34. One Of Them
ONE OF THEM
“Do you think that he’s going to give us anything?” Ash asked Tate on Monday.
They were on their way to see Sean Murphy. Just to talk. Just to see if the guy would.
“I don’t know,” Tate said. “If what Skye said is true and he’s changed, he’ll give us a few minutes of his time.”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I don’t think he’ll even see us.”
“Only one way to find out,” Tate said. They got out of Tate’s truck, went to the front desk where Sean worked and asked if he was there. The person looked at the schedule then called down to the floor for him to come up.
Five minutes later, Sean Murphy opened the door, took one look at both of them, hesitated and then said, “Didn’t think I’d be seeing either of you here. No, that’s wrong. I expected at least one Lancaster by now, but not you, Ash. Corbin was always your sidekick.”
“Guess no introduction is needed,” Ash said. “But why aren’t you surprised to see Tate?”
“Because I’m guessing they know Skye and I have been talking and probably want to tell me to leave their sister alone.”
Tate ignored the comment better than Ash could.
“Got a minute to talk?” Tate asked. They’d be remiss if they didn’t question Sean on the fires. The emails. All of it.
The guy came back into Skye’s life around the same time this all started.
“Five minutes,” Sean said. “I’m working.”
“Five is good enough,” Tate said, nodding his head for them to go outside. “There have been a string of arsons in the area. I’m sure you’ve heard. Especially since Skye is writing the articles.”
“I’ve read them. What does that have to do with me?” Sean asked, looking truly confused.
His stance was defensive, but his tone wasn’t. Maybe Skye was right. Maybe Sean had changed.
“She’s getting threatening emails now. Got one the night you guys were out to dinner and the location was pinged close by.”
Sean snorted. “Yeah, so? You can’t possibly think I sent her that. When did she get it? I was with her and Sara at dinner, then Sara the rest of the night.”
“It came in when you were at dinner,” Ash said.
Sean pulled his phone out, unlocked it and handed it over. More like threw it. “Check it for whatever you want. Even without a warrant or you not being in uniform. I’ve got nothing to hide other than my disgust over this bull.”
Sean wasn’t yelling. Wasn’t posturing. The words were understandable, but Skye was right, it wasn’t the same punk that would have shoved before he spoke.
Tate reached for the phone, scrolled through, found the email section, then handed it back. “We are just watching out for her. The timing lines up to you being in her life again.”
“I get it. But I was with her the whole time at dinner. Do you really think I would have pulled my phone out at the table and written an email?” Sean asked, his voice full of sarcasm.
“Since you’re being so accommodating, can you verify where you were the nights of the fire?”
“Because my parents died in a fire when I was a kid you think I’m setting them now? You’re fucking joking, right?” Sean asked. Starting to lose some composure, but not horribly.
“Afraid not,” Ash said. “We can make this more formal if you want. Your choice.”
“No reason to,” Sean said, opening his phone back up, after he shrugged. Like he had to force himself to do it. “Anything to get you out of here. Does Skye know you’re doing this?”
She didn’t, but Sean didn’t need to know that.
Tate listed off the dates in question, Sean was on his phone. “Do you have alibis for them? Any of them?” Tate asked.
“I was working for them all but the first one,” Sean said. “Here are my paycheck stubs with dates and times punched in. Not up to your income standards but puts me right here. That first night, I was probably home with Sara like I am if I’m not working.”
Tate scrolled through while Ash looked over his shoulder. “Thanks. Sorry. We are just looking out for her. I’d think you’d understand, even if you’re not close anymore.”
Ash could see the snarl on Sean’s lips, but the tone was dialed back when the words came out. “You’re doing the whole protective thing,” Sean said. “I get it. Now can I go back to work?”
“Yeah,” Ash said.
“I didn’t expect him to talk to us that long,” Tate said. “Least of all answer the questions.”
“Me neither,” he said. “Maybe he has changed.”
“No clue,” Tate said. “But he has alibis for the nights of the fires. Even handed his phone over without being asked.”
“If he’s using a burner, then it wouldn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t matter. He had alibis for the fires,” Tate repeated.
“Except the first,” he said. “Unless we talk to Sara.”
“For now, we’ll hold off. The same person is doing them all, so it can’t be him if he was here.”
“It was a long shot,” he said, “but it couldn’t be overlooked.”
“Nope,” Tate said.
They drove to the job site in silence, then got to work.
An hour in, Ash remembered to talk to them about what Clay got out of Skye.
“Why didn’t I hear about this guy?” Tate said to Ash. “Before now? Before we even talked to Sean?”
