Trail of Threats
Author
Jessica R. Patch
Reads
16.3K
Chapters
17
An arsonist at large… A K-9 team in the line of fire. Single mom Sadie Owens's fear of being watched is confirmed when her home is set ablaze — while she and her son are trapped inside. Officer Rocco Manelli and his arson dog arrive in the nick of time to make a rescue. But as attacks persist, it's up to Rocco to keep Sadie and her three-year-old safe from a criminal with a lethal agenda. Can he keep a vengeful arsonist from scorching a deadly path through Elk Valley — before Sadie and her son become the next victims?
ONE
Someone was watching.
Sadie Owens peered out of her food truck window and scanned Main Street, where she parked her mobile restaurant, Sadie’s Subs. She didn’t normally stay open this late on weeknights. After five, most businesses closed in Elk Valley, but tonight had been an open house at the elementary school and she’d hoped to catch hungry families who hadn’t had time to cook due to the rush from work to the school to meet their children’s teachers. She’d done well this evening, even if she’d struggled to manage it alone, but she desperately needed the money and couldn’t afford to share tonight’s bonus money with another employee. She already struggled to pay her part-time employees—all two of them.
The sun had dipped behind the horizon an hour ago, and now unseen eyes had set their sights on her. The past few days she’d sensed being watched and followed. At first, she’d chalked it up to paranoia. She had reasons to be alert.
Potentially dangerous reasons.
The cream-colored awning with scalloped edges flapped in the cool breeze. Even in August, nights could be cool in Wyoming, but the chill bumps popping along her flesh had nothing to do with the crisp air. She closed the order window and locked it. She’d finished shutting down the grill and putting leftovers away. Her back ached and her feet needed a spa day something fierce but soaking them in Epsom salts would have to do on her tight budget.
She stepped out of the back doors of her truck and locked them, scanning her surroundings. Streetlamps glowed and colorful flowers lined the boutiques and shops along Main Street, but the area was quiet. Elk Valley was a small, tight-knit community of about six thousand residents. Tonight didn’t give off safe small-town vibes. Truth be told, Elk Valley wasn’t always safe. Ten years ago on Valentine’s night, three young men had been lured to a prominent ranch where they’d each taken a bullet to their chests in the barn.
Seth Jenkins, Brad Kingsley and Aaron Anderson had been graduates of Elk Valley High School and members of the local Young Rancher’s Club. They hadn’t necessarily been nice guys. They’d been bona fide tools and troublemakers—occasionally tangling with the law—but they hadn’t deserved to be executed.
Now the Rocky Mountain Killer was back. Three new victims this past Valentine’s Day, all former members of the Elk Valley YRC, all shot dead in barns.
Sadie had known them all from around town, despite the fact that the recent victims had moved out of state. She’d even dated Aaron Anderson a few times—she rarely had picked a winner and Aaron had been no exception. She knew that he, along with the other two, had gone through women like water. Love ’em and leave ’em.
Things hadn’t ended on amicable terms between her and Aaron. Guess she had no power to change him and his womanizing ways. Her marriage hadn’t ended on good terms either. She should have known better than to become involved with Hunter McLeod, but like Aaron, she’d hoped she could coax out the good guy in them. Change them.
Sometimes no good was to be had. And one could never change a person who didn’t want to change on their own. She’d had to learn that the agonizing way.
Clouds concealed the moon, only a few stabs of light casting shadows in corners. Clanging behind the nearby alley sent a skitter into her pulse and she clung to her keys and purse as she rounded the truck to the driver’s-side door. She had a permit to keep it here overnight, but she liked to have it close by.
In light of two new murders and the cold case looming over Elk Valley, Sadie was on edge, along with the rest of the community.
Footsteps on pavement signaled someone approaching.
She swallowed hard and fumbled with her keys, fingers trembling. The keys fell and she stooped to pick them up. Underneath the pale light shining along the ground, she spotted massive, beat-up tennis shoes on the other side of her truck. Too big to be an average woman’s.
“Who’s there?” she called, more to let the approaching person know she was aware of him than to garner a response.
Silence.
