No Good Deed: A Small-Town Romantic Suspense Novel

16. Phail Faster

The hum of energy zipping around the room amazed Piper. The team had split up into smaller groups. Each took a different man and area of research. Work history, criminal records, social media. Searching for information and posts that would provide an alibi for the break-ins, the mugging, or the car crash.

It was like being back in school when everyone was excited about an idea and working on a fun project. She’d missed that.

They worked almost two hours before Tessa put up a new spreadsheet on the wall screen. This one only had Adam, Jeremy, Ethan, and Kyle.

Columns indicated the dates of the attacks on her. Adam had posted a video from a friend’s boat on the date of the mugging. Jeremy and Kyle both posted a lot of selfies. They each had photos that took them out of the picture for at least one of the attacks.

Which left Ethan Westerlake. He didn’t post on social media, so there was no way to rule him out. Was Ethan behind all of this?

She didn’t know him well, and really didn’t like him much, but she couldn’t imagine him dragging her into an alley or crashing into her car. The man was all about fancy suits and shiny shoes.

It was far easier to see Ethan as a blackmailer. He was smirky and superior. If he had something to use against someone, would he? Potentially.

But why hide a USB full of blackmail data in her Cloud Gate? It didn’t make a lot of sense. Maybe it wasn’t blackmail. Was he skimming the books? Or running an illegal business? Part of a criminal organization? “I can’t figure out why Ethan, if it’s him, would put the USB into my Cloud Gate in the first place. If it’s important enough for him to break into my home and crash into the car I was driving, why wouldn’t he keep it somewhere safe?”

Troy turned to her. “Very good question.”

The room was quiet while everyone thought about it. Finally, Nico spoke up. “If it’s blackmail data, he likely has the original data locked up safely somewhere in his home. This is probably a copy. Any chance he would use the office for clandestine meetings outside of work hours? How’s the security?”

Piper shrugged. “It’s a locked building with several businesses inside. People at my level don’t get keys to the office doors, but I think they do at Ethan’s level. I’ve seen him and several others there on nights I work late.”

Troy rubbed her leg absently. “Do you use a swipe card to get in? Or a code?”

She shook her head. “No. The office is always open when I arrive and the door locks automatically behind me when I leave at night if it’s after hours.”

“So anyone with a key could use the office without anyone else knowing it.”

She nodded.

Nico steepled his fingers together on the table. “There are probably a lot of scenarios. One would be that he was meeting someone he was blackmailing. The blackmail victim might be a dangerous person. Ethan might have had one USB to prove he had information on the person. But he would have been sure to mention that he’d left another copy with a colleague.”

A shudder ran through her at that. Was there more than one person after her? Ethan and the mysterious—potentially dangerous—blackmail victim?

Troy hugged her into his side. “We’re going to figure this out, Piper.”

A chorus of agreement sounded around the room. Luck had certainly been on her side since she’d arrived in this town.

Tessa flipped the screen back to the first file on the USB. “There’s a possibility that whoever created the USB hired someone to do the dirty work, but, for now, let’s go with the assumption that Ethan Westerlake is the man attacking Piper. If we focus on him, we can start trying to understand his code. Everyone chooses one that’s personal to them. If it’s blackmail, there should be a code for names, dates, and amounts. If he’s skimming money or laundering money, we’re probably looking for the same kinds of data. If he’s cutting corners in the building process and pocketing the difference, we’d likely be looking for company names as well.”

The data still looked like advanced chemistry to Piper. Incomprehensible. She needed more numbers and fewer letters for it to make sense to her brain.

Tessa turned to Piper. “Could you give me some information on the projects Ethan has been working on? Names of clients, buildings or project names. Also, the names of his superiors, and anyone you saw him interact with who pissed him off. Or that he was extra smug with. It would need to be people who would are rich enough to make blackmail worthwhile.”

Piper nodded and moved to sit beside Tessa. Troy followed and sat beside her, proving he already knew her well enough to know this would be a stressful activity. If her heart hadn’t already decided to fall, the simple action of him sitting beside her to offer his support would have done it.

She leaned over and kissed him softly. “Thanks.”

He grinned. “You’re welcome. Not sure for what, but whatever it is, I’ll do it again.”

An alert she hadn’t heard before sounded from his phone, and his entire demeanor changed. With a curt curse, he pulled out his phone. “That’s the alarm for my garage. Someone’s broken the window.” Another alert had his face tightening. “That’s the garage’s fire alarm.”

His property was on fire. Because of her. And they were far away from his property, also because of her.

Troy’s phone buzzed again with a message. “Arrow is heading to my house. Mitch too.” He reached over and squeezed Piper’s hand. “I have to go.” She nodded and he raced out of the lodge, three of his friends right behind them.

