Close To The Edge (Westen #2) (11 page)

They made their way outside. Clouds dotted the blue sky above and in a few days they would have rain once more.

“Good thing it’s been a rainy spring, otherwise the fire might’ve spread to the Turnbill place next door.” Gage nodded to the freshly planted fields not a hundred yards to the west.

“How’s Aaron doing these days?” Deke asked as they wandered the fire scene’s perimeter.

“We talked last night at the council meeting. Said he’s been behind a little with last year’s bad crop, but if the weather holds, he should be able to make up the difference and then some this year.”

“Good thing we managed to get this blaze under control,” Deke said as they studied the burn pattern from outside. “I’d hate to have seen him lose his home and land. Aaron’s a good man.”

The trio stood silent for a few moments. Gage glanced at Mike who seemed to be calculating the surrounding area. “What are the usual reasons for arson?”

“There’s a number of reasons. Arson for profit. The owner of a property sets it on fire to collect on the fire insurance.”

Deke nodded in the direction of the half-standing, burned barn. “We’re pretty sure that’s not the case here.”

“There’s arson to hide a crime. Say you’ve murdered someone. The arsonist sets the building ablaze to conceal the actual cause of death. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

Gage shook his head, remembering a case he’d worked years ago in Columbus. “Yeah, not even a fire can hide a bullet still inside the body.”

“Then there’s the firebug. Someone who just loves fire.”

The trio grew silent once more. A chill seemed to fill the air despite the late spring day. No one wanted to believe they had a psychotic firebug in their midst. If so, more of these fires could spring up in the area and someone could get hurt. Or worse, die.

Chapter Six

“
T
hat’s all the restraining orders issued for the past ten years, Ms. Roberts,” Cleetus said as he set the files down next to the computer and resumed his seat beside Bobby.

She smiled at him. “Good. We’ll enter each one by the date it was filed, then by the last name of the person it was filed against.”

As she instructed Cleetus, she let him type each statistic into the columns she’d had him make before. His hunt-and-peck style of typing drove her crazy. She nearly had to sit on her hands to keep from helping him. Over the years, she’d taught many students how to make tables like this on the computer. It was her firm belief that people learned better by doing than watching. Despite her misgivings at first, Cleetus proved to be an excellent student and seemed to enjoy using the new tool.

“You’re doing fine.” Patting his shoulder, she scooted her chair back and stood. “You go ahead and fill in all that data and I’ll start on the next files. What’s next on the list?”

Cleetus handed her the legal pad of categories they’d brainstormed earlier. “Fires and arson. But I don’t think you’ll find many of those in these files.”

“Why?”

“I’ve worked for the sheriff’s department almost twenty years, and I don’t recall too many fires that weren’t an accident.”

Bobby grinned at him. “Good. Then it won’t take me long to look through the files for them.”

“It might not take long if you can figure out what Ruby called them. I’m figurin’ that’ll take longer than picking out the cases.”

Bobby chuckled. “You’re right. What do you think she might’ve called them? Burning problems?”

“Hot stuff?” Cleetus grinned at her from beside the computer and they both laughed.

“No such luck,” Bobby held up a one-inch-thick folder. “Ruby wasn’t as creative. She just called them fires.” She leaned one hip on the corner of the desk and flipped through the file. “Nothing too unusual here. One fire a year, for the past ten years. Until…”

The front door opened. Bobby turned around to see the handsome mayor enter, followed by an older gentleman.

“Miss Roberts.” The mayor oozed charm once more, extending his hand to her. “Funny we should meet here again. Are you working here now?”

“Mayor…Rawlins, isn’t it?” Bobby shook his hand and had to pry her fingers loose from his when he held them a little longer than necessary. “The sheriff asked me to help with the filing for today.”
File something
was sort of a request, wasn’t it?

“Please call me Tobias and this is Richard Davis,” the mayor nodded for the other man to step forward. “He owns the local newspaper.”

“Hello, ma’am,” the newspaperman gave her a weak handshake.

Ick. It was like shaking hands with a cold, wet fish. Bobby suppressed a shudder and plastered a smile on her face. “Was there something I could help you gentlemen with?” she asked, looking from Mr. Davis to the mayor once more.