She struggled to grasp her keys, adrenaline and fear rippling through her. A light cut through the darkness and the footsteps skittered away. In the distance, the figure raced down the alley.
A car approached and parked in front of her truck. Elk Valley’s finest. The driver’s-side door opened and Officer Rocco Manelli strutted out. If the police cruiser hadn’t scared off the creep, Rocco’s imposing figure would have. His hair and eyes were as dark as the night and the perpetual scruff around his chin and cheeks added to his menacing effect. If she were a criminal, she would certainly cower at his physicality before even thinking about the fact he had a weapon and was trained to use it.
“Kinda late to be out on a weeknight, isn’t it?” he asked in his deep, velvety voice.
“Sorry, Dad. I didn’t realize I had a curfew,” she said, slathering on the sarcasm like butter.
His grin was his best feature, lopsided and mischievous. Other than that, Rocco Manelli was an annoyance. When he worked day shift, he often ate at the food truck. Sadie fed local law enforcement for free. A way to show them they mattered and were appreciated for their service. Rocco always ordered the meatball sub and always spewed unsolicited advice on how to make it better. He was second-generation American Italian, which he assumed gave him a leg up on all Italian dishes.
A little more basil. A little more gravy—not sauce. Italians call it gravy. She wasn’t Italian. She was a hodgepodge of ethnicities from Irish to English to a small sliver of Native American. She could call it tomato sauce or sauce or whatever she chose. But now was not the time to rile herself up over Officer Manelli’s criticism or the fact that he was unbelievably good-looking.
He’d saved her bacon unknowingly.
“Open house at the elementary school tonight. Thought I’d cash in on parents who didn’t have time to cook for their families.” She blew a heavy breath and relaxed her shoulders. Rocco narrowed his gaze and cocked his head.
“You’re spooked. Why?” He closed the distance between them.
Was it that obvious?
No point brushing it off. “It might be nothing.” She told him about the man in the ratty tennis shoes. “He ran down the alley between the hardware store and the barber shop when your car approached.”
He glanced toward the narrow alley. “Any idea who it might have been?”
She noticed movement in his cruiser and spotted his chocolate Lab, Cocoa. Rocco went nowhere without his trusty K-9 and lately he was needed. July had heated up for Elk Valley and not due to the summer sun. On top of the return of the RMK, a new threat had hit town—an arsonist/murderer. Two already dead right here in Elk Valley.
Elk Valley High’s old baseball coach, Ed Towers, who had recently retired.
And Herman Willows, the owner of the feedstore in town. He’d been the first to be killed by fire in his home, then Coach Towers. Rumors and opinions ran rampant—from a new serial killer to the Rocky Mountain Killer changing MO. She didn’t believe that.
Officer Manelli was working the arson case with one of the Elk Valley detectives, Jamie Watershed, along with investigating leads to track down the RMK. The guy was burning the candle at both ends. When had Elk Valley become littered with murder and arson? Sadie had a three-year-old son and wanted him to grow up as she had—in a safe small town where people cared about each other.
“I don’t have a clue who it was. A man. Not as tall as you but maybe six feet. Lanky. I think he was wearing a hoodie and a ball cap.”
“I’ll wait on you, see you home.”
She wasn’t going to turn him down. “I appreciate that. I’ll hurry.”
“No worries.”
“You hungry? I have some leftover roast beef.”
“Nah. I ate before shift. You going straight home?” He searched her eyes in a way that unsettled her—a good one. As if trying to see to her heart and what she truly felt and thought.
“I am. My best friend, Laurie is watching Myles at my house since I knew it would be late when I finished. It’s almost his bedtime and I want to be there to read his bedtime story. He’s obsessed with Thomas the Train right now. I’m sure Dolly is already at the foot of his bed and ready for it too. I tell you that Irish setter is like a human being. She loves books. I should start a YouTube with her. I can tell her which book to retrieve and she knows it! She’d go viral. Instant sensation.”
Rocco grinned. “I’d set up an account just for that.”
