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“That’s exactly what I’m saying.Thanks for following along,” Eb gritted out.“I think someone could have broken in via the back door of her place.Got inside, started the blaze, and slipped out while Naomi slept.”
“And when would this genius arsonist have taken the batteries from her smoke detectors?Oh, wait, let me guess.Right before he started the fire?”
“The smoke detectors upstairs and downstairs didn’t go off.She had them throughout the house.”Eb’s flat response.“None of them alerted us to the fire.”
Eb was right.She did have plenty of smoke detectors.They’d been the first thing she installed after buying the property.
“No one got upstairs.I would have known.”Eb was adamant.“So that tells me the batteries were removedbeforetonight.As in this was a premeditated attack.”
The officers shifted a bit uneasily and glanced toward the house.
Clark kept his gaze on Eb.“So you’re a fire investigator?Here I thought you and Hudson were just government pencil pushers.”
A pencil pusher?Really?Was that the story the CIA had fed to him when the detective had been poking around about Hudson’s job?
“I’m telling you that someone just set up Naomi to either die or get seriously hurt.Nowyoushould act like a cop and investigate.”Eb glanced at Naomi.“You ready to get away from here?”
More than ready.
“I have clothes for you, ma’am,” the firefighter with the impressive mustache told her.He extended a bag toward Naomi.Grateful, she took it from him and realized that Eb had a bag resting close to his feet, too.She hadn’t even noticed it until that moment.
“She’s not leaving.I have more questions!”Clark puffed out his chest.“Questions for you both.”His right hand rose, and he jabbed his index finger into the air.It went first in Naomi’s direction, then in Eb’s.“First, are you screwing your dead partner’s wife?”
Naomi opened her mouth to snap out an angry response.
“Yes,” Eb announced before she could reply.“Though I don’t think of it as screwing.I’d never be so crass with her.”
What was happening?
“Making love.That’s what we do,” Eb clarified.
“You’refucking your dead partner’s?—”
“That question has been asked and answered.”Eb took the bag from Naomi.“I’ll carry it for you.”He spared a glare for the detective.“What else do you want to know?”
“Why the hell are you in town?I was told that you worked outside of the country most of the time.And when you were in the US, your home base damn well wasn’t in Baton Rouge.”
No, it wasn’t.Hudson had told her that Eb’s home was in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
“I’m here for Naomi,” Eb told him.“Thought that was obvious when I answered the previous question.I came for her.I’m staying for her.And if you won’t do the job and find out who is threatening her, then I will do it for you.”A brittle pause.“Any other questions?”
“Yeah.Plenty of them.”Clark bared his teeth as the emergency responder lights swirled around them.“Just who would hate Naomi so much that they’d want her to burn?”
ChapterSix
Who would hateNaomi so much that they’d want her to burn?
The question pierced right through Eb because, when he’d first started this hunt, all he’d felt had been twisting, seething hatred for his target.
Don’t lie to yourself.You hated her, and you lusted for her.Hate and lust.A dangerous combination.
“What do you want?”Naomi demanded as her hands flew into the air.“A list?Fine, you hate me, detective.You’re enraged because you think I snuck my way out of a trial.”
The detective didn’t even try to argue with that assertion.
“I’m pretty sure I pissed off a Russian gangster and his wannabe mob tonight.”
Now the detective did a double take.“What?”