“We had hoped to talk with Gage about yesterday’s fire.”

“He’s not here right now…” Bobby started to explain.

“The sheriff’s out on rounds right now, Mayor,” Cleetus interrupted, coming around the desk to stand next to Bobby. He’d sucked in his stomach, puffed out his chest and for the first time resembled an imposing law enforcement officer. “I’m sure he’d be real happy to give you a call when he gets back in the office.”

“Now Cleetus, you just go back to what you were doing. We’ll just talk with Ms. Roberts.” Mayor Rawlins smiled at the deputy and patted his arm as if he were talking to a child.

Tension radiated off the usually easygoing giant next to her. He’d crossed his arms over his ample chest and set his jaw in a show of stubbornness. Whether or not he was putting on this show of male prowess to keep the mayor’s nose out of the sheriff’s department’s business or to protect her, she wasn’t sure. The last thing she wanted was for Cleetus to get into trouble because of some misplaced sense of chivalry on his part.

Time to defuse the situation.

She stepped between the two men and used her most sanguine smile—the one she’d honed on belligerent parents over the years—on the small-town politician and his minion. “I’m not really sure how I can be of help, gentlemen. I’m simply helping revamp the sheriff’s department’s filing system while Ruby is in the hospital.”

She lay the fire file facedown on the desk to hide the title. Stepping around the computer, she opened the table of information she’d compiled the previous day. “We’ve been working on the traffic violations for the past year. As you can see, Cleetus and I have a great deal of menial work to do, what with tickets and fines to list, as well as the number of stray dogs picked up by the deputies for the county animal control people.” She leaned to the side and picked up a pile of yellowed paper. “Speaking of which, we’ve unearthed a fascinating report from the nineteen thirties on the local skunk population. Would any of that information be helpful?”

For a moment both men appeared stunned by her prattle. She almost laughed at their expressions, but her years as a teacher kept her from even cracking a grin.

Mayor Rawlins recovered first. Plastering his politician’s smile on his face once more, he backed up a step as if she actually held a skunk in her hands. “No, we wouldn’t want to stop you from your work. We’ll just catch Gage when he’s back in the office.”

The two men couldn’t get out fast enough, bumping into each other trying to get through the door first.

Bobby glanced at Cleetus, who looked at her. They both cracked up.

“I’m glad you two have something to laugh about,” Gage said as he entered from the back hallway. The tense set of his jaw suggested he hadn’t liked what he’d learned at the fire scene.

“Tobias was just here,” Cleetus said, sobering quickly.

“What did that leech want?” Gage asked. He tossed his sunglasses onto the desk and sat in his chair, turning his head to one side then the other as if to relieve the tension there.

“My guess is he wanted to have the newspaper do an article with him grilling you about yesterday’s fire.” Bobby swallowed as she watched the thick muscles of his neck and shoulders. Right now she’d give anything to walk around behind him and knead his shoulders beneath her hands.

She clenched her fingers into tight fists to keep from doing just that. What was it with her?

“Great. Just what I need today, on top of everything else—a photo-op with the mayor and a politically slanted article for his re-election campaign.”

“What did Deke have to say out at the fire?” Cleetus had resumed his seat at the computer, but didn’t pay attention to the screen.

“That it wasn’t an accident. Someone torched the place on purpose.”

“Why? Ain’t been anyone living out there for years. Not since Old Man MacPherson went into the nursing home.”

“That’s what Mike, Deke and I can’t figure out. There’s no profit from torching the place. And if that’s the case, we have a bigger problem on our hands.”

Cleetus looked at the computer screen with a puzzled look.

Bobby reached over, pointed to the button to close the screen for him and smiled as he followed her directions. She looked back at Gage. “What kind of problem?”

“A firebug.”

That got her attention. “Someone who sets fires just for the fun of it?”

“Yeah. The kind that likes to light a match just to see it burn as a kid, then decides seeing whole buildings go up is more fun as an adult.”

Bobby leaned her hip against the computer desk once more, an icy feeling creeping over her skin. “That can’t be good.”

