Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

hand on her arm. “I agree this time, Blythe. Let’s just get this done.” He leveled his gaze at Lev.
    “Make yourself scarce. I’ll be back in a half hour.”
    “I’ll be sitting right here,” Rikki said with a small, secret smile.
    Jonas frowned and then nodded. “One other thing. Does the name Gerald Pratt mean anything to you? There were fingerprints on the dock and we got a hit almost immediately. We checked the prints against jobs working with fire, such as firemen. Gerald Pratt works for the forestry department in the Big Sur area. He happens to have grown up in the same city as you, Rikki. He would have been about sixteen when you were thirteen.”
    She frowned, obviously trying to remember. “I swear, I’ve never heard the name before. I might have gone to school with him, but if I did, school was so difficult, I wouldn’t have remembered anyway. I was the weird girl, always losing her mind. Kids made fun of me a lot, but I can’t remember specific names.”
    “He didn’t go to any of the same schools with you,” Jonas said. “So far I can’t find the connection—or him, but I’m still digging. I haven’t had a lot of time. Pratt was working this last week, but he’s off at the moment and no one has any idea of where he might have gone. He took two weeks off.”
    “Gerald Pratt,” Rikki repeated aloud. She shook her head and looked helplessly at Lev and then Blythe. “I don’t know him.”
    She sounded so lost. Blythe put her arms around Rikki and held her, murmuring soft reassurances. “We’ll sort this out, Rikki,” she assured.
    When she straightened, Rikki shook her head. “How could I have upset someone so much that they would want to kill not just me but everyone I care about, yet I can’t remember them?”
    Jonas crouched in front of her, looking up into the eyes that studiously avoided his. “Rikki, sometimes people are ill. You don’t know what sets them off. If they live in another reality, whatever they believe becomes true.
    Nothing a thirteen-year-old girl could ever do would be justification for this man’s actions.”
    “Are you certain it’s him?” Lev asked.
    Jonas shook his head. “He’s a suspect. We’ve got the blood and he left his DNA on the cigarette butts, but that doesn’t mean he started the fire. It means he was on her property. Also, the accelerant used was Jet A, a higher octane fuel that burns hot and fast. This guy knows what he’s doing.”
    Lev said nothing. If Pratt had his face ripped open by the owls, there would be no question. He’d be coming at Rikki soon. He didn’t have that much vacation time left and he needed to finish her off now. Pratt had a taste 283

    for killing with fire as his chosen weapon. Now that he knew where Rikki was, he’d be back.
    “Don’t do anything stupid,” Jonas warned Lev and escorted Blythe back to the car.
    Rikki was silent, swinging gently, moving her bare foot up and down.
    “Laskovaya moya, I want to talk about this Russian coming to talk with you. I know you’re worried about Pratt, but he is nowhere near as dangerous as this man. He will be conducting an interrogation, not a discussion,” Lev said, taking her hand, his thumb stroking little caressing circles over the center of her palm. “You don’t have to do this.”
    She turned the full power of her dark, beautiful eyes on him. His heart contracted. There was courage there. Determination. “Of course I do. If you’re going to be rid of them, I have to be the one to do it. He knows I was out on the water that day.”
    “I don’t like it,” Lev said.
    She shrugged. “You don’t have to like it. I’m a grown woman and I’ve been making my own decisions for a long time. We’re in this together, right?” She looked at him. Challenging him. “Right? Or did you think I wouldn’t assert myself because you think I have a disability?”
    His eyes glittered fiercely and he swung around, squatting in front of her, one hand spanning her throat, his thumb tipping her chin back. “Where the hell did that come from? We’re not fighting about this, Rikki. I’m stating my opinion, that it’s dangerous and you should have enough respect for me that you trust that I’d know. I respect your abilities in the water.”
    She flushed and her gaze slid away from his. “I’m sorry. I have a hard time with arguments. Discussions,” she corrected. “Quite often, because I’m different, people think I have a low IQ and can’t grasp the