“I’m tempted.” If she liked social media. Unlike her other friends, she steered clear of any kind. She wanted to guard her privacy and Myles’s. Not that her ex was online, but he could be and as much as he didn’t want to be married, he did at times love to harass her. All she had to do was mention child support and he went crawling back to the rock he scurried out from under or he’d threaten her with attempting to attain custody, which no judge in their right mind would allow, but the fear was real all the same.
She climbed inside the truck and turned the ignition. It sputtered to life. Needed a little engine work done but it would have to wait. Money was stretched thin between the credit cards Hunter had racked up in her name, unbeknownst to her. And the medical bills were as deep as the Grand Canyon. But Myles had been born with neonatal diabetes mellitus. Diagnosed at six months. He needed insulin and Dolly, his medical alert dog, to signal when his blood sugar dropped.
Hunter had wanted no part of that and his threats to take Myles wasn’t built on truth, but lies or not, the thought of Hunter or his coldhearted family having any part in her son’s upbringing was unimaginable. They lived fifteen minutes away and had only seen Myles at his birth and once when he turned one. No calls. Nothing but a birthday card with twenty dollars each year and by mail. They’d rather buy a stamp than see their grandson, and Sadie had her suspicions that Hunter had poisoned them about her. Maybe so but how could a grandparent not want to know their grandchild?
She pulled out of her parking spot and headed half a mile down the road to her small house on Elm Circle. She’d grown up in this home and had many fond memories. After Dad had passed last year, it felt empty. She parked in the drive and jumped out, her pulse slowing to normal. Inside, she’d be safe. Her son would greet her with little clammy hands and wet kisses.
Rocco parked behind her and met her at the driver’s-side door. “I’ll be patrolling. You’ll be safe tonight, Sadie. Go in and hug your boy and unwind. You work too hard, though you could try harder with the meatball sub.” He winked and her pulse went into a tailspin.
Admiring a handsome man was one thing. Letting it slither into responding to it was a different story. One she had no intention of turning the pages to. She’d stick to Thomas the Train and Veggie Tales.
“My meatball sub is my bestseller. I’m keeping it as is.” It had been her mother’s recipe. The key was extra Parmesan cheese in the meat mixture and no sugar in the marinara.
“Imagine what it could be if you listened to an Italian. I know Italian food.” He shrugged.
“Thanks for escorting me home, Officer.”
“Rocco. You can call me Rocco.”
She walked up her porch steps of the small Craftsman in need of new shutters. She turned back. “I could. I probably won’t. Good night.” She unlocked the front door, the TV on as background noise and the living room dimly lit. “Laurie, I’m home.”
Her best friend since kindergarten exited the hallway. “You’re just in time. He’s bathed, lathered in that bedtime lotion that makes me want babies and ready for his bedtime story. He asked for you.”
She hugged her friend. “Thank you for coming over to watch him. Please let me pay you something.”
“You give me free lunch every day which I tell you not to. That’s payment enough. Besides, I love the little guy. I’ll see myself out and lock the door.”
“Thanks, and, Laurie, be careful. Lot of weird things going on these days.”
“Don’t I know it.” She paused. “You be safe too.” She hugged her again and let herself out. Sadie went into Myles’s room. A small third bedroom with Thomas bedding and light gray walls. His train lamp was lit and he was curled up next to Dolly, running a little blue train over her red furry back.
“Thomas, look out! You’ll hit Cranky the Crane!” he said. That boy’s imagination was limitless. Dolly was a good sport.
“Hey, pal,” she said from the threshold and Myles’s big brown eyes lit up.
“Mommy!”
She entered the room and sat on the side of his bed absorbing his tackle as his little arms wrapped around her neck. “You good for Miss Laurie?”
“I was. I missed you.”
“I missed you too, baby. Ready for a bedtime story?”
She wished the world was nothing but sweet children’s books. But right now, she was afraid she might be in a horror novel. Why had that man come toward her? Who was it? And what did he want?
The smell of smoke woke Sadie from a fitful sleep. She groggily sat up and inhaled. Had she been dreaming or...no! The smoke was real and had filtered under her door into her bedroom like a deadly fog about to consume her.
Myles!
She raced to the door and tapped the knob. Hot. She used her T-shirt and opened it. Flames licked up the hallway from her room down to Myles’s bedroom.
