Silent Scream (11 page)

Jeff walked off and David slowly stood, watching her kick the car door closed with her foot.
Your lady.
She wasn’t, of course. She might have been, if things had gone differently.
If I hadn’t done… whatever.
But she was here.
Because it’s her job, idiot.

But she’d brought food, so that was a good sign.
This is the opportunity you’ve waited for. Don’t blow it like you blew it the last time.

Which he obviously had, but that recollection was more vague than the others. Squaring his shoulders, he started to walk,
knowing the exact instant she saw him coming. She went still, gripping a bag in one hand and a thermos in the other, and she
looked right at him. He didn’t breathe for the space of three hard beats of his heart.

And then she looked away when Jeff reached her first, taking the bag from her hands. “There’s coffee in the thermos,” he heard
her say when he got close.

Jeff was already stuffing his face. “Bacon, egg, and cheese,” he mumbled. “God, I thought I was going to drop. Thank you.
There’s plenty, Dave. Have some.”

“There is plenty,” she said quietly, her eyes flickering everywhere but at his face, and David felt the frustration of being
an adult trapped at a junior high party.

“Any news on the girl?” he asked and she finally met his eyes. Hers were round, blue as the sky, and very serious.

“Not yet. The hearing aid should help us narrow it down, so thank you.”

“Barlow said you wanted to see the fourth floor. I can take you up from the outside, but getting around on the inside still
isn’t safe, especially without boots.”

She nodded. “Got it. Is there room for both Kane and me in the bucket?”

Kane walked up, a small black bag in one hand. “Me, go up in the bucket? I don’t think so. You go up. Here’s the camera. And
my field glasses.”

She took the items he shoved into her hands. “You’re not going? Why the hell not?”

Kane’s expression was one of mild embarrassment. “Heights and me… a big no.”

She gave her partner a dirty look. “Wuss,” she muttered, then looked back up at David resolutely. “Then let’s go up. You want
to eat something first?”

He didn’t think he could. “No, thanks. Zell, let’s go. I need you to man the truck.”

“I could go up with her. Or not,” Jeff added when David’s eyes narrowed. With a jovial grin, Jeff wiped his
hands on the bandana he kept in his pocket and passed the bag of sandwiches to the captain, who’d just joined them. “Save
me one.”

Casey smiled at Olivia. “Thanks, Detective. This was really nice of you,” he said.

“Our pleasure. I figured you’d all be hungry, staying here all night. We won’t keep you here any longer than we have to.”
She looked around. “Where is Sergeant Barlow?”

“He said he had some reports to write,” Casey said, “and he’d be back after noon. Two guys from Arson are in there now, gridding
off each floor so they can search.”

They’d search carefully, David knew, sifting the ash, looking for anything that could lead them to the arsonist. “Barlow said
we should show you what we showed him. You can see the first floor through that window.”

David led Olivia and Kane to the first-floor window. “This window was regular glass and probably blew out in the first minutes
of the fire. We found the backpack and the hearing aid on the other side of that hole.” Standing behind her, he leaned so
that his cheek was inches from her temple and pointed. “There, where CSU left the markers.”

“I see,” she murmured. Her shoulders stiffened, but she didn’t shrink away and he took that as a good sign. “CSU took the
items already?”

“About an hour ago.” He should move. He really should. He knew he reeked from smoke and sweat. But her hair smelled like honeysuckle,
just as he remembered, and he took another second to fill his head with her scent before backing away.

Kane had leaned around her other side to stick his head through the window and whistled softly. “That is one hell of a hole,
Hunter.”

“Tell me about it,” David said grimly.

Olivia’s brows crunched as she strained to see around the interior walls that remained. “The gel that covered the ball,” she
said. “Did you find any down here?”

“No,” David said. “And I looked. But this area is a mess. If there was any gel, it’d be mixed with ash by now. The water pushes
everything together. If it’s there, the arson guys will find it while they’re sifting. It’s thicker than kindergarten paste.”

She glanced up at him then. “We need you to keep the gel and the ball to yourself. It’s important. Who else knows about it?”

“Just me and Zell,” he said. “And Barlow. And the captain.”

