Chapter 8
EIGHT
Sam reluctantly let go of her sister. So many emotions bombarded her as adrenaline flowed through her system. Bella was safe.
She opened the SUV door. Bella climbed in, and Sam followed her. Once they were buckled, Sam pulled Bella to her and wrapped her arms around her. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” her sister whispered back.
Deputy Marshal Roberts climbed into the driver’s seat and set the SUV in motion. His niece sat in the passenger seat up front, staring out the window. She sniffed and wiped her face with her sleeve.
Sam reached up and patted the teen on the shoulder. “We’re all okay.”
“It’s okay, Sophia.” Deputy Marshal Roberts reached over and awkwardly patted the girl’s forearm.
“I know.” She pulled her arm away.
The poor man was way out of his league. Sophia didn’t need a pat—she needed a hug. It was a lot for someone her age to take in.
Sam squeezed Bella tighter. Thankfully, they were both alive and unharmed.
As much as she wanted to be angry about Bella sneaking out, today, at least, she was glad the teen had been disobedient.
Who knew what would have happened if Bella had been home?
There could so easily have been a second body added to the scene.
Sam wouldn’t go there. It hadn’t happened, so there was no use in dwelling on it. She needed to focus on what they were going to do now. Everything they owned had just gone up in flames. They only had the clothes on their backs.
She knew what needed to be done immediately—contacting the landlord’s guy, Danny, and making a claim on her renter’s insurance—but what did this mean for them and WITSEC?
“Deputy Marshal Roberts?” She looked at the stoic man in the driver’s seat, finding herself oddly reassured by the steady presence. Not that she’d ever been the kind of woman who needed a man around so she could feel safe. It wasn’t like that with marshals anyway.
He glanced at her in the rearview mirror, those blue eyes warm. “You can call me Liam.”
“Liam, you wanna tell me where we’re going?”
“To the Marshals’ office to figure everything out.”
She nodded, then laid her head on top of Bella’s and closed her eyes. Then realized she’d left the scene without speaking to anyone. She needed to let Lieutenant Fischer know she’d taken off, so he wouldn’t worry about her.
She sat up straight. “Does the Captain know it’s not Bella in the house?”
Liam nodded. “I spoke with him before I found you.”
She pulled her phone from her duty pants and sent a text to the group chat, letting them know she and Bella were okay and that she’d be in touch.
Liam pulled the SUV into the courthouse parking lot and around to the back. Without a word, he led the way through a private entrance and up to the US Marshals’ office.
“Samantha and Isabella, have a seat in here.” Liam opened the door to an empty conference room. “Sophia, with me.”
Sam watched Liam and his niece walk out of the room and disappear down the hall.
The room he’d left them in had a conference table and eight chairs. There were posts about the Marshals Service on the walls. A television was mounted in the far corner.
She wasn’t sure how long they had before Liam came back, but she needed to get the truth out of Bella.
“I need you to tell me everything that happened today.” Sam looked her sister in the eyes. “Don’t worry about if I’m going to be angry or if you’re going to get into trouble. That doesn’t matter right now. What matters is figuring out why someone set our house on fire.”
Bella’s eyes widened. “Like they did it on purpose?”
Sam nodded. She was going to leave out the part about the dead body for now. “Start from when I left this morning.”
Bella sat in one of the rolling chairs and put her hands in her lap.
“I got up at six thirty like I normally do. I started working on some of the chores you’d left for me to do.
I got the refrigerator cleaned out and the dishes done.
Then Sophia called.” She bit her lip. “I know I wasn’t supposed to answer, but I did. ”
Sam kept her face neutral, not wanting to show anger or disappointment. If she kept her emotions off her face and out of her body language, maybe Bella would be more forthcoming.
“She said her uncle was making her write apology letters to the school and fire department.”
Interesting. Sam hadn’t thought about that as a punishment. She tucked it away for future use.
“Don’t get any ideas.” Bella rolled her eyes. “We hung up, and I did some more of the chores. The kitchen was done.” She reached up and grabbed a strand of hair and started twisting it around her finger. A nervous habit she’d had since she was a little girl.
“Go on.” Sam nodded.
“There was a group text from our friends. They had ditched school and wanted us to go hang out with them at the skate park. We thought since we weren’t in school anyway, we might as well go for a little bit. I told them I had to be back in time to finish my chores.”
