Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
How ironic was it that she’d finally told Joe she loved him and he’d passed out before he could hear it?
Summer couldn’t believe it. She had to see him, but she looked out the window of her aunt’s car and frowned.
They were pulling into the burned-out warehouse instead of heading toward the hospital. “Where are we going?”
Tina got off her phone with Bill, turned off the engine, looked somberly at her sister riding shotgun, and then at her niece in the backseat. “I want to finish this first.”
“Finish what?”
“Bill suggested I do it here, and I think he’s right. Everyone out.” Tina shut the door and walked toward the burned warehouse. As they hadn’t yet decided whether to rebuild or lease something else, no work had been done yet.
Her mother looked at Summer as she got out of the car. She shrugged and followed Tina.
“Damn it,” Summer said to no one, and got out, too, just as her phone rang. It was Joe. “God, Joe, are you okay?”
“Yes. Red, listen to me.” He sounded so urgent. “Tell me exactly where you are.”
“At the warehouse, if you can believe it. We were coming to see you when Tina decided to stop and have a fight with my mom.”
“I’m on my way,” came his terse reply. His fire marshal voice.
“But I thought—”
“Where are Tina and your mom?”
“Inside, I think. Mom?” she called out as she entered the damaged open hull where the front door had once been. Everything was blackened and grimy, and she forgot about the earlier fire, forgot about Joe as she was hit with a terrible sense of déjà vu.
That long ago day she’d been choking on smoke as she’d run through, desperate to get to her father. She’d made it to the very spot where she stood, and now her feet felt rooted as her breathing quickened. Oh, God, not now. “M-mom?”
“Up here.”
Tipping her head up, she looked at the loft. All around her were burned-out walls and soot. The railing on the stairs was gone completely, though the stairs seemed intact.
If she closed her eyes, she could hear the flames. Could feel the heat searing her. Could taste the smoke. Her chest tightened. “I don’t like this,” she said to herself, and phone still in her hand at her side, trailed after her mom and aunt.
The north and east walls of the loft were scorched. The south and west walls were down to the wood studs, allowing a view below to the main floor. In some places, where parts of the floor had collapsed, they could see all the way through to the basement.
Her mom and Tina stood in the middle of the room, right where Tim’s desk used to stand.
Uneasy with the height, Summer didn’t look down. “What’s going on?”
Her mom looked at Tina.
Tina reached for her sister’s hand. “It’s time to find out.”
Her mom looked worried. “Tina—”
“I love you, Camille.”
Her mom’s eyes filled. “I love you too. I figured you had a good reason for taking money. And if you needed it, I wanted you to have it.”
Tina’s eyes widened. “What?”
“But now I’m afraid that you taking the money is somehow related to these fires, and that’s killing me.”
Tina shook her head. “No, I—”
“I never believed you started any of the fires,” her mom told her. “It never even occurred to me. But then Summer came back and began digging around—”
“Hey,” Summer said. “I wasn’t digging—”
“And you changed,” her mom told Tina in a shaky voice. “You got scared, and so did I. If you had anything to do with this fire, Tina…my God. I don’t know how to deal with that.”
“Camille—”
“You didn’t want to rebuild, you wanted the cash from the insurance.
I never understood that back then. But then we eventually rebuilt anyway and life went on.
Then it burned again, and then the store, where Summer nearly died—” Her mom put her fingers to her mouth.
“And then she started getting those texts. You were trying to scare her away. I was so terrified for the both of you, I didn’t know what to do.
I tried to talk her into going, but she wouldn’t. I just wanted her safe.”
“I thought you didn’t want me here at all,” Summer said softly.
“Oh, honey, no,” her mom whispered. “I was just scared.”
Tina looked sick. “You think I’d hurt Summer?”
“I think you’re in trouble with money somehow, and not thinking clearly.”
“Camille, I thought you were taking the money! I was covering for you! That’s why I brought you here. Bill said I should just get it all out with you.”
The sisters blinked at each other.
Summer divided a gaze between them. “Are you telling me neither of you took the money? Or had anything to do with the fires?”
Her mom shook her head.
So did Tina.
“But if it wasn’t either of you,” Summer said slowly. “Then…who?”
Her mom and Tina stared at each other for a long beat. “No,” Tina whispered, then staggered back a few steps to sit on a box.
Her mom just gaped at her. “You really think—”
“Who else? Oh my God, who else?”
“But you said he was with you during the fires. You said you were both sleeping.”
“I know, but I sleep like the dead. He could have…”
“And you didn’t know,” her mom breathed softly. “You really didn’t know.”
Tina put her hands over her mouth and shook her head.
Her mom dropped to her knees in front of Tina. “Oh, sweetie. Oh, God. I’m so sorry.”
There was a creak on the stairs behind them, and the scent of a lit cigarette. Summer whipped around and saw black boots. Painter’s pants. An old T-shirt with ceramic stains across the chest. An apron over hips carrying an assortment of tools for working with clay that clinked when he walked.