“And Carrie and Gabe,” Jeff added from behind them, then shrugged when Olivia turned a mild glare on him. “I didn’t know,
and Dave’s catch was too good not to tell.”

“Carrie and Gabe are on our team,” David told her when she turned the mild glare from Jeff to him. “They can keep a secret.”

“So can I,” Jeff said, aggrieved. “When I know I have to.”

“Can we talk to Carrie and Gabe?” Kane asked. “We need to keep it under wraps.”

“Certainly,” Casey said. “They’re walking line. I’ll call them back to the truck.”

“I’ll talk to the other firefighters,” Kane told Olivia, “while you go up. Have fun.”

The glare she flashed Kane was a lot less mild, David thought. She was clearly annoyed and once again seemed none too happy
to see him. That did not bode well.

David climbed to where the platform rested on the front end of the truck and lowered the bucket until it was
two feet from the ground where she waited. There was no expression on her face, but her foot tapped impatiently. He extended
his hand and after the briefest hesitation she grabbed it, not looking at him.

He hauled her up and held on until she’d steadied herself. “You have to belt in,” he said. Silently she raised her arms and
he looped the ladder belt around her slim waist, trying hard not to fumble the hooks. Or lift his eyes to stare at her breasts
which were throwing a shadow on his hands. He tugged to test the connection, then rose, keeping his eyes to himself, very
aware of Jeff’s smirk and Kane’s watchful gaze. “You’re good.”

“Okay,” she said, her voice slightly breathless. “Take me up.”

Oh, I will
, he thought. He wasn’t sure when it would be or how he would manage it, but those recollections of his were just clear enough
that he knew he had to have her again. “Are you bothered by heights?”

“No.” Her attention was on the condo wall as he toggled switches, lifting them in the air. After rising ten feet, she looked
up at him, surprised. “I thought it would be jumpy.”

“No, it’s pretty smooth.” They were alone now, the two of them rising in a three-by-four space. He briefly fantasized standing
behind her, grabbing the rails on either side of her, caging her in. Pressing against her. Feeling her against him. But of
course he couldn’t do that, so he stood at her side, contenting himself with breathing honeysuckle.

There were so many things he wanted to ask.
What’s between you and Barlow? Is there someone else?
And the million-dollar question—
why did you leave my bed?

But this wasn’t the time for any of that, so he asked the
one question in his mind that wasn’t personal. “What’s the significance of the ball I found?”

For a moment he thought she wouldn’t answer. Then she sighed. “You’ll probably just Google it when you get home.”

“Before I get home,” he said. “Left my laptop back at the firehouse.”

“You can’t speak of this, not even to your partner.”

“Zell?” David found his lips curving. “He’s a good guy, but he does have trouble keeping a secret. I won’t tell him. Cross
my heart.” And he did.

Her eyes had dropped to his bare hand and lingered a beat too long before lifting again to his face. Her cheeks were a shade
pinker than they had been. “Environmental arson,” she said, throwing cold water on his thoughts. “It’s a glass globe. A radical
activist group left similar etched glass globes at their fires more than ten years ago.”

“Shit,” he breathed quietly. “But they shot that guard. Right in the heart. Those groups don’t normally target people.”

“Not normally, although this group had an accidental death, twelve years ago.”

He thought of the girl, her waxen face. Her fight to escape. “Like last night.”

“Maybe. The girl held the ball. For now we have to include her with the suspects.”

He shook his head. “She wasn’t dressed for arson. She wasn’t even wearing shoes. Barlow ran the sniffer over her. Nothing.
No hydrocarbons on her hands.”

She assessed him. “True. But she had the ball. We have to find out how and why.”

“Has this radical group claimed credit?”

“Not yet, and they always did twelve years ago.”

“Maybe because they killed two people,” David said harshly and her eyes softened.

“Maybe. We’re probably going to have to bring in the Feds at some point. They’ll want to talk to you. Just a heads-up.”

“Thanks.” They’d risen to the fourth floor and he stopped their ascent. “This is where I found her.”

She leaned forward, squinting. “I don’t see any handprints.”

David switched on the spotlight and aimed it at the window. “Now?”

She stared a minute, then shook her head. “No.”