So she’d deliberately disobeyed the rules and gone to hang out with friends. And those friends were skipping school.
“You met these friends at the skate park?” Sam kept from bouncing her leg, a nervous habit she had picked up years ago after losing control of her life.
“Yeah, Sophia and I met them at the park, and we hung out for a bit.”
“How did you end up in the back seat of the marshal’s SUV?”
Isabella rolled her lips between her teeth just like Sam did sometimes.
Sam sat still and silent, willing Bella to continue with the truth.
“They wanted us to go somewhere else, so we rode with them. Then they wanted to do something we didn’t want to do, so Sophia called her uncle because we didn’t have a way to get back across town.”
“And he picked you up?”
She nodded.
“What did these friends want to do that you didn’t?”
Bella pursed her lips.
“Come on, Bella. You didn’t do it, so you can’t get into trouble for it.” Sam leaned forward.
Bella shook her head.
“Knock, knock.” Aubrey Richardson stepped into the office with a couple bottles of water and wrapped muffins. “I know it’s been a rough day. I thought you might need a drink and snack.” She set the goodies on the table.
“Thank you,” Sam said.
Bella reached out and grabbed one of the muffins, then picked at the plastic wrapping.
“Deputy Marshal Roberts will be with you in a moment. Do you need anything else?” Aubrey asked.
Right now? They needed a lot. Because they had nothing. Sam’s stomach sank. Where were they going to live? “No, we’re okay for now.”
Aubrey smiled. “Okay, just let me know if you need anything.”
Sam turned back to Bella once the administrative assistant was gone. “Did you have any friends over while I was out?”
She shook her head.
“This is serious, Bella.” Sam might regret telling her this, but the teen needed to understand the seriousness of the situation. “There was a dead body inside the house.”
Bella’s mouth fell open, and the muffin she’d picked up fell from her hand and landed on the conference table. “No. I promise. No one came over.”
“When you left to meet your friends, was there anyone in the neighborhood you didn’t recognize?” Sam couldn’t restrain her leg any longer and let it bounce.
Bella closed her eyes and thought a moment. “No, I didn’t see anyone.” A tear slid down her cheek. “Are we in danger again?”
Sam had asked for honesty, so that’s what she was going to give her sister. “I don’t know.”
Liam shut the door to his office, leaving Sophia alone. No matter how he tried to ask her about everything that had happened, she only said that they had met up with some friends at a skate park and moved on to a place nearby, where he’d picked them up.
She’d called him because their friends had wanted to go somewhere else and Bella hadn’t wanted to go.
He knew the story from there. He’d grill her more later, but right now, he had to deal with the Williams sisters. And before he could do that, he needed to go see his boss.
He knocked on the closed door of Supervisor Howard’s office.
“Come in.”
Liam opened the door and stepped inside the medium-sized office. Everything was neat and tidy, including the man behind the desk. Papers in a stack beside the keyboard. No coffee mug.
Howard said, “Roberts. What do you know?”
“I have the Williams sisters in the conference room. The fire chief said the blaze at their house is a result of arson and that there was a dead body inside.”
Supervisor Howard let out a whistle. “Do the sisters know anything?”
“I haven’t talked with them yet.”
“Why not?”
“A situation has come up, and I wanted to speak with you before I went to them.”
“Oh?” Supervisor Howard raised his eyebrows.
“Remember the telephone call I got from the school about my niece the other day?” When Supervisor Howard nodded, Liam continued. “She and a friend pulled the fire alarm at school. That friend was Isabella Williams.”
Supervisor Howard’s face hardened. He’d been out of town the last couple of days, and with Deputy Marshal Butler on suspension, it meant everyone was pulling double duty.
“You were in a meeting this morning, and I got the call about the fire before I could talk to you.”
“Can’t say that I’ve ever run into something like this in my career.” Supervisor Howard steepled his fingers in front of his chin.
“There’s more. I was on my way to the Williamses’ house when my niece called. She and Isabella Williams were together and needed a ride from a gas station on the corner of Oak and Fourth.”
Supervisor Howard sighed.
“I wanted you to be aware of this before I went in. I understand if you need to assign a new marshal to the case.”
“Under normal circumstances, I think that would be prudent, but unfortunately, I don’t have anyone else to assign them to.
Butler and Albright are out, and Glover has a full schedule with her witnesses and working fugitive apprehension.
” Supervisor Howard stood. “Does your niece know details about the Williams sisters?”