops.”
“Oh, I make zero promises on that score.I think I piss them off just by breathing.”
But she turned to face the patrol car and the exiting officers even as Eb hurriedly slipped away.This whole scene bothered him and before it got wrecked anymore, he needed to do a bit of investigating.
Wrecked anymore?It’s already been burned, sprayed, and had half a dozen firefighters stomping through the place.Any good evidence of an intruder was probably already long gone.
Eb rushed around the house.The front door had been locked when the fire broke out.He’d secured all the doors before bed.He’dbeen the one who unlocked the front door.
What about the door at the back of the house?Had it still been locked when the firefighters arrived?Or had someone perhaps broken in through that door and set the fire?
Eb hurried to the rear of the house.Bounded up the porch steps and moved toward the door.Still closed.He reached for the knob.
It twisted easily in his hand.
Eb yanked out his phone.He’d tucked it into his pocket right before he’d hauled ass to Naomi’s room.He turned on the phone’s light and pushed the glow toward the lock.
Scratch marks.