Into The Inferno Part 34

"We're going to have to question the baby-sitter. And your girls."

"Like h.e.l.l."

"It's a matter of routine that-"

"Ain't going to happen. You're not talking to my girls."

"At least your baby-sitter," said Shad, more irritated with me than ever.

"You'll have to see her and her mother about that." As he gawked at Morgan's bare legs, a shriek came from that direction. Helen Neumann had just come out of her house and spotted her daughter. Why Helen had thought her daughter was in the fire when she hadn't yet returned her car was beyond me, but then, Helen had always been p.r.o.ne to panic.

"You want to know how we think this went down?" Shad asked.

"I do. Yeah."

"You did it."

"Here we go again."

"No, bear with me. We got a telephone call from a woman. Maybe two hours ago. Said you were real depressed. That you guys weren't getting anywhere trying to find a cure for whatever it is you think you've got. That right?"

"We haven't found a cure. That part's right."

"Said you were going to take yourself out. That you might want to take your family out at the same time."

"Another anonymous caller?"

"A woman. I think she was the same one I spoke to after the trailer explosion. Only this time she called from a pay phone in Bellevue. You know anybody in Bellevue?"

"Who doesn't?"

"It fits your MO perfectly."

"What does? Setting my house on fire? Give me a break."

"No," Shad said. "Not setting the fire. Chickening out. You've done it once already. With the trailer. You set it up to kill yourself. And then at the last second you get the b.u.t.terflies and run away."

"Look. Surely you can figure out who made the call."

"Wish we could," Stevenson said. "It was a pay phone."

"You got an explanation for all this?" Shad asked.

"Sure. Somebody's setting me up."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"We're going to go through the rest of the house," Stevenson said. "And then we're going to come back and talk to you again."

"He was with me," Stephanie said. "You're barking up the wrong tree."

"You guys really got a call about me tonight?" I asked.

Shad tipped his head toward his taller partner. "He did."

"But you didn't do anything about it, did you?" I said. "You didn't believe her, did you?"

"I believe her now. Stick around. We're coming back."

"Anyone who knew two hours ago that my house was going to burn down was in on it."

As I spoke, an evidence technician from the county approached, a young woman with short chestnut hair and heavy eyebrows. She wore the green-brown uniform of a King County deputy and held a partially burned driver's license by the edges.

"Anybody know this person?" she asked.

52. MISS SQUIGGLY HEADS FOR THE BEACH.

Without taking it from the technician's fingers, each of the three investigators leaned forward in turn and examined the license: Carpenter, Achara. s.e.x F. Height 5 Carpenter, Achara. s.e.x F. Height 50". Weight 95 pounds. Eyes brn. Birth date 090969. Weight 95 pounds. Eyes brn. Birth date 090969. Along the right side of the license on a blue background was a picture of Achara. Along the right side of the license on a blue background was a picture of Achara.

A wave of nausea flooded my stomach. Things had made a horrible kind of sense when I thought the corpse belonged to Morgan, but what on earth had Achara been doing in my house?

Maybe Donovan was somewhere in the burned-out hulk, too. But if that were true, their black Suburban would have been outside. Besides, we'd seen Donovan minutes before the fire.

Carl Steding had told me the story of the daughter of one of the downed firefighters in Chattanooga, who'd coincidentally died in a house fire. They never caught the killer-arsonist. The a.s.sumption had been made that it had been unrelated to her investigation of the syndrome. Unrelated to the downed firefighters. But it hadn't been. This was too d.a.m.n similar. It was those two b.a.s.t.a.r.ds from Jane's we'd seen at the motel.

"You know her?" Shad said.

"Works as a chemist at Canyon View Systems. In Redmond."

"You want to explain what she was doing on your living-room floor?"

"I have no idea. As far as I know, she didn't even know where I lived."

"Somebody knew."

Stevenson pulled out a toothpick and put it into his mouth. "She have any reason to burn you out?"

"No, of course not."

"What about that vehicle the neighbors saw?" Stevenson asked no one in particular.

"Talk to the neighbors."

"What about the ladies?" Stevenson asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"I hear you like the ladies."

"I like all sorts of people."

"How long have you known this Achara Carpenter?" He misp.r.o.nounced her first name, calling her Akra Akra.

"Two days."

He smirked. "From what they tell me, two days would be about all you would need."