“Mommy!” he called through cries and Dolly barked.
“I’m coming, baby! Hold on.” She prayed God would help her rescue her baby boy and lead them safely out of the house. But she couldn’t escape her bedroom. She raced to her window, snagging her cell phone from the nightstand on her way. “Siri, call 911,” she hollered as she lifted the window and clambered out, then raced around the house to Myles’s window. The weather in the evenings had been nice lately and she’d cut the air conditioning and let the breeze filter through the house. Hopefully, she hadn’t locked it.
She made it to his window, her heart beating against her ribs. She pushed on the window.
“911. What’s your emergency?”
“Fire! My house is on fire and my son is trapped inside. This is Sadie Owens. 2122 Elm Circle.”
No! The window was locked. Looking through the pane, smoke filtered under his door and a tongue of fire licked at it.
“Mommy! Mommy!”
“I’m here, baby. Crawl under your covers with Dolly. I’m going to get you out. Stay under the covers, Myles! Be brave for Mommy.” She frantically searched for something to break the window and found a ceramic pot of mums. She dumped out the flowers as the dispatcher asked questions, but she ignored her.
She raised the pot and started to swing when something hard clobbered the back of her head. Spots formed before her eyes and the world faded to black.
Rocco Manelli patrolled the quiet streets, letting his mind wander to the pretty owner of Sadie’s Subs and her pink food truck with big flowers painted along the side of it. Looked more like a fancy tea cart than a mobile restaurant. But it revealed much about Sadie Owens. She was soft and delicate like the color and flowers of her truck. She was also tough and sassy and smart, which was half the reason he popped in five days a week for lunch when he was on the day shift. He’d switched to the night shift tonight to help an officer who was on vacation. Just one more day and he’d be back to his normal hours and lunches at Sadie’s.
While he appreciated her kindness to law enforcement, he never accepted his meals for free. She refused his money, but he made sure to stuff the tip jar with his payment. She was a single mom to a boy who had diabetes. That couldn’t be easy. He wasn’t sure what the story was on her ex—Rocco had never liked him and he’d been a few years ahead of Rocco in school. But Rocco had gone to school with Sadie, though he was two years older. They hadn’t run in the same circle but that didn’t mean they hadn’t bumped into one another, and they did have one English Lit class together. Sadie had been a big-time reader and sharper than a needle. Last winter he’d had to interview her on the RMK case as she’d dated one of the victims.
This case was driving him nuts and he knew now how his father must’ve felt all those years ago when he’d been assigned the original case. Dad had spent his entire career trying to find who killed Seth Jenkins, Brad Kingsley and Aaron Anderson. Dad’s leads had gone cold and they’d never found the murder weapon, but he’d never stopped investigating. Rocco believed his heart attack a few years ago was due to the stress of that case. And he desperately wanted to solve it and find out who was now, ten years later, killing again. He owed his father. Didn’t want his death to be in vain.
The three victims from earlier this year had taken the case nationwide. They’d been killed on their properties across Rocky Mountain states. With notes stabbed into their chests postmortem that read: They got what they deserved. More to come across the Rockies. And I’m saving the best for last.
Ominous and terrifying. The RMK had made it clear his mission was not done until he murdered the last on his list. Rocco was grateful he’d been recruited for the task force, comprised of law enforcement from across the Rocky Mountains. It was being led by his old friend and now FBI agent Chase Rawlston.
Dad would be proud that Rocco was on the team task force. A fracture had split through the heart of the community, which was in dire need of healing and restoration. The arson/homicides weren’t helping and that new case was leading him down dead ends too.
A plume of smoke rose from the small cove he’d left earlier tonight.
Elm Circle.
Sadie’s street.
Earlier she’d almost been approached. His gut clenched and then he heard the dispatcher call for EMT and fire trucks to 2122 Elm Circle. He hit his radio and let dispatch know he was in the area and on his way. He hit the light bar and gunned it down Main Street.
As he approached, a siren’s peal alerted him more help was on the way.