It all happened so quickly, she barely had time to blink. She stood to follow them. There was no way she could keep up with them at a run, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try to help. She didn’t have her car here. “Can someone give me a ride into town? I have to help”

Lia nodded. “Absolutely. Mitch is in town, but I need to go in case there are injuries.”

Joe stood as well. “We’ll go too.”

In moments, most of the people had left the lodge and were hurrying down the trail. Tessa and Tansy had stayed behind with the dogs. Apparently Tessa had injuries that prevented her from moving quickly, and she hadn’t wanted to slow them down. Tansy stayed with her to keep working on the data.

It didn’t take long for Piper to realize she was slowing down the group. It appeared they were all in excellent shape, and probably didn’t eat Oreos by the pack.

Joe moved to walk beside her. “Relax, Piper. We’ve got great people on it. They’ll make sure the fire is contained and no one is hurt.”

But he couldn’t know that.

Lia walked on her other side. “The people at Midnight Lake are extremely well equipped to cope with emergencies. I haven’t been here as long as the others, but this team has worked together to stop several criminals in the last year. Some of them pretty terrifying people.”

Joe nodded. “Troy’s a part of our group because he’s smart and resourceful. Marcus too. And Mitch, who will make sure that fire is contained.”

Lia nodded. “We’ll be there soon. Have faith.”

Piper did have faith in Troy. And Marcus. And she was beginning to believe in the rest of the people of Phail as well.

But the problem wasn’t with any of them. The problem was with her and potentially Ethan Westerlake.

Her faith didn’t extend that far.

* * *

Troy and his three buddies raced down the trail to where the vehicles were parked. When they reached the lot, Flynn beeped open his truck. Troy jumped in the front seat while Sam and Nico hopped in the back. The property wasn’t even two miles from Phail, so in only minutes, they pulled onto his street. The town’s fire engine stood in front of his home with Mitch Robinson and his team of volunteers on site.

As they neared, he realized that his home stood unscathed, but a small plume of smoke rose from the garage. As soon as Flynn stopped, Troy jumped out and moved to where Marcus was standing in front of the open garage door.

Troy spotted the smashed side window of the two-car garage. Piper’s car was in the slot nearest to the mudroom door and didn’t appear to be touched.

“What happened?”

Marcus gestured. “The asshole broke the window with a brick, then tossed in an open can of gas and a flaming rag. Probably hoping to burn the whole thing down with Piper’s car inside.”

Troy was glad there were no windows on the back of the garage. If there were, the guy would have probably broken one and climbed inside. With only the side window available, he’d have rushed in case someone spotted him. That had saved his garage and Piper’s car.

He turned to Mitch and offered his hand. “Thanks for the assist. Damn glad we talked you into moving to town and starting up the fire unit.”

Mitch grinned as he shook his hand. “Glad we’re here too. This was a small blaze, but it was good practice for the group with all the potential hazards in a garage. We caught it early, and extinguished it easily. According to Bella, he used regular gasoline for the accelerant. I don’t think your guy is habitually an arsonist. He could have done much more damage in that time frame if he knew more.”

Bella Martinez, Mitch’s partner and arson investigator, emerged from the garage. “Nothing useful in there, but I’m going to check the outside. Unless you need to check for evidence, Marcus?”

Marcus led the way. “I didn’t check anything yet. I was trying to catch the asshole.”

Troy sighed. “Did you see a car? Anything?”

Marcus shook his head. “I’m guessing he parked on the next road and took off through the bush to get to his car.”

Probably. Troy had always enjoyed living with trees across the road, but now it seemed it would have been nice to have some nosy neighbors living there.

Marcus and Bella proceeded slowly, checking for evidence. Troy followed close behind. A fence separated his lot from the next one. The neighbor had several blue spruce clustered in the corner. Troy pointed at the ground beneath the tress. “Looks like someone was standing here.”

Marcus took out his camera to take photos. “It’s pretty trampled, but we might be able to get some clear boot prints.”

A small hole appeared in the snow near the prints. Wearing gloves, Arrow took more photos then moved aside the snow to see what had dropped.

Troy nearly cheered when they found a wad of gum in the snow. Marcus grinned. “I’ll get this sent to the lab and put a rush on it.”

When they didn’t find anything else, he joined his buddies to check the nearby street and homes. No one had seen any strangers and the sidewalks were too flattened with people and dog tracks to identify individual prints.

Troy pulled up the security feed on his phone. By the time he’d found the spot on the video, the others had gathered around him. He held out the phone so they could all watch. A brick shattered the window without anyone in sight. Then, a man wearing a hoodie and ball cap to cover his face rushed up, opened a gas can, and dipped a rag inside. He lit the far end of the rag with a lighter, then leaned through the broken glass to place the can inside.

