All Night Long

surprises. What are you going to do now that the Webb house is in smoking ruins?”
    The question stopped her cold.
    “I’m not sure,” she admitted. “I think the next step is to find out who Pamela employed to take care o he house. It’s safe to say she didn’t do her own cleaning and dusting. She grew up with housekeepers, after all. I doubt if she would have known how to run a household without one. Besides, she didn’ pend much time here in Dunsley. She would have needed someone to keep an eye on the place.”
    He nodded, as if she had merely confirmed whatever conelusion he had already reached.
    “Figured you weren’t going to give up,” he said.
    “I can’t. Not yet.”
    “I know.”
    He did understand, she thought. He had major doubts about the wisdom of what she was doing, but he understood.
    “See you in the morning,” Luke said. He opened the door letting in the cold night air.
    He moved ou nto the porch, stopped and turned. “By the way, you know that little theory of yours, the one abou ow we almost had hot, sweaty sex on account of we were both running on leftover adrenaline and our primitive survival instincts were kicking in and all that other psychobabble?”
    She stiffened warily. “What about it?”
    “It’s garbage as far as I’m concerned. I’ve been wanting to have sex with you since the first time I saw you standing there at the front desk, pounding the little silver bell.”
    He went out into the night and closed the door before she could even begin to get her brain back in gear.

Seventeen
    “You burned down a house?” Jason started so sharply that the pat of butter he had been in the proces f conveying to his plate splashed into his orange juice instead. “I thought you were going over to Irene’s cabin for a second helping of corn bread. Or something. You two went out and burned down a house together instead?”
    “You know damn well that’s not what I meant.” Luke shoveled three slices of the French toast he ha ust finished cooking onto his own plate, carried his breakfast to the table and sat down. “Someone else torched the Webb house. Irene and I just happened to be on the upstairs deck at the time.”
    “Boy, howdy, wait until the family hears about this.” Jason used a fork to fish the butter out of th range juice. “On the plus side, at least I can report back that you went out on a real date while as here.”
    Luke speared a healthy-sized bite of French toast. “I don’t think Irene looked at it in quite that spirit.”
    But she had kissed him good night, he reminded himself And it had been a serious, state-of-the-art, top-of-the-line, full-on kiss. In spite of events, he hadn’t felt this good in the morning for longer than he cared to contemplate. And it had been only a
kiss
. His brain reeled at the thought of how he would have been feeling today if she had actually invited him into her bed.
    “Luke?” Jason waved his fork and snapped his fingers. “Hello? Anybody home in there? Stay with me here, Big Brother. Answer my question.”
    “What question?”
    “About this arson thing. Are we talking potential legal issues? Because if so, we need to let the Old Man and Gordon know what’s happening.”
    “This doesn’t involve the family or the business. No one’s threatening to arrest me.
    Yet, at any rate.”
    “That’s certainly reassuring.” Jason’s expression turned abruptly somber. “You say the house was owned by Senator Ryland Webb?”
    “Got a feeling he’ll want to keep the arson quiet, the same way he wants to keep his daughter’s overdose quiet. He does not want to distract fund-raisers and potential donors.”
    “Going to be a little difficult to keep the fire under the radar, don’t you think?”
    “Something tells me that the next time I see Chief McPherson he’ll have come up with a perfectly reasonable explanation for ignoring a case of arson that just happened to take place in the home of a woman who had recently OD’d.”
    He took another bite of French toast, chewed and reached for his orange juice.
    “Course, McPherso nd Webb probably aren’t counting on Irene. If anyone can get the arson onto the screen, she will.”
    “Luke?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Don’t take this wrong, but do you think maybe you should be careful about getting any more involved with Irene Stenson? I mean, I like her a lot. She’s really different from anyone else you’ve ever been with. But there’s no getting around the fact that