Chapter 12
TWELVE
Sam jumped from the engine and grabbed the medical gear for cleaning. Dean was standing next to the ladder truck, checking gauges.
“Bella up yet?” She swung the bags over her shoulder.
He shook his head. “Not yet. How’s Mr. Bonetti?”
Her stomach sank. “Today wasn’t one of his typical episodes. This could be a life changer for him.”
“Do you think it’s the one that will send him to long-term care?”
“I hope not. I’ll miss seeing him.” Even if he was okay ninety-eight percent of the time.
Once she was finished, she went and checked on Bella. The bunk room door was closed. Sam looked at her watch. Bella had had plenty of rest. Time to get up.
She opened the door. The bed was empty. She hadn’t seen Bella when she’d passed through the dayroom.
Could she be working out? Sam laughed to herself. Not likely. They’d had a treadmill and some smaller weights at home. Sam couldn’t recall a time seeing her use either of them.
Sam made the rounds of the station and couldn’t find her. She asked the guys if they’d seen her. No one had.
She’d snuck away yet again.
Sam clenched and unclenched her fists, squelching the urge to scream. It wouldn’t do any good. She couldn’t call her, because they hadn’t replaced her cell phone yet. She didn’t need one if she was grounded from it and with Sam all the time.
That had obviously been a bad decision.
How much more of this could she take? She’d tried everything to make sure they were safe. She’d crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s. Given Bella space. Kept her close. Nothing was working.
What if Bella wasn’t the only problem?
An ache spread through her chest. She’d deal with that later.
She wandered into the bay, where Dean and Tate were huddled around the ladder truck.
“Have you guys seen Bella?” Sam asked.
Dean turned to her and wiped his hands on the rag hanging from his pants. “She’s not in the bunk room?”
Sam shook her head. “Nope. Or the dayroom, kitchen, workout room, conference room, or outside. I was hoping maybe she was hanging out in the ladder truck.”
“I haven’t seen her since this morning,” Tate said. “I thought she was still asleep in the bunk room.”
“I’m gonna kill her.” She gritted her teeth. Odds were that she was with the marshal’s niece. The trouble had started when she’d moved to town.
“You probably shouldn’t threaten murder when there’s a cop here.” Tate gestured behind her.
She turned just as Deputy Marshal Roberts walked into the bay.
“Speak of the devil,” she mumbled.
Once he spotted their group, he nodded. A solemn look on his face. Her anger quickly melted away. She bit her lip and wiped her hands on her pants. Every time he showed up, he had bad news. Was this about Bella?
She met him in the middle of the bay. “Deputy Marshal Roberts. Is everything all right?”
He pressed his lips into a thin line. “Is there somewhere private we can talk?” He looked over her shoulder.
Sam turned. Dean and Tate had remained at the ladder truck but watched the two of them with curiosity.
She moved around him. “Let’s go in the conference room.”
Once they were both in the room, Sam closed the door and turned to him.
“Is everything okay?” He lightly touched her forearm.
The question and gentle touch coming from him were unexpected. Not that she thought he shouldn’t ask her how she was doing, but it was the way he’d asked. Like he genuinely cared. He stood there, waiting for her to answer. It wasn’t just a comment thrown out to fill the silence.
Why did it make her want to tell him everything?
She couldn’t afford this right now. It was better to bottle it all up and shove it down in the dark abyss. “I’m good. Is this about Bella?”
“No. We’ve identified the person found in your house, and I have some questions for you.”
“Oh.” She slumped into a chair.
“Can you tell me about your landlord, Dr. Torres?” he asked.
“It was Dr. Torres?” She sat up straight.
Liam nodded. “We got the official identification today.”
She blew out a breath. “I didn’t know him that well. I know he was a doctor of some sort. We had a typical landlord-tenant situation. I paid the rent. Something broke, he fixed it. We’ve only talked a handful of times in the six years since we’ve lived here.”
“Over the years, did you have any issues with people looking for him at your house or contacting you about him?”
She shook her head.
“Did he ever do any surprise inspections or maybe monthly pest treatments?”
“He had a key to my house, but he always gave me twenty-four hours’ notice before coming over. He knew I was a firefighter and my hours were different.”
“Have there been any times you went home and thought something was odd or off? Like someone had been in your home without you knowing?”
She thought back over the years and couldn’t think of anything like that. “I never had any reason to believe someone had been inside without us knowing about it.”