"He says says he was with the doctor," Shad reminded him. he was with the doctor," Shad reminded him.

"That wouldn't stop an operator, would it, Jimbo? From what they tell me, you're a first-cla.s.s operator. How did you have it figured? You bang the doctor in the motel and then come home and pork the chemist?"

"Why don't you go wash your mouth out with soap?"

Stevenson's Cupid-bow mouth pursed into what some would have called a s.h.i.+t-eating grin. The others stared at me in the dark. Then all three stepped back and conferred with one another, glancing from time to time at the fire building, at my charred pickup truck, and at me.

I walked back over to the girls and gave Morgan a long hug. I gave Helen Neumann one, too, the first time I believe we had ever touched.

"We were scared waiting on the freeway," Morgan said.

Karrie Haston approached the investigating team, handing a sheet of paper to Stevenson, who held it aloft and read it by the fringe light from a spotlight on a King County deputy's car. When he was finished, he gave it to Shad.

After Shad read it, he asked Karrie a question and then all four of them looked at me. Touching my back from behind, Stephanie said, "What's that all about?"

"No idea."

When they reached us, Shad and Stevenson stood a little too close. Karrie kept her distance. Holgate hung back, too.

"We were just wondering what this was doing pinned to the firehouse door," Stevenson said, stretching the sheet of paper gingerly between the index fingers and thumbs of both hands. When I reached for it, he jerked it away and said, "Uh-uh. No touchee. Just read it."

The note was typewritten.

To whom it may concern,I, Jim Swope, being of sound mind and clean heart do solemnly swear that I have killed myself and my family on this night of June 19. For reasons best known to myself, I'm taking Achara Carpenter with me. It is better this way. My life has come to an end and my children's lives will never be what they should. n.o.body should be an orphan or live the kind of f.u.c.ked-up life I've led. To those behind, I apologize for any trouble I may have caused.J. Swope "You can see right away any fool could have written this. It's typed. Even the signature."

"It's only got one fool's name on it."

"It could have the president's name on it and it wouldn't mean s.h.i.+t."

"Funny coincidence, wouldn't you say?" said Shad, stepping closer, "that this note was found the same night your house burned down."

"There's nothing funny about it. It's a frame-up."

"That woman you dragged outside, the one only you you seemed to know was in there? How did you know?" seemed to know was in there? How did you know?"

"I didn't. I went in after my daughters."

Ron Holgate straightened his rep tie with one hand. "Where was the note found?"

"On the front door of the firehouse," Karrie replied.

"Logical place to put it if it was legit," Holgate said.

"Logical place to put it if it was a frame-up," I said.

The three investigators stared at me with various degrees of indictment clouding their eyes. "It's pretty obvious," Shad said. "You wrote the note, set the fire, and then got out of the house at the last minute." Stevenson nodded. Holgate pursed his lips and looked at his feet.

"Wouldn't be the first time somebody backed out of a murder-suicide after the murder part," said Stevenson. "You probably did the same thing two days ago with the trailer."

"What are you talking about?" Stephanie said. "He was with me all night."

"You got any independent proof of that?" Stevenson asked.

"The Sunset Motel," Stephanie said. "Go check their records."

Shad looked Stephanie up and down. I wished she hadn't been wearing one of my ex-wife's summer dresses, the material thin enough that lights behind her worked as X rays.

"You got a phone number for the motel?" Holgate asked. Stephanie dug through her wallet and pulled out a receipt, while Holgate pulled a cell phone off his belt.

Meanwhile, the two fire investigators stared me down. From the moment they met me at Caputo's, neither of these guys had liked me.

Holgate rejoined the group. "They checked in all right. At least she did. n.o.body saw him."

"My in-laws saw me leaving a few minutes before we got here."

"Your in-laws?" Shad said. "Cute."

"They with you the whole time?" Stevenson smirked.

"Of course not."

"I was," said Stephanie. "Up until he went into the fire."

"You'll swear to that?" Holgate asked.

"Absolutely."

"Not good enough," Shad said, squinting at Stevenson. "Not with everything else that's been going on."

"Are you calling me a liar?" Stephanie asked.

Stevenson said, "We expect you to lie for him."

"I just met Achara yesterday," I said. "I don't have a motive. Are you guys even listening?"

"When did you meet the good doctor?" Shad asked.