“Come on, Cocoa.” His chocolate Lab had been with him for about seven years and was cross-trained in search and rescue as well as arson—accelerant detection. He’d been an asset to the Elk Valley PD lately, and he was family to Rocco. Cocoa bounded out beside him. The house’s roof was lit up and the smoke poured like hot breath from a dragon’s nose.
He bolted with his K-9 partner toward the house, calling out for Sadie. But no one answered. No time to wait on firefighters. He kicked open the front door, a surge of searing heat blasting him like steam under plastic after being in the microwave too long. “Cocoa, stay.”
Smoke filled his lungs and he coughed, covering his nose with his white undershirt, but he entered the house. Dropping to his knees, he crawled through the living room. White-hot flames ate up the curtains and sides of the walls. Sweat drenched his back, his uniform sticking to his skin. Eyes burning, he called out through a cough.
Crying.
Barking.
Myles and his dog, Dolly. They were trapped. Where was Sadie? She’d never leave her little boy behind. Rocco called out again and reached a narrow hallway but it was engulfed, and he couldn’t battle his way through to the bedrooms. He backtracked and ran out the front door, the cool night air a reprieve on his singed skin.
Darting around the house toward the bedroom windows, he spotted a figure lying on the ground.
Sadie!
He barreled toward her, knelt and checked her pulse. Thank God she had one. Her head was bleeding and she was out cold. But she was alive. Cocoa sat, his telltale sign he was alerting to accelerant. No accident but arson.
“Good boy,” Rocco said. The dog had smelled the accelerant and if it was the same one here as the other two arsons, it would be turpentine.
A large flowerpot lay beside Sadie. She must have tried to break into Myles’s bedroom but someone had stopped her. Why?
Grabbing the pot, he hurled it against the window, breaking it. With his nightstick, he cleaned away the glass and reached inside the window. “Myles, it’s Officer Manelli. It’s okay, bud.”
The boy and his dog were huddled under his Thomas bedcovers and the room was filled with sooty smoke. Rocco climbed inside the room, his eyes stinging and watering. “Hey, Tiger.” He grabbed the boy who was crying for his mom and coaxed the Irish setter to come with him, to jump through the window. Then he carefully climbed out with Myles.
EMT were now on the scene and attending to Sadie. One of them approached.
“Hey, Angie,” Rocco said, “this is Myles.”
“Hi, Myles. I’m Angie. I want to make sure you’re okay. Is that all right with you?” she asked the little boy who was shaking in Rocco’s arms.
Sadie was loaded onto a backboard and carried to the ambulance. Myles clung to Rocco and the dogs followed.
“I want my mommy. Where’s Mommy?” Myles cried.
“She’s going to be okay. She’s going to the hospital to be checked too. You can see her real soon.”
Angie checked Myles’s vitals. “Lungs sound clear. Pulse is strong but a doc needs to check him out to be sure.”
“I don’t want him in the same ambulance as...” He trailed off, not wanting Myles to hear his mother was in an ambulance. It might be too scary and he was already terrified.
“Understood.”
“Myles, you get to ride with Miss Angie to the hospital. Okay?”
“I want you.” He hugged Rocco’s neck in a vise any MMA wrestler would be proud of.
“I’ll go with you, okay?” He looked at Angie for approval and she nodded. He could get his patrol car later. Now, only the boy and Sadie mattered.
Rocco hauled Myles into another ambulance, and his medical alert dog and Cocoa jumped inside too.
Was this the work of whoever was killing residents by setting fires to their homes and businesses? Elk Valley had dubbed him the Fire Man. His accelerant was plain old turpentine. Rocco had been working with Elk Valley’s one and only homicide detective, Jamie Watershed. As Jamie’s investigative chops were needed to focus on Elk Valley, and the Mountain Country K-9 Unit already had three members from town, Jamie hadn’t been tapped for the RMK team. Rocco was grateful for the detective’s skills on the arson case. They both believed this wasn’t the work of a pyromaniac but a killer who used fire as his weapon. Pyros didn’t have murder in mind but the thrill of watching things burn.
This guy wanted the victims to die. Sadie must have woken and caught it early or this would have been a completely different story.
