Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Pennsylvania
They hadn’t taken my phone and I wanted to ask Detective Tolland if I could answer the twenty-plus text messages that had been vibrating in my pocket that I was sure were from Gideon.
I figured when the detective had listened to my account of the evening Dean’s house went up in flames and refused to let me say who I saw, there was going to be a problem.
“Let me see if I understand this so far, Mr. Garrand. You were heading to work, saw there was a house on fire, and decided to run into the burning home and rescue children?”
“Yes, but that’s not what I’m here to report.”
“You said you work at Kaleidoscopes?”
“Worked. I put my notice in.”
“And why is that?” Detective Tolland folded his hands on the top of the table.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
He shrugged. “Well, I mean, were you leaving town?”
“As a matter of fact, I was.”
He wrote something on his pad, which I couldn’t see. “It’s a little suspicious that you quit your job after the fire.”
“Actually it’s not. See, I was leaving town because I saw who started the fire, and I was terrified.”
His brows rose. “And yet you’re still in town.”
This detective was a pain in my ass, and it was becoming quite apparent that he wasn’t here because Bainer had asked him to be.
“I tried leaving, but Lorcan Anders, the man I saw torching the house, has been trying to kill me. Anywhere I’d go, he’d follow.”
He blinked, wrote more things on his stupid pad, and then stood. “I’ll be right back.”
“What?”
Detective Tolland grabbed the recorder and pad and left me alone in the room.
Shit, this wasn’t good. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. There were a lot of messages from Gideon but when I tried to respond the message wouldn’t go through. No bars. Fuck. Gideon’s messages solidified what I’d assumed.
Get out of there.
Bainer is dead.
The commissioner is on site, move out.
I called my lawyer, he’s in court.
Answer me, Penn!
No matter which way I angled my phone, my message wouldn’t go through.
The sound of the door opening had me slipping my phone into my pocket.
I didn’t wait for the detective to talk.
“I think it’s really shitty that I come here to report not only that I saw the person setting a house ablaze with kids in it, but that the same person is trying to kill me and this is how I’m treated. ”
Behind Tolland was a different man, older. He was wearing a dark-blue suit, had black hair with white streaked throughout. His beady eyes, hawk nose, and smarmy smile proved this was not someone on my side.
“Good…” He looked at his watch. “Still morning, but barely. Mr. Garrand, is that right?”
“Yeah, who are you?”
“Commissioner Shaw.”
Of course he was. Since I’d gotten up to get my message out, I returned to my chair and sat. “And why does my statement warrant your arrival?”
“Mr. Garrand, Detective Tolland here feels that you’re placing blame on the fire to cover your tracks because you’ve been made aware that you were identified at the house fire.”
“Of course I was at the house, I ran in and rescued children. There were camera phones everywhere, did you look at any of those?” Things weren’t going to plan, and if I got out of this, I was going to get a very long “I told you so” conversation from Gideon.
“Hmm.” He pulled a file folder from under his arm, opened it, and dropped a photo onto the table. “What we see is a person running in there, no clear identity.” He plopped another down. “This one has the same person jumping out the window, on fire. Do you have any burns on you, Mr. Garrand?”
My burns had, in fact, healed. One of the things about my mutation was that I healed faster than most. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t some redness. “I’m a fast healer, but if you check my neck and—”
“You’re grasping at straws, Mr. Garrand,” the commissioner interrupted.
“So when my answers don’t fit your narrative, you’re going to twist them?” I huffed out a laugh. “Tell me something, Commissioner, how much is Anders paying you to be his lackey?”
His eyes flashed and nostrils flared. “Pardon?”
“You heard me. Or maybe he doesn’t pay you in cash, perhaps you have other arrangements?” I waggled my brows.
“You’re out of line, Mr. Garrand.”
“Am I? See, I don’t think I am. I came here as a scared citizen and have been treated like a criminal. I think I’ll be leaving. You can expect to hear from my attorney.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Garrand, but you’re not going anywhere.”
“Is that so?”
“We’re holding you on suspicion to commit arson, and the attempted murders of Dean, Rita, Matteo, Owen, and Olivia Hendrix.”
I snorted. “That’s never gonna fly.”
“Detective, read Mr. Garrand his rights, and…oh damn, our holding cells are quite full. We’ll be transferring you to a different station.”
I glared at the commissioner. “How convenient for you.”
His malicious grin was all the response I received. He pivoted and left the room. Tolland came up to my side of the table.
“Stand up and put your hands behind your back.” Tolland began reading me my rights. A lot of good that would do me. Nothing about this was legal, but they didn’t care.
With a heavy sigh, I followed his instructions. What the hell else was I going to do? Gideon had called his lawyer, and hopefully he’d get here before I was moved to whatever warehouse Lorcan was totally going to kill me in.
As I was led from the interrogation room, I surveyed the area, my gaze landing on Toni, who was on the other side of the counter. I wasn’t sure if he’d seen me at first, but then his eyes widened and he began texting furiously.
I was at the rear entrance of the building when I heard him. No question who it was roaring like a motherfucking lion.
“Where the fuck is he?”
Tolland yanked me out the door only to come face-to-face with Raff.
“Where exactly do you think you’re taking him…Clarence?” Raff smirked.
“Out of the way, Rafferty. Mr. Garrand is under arrest.”
“You’ll want to rethink that.” Raff adjusted his coat, his, pistol on display.
“Oh, you’re going to shoot a cop?” Tolland pulled me harder toward a police van idling to the left. “Move, Garrand.”
“You don’t want to do this.” Raff’s tone dropped.
A crashing sound came from inside the station, and Tolland all but lifted me to get me into the van.
“Let him go!” Raff shouted. I looked over my shoulder and saw his gun was drawn.
“Drop it, Rafferty.”
“Can’t do that, Clarence.”
“You shoot me, and you’ll be signing your death warrant.”
If Raff could hold him off for another minute, I was sure Gideon would be coming through the rear and this would end. But that wasn’t what happened. I made to get off the floor of the van to charge Tolland, who was reaching for his gun.
He noticed me and slammed the door in my face, and gunshots rang out. Through the window, I saw Raff hit Tolland in the shoulder and the detective returned fire. Raff fell to the pavement, and Tolland raced to the driver’s seat. Shit!
I tried to ram my body into the door to open it, but it was a fucking police van designed to stop criminals from escaping.
The van jolted, and I fell to the floor again.
I rocked to my side, able to stand. Out the back window, the last thing I saw before Tolland raced out of the station was Gideon standing in the lot, Raff on the ground, and Toni, Alex, and Danny beside him.