“Nope. And given the amount of foreclosed or abandoned acreage with dead underbrush in this county, it’s even worse that anyone might think.” He leaned his elbows on his desk, dropped his face into his hands and rubbed it up and down for a moment as if he was trying to rub away the weariness in his eyes.

His cell phone rang. Muttering a curse, he read the caller ID, hit a button and cut the caller off. He looked around the office. “What have you two been doing?”

“Just what you said. Filing.” Bobby replied, wondering whom it was he’d just hung up on. Not that it really was any of her business.

“It looks like the mess is worse than when I left.”

She followed his gaze around the room. Folders still lay piled all about. Only now there were even more open drawers and manila folders lay open on every square inch of furniture, except his desk. She chuckled and shrugged. “Sometimes you have to lay out all the pieces in a puzzle before the solution becomes visible.”

Gage drew his brows together. “Really?”

“Sure, Sheriff.” Cleetus poked his head around the monitor. “Bobby is teaching me to use the computer. We’re de…de…”

“Deciphering,” Bobby supplied the word.

“Deciphering Ruby’s system and getting all the department’s records on the computer.”

Nodding at his deputy, Gage focused his attention back on Bobby. “You’re teaching Cleetus how to use the computer?”

“Actually, he’s a very good student.”

Gage pushed his chair back and stood. He moved around the desk to stand no more than an inch from her. She had to tilt her head to look up at him. Their gazes held and sparks seemed to snap through the very air about them.

“You know all about students, don’t you? I’m thinking I could teach you a few things,” he said just loud enough for her to hear. His warm breath fanned her suddenly hot cheeks.

Bobby narrowed her eyes at him. Before she could decide whether to kiss him or smack him, he turned and sauntered over to the computer desk.

“Show me what you’ve done so far, Cleetus.”

“We’ve been putting together statistics in these tables so they’re easy to find when we have to do the monthly reports. We just click a button or two and the information is ready to print.” Cleetus clicked on a button. “Some of this stuff goes back near ninety years, Sheriff.”

“Looks like you’re finding your way around here pretty good, Cleetus.”

Cleetus grinned at his boss. “Bobby made it real simple to learn. She’s a whiz at this computer. She taught middle school kids how to use computers every day. She’s a real good teacher. I bet she could teach you some things, too.”

“Really?” He glanced over at her and winked.

Bobby tried not to gape at the hidden message in that look. She was having trouble enough keeping her mind on what she was doing.

Standing next to the deputy, Gage leaned over to view the screen better. With one hip out, his jeans stretched and accentuated the tight muscles of his butt and thighs. The sudden urge to reach over and caress them shocked Bobby. She hadn’t been this hormonal since her first year in college.

Giving herself a mental shake, she grabbed the file she’d been holding before the mayor had interrupted them. She sat in Gage’s chair to study the file’s contents. The reports were in neither alphabetical nor chronological order. Organizational filing was another thing she’d discovered Ruby didn’t believe in. She laid them out, earliest date to the latest so they would be easier to file in the computer.

As she worked, she glanced over to see that Gage had pulled a chair up beside Cleetus and was actively discussing the computer programs with his deputy. He seemed genuinely interested in what Cleetus had to show him. The fact that he treated Cleetus with such respect and patience almost negated his overbearing behavior toward her. Almost, but not quite.

Time to get back to work. She focused on the papers in front of her. The file dated back to the mid-seventies.

“That’s odd,” she muttered to herself.

“What’s odd?” Gage asked from the other desk.

“I found this file on fires. And the timing is odd.”

“Fires?” He shoved back his chair and came to read over her shoulder.

“See?” She pointed to the top right corner of the square she’d made with the papers. “The first fire reported took place in 1976.”

“That was the year we moved here and Dad took over as sheriff. No one had really kept records on fires much back then. I remember him saying the sheriff before him only worked two days a week. We had a huge storm that year. Lightning torched a dry field that burned two barns before any fire crews could get to it.”

“Not another one was reported for almost two years. After that a fire is listed once every year or two, no pattern to them whatsoever, until about two years ago. All the early ones were weather related.”