Thank you
, he whispered in his mind, then stepped behind her, taking her shoulders in both hands. Lowering his head until his chin
brushed her hair, he adjusted their angle until he could see the shimmer. “There,” he murmured. “See it now?”

She’d stiffened in his hands and it was when she drew a shaky breath that he realized she hadn’t been breathing before. Which
did bode well.

“You saw
that
?” she asked, her voice gone husky, and a thrill raced across his skin. She cleared her throat and when she spoke again, it
was briskly. Still, he’d heard the awareness in her voice. It was enough. It was what he’d been waiting for. “Barlow’s right,”
she said matter-of-factly. “You do have good eyes.”

A faint buzz of pride layered over the thrill. “It was easier to see in the dark.”

She leaned forward and he let her go, stepping back to her side. “Can you get us closer?” she asked, pointing. “To that smear?”

He maneuvered until the rail was an inch from where she pointed. “Close enough?”

She looked up at him, a wry smile on her lips. “Now you’re just showing off.” Before he could think of an answer, she pulled
the camera from the bag around her neck. “We need to get this window to the lab,” she said, snapping a picture.

It was his turn to lean closer until he saw what she’d pointed to—a small dent in the impact-resistant glass, with barely
discernible lines spidering outward. “You saw
that
?”

“I’ve got good eyes, too,” she said lightly. “I also knew what I was looking for.”

“What?”

“I thought about her not wearing shoes. If she’d been one of the arsonists, she would have worn shoes she could get away quickly
in. Boots. Sneakers at the very least. But she didn’t wear shoes
and
she held the ball. Why? She was about five-four, same as me.” Clutching the camera in one hand, she held it up, pretending
to bang it against the window. “Dent’s right where it should be.”

He understood. “She tried to use the glass ball to break the window. There was no furniture yet, no chairs, nothing she could
use to break the glass. God. Poor kid.”

“I know,” she said. “Barlow said the arsonists poured the carpet adhesive on the first and second floors.”

“True. I could show you the pour patterns if you want.”

“On the way down.” She crossed her arms, dangling the camera from her wrist as she frowned at the window. “If the arsonists
only hit the first two floors and she was up here on four, and she wasn’t with them, how did she get the damn ball?”

“We think they poured on two floors, but started the fire on the first floor. That way they could get out. If
they lit both floors, it could have spread before they were out.”

“Do we know how they got in and out?”

“Not that I know of. You’d have to ask Barlow.” He considered the night before. “We got here about five minutes after we got
the call. We had to smash through the gate, so it delayed us another two minutes. The first two floors were fully engaged
at the time, and it wasn’t safe to go in through any of the doors. We were fighting it from outside. That’s what I was doing
in the bucket in the first place.”

She still faced the window, but her frown had become thoughtful. “Okay. And?”

“The fire doors on one and two were open. The smoke would have filled the stairwell. If she’d been squatting on one of the
lower levels…” He thought about the hearing aid. “And if she wasn’t able to hear them coming…”

“She may have been asleep. Woke up from the smoke, tried to go down the stairs, found herself trapped.” She glanced up at
him. “Would she have been able to get out of the stairwell and into the hallway?”

“Possibly. But the heat would have been intense.”

“Hot enough to blister her feet?”

He remembered the soles of the girl’s feet. “Yeah.”

She nodded, and he could almost see the wheels turning in her mind. “She would have been panicking,” she murmured. “Not thinking
clearly. Smoke choking her. Maybe she drops to her knees, below the smoke. And somehow she finds the ball.”

“She wouldn’t have been able to see anything,” David said, his stomach turning at the thought of how terrified the girl must
have been. “The smoke would have filled the
first floors and the stairwell in minutes. If she stumbled on the ball, found it somehow…”

Her blond brows lifted. “Or if they used it to block open one of the fire doors?”

He’d admired her mind the first time they’d met. That much he clearly remembered. “Possible. So she picks it up, but can’t
go farther, because it’s too hot. The smoke is too thick. She backs up, to the stairwell.”

“Back to the fourth floor. No fire yet on four. She still has the ball. People hold on to weird things when they’re scared.
She gets to the window, tries to break it.”