“Because Ford wanted to do it,” he argued. “And we were dealing with Sean and I knew to just hold off until I heard more. But realize now that I should tell you.”
The remains of the fire from last week were cleaned up. The homeowners surprisingly wanted to continue. They were more understanding than others would have been.
The foundation hadn’t been touched, the weeks’ worth of putting the shell up would begin again and it was all hands on deck.
Tate was here with Holden, Ash, Keegan was on the way, Jim was lending a hand when he didn’t normally work at this stage of a build, and a whole different crew lead by Garrett, a foreman who’d been around long before Ash started working.
They needed every hand they could get to get back on track.
“Yeah, you should have told me or all of us before,” Tate said. “That’s bullshit.”
“I think it’s bullshit too,” Corbin said. “Right, Dad?”
“We have to let the police do their job,” Jim said, looking at Ash. Hopefully feeling some sympathy for the can of worms he just opened.
“I’m the police,” Tate argued.
Keegan pulled in and slammed out of his truck, not looking so thrilled.
He knew the Lancasters were pissed they didn’t find out what Skye was thinking, but they didn’t have any proof either.
“What’s your problem?” Tate asked Keegan. “Get up on the wrong side of the bed?”
“No. I just talked with Ford. They are looking into Kyle a bit more before they approach him.”
“What the fuck?” Tate said. “I don’t get it.”
“They have nothing,” Ash said. “Trust me. I want the guy questioned too, but I heard enough from Ford over the weekend to let them do their job. He’s not even doing much, but enough.”
“Which I appreciate,” Keegan said. “Because I get it. It’s not really his case and he’s doing it as a favor.”
“It’s family,” he said. “Me and Skye. You guys are pissed. I know you are. Do you think Skye isn’t feeling some of this? Cut her some slack. She’s struggling.”
“With what?” Jim asked, dropping the two by four he had in his hand. “Why aren’t we being told much? It’s my daughter.”
That. That right there.
The family she had always wanted. It didn’t matter when she came into their lives, she was one of them.
“There isn’t much to say. I wish there was. No one has seen Kyle at the fires. There is nothing more than a sketchy work history. There are a lot of people out there with that and we can’t go around questioning them all, right, Tate? Keegan?”
“I can,” Keegan said. “I don’t give a fuck. Fire me.”
“Enough,” Jim said firmly. “We are all out of sorts with this. And the fact that the guy hasn’t even replied to Skye’s last article. I want to think she scared him away.”
“No,” Ash said. “I don’t know why he’s being quiet. It’s making me more nervous than anything.”
“And now that everyone is here, I can say that Ash and I talked to Sean before we showed up.”
“Fuck you,” Keegan said. “I should have been there for that.”
“And we wouldn’t have gotten anything if you were,” Tate said, standing firm.
“What did you get?” Jim asked, calmly. Always the voice of reason.
“He’s got alibis for the fires. All but one. He was working, showed us the paycheck stubs with punch in and out times. He was with Sara and Skye the time of the email that night and even handed over his phone,” Tate said.
“It was a burner,” Keegan argued.
“I didn’t say that. He voluntarily handed it. Sean didn’t have to talk to us and did. I’m not sure much about him, but he cooperated and, for now, he should be off the short list.”
And that was hard for Ash to wrap his brain around also.
“Then let’s move on. If it’s this Kyle guy,” Holden said.
“maybe he’s building the anticipation. Or maybe the person went away for the holidays.
We know nothing about him. He could be a family man.
Didn’t you say this fireman has a wife and kids?
I’m not convinced it’s not him. He could be smarter than we all think. ”
He blew out a breath, the steam coming with it on this cold end of November day. “Yes, Alan has a wife and kids.”
“And is he around? Do you know?”
Ash hated to admit this. That he was even paying attention, because his eye was still on Alan’s moves.
“He’s on vacation. He would have shown up on Saturday for his shift but didn’t.
He wasn’t working the day the article went out either and that’s his shift.
He’s blocked off so I’m thinking he went away. ”
“That’s just another arrow pointing toward him, don’t you think?” Holden asked. “It might explain why he hasn’t replied. If he went away, it’d show if he emailed if it was from out of the area.”
Things Ash thought of too. And if he was thinking it, so was everyone else.
“I don’t have any answers for you,” he said. “What I know is that Alan was off. I’m not sure when he’s due back, but he’s on the schedule for Thursday. I’ll stay Wednesday morning so I know he shows up.”
There was no reason to admit that he’d driven by Alan’s house on Saturday and didn’t see the family SUV there. Just Alan’s truck, but it hadn’t looked like it’d moved in days.