Bill.
She closed her eyes and lost the twelve years in a flash.
That day, when she’d run up the basement stairs and into the fire, crying for her father, she’d seen black boots and painter’s pants, just before her world had gone black.
“You,” she whispered, her grip tightening on the phone at her side.
Joe. She hoped he was still there, listening.
“It was you.” Fear took a backseat to rage.
Pure, unadulterated rage. “You killed my dad—”
“No,” he said with real regret in his eyes. “I didn’t kill him.”
“You did.”
“No, damn it. He was supposed to get out of here. I called him to make sure of it. He was supposed to meet me for a drink, but he didn’t listen, he never fucking listened, that’s all.”
“That’s all?” Tina yelled. “That’s all? What about what you nearly did to Summer?”
His eyes were tortured. “She got out. She wasn’t killed.”
Tina let out a growl. Eyes wet and wild, she lunged at him.
Bill whipped out one of his tools, a nasty-looking sculpting tool with a jagged edge, and wielded it like a knife. “God, Tina, don’t. Please don’t make me use this, not on you.”
Summer’s mom caught Tina around her middle and held fast.
Tina stared at her husband as if he’d grown a second head. “Who are you?”
Bill’s eyes were damp. “I’m so sorry. I just wanted the money, I swear. None of this other stuff was supposed to happen.”
“You wanted the money for the racetrack.”
“Yes.”
Tina looked sucker punched. “You should have told me, why didn’t you tell me?”
“You said you’d leave me if I got into trouble gambling again.” He shifted on his feet, looked down at the weapon in his fingers as if surprised to find it there.
“Again?” Summer’s mom asked, confused.
“He was an addict,” Tina admitted, struggling against her sister’s hold. “But I thought he’d recovered years ago and had it under control. My God, Bill—” She let out an anguished moan and covered her face.
“I’m not a bad guy,” he whispered. “I’m not.
I just kept having this unlucky streak, see.
” He was blocking their exit, breathing erratically as he looked at Tina with tears in his eyes.
“All I wanted was for you to come into the insurance money. I just needed the extra cash, that’s all.
The warehouse paid off nicely, remember? You lent me money for my old debts.”
“Oh, Bill.”
“I had some nice winning streaks after that. Lasted a good long time. I didn’t think it’d be necessary to do it again, but then I ran into another bad row.” He looked so baffled that Summer couldn’t reconcile the two different Bills—the sweet artist…and the murderer.
“You killed Tim.” Tina shook her head and clung to her sister. “And you nearly killed Summer and Joe!”
Bill was shaking. “No. It was never about Tim.” His gaze landed on Summer.
“Or you. I thought you couldn’t remember the fire, but that changed.
I’m so sorry. And it certainly wasn’t about Joe.
I didn’t even know he was there that night, I didn’t see his car.
” He shook his head, looking more than a little crazy with his wild shock of gray hair waving around his face.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. But I just kept thinking that insurance is just one big huge scam anyway. No one was supposed to get hurt.”
“It’s too late for that.” Tina turned in her sister’s arms to bury her face and burst into tears.
“So what now, Bill?” Summer’s mom asked, holding her sobbing sister. “What are you going to do?”
Bill’s eyes shone with tortured regret. “I don’t have a choice.
There’s going to be one more fire.” He backed down a step.
“One more terribly tragic fire.” He looked at the burning tip of his cigarette.
c “I’ve learned a few things along the way.
This time no one’s going to find any accelerant, or Tim’s old size eleven-and-a-half boot print.
” He lifted his foot. “I’ve had these since the day he lent them to me fourteen years ago.
” He let out a low, grief-stricken sigh.
“Don’t worry, this’ll be quick.” He held up the remote.
“Bill,” Tina choked out. “Don’t.”
“I have to,” he whispered.
“You won’t get away with this,” Summer said, and took a step toward him.
He lifted his lethal-looking gouging tool. “I don’t want to use this, damn it. Just stay right there, and it will all be over soon, I promise.” He began to back down the stairs.
Go after him, a voice screamed inside Summer’s head. Don’t let him do this. She took a furtive step and saw a long, lean shadow flattened on the lower stairs. Joe. Seeing him gave her courage, and she took another step.
“Summer, no,” her mother breathed.
Bill began to turn away, toward the shadow, and afraid for Joe, Summer made a split-second decision. She leapt at Bill—and landed on the top few steps, arms empty, air flattened right out of her lungs. Joe had surged up, wrapped his arms around Bill’s lower legs, and pulled.
Bill went down hard, but so did Joe, the two of them entangled on the narrow, steep stairs. Wrestling, they grappled for space at the very edge, dangerously close to where the railing had collapsed.
Summer shoved upright to her knees. “Joe! Careful—”
But they rolled right off.
And fell into the dark, open chasm.