38. Went Through Hell
WENT THROUGH HELL
Two days later, Skye returned home at seven in the morning.
She’d let her family pressure her to stay with someone. Anyone.
She picked Brenna since her sister lived close to the hospital in a two-bedroom apartment building.
The place had security cameras all around it, Brenna was on the fourth floor and there was no way someone could even get in the building without a key. Not even through the gates of the parking lot without flashing a keycard.
That was her compromise and she and Brenna had a little teenage slumber party like the good old days.
It was actually what the doctor ordered in her mind.
Something to take her thoughts off the fact that the arsonist had been setting the fires on Ash’s shift.
She was positive everyone was thinking the same thing last night.
But it hadn’t happened.
Though the scanner went off last night, none of it would have made her want to go see what was going on.
Not that she thought Brenna would have let her out of sight.
Now Ash was at his apartment sleeping, then he’d go put a few hours in with Corbin this afternoon while she got back to her job.
She’d finish up her work project this morning and put some time in on her book.
All these pieces and parts she’d written and she was ready to dive into that.
It wasn’t as if she was going to have another career doing freelance reporting.
She’d had enough to last her a lifetime.
By one, she was cleaning up her lunch when her buzzer went off.
She didn’t think it was Ash. She’d talked to him thirty minutes ago when he was en route to work with her brother. He’d be there by now.
She moved to the wall and hit the button. “Hello.”
“Um, is this Skye? Skye Lancaster?”
She gulped, barely able to get her throat to push the air down.
Her heart was thumping so loud it felt like roaring in her ears.
It was a woman’s voice. She had to remind herself of that.
Were they that wrong all along?
“Yes, it is,” she answered, hating that her voice was shaking.
“Oh, thank God,” the voice on the other end said, relief coming through.
“Who is this?”
“I’m so sorry. It’s Sara. Sean’s girlfriend. Can we talk? Do you have a minute to come down?”
“Yeah. Sure. Is Sean okay?”
“I think so. I don’t know. I’ll explain when you come down. I promise.”
Sara sounded as if she was going to cry, so Skye went to the door, down the stairs and opened the glass one to let her in. “Hey, are you okay?”
“Yeah. I am. I’m sorry. Have you talked to Sean lately?”
“Not since the Monday before Thanksgiving,” she said. “What’s that, like ten days ago? Is he missing or something?”
“No, no, nothing like that,” Sara said.
“Come up. It’s cold.”
“I don’t want to bother you with my problems.”
“It’s not a bother. Really, it’s not.”
She liked Sara, was happy her brother found someone. If she could help with anything, she’d try, even if she and Sean weren’t that close.
Maybe they would be someday.
“I’m sorry to just drop in like this.”
“How did you know where I live?” she asked.
Now she was starting to think it wasn’t so smart to invite Sara up.
She didn’t know much about this woman that she’d met only once.
It wasn’t as if she gave her address out to anyone.
“I found your address at home. In a drawer.”
“What?” she asked. “Did it have my name on it?”
“No. There wasn’t any name on it.”
“I guess I told Sean where I lived.”
She couldn’t remember if she gave her exact apartment number, but anyone could walk by the building at that point and find her by her name on the mailboxes.
Why the hell hadn’t she thought of that before?
“I’m sure that is what it was. But he’s been acting strange lately.”
“How so? I’m not sure I can help you. Up until a month ago or so I hadn’t talked to him in thirteen years.”
“I know,” Sara said. “I think that’s horrible too and I gave him a hard time about it.”
“How did he react to it?”
“He wasn’t happy. I mean, he’s always been private. I just knew those things about him, but this is worse.”
“Worse how? And I’m sorry, can I get you something to drink?”
“No, I’m good. I shouldn’t be talking to you about this.
Sean would be so upset, but I don’t know what else to think.
Right now, I guess I’m happy. I thought maybe he was cheating on me and this is where the woman lived.
I mean, when I pulled in, I recognized your car and I was so relieved. I was praying it would be your voice.”
