Fireproof

her on the head when she rejected him.”
    “Would he have been mad enough to bludgeon her to death?”
    Racine shrugged. “We’ve both seen people do worse for less reason. Makes more sense than a stranger. Someone bashes in another person’s face like that, it’s usually personal.”
    “But the skull inside the building complicates your theory.”
    “Only slightly. It could be two separate killers. You’ve been saying all along that you didn’t think the arsonist was the same guy who murdered Dobson.”
    “He didn’t bother to burn her body.”
    “But the victim inside was toast.”
    “Dr. Ling said she didn’t find any other bones from the rest of that body.”
    “Could they have burned up?”
    Maggie simply shook her head, not wanting to go into Dr. Ling’s long explanation.
    “Guess we’ll have to wait and ask Zach Lester what happened as soon as the Virginia State Patrol finds him and Dobson’s SUV.”
    “There’s something I should probably tell you.” Maggie waited for Racine’s attention. “The other day when I went down the manhole? I think someone followed me down.”
    “What do mean? Followed you down?”
    “I heard footsteps in front of me. Then all of sudden there were footsteps behind me. Someone started smashing out the lightbulbs in the tunnel before you called down and scared him off.”
    “And you’re only telling me this now?”
    “That’s not all. That night someone was seen back behind my property checking out my backyard.”
    “Could be some crazy who saw Jeffery Cole’s profile.”
    “I’ve taken a lot of precautions to not be found.”
    “Property taxes are all online now.”
    “Mine’s not listed under my name.”
    Racine raised an eyebrow but didn’t ask. She crossed her arms over her chest and Maggie waited for the lecture. None came. Instead of anger, Racine looked concerned. Very concerned. And that was more unsettling than having the detective angry with her.

CHAPTER 56

    Sam tried not to jump to conclusions. Seeing Wes Harper at the scene of the warehouse fires wasn’t all that incriminating. After all, he was firefighter. But why was he dressed in casual clothes and standing back with the crowd of bystanders? Did he just show up to watch? Or was he already there, waiting to witness his handiwork and watch the real firefighters try to put it out?
    She spent the next hour looking up everything she could find on Harper, using the news station’s access to Internet databases. She found no criminal record except indication that there was a juvenile case that had been sealed when Harper was a teenager. But then he had admitted last night that he had been a firebug in his younger days. Youthful indiscretions hardly resulted in a repeat felony arsonist. It was probably nothing. From what she found about Braxton Protection Agency, Harper would never have been hired if there was something questionable in his past. Maybe she just wanted him to be guilty.
    Sam slipped the film footage into her bag and left the station, avoiding Nadira and Jeffery, sneaking through the hallways as though she were the one who had something to hide. She madeit to the elevator bank almost home free when one of the doors opened and out came Jeffery.
    “What are you doing here?”
    “Just checking on something.” She brushed past him to get inside the empty elevator.
    “Something I need to know about?” He held his hand over the elevator door so it wouldn’t close.
    “No. It’s no big deal.” And she wondered if Nadira had tattled on her. Why was her pulse racing? She hadn’t done anything wrong. Jeffery was the one keeping secrets.
    “Did you hear that O’Dell’s mother called Big Mac complaining about our interview? She’s insisting on a retraction. Says we cut and edited it to make her look bad.”
    Sam didn’t have anything to do with the interview, hadn’t even seen it, but she knew how Jeffery could edit a version so that even Sam didn’t recognize an interview after she stood by and filmed it.
    “Remember I said you shouldn’t mess with an FBI agent.”
    Jeffery shrugged, but he was still smiling when he dropped his hand away and let the elevator door close. Controversy pleased him, excited him. And Sam could tell by his expression that he viewed Kathleen O’Dell’s complaints as accolades. She knew the profile piece was getting all kinds of attention, the exact kind that Jeffery—and even Big Mac—thrived on. Sometimes she wondered just how far