The whoosh of flames was visible as he turned and ran without lifting his head, proving he’d spotted the cameras beforehand.

Troy watched it again. This time, with a smile. “He’s only wearing one glove. He probably took the other one off to make it easier to open the gas can.”

They watched as Troy moved through the scene slowly. He grinned as he watched the man plant a hand on the sill to place the can inside. “Let’s go see if we can pull a print.”

When they reached the garage, Marcus was already dusting the window ledge. Troy laughed. “Were you eavesdropping? In the video, he’s only wearing one glove, and definitely touched the sill.”

Marcus nodded. “Good. Between the gum and this print, we’ve got evidence to place him here. Now to hope he’s in the system and we can find a match.”

Damn. The man was potentially a senior urban planner. With that kind of prestigious job, Troy doubted he had an arrest record. Although he might have been voluntarily printed for another reason. “Even if not, it’ll be evidence that keeps him in jail for a while after we catch him.”

Marcus nodded, then used an app on his phone to capture the prints. “I’ll upload them to the system from my office. Did you find anything else on the security camera or the street?”

Troy shook his head. “Nothing. Did you find anything, Bella?”

She shook her head. “We’ll check the gas can for fingerprints as well. And check it and the brick for other evidence. The fire destroyed the rag he used. Basically, it looks like an amateur attempt to burn a building. A person who has watched TV, and figures he knows more than he does.”

Flynn grinned. “Which matches the profile of the name Tessa came up with in her first sweep through the data.”

Bella laughed. “Doesn’t surprise me at all. Let me guess. Male. Pompous. Older than Piper. Higher job level at her company, but doesn’t work all that hard.”

Everyone in the group turned to stare at her before Troy nodded. “Yes. To all of it. Have you been taking profiler classes?”

Bella grinned. “After seeing a lot of arsonists in action, you get a bead on things. This wasn’t random. It was the targeted attack of someone who isn’t as smart as he thinks he is.”

Troy grinned. “Glad we’re all on the same side. Okay. I’m going to close up the shop so Addison and Nina can get home, then I’ll text Piper.” He slapped Marcus on the shoulder. “I’ll check in with you in a bit.”

At Phail General, he found Addy and Nina eager for news, and Oreo eager for cuddles. “How did everything go?”

Nina grinned. “Oreo is awesome, but I think he missed you and Piper. Mom figured out everything, and I learned to use the till.”

Addison smiled. “She’ll be running the place if you let her.”

Nina laughed. “That would be fun. I like knowing how things work. And I greeted all the customers so mom didn’t have to.”

Addison’s pretty face flushed, but she smiled fondly at her daughter.

“You didn’t get that extrovert gene from your mother.” Troy regretted his words immediately. Addison had never once spoken about Nina’s father. She was reserved about her past in general. If anyone questioned her, she turned the questions around to the other person, usually without them realizing it.

When he watched the light fade from Addy’s eyes, he felt like a complete jerk. To switch the focus, he turned back to Nina. “When does Christmas break start? Do you have any plans?”

While Nina chatted about plans with her friends to go skiing, Troy mouthed Sorry to Addison, who waved it off.

A few minutes later, Piper walked into the store. He locked the store behind Addison and rubbed his hands up and down Piper’s arm. “I was just going to text you. I thought you were staying at the lodge.” With the others where it was safe, but he didn’t say that aloud.

Piper raised an eyebrow. “I never said that. I’m not going to hang back out of sight when it’s my mess and my fault that someone targeted your home.”

“It’s not your fault.”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course it is. If I hadn’t arrived in Phail, your garage wouldn’t be damaged.”

“We’ll lay the blame squarely at Westerlake’s feet. Did you come into town alone?”

Another eye roll, and Troy realized he’d screwed up.

“I’m an adult, Troy. I don’t need anyone’s permission to come and go. But, no, I came in with most of the others.”

Troy took both her hands. “I’m guessing I’m being a little overbearing?”

Piper smirked at that. “Yes.”

He grinned at her direct answer. Then he pulled her in for a hug. “I’m sorry. I go straight to panic when I think you’re in danger. You are most definitely an adult, and I’ll try not to be an asshole next time.”

She nodded and finally hugged him back. “There is no try.”

The Yoda quote made him laugh. “A Star Wars fan to boot? I think I’m in love.”

The words had spilled out in jest, but Troy didn’t want to haul them back in.

Piper laughed with him, covering the fact that she’d stiffened at his words. Should he talk about it, or would he scare her off?

Marcus opened the door at the back of the shop and waved at them. “I’ve got something.”