They arrived at the hospital and Rocco carried Myles inside, the dogs flanking Rocco as he entered. The next thirty minutes were a blur. Doctors checked Myles and released him but Sadie was still in the ER, so Rocco kept the boy with him, settling him on his lap in a waiting room chair. Myles was soon fast asleep.
Rocco was tired, but he needed to keep going to solve these cases. He’d been out of town so much lately on task force business—first in Idaho, then Montana. He was happy to be on the team but he was also glad to be back in Elk Valley—for now. He might have to travel again and the Elk Valley PD had been more than fair, letting him take off when needed for task force work.
Justice would be served and that meant Rocco’s focus was on finding both the Fire Man and the Rocky Mountain Killer.
The RMK case had been reopened with the deaths of Peter Windham and Henry Mulder. Peter was a good Christian guy living in Denver and had never wronged Naomi Carr-Cavanaugh, who the task force believed had been the catalyst to the murders. She’d been invited to the dance at the Young Rancher’s Club by Trevor Gage but apparently under false pretenses. According to witnesses, Trevor and his friends had been playing a big joke to humiliate her, although Trevor still stuck to his claim that he liked Naomi, that it wasn’t a joke, but his friends believed the opposite and it had gotten way out of hand.
Peter had been Naomi’s friend. So why would the RMK kill him?
In Montana, Henry Mulder—who had been a brawler and troublemaker—had been shot too.
In Sagebrush, another victim had taken a 9mm to the chest. Luke Randall. He’d been a Young Rancher’s Club member and a troublemaker like Henry and the first three victims. Unfortunately, by the time the task force made it to his house to warn him that he was likely a target, he was dead in the barn.
The consensus among the team was that the RMK’s threat about saving the best for last referred to Trevor Gage himself—punishment for the alleged prank on Naomi Carr-Cavanaugh, who had been cleared of the murders. However, her brother, Evan Carr was still on their radar. As was Ryan York, whose sister, Shelly, had died by suicide after dating one of the victims, Seth Jenkins. That gave Ryan motive to kill one of the victims, but what about the rest?
As of right now, neither Ryan or Evan could be found for new interviews.
The ER doctor returned to the waiting room.
“Can we see her, Doc?” he asked.
The doctor nodded. “She’s going to be fine. A slight concussion. She got knocked on the head good. We want to monitor her a few hours and then she’ll be ready to go, Officer.”
Rocco’s blood boiled. He would find this guy. At the moment, he couldn’t be sure if it was the work of the Fire Man or someone else using fires to come after Sadie. Either way, he wasn’t going to let the culprit go free.
With Myles in his arms, Rocco used a hand to open the curtain. Sadie lay on the hospital bed with her eyes closed. Soot and dirt covered her face mixed with a few white lines from tears washing down her cheeks. No doubt over her son. Quietly, he entered, Myles asleep on his shoulder, his warm face buried in the side of Rocco’s neck and a little blue train in his tiny grip. The sleeping child in his arms, relying on him and feeling safe in his presence, shifted something loose in his chest and he ran his hand over the boy’s dark cap of hair, sweaty and curled around his ears. Not that he’d never thought about settling down and having children—his job had to come first.
More than anything he needed to solve this case, and find the Rocky Mountain Killer. To finish what his father had started and to bring this town back together.
His phone buzzed in his pocket and he finagled it into his hand and checked. While the doctor had been examining Myles, Rocco had texted the task force’s tech analyst, Isla Jimenez, who also worked for the EVPD, for any information on Sadie he didn’t already know having grown up in the same town as her. He’d also texted the task force leader, Chase Rawlston. He had three texts.
Isla had no more information than he already had and was working on finding Sadie’s ex. Last known address was in Cheyenne.
Chase had texted about a team meeting at headquarters tomorrow but otherwise to do what he needed to in order to see this case through. He texted back he’d be at the meeting and 10-4 on following the case through. He wanted to see it through. Wanted to make sure Sadie and her son were safe—that all of Elk Valley was safe from this arsonist and murderer.
If he could make a single connection between the victims it might help leave a breadcrumb trail to his perp. He texted Isla and asked if she wouldn’t mind searching any connections between the victims and Sadie. She quickly responded she was on it.
