File M For Murder

TWENTY-EIGHT

Three nerve-wracking, exhausting hours later, I sat in the kitchen with my family, both two- and four-legged, to take stock of our situation.

“I’ll never complain about your filthy habit, ever again.” Laura cast a tired but fond glance at her brother.

“Same here, I think.” I suppressed a yawn. “We’re incredibly lucky you happened to be on the back porch. The damage could have been so much worse.” Diesel meowed and rubbed against my thigh. I scratched his head to reassure him. The noise and excitement tonight had frightened him badly.

“I just wish I’d caught the bastard.” Sean, fatigue obvious in his expression and posture, frowned.

“At least you scared him off before he could set more fires.” Stewart shivered and clutched Dante closer to his chest. The dog whimpered and tried to lick Stewart’s chin.

Sean had gone out to the back porch around ten to have a cigar and unwind. When he finished an hour or so later, he decided to stay there a while longer. He liked to sit there in the darkness. The glow from the street lights at the front of the house barely penetrated, and he found the atmosphere conducive to thought.

As often happened, however, he drifted off in his chair, he told us. He awoke sometime later to sounds of an intruder in the backyard. Before he could even get out of the chair to investigate, he heard the noise of the fire as it took hold at the corner of the porch. He yelled as he scrambled through the door into the yard. He barely made out a dark shape as it fled around the corner of the house.

Sean continued to yell for help as he ran for the water hose to douse the flames. Both Laura and Justin, whose bedrooms overlook the back of the house, heard him. Laura called 911 while Justin ran downstairs, clad only in his underwear and a ratty T-shirt, to help Sean. Stewart soon followed after, handing his dog over to Laura, who also had Diesel with her. I woke up during this and was almost mindless with worry until I knew everyone was safely out of the house.

By the time the fire department and the police arrived, the fire was almost out. I met them on the front walk along with Laura, Diesel, and Dante. The firemen went into immediate action, and Sean, Stewart, and Justin joined us in the front a little later.

Time blurred after that. Between the questions from the police and the fire chief, I felt my head spinning. Neighbors had come from several nearby houses and stood on the sidewalk near the street, held back by two policemen. Diesel cowered against me, overcome by the number of strange people and the noisy activity going on around us. I did my best to reassure him, but before long I felt about as bewildered as he did.

Finally the fire department was satisfied the fire was out, without a lot of damage, I was happy to hear. Everyone submitted to thorough questioning, and by three-thirty we were all together in the kitchen trying to make sense of what happened.

“What I don’t get is, why would someone want to burn down this house?” Justin shook his head. “It makes no sense.”

“It’s my fault.” Laura, her expression grim, glanced at each of us in turn. “Whoever killed Connor must think I know something. Either that or someone hates me so much he doesn’t care whom he harms. I’m sorry to be the cause of this.”

“Nonsense,” I said, my voice a little heated. “You don’t have anything to apologize for.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Laura smiled briefly.

“The police are going to watch the house,” Sean reminded us.

“The rest of the night, at least.” Stewart frowned. “But what about tomorrow and after?”

“I’ll help keep watch. My earliest class is at ten, so I can stay up late and sleep in a little.” Justin gazed at Laura like a puppy watching its owner and hoping for a treat.

“Thank you, Justin,” I said, trying not to smile. “That won’t be necessary. The police will keep watching the house, and I’m sure once Kanesha Berry has heard about this, the sheriff’s department will probably get involved. If all else fails, I’ll hire a security firm to protect the house until whoever did it is caught.”

“I hate this. All because of that jackass Connor.” Laura’s savage tone shocked us all, I think. “I wish I’d never met him.”

I wish you hadn’t either, I thought. I would never say that to her, however. She was exhausted, as indeed we all were, not to mention the high level of stress she was under.

“It’s time everyone went back to bed.” Sean stood. “Come on, there’s nothing more we can do now. We’ll be safe with the police keeping an eye on the house.”

Stewart, with Dante still in his arms, stood also. “Good idea. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can use all the beauty sleep I can get.” He fluttered his eyelashes at Sean. “I have to look my best for my hunky housemate, or he won’t pay any attention to me.”

Sean guffawed. “Face it, Princess Not-So-Charming, you need more than sleep to get my attention.”

Stewart placed his free hand over his heart and pretended to swoon. Dante barked. “So cruel, so heartless.” He paused. “And so full of it. I’m more man than you could ever handle anyway.” He swept past Sean and strutted his way out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

Justin looked slightly shocked at this interplay between Stewart and Sean, but he should have been used to it by now. Laura and I laughed, and Sean pretended to be wounded. His wide grin spoiled the effect, however.

“Off to bed, all of you,” I said. “Come on, Diesel. We need our beauty sleep, too.” I made shooing motions with my hands and started turning out lights.

The three preceded Diesel and me upstairs. As I headed for my bed I silently blessed Stewart. He always knew how—and when—to break the tension. We all needed to recover our balance, and by getting us to laugh, Stewart had us off to a good start.

The next morning, after a sound sleep, I woke to the phone ringing. I groaned. A short sleep, because the clock informed me that it was two minutes past seven. I fumbled for the receiver, wanting to answer it before anyone else was wakened by it.

“Hello.” I wanted to say, Who the heck is calling here this early?, but good manners forbade me. I noticed Diesel was not beside me on the bed. He was probably with Laura.

“Mr. Harris? Kanesha Berry here.” Her clipped tones indicated she was in business-as-usual mode. I expected her to call about the fire, but not so early. Did the woman never sleep?

“Good morning, Deputy. What can I do for you?”

“I hear you had some excitement last night at your house. Mind filling me in on what happened?”

I gave her a quick summary, and when I finished, she didn’t respond right away. I waited a few moments, then was about to ask her if she was still on the line, when she spoke.

“Why do you think someone tried to burn your house down, Mr. Harris?”

Her matter-of-fact tone chilled me. The reality of what happened finally started to sink in. I had been too dazed last night to take it in completely, but now I realized someone intended to kill us all.

“Mr. Harris?”

“Sorry, Deputy, but reality is setting in.” I paused for a steadying breath. “Obviously the person who did it is afraid one of us knows something that will implicate him—or possibly her—in Connor Lawton’s death.”

“And what would that be?” Kanesha’s clinical tone did nothing to abate the chill. “You must have some idea, surely.”

“Lawton’s thumb drive, I suppose. There must be something on it that’s dangerous for the arsonist.” A new thought struck me. “Although I’m not really certain why that person would think it’s still in the house.”

“I agree that there’s potentially important evidence on the drive. I’m not convinced, however, that the arsonist thought it was still in your house and not in police custody,” Kanesha said. “Are you sure there’s not something else, something your daughter’s holding back, for example?”

The only information Laura was holding back—that I was aware of, anyway—was that she took the drive from Lawton’s apartment after his death. How she came by it suddenly didn’t seem that significant to me. The importance of the drive was in its contents, not its provenance.

“You’ll have to ask Laura that yourself, Deputy.” The strain in my voice was evident to me, and probably to Kanesha as well. How she would interpret that, I had no idea.

“I’m not happy that Miss Harris didn’t turn that drive over to me right away.”

“I can understand that,” I said. I wasn’t happy about it either, but Laura had her reasons, misguided though they were.

“I have a computer consultant examining it.” Kanesha’s tone could have frozen water. “If she discovers that anything on that drive was changed or deleted after Mr. Lawton’s death, your daughter is going to be in serious trouble, Mr. Harris.”