“Why do you think he’s cheating?”
Sara started to pace. “He’s always worked a lot. I know he does it for the money. To get ahead. It’s not been easy for him. Not since your parents died.”
“But you didn’t know any of that, right?”
“He said he was on his own at eighteen. I guess I never put it together he had no one. That he was on the streets and ended up with friends. I don’t know what I thought but knew not to ask a lot of questions.
But when he saw you, and I found out he had a sister, I just started asking more questions. ”
“Like what?”
“Like why he wasn’t a part of your life. We’d fight. He wouldn’t answer me. Then he was taking more shifts at work. I thought with the holidays coming up, he was putting money away. I thought maybe I’d get that ring I’ve been hoping for, but I stopped hinting when he seemed more distant.”
“That’s why you thought he was cheating?”
Sara sighed and wrung her hands. “I thought he was at work one night a few weeks ago. He left his paycheck stub on the counter. It was opened and I shouldn’t have looked, but I did, and I noticed one night he wasn’t working when he said he was.
Then I went back and realized that other nights, he wasn’t working for as long as I thought he was.
Like he got out much earlier than he got home. ”
“Did you ask him about it?” she asked.
“No. I didn’t want to accuse anyone of anything. Sometimes he goes and gets a drink. He likes to drink a bit more than I care for, but he isn’t mean about it. Not like he said his parents were.”
“And then you found my address and just assumed he was cheating and the woman lived here?”
She was trying to figure out where this was going.
If she was presented with this information about Ash, she might have her doubts too, but she would have asked at least.
“I took the day off. I had a headache last night and a touch of it this morning, and my daughter is at my ex’s house, so I slept in.
When I woke up, I felt better and decided to do some cleaning before I put up Christmas decorations.
I was going through drawers and I found two extra phones.
One still in the package not opened and another that was open but off. ”
“Like burner type phones?” Skye asked, her voice slow, everything in her coming to a halt.
That kind of slow motion where everything was slamming together in her brain.
It couldn’t be. No way. Why?
There was no explanation at all. None of it made sense.
And the last thing she wanted to do was jump the gun on a third person and accuse them of anything.
It might ruin whatever chance she’d have of a relationship with Sean in the future.
Not that he was making any attempt at one, but she’d learned her lesson already with Alan and Kyle.
“Yes.”
“Did you turn it on to see anything?”
“No. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I wanted to see if maybe he’s been talking to you on a different number. You know, since it was next to your address.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I told you, I haven’t talked to him since that Monday night.”
The night she got an email from the arsonist.
Right next door to where they were having dinner.
And she just remembered that he’d gotten up to go to the bathroom. He was gone longer than she thought, but he came back with a beer from the bar. Said it’d been busy and he had to wait for the bartender.
She didn’t think anything of it.
But now she was.
Now it was adding up, yet nothing about it made a lick of sense.
“Can you show me these phones?” Skye asked.
“I left them in the drawer at my house. Do you mind coming with me? I don’t want to take it out of the house, but if you want to see them, I’ll show you.”
“Where is Sean now?”
“Working,” Sara said, looking at her watch. “He doesn’t get out until four normally.”
“Yeah, I’ll follow you there,” she said and grabbed her coat and purse. Shoving her phone in her pocket, she left to drive to the house Sean was living in.
Sara’s house. She remembered that now.
She started to call Ash, then decided against it.
There was no reason to alarm anyone.
But when she pulled in front of the house, her gut said to at least send a text.
She did. A group one, to Tate, Keegan, and Ash.
There, they’d know where she was. She put a pin in her location and climbed out of her vehicle.
Sara walked to the front steps, unlocked the door, and let her in. “Is that Sean’s vehicle in the driveway?”
“Yeah, but he’s on his motorcycle. He swaps out depending on the weather or his mood until it’s put away for the winter.”
The place was small but immaculate when she looked around.
Nothing like they’d ever lived in as a kid.
“Does Sean pick up? This place is really clean.”