“Do you know what he was doing in your house?”
She massaged her temple with her left hand. “I have no clue. He’d told me he was going out of town for a while. I hadn’t seen or heard from him since.” She looked at the marshal. “You’re sure it’s him?”
“His identity was verified with his fingerprints.”
“This proves that the fire and murder aren’t related to me and Bella. Our covers are safe?”
Liam drummed his fingertips on the conference table. “It leans in that direction but doesn’t mean we can let our guard down. Just in case he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Nausea filled her stomach. Bella could have been in the right place at the wrong time.
“Bella ran off.”
“What do you mean ‘ran off’?”
“I made her come with me to the station today. She was sleeping in the bunk room when a med call came in. She was gone when we got back.”
“Have you called her?”
“No. I haven’t replaced her cell phone yet. I thought she’d be with me the whole time, or with the guys if I got called out, and it could wait another day or two.” Hindsight was twenty-twenty.
“Can you show me where she was sleeping?” He stood.
“Yeah, but I don’t know what you think you’ll find. She took her backpack with her.”
“Humor me.”
She exhaled. “Fine.” He wasn’t going to find anything.
She led the way from the conference room, across the dayroom, and into the bunk area. Her neck burned with the stares of her friends and coworkers. His repeated visits to the fire station would undoubtedly raise unwanted questions. Although, right now, all she cared about was finding Bella.
“See.” She opened the door. It looked exactly like it had a few minutes ago.
He stepped inside and looked around the room, under the bed, and in the trash can. He quickly checked through the wardrobe and then turned to her.
“May I?” He gestured to the door behind her.
She stepped out of the way and let him shut the door to inspect the area.
“There’s nothing here. I told you.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“There’s plenty here. You just don’t see it.” He turned and settled his blue eyes on her. “No signs of a struggle or that she left in a hurry. The bed is made but not rumpled, so she most likely didn’t sleep in it. This was planned, and she was just waiting on the perfect time to make her slip.”
“Did they teach you that in marshal school?” she deadpanned. All things she had figured out on her own.
He cleared his throat. “She went out the window.”
Sam looked at the window. Sure enough, it was unlocked. Sam gritted her teeth. “That girl.”
He stepped back over to the bed and pulled the nightstand away from the wall, revealing a charging cord plugged into the outlet. “I thought she didn’t have a phone anymore.”
Sam narrowed her eyes. “She doesn’t.”
He pulled the cord and handed it to her. “Actually, she does. Unless this belongs to someone else.”
“No. We’re anal about making sure the rooms are cleaned after every shift.” What was going on with her sister? Getting into trouble at school, sneaking out, now an unknown phone.
“There’s something else we need to talk about. It could be related to why she took off today.” Liam shoved a hand in his pressed navy slacks.
She’d ask if the day could get any worse, but she knew it could. There was no sense in tempting fate. Instead, she sighed. “What?”
“The night of the fire, I found cans of spray paint in Sophia’s backpack.”
“Great.” She sighed again. She’d been doing that a lot the last few days. It was like the next thing was always worse than the last. “So, they weren’t just out hanging out with friends.”
“It took a while, but I got the story out of Sophia. Our girls weren’t actually vandalizing, but they didn’t stop it. Until the group decided to move on to another location. That’s when Soph grabbed the cans and they ran.” He rested his other hand on his belt, above his badge.
“So you think that’s where she’s at now? Hanging out with those kids?” Sam fisted her hands on her hips. “Where’s your niece?”
He looked taken aback. “My niece is at home.”
“Are you sure about that? Because Bella didn’t start getting into trouble until Sophia showed up.”
“Are you trying to say my niece is the problem?” He stood straight, jaw clenched.
That’s exactly what she was saying. “Yes.”
“Look, Sophia has had a rough go of it the last six months. Yes, she got into a little trouble before we moved, but that was all about her attitude. Nothing like this.” He waved his arm around the room. “Vaping, vandalizing, sneaking out of windows.”
“A rough go of it?” Sam’s blood boiled. “At least she has her real name and real life.” She made sure to keep her voice low, but this guy wasn’t going to tear her down.
Liam worked his jaw back and forth. “I could make the same assumption as you about the girls. Isabella could be the mastermind behind all of this.”
She opened her mouth to argue. “There is no way Bella is to blame.”
“Are you sure about that? Willing to stake your life here in Renegade on it?”