6. Are you sure about that? #4
“I am. The maintenance bill on this one is horrific, and I was planning on shooting it between the headlights when the engine blew anyway. Tell you what. When I’ve been really bad, we’ll take the car out somewhere, and it can have an accident involving two cindercorns.”
“Or we could keep it for one of the kids.”
“When the kids earn a car, we’ll get one for them they want, not an antique that’ll cost them a fortune to keep up.”
I eyed the convertible’s dash. “Does this car count as an antique?”
“Not particularly. I doubt it’ll be worth much of anything ten years down the road.”
“Why is it cold?” I complained, hunkering in my seat. “Mistakes were made, and we made them.”
“Silly cindercorn. You’re not going to freeze to death, I promise. I’ll warm you up at the house.” His phone rang before we had a chance to leave the garage, and sighing, he checked the display before answering, “Chief Quinn speaking.”
A moment later, his eyes widened, his mouth dropped open, and he spluttered.
I stole the phone out of his hand and said, “The other Chief Quinn speaking. What did you just tell my husband?”
“Hello, Chief Quinn. I’m Chief Barfield.”
“Oh! Peter? It’s Peter, right? You’re in charge of Queens.”
“I am. There was an attempted arson at your house.”
“A what at where?”
He repeated himself. I tapped my finger against my husband’s phone. “What’s the damage?”
“Surprisingly, there’s very little damage.
Some of your rose bushes have seen better days, the brick and the door and window framing will need some repair, but the structure was otherwise undamaged.
There’s one cracked window. One of your neighbors noticed the attempt and called it in and made a scene, which scared the arsonists off.
They knew you weren’t home, but it seems the arsonists were unaware you were not back. ”
“Give us five minutes. We’re basically right down the street. We just got in.”
“But you were just in Vegas? I was speaking to some of your officers earlier.”
“My father—the not sucky one—teleported us over to the Perkins residence so we could retrieve our car. We’ll be there in a few minutes.
” I hung up and handed my stunned husband his phone.
“If you can’t pull yourself together, I’ll drive, and there is nothing scarier on this planet than a cranky cindercorn who hates the cold driving through the snow. ”
“Who is idiot enough to try to light a chief’s house on fire? The stupidity is just…” My husband grunted and ran his hands through his hair. “Remind me to send a gift to our neighbors.”
“Some asshole burned the roses!”
My husband sighed. “That death certificate is going to have some interesting notations when you find out who burned our roses. First, if the roses can’t be saved, we will replant them.
Chances are, it just burned the covers for them and the plants are fine.
I’ll just have to get new covers on them. ”
“Some of the brick was trashed, a window needs to be replaced as it was cracked, but the house is otherwise fine. How did that happen?”
“I can explain that. I fireproofed the house, my beautiful. You’re a cindercorn.
You snort fire. You watched me work with the fireproofers all fall to make sure it was suitable for you and your fiery ways.
Some of the time, you were a unicorn, and you rolled around on your rug so nobody would take it from you.
It’d take a lot more effort than some gasoline tossed against the side of the house to do much damage. ”
Oh. Right. “You did it when you replaced the fireplace. And I was rolling around because you stole my fireplace!”
“For five whole days while a better one was installed.”
“Five days without a fireplace should be criminal.”
He laughed. “I’m fine. I was just stunned someone would really be that stupid. I have a few ideas who might try to burn our house down.”
“I have a lot of ideas.” I pointed at myself. “Not the most likable unicorn on the block.”
“But you are the best unicorn on the block.”
“I’m the only unicorn on the block, Queeny.”
“I’m sure you’ll learn to cope with your status as the best of unicorns.”
“Sample size of one, Queeny.”
“Doesn’t change anything for me. You’re the best of unicorns.”
“You are a biased and unreasonable man.”
He smiled. “For you, yes.”
How did he always win our discussions like this? I sighed and made shooing gestures with my hand. “We need to go check on the roses, and then I need to plot some fucker’s murder if they hurt the roses!”
“Just don’t tell the reasonable cops that, Bailey.”
“I’ll try to contain my runaway mouth for once in my life.”
“I feel I just asked for a miracle.”
What a jerk. Despite myself, I grinned. “You really did. Less talking, more driving.”
“But what if I like talking with you?”
How dare he win again? “I raided one of the lingerie boxes when I got changed, but you can’t personally explore my secret clothing choices until we deal with the cops and the roses.”
Quinn eased the convertible out of the garage, parking long enough to close the garage door and rearm the alarm system.
“I should protest how easy I am to manipulate under these circumstances, but I find I am highly motivated to deal with the cops at our house so I can explore your secret clothing choices.”
“Just don’t destroy them, else I’ll have to wear the little black set that went with the yellow dress,” I warned.
“That threat needs a lot of work, Bailey. Your secret clothing choice’s days are numbered, and its doomsday clock is ticking.”
“Such a tragedy.”