The last text was from the fire chief letting him know what he already suspected. The fire was deliberately set and turpentine was used as an accelerant.
Between this case and working the Rocky Mountain murders, he might be in a heart-health issue like his own father. The stress was immeasurable and the frustration mounting. But like Grandfather always said, “Cast all your cares onto God because He cares for you.” Rocco was working to do that very thing but it felt like the only shoulders bearing the burden right now were his own.
It wasn’t true.
Deep within he knew that, but it felt that way. Felt like God wasn’t moving in the situation at all. As if He’d abandoned not only Elk Valley but Rocco—and Rocco’s father before him. Why couldn’t they catch a break? Why did more people have to perish? Seemed unfair.
He reminded himself they lived in a broken world with broken people who had freewill choice and many of those choices were evil.
Sadie’s eyes fluttered open and she blinked a few times, then touched her sore head. When she saw Rocco and Myles she scooted up, drawing her light sheet up around her chest. “Is he okay?” she whispered, noticing he was asleep.
“Shaken up. I’ve been with him the whole time.”
“How did he get out?” She covered her mouth with her hands, eyes wide. “I was trying to break his window when someone hit me on the head. I was so scared.”
Rocco wanted to go to the bed, to hold her hand, but Myles was still asleep and he didn’t want to wake him, didn’t want him to hear the scary, grown-up talk about to happen. He had to question Sadie. “I was patrolling. Got the call and made it to the scene first. I saw what you’d tried to do and finished it for you. Myles and Dolly are fine.” Both dogs lay at his feet, Cocoa’s head resting on his foot.
“Thank you. I’m not sure I know how to repay you.”
“You could always add that extra basil to the meatball sub,” he teased, hoping to lighten the tension.
It worked.
Sadie smiled. “Nice try.”
“I need to ask you a few questions,” he said softly, so as to not wake the child. “Before he gets up.”
“Of course.”
“Tell me what happened tonight once you came home.”
Sadie walked him through the moment she entered the house, to when she was bashed on the head. “I don’t understand why someone would target me or want to hurt my son.”
“Do you have any enemies?”
She shook her head and winced, touching the bump. “No. Well...not any that would want to kill me and Myles. Jack Norwood is my biggest competitor and consistently asks to buy me out, but I don’t think he’d try to kill me. And he wouldn’t have any reason to also want to kill the others who’ve died in the recent arsons—that I know about. I assume you believe it’s connected.”
Sadie was sharp and her green eyes drilled into his, her long blond hair a little disheveled. She was striking. He couldn’t deny that. “The accelerant is the same as the other two victims. I’ll go by your place and check it out myself but I got a text from the fire chief, confirming. Anyone else you’d consider a rival or enemy?”
Shifting on the bed, Sadie forced herself upright and sipped on a foam cup of water. “My ex-husband. Hunter McLeod—I took my maiden name back after the divorce. He left when Myles was diagnosed. Couldn’t handle it but I think it was an out for him. One he’d been wanting for a while. Sometimes he calls and gives me a hard time, but he didn’t have anything against Coach Towers—he played high school baseball for him and loved him. Nor did he have issues with Mr. Willows from the feedstore. At least not that I knew about. But I don’t think he’d go so far as to kill us either.”
What a complete waste of space. Rocco would never shirk his responsibilities or leave someone in the lurch. Sadie was a brave and tough woman, full-time mom and business owner, plus she often volunteered at the community food bank and soup kitchen. In his eyes, Sadie Owens was a true hero.
“I’m sorry about that,” he said.
She placed the cup of water on the side table. “Myles is sleeping so deeply.”
“Adrenaline crash is exhausting.”
“I’m pretty tired too.” Her face paled. “I have no idea where we’re going to stay now. Do you know if my home is salvageable?”
Rocco couldn’t say, but from what he’d seen he would guess no. He hated being the bearer of bad news. Sadie didn’t seem to have much good news in her life. “I don’t know for certain.”
“Do you think this guy will try again when he figures out we’re not dead?”
That was an excellent question and one he hated to answer, because once again it wouldn’t be good news.
