Blue Smoke

and excitement tangled, built, trembled. She used that pleasure and the easy motion to rock them both. Sweet and slow, slow and sweet, so release was like a lazy slide over silk.
    They melted together in a contentment as gentle as the sway of the glider.
    “You do good work,” she whispered.
    “Actually, I think you did most of it.”
    She chuckled, nuzzled his neck. “I meant the glider.”
    B y seven in the morning, Reena had crisp bacon warming in the oven, coffee brewed, bagels sliced and the makings for an omelet set out.
    She felt guilty about shoving Bo out the door at six-thirty with nothing but a hastily toasted bagel. But she wanted to talk to John alone.
    She was already dressed for work, right down to her holster, where she would dash to as soon as her meeting with John was over.
    He was prompt. She could count on him for that, as well as a hundred other things. “Thanks. Really.”
    At the door, she kissed his cheek.

    “I know it’s early, but I’m on eight-to-fours. O’Donnell’s got it covered if I need to squeeze in a little more time. I’m about to make you a first-class omelet for your trouble.”
    “You don’t have to bother with that. We can do this over coffee.”
    “Absolutely not.” She led the way to the kitchen. “I let this perk around in my head through the night. What I’d like to do is just pour it out on you.” She filled a coffee cup for him. “Okay?”
    “Pour away.”
    “It goes back, John, all the way back to the beginning.”
    She made the omelet while she spoke. He didn’t interrupt, but let her lay it out as it came to her.
    She moved like her mother, he thought. Fluidly, with those graceful gestures to punctuate the words. And thought like a cop—but then he’d seen that in her when she was a child. Logic and observation.
    “We’re checking on the jewelry.” She set his plate down, settled in with her own breakfast of half a bagel and a single strip of bacon. “It may not have been from New York, but we’ll find where he lifted it. Getting a warrant out on him for that will help. It was a stupid move, and though he’s not stupid, it was like him. He needs to show off, pump himself up. Fire-starting plays into that,” she added. “A lot of the inner motivation for a fire-starter is the pump, and the showing off. But with him, it’s also a statement. My father did it, and so can I. Only bigger, better.”
    “There’s more.”
    “Yeah. These are vengeance fires, all of them. If I’m right, and I believe it, John. I believe it’s him. Maybe working with his father, maybe alone. Their revenge against me and mine, because to him we’re responsible for what happened to his father.”
    “He’s too good at it to just have done this handful,” John commented. “Too organized, too focused and prepared.”
    “Yeah. Maybe the New Jersey family’s used him as a torch, or he might have freelanced. He’s not afraid to wait. Sure, some of the gaps came about because he was inside, but he’s not afraid to wait, to pick his moment. He waited three months after his uncle kicked him out ofthe house to retaliate by setting his cousin’s house on fire. That had to be him.”
    “I can help you with that one. I know some people in Frederick County.”
    “I was hoping you did, and would. We’re reopening Josh Bolton’s case.” She sipped some of the Diet Pepsi she’d poured herself. “It’s going to be him there, John. If there’s nothing else that comes out of this, nothing else, I need to nail him for that.” She couldn’t stop the tremor in her voice, or in her heart. “For Josh.”
    “You let it get personal, let it crawl in there, Reena, you’re playing into his hands.”
    “I know it. I’m working on it. He wants me to know it’s him. No matter how he set the scenes, covered his tracks, he wants me to know. But why now? Why wait all these years, then move on me so directly? Something’s changed, something lit his fuse.”
    Nodding, John forked up more eggs. “He’s kept you on his radar all this time, and slipped under yours to take hits at you. Maybe it’s something you’ve changed. Could be as simple as you buying this house. Getting involved with the guy next door.”
    “Maybe, maybe.” But she shook her head. “I’ve had big moments in my life before now. Graduating college—he got a GED in prison. Getting my shield, and he’s been drifting, at least on record, from job to job. I’ve been involved with men before, and