“No,” Sara said, laughing. “It drove me nuts when he first moved in, but as long as he takes care of his own things, I don’t ask him to do much more.”
Which wasn’t right, but now wasn’t the time to think about those things.
Not when she was waiting to find out if her brother, her first and biological brother, the one who went through hell with her as a child, could actually be responsible for all these fires in the area.
Two that almost resulted in death. One that destroyed part of her new family’s work.
It was the last one that made it click for her more than the rest.
But the emails. None of that lined up.
She had to be getting ahead of herself here.
Or maybe she just wanted to believe that.
When they got to the spare room, Sara pulled open the closet door. “There is a dresser in there with old clothes and stuff. I use it for storage. I hardly ever go in here and I guess it just stunned me to see this in the back under some of Sean’s shirts.”
The drawer was pulled open and the new TracFone in the package was put on top, then the one that had been opened.
Sara stared at it, as if willing this all to go away.
“This is silly. I feel ridiculous now,” Sara said. “I shouldn’t let my mind run away from me, but my ex cheated and I guess I’ve always looked for that.”
Skye took the phone out of Sara’s hand forcing herself to stay calm when every part of her body knew right away she was going to get answers.
None of the answers she wanted.
“I’ll do it for you. That way, if you’re asked, you don’t have to lie.”
“Good idea,” Sara said. “Thank you. You probably think I’m crazy, huh?”
“No,” she mumbled and watched while the screen on the phone lit up once it was powered on, no password required.
She took a deep breath, went to the messages and it was blank. “Anything?” Sara asked.
“No texts. All good.”
“Phew,” Sara said. “I feel so much better.” Sara walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. “It’s not like there are dick pics or anything in there either. Unless he deleted them, but still, I don’t want to think that.”
While Sara was sitting on the bed and trying to relax, Skye tapped the lone browser on the screen and navigated to the email section.
There it was. The last email sent to her.
The threats. The violence. The obsession.
All of it staring back at her with no explanation in sight. Like it’d just been waiting for this moment to come.
How could this be?
“What’s wrong?” Sara asked. “Your face just went completely white. Did you find something?”
Sara was at her side in an instant. Skye turned the phone around and let the message be read.
“What is that?”
“That’s an email from an arsonist who has been communicating with me.”
“Why would that be on a phone in my house?” Sara asked.
“Why, Sara? You tell me. Are you sending these messages?”
“No,” Sara said, shaking her head and backing up a step. “I swear I’m not. Oh my God, is it Sean? Is he the one setting these fires?”
“It looks it,” she said, her eyes searching around. “We need to get out of here now.”
But before they could take one step toward the doorway, smoke detectors went off.
“No, no,” Sara said. “He wouldn’t. But I smell it.”
They had barely made it two steps toward the door when the smell hit. Sharp, unmistakable.
Smoke. The alarm shrieked overhead.
They ran to the top of the stairs and the floor below was already an inferno.
Flames roared up the walls, racing fast and wild, like gasoline had been poured and lit without hesitation.
The smell was unmistakable.
She knew that smell, that sound, that sight.
It was happening again.
“We’re trapped!” Sara screamed. “What do we do?”
“Stay calm,” Skye said, even as her pulse thundered. She pulled out her phone and dialed.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”
“There’s a fire. We’re trapped on the second floor. The address is—” She shoved the phone toward Sara, who shouted it through her panic. “Please. Send help now!”
She ended the call and swallowed hard.
She wanted to call Ash. Needed to.
But first, they had to survive.
The past clawed its way forward. Memories of smoke-filled hallways, of screaming into the dark for parents who never came.
No one had saved her then. No one was going to save her now.
She forced the panic down and turned to Sara, who was shaking so hard she could barely stand.
“Listen to me,” Skye said, gripping her shoulders. “I’ve been through this before.”
Sara’s eyes filled with terror. “What do you mean before?”
Meaning Sean kept that part of the story out.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “What matters is that you do exactly what I say.”
Because this time, she wasn’t just saving herself.
She was saving them both.