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“The Moore’s water heater and furnace weren’t in the basement, but in a closet off the garage. Not uncommon, although most are in basements. I guess since the house didn’t actually have a basement, they were given a space off the garage.”
This I understood. “My friend Kelly’s house is like that.” I suddenly had a really crappy thought. “Should I be concerned about her house blowing up?”
He casually pointed his fork toward me. “No. She doesn’t use propane, nor did someone tamper with her gas pipe.”
Thankfully true. “How did they tamper with the pipe?”
“Pipe wrench.” Ty took a bite of his steak.
I nodded my head envisioning someone with a huge wrench crouching down behind the Moore’s house. Conceivable since the yard was lined with very mature lilac bushes. Definitely shielded from neighbors.
“Long story short, we smelled gas because we were downwind. Whoever did it must’ve assumed the water heater was in a basement or a lower portion of the house where they hoped the whole house would be launched to Kingdom Come. But they were wrong and it didn’t cause a huge explosion.”
“This wasn’t a big explosion?” I asked, amazed.
Ty shook his head. “This one just flung crap through the air and made a huge mess.”
“Huge,” I added, thinking of the collapsed garage and Ty’s smooshed truck.
“Huge,” Ty repeated. “But the idiot didn’t know about the water heater off the garage, and when the gas seeped in, it filled just that area and the pilot light ignited it quickly. There wasn’t time for the gas to fill the lower area of the house. Besides, the propane tank itself was almost empty. The Moores never had it refilled before they moved to Arizona. That’s why the most damage was to the garage and the left side, nor overly big. He didn’t make a real explosion, thank God. He just wrecked the house.”
“Like I said, that wasn’t a big explosion? I don’t have a lot of comparison here,” I added, sarcastically.
“Let me put it this way. If it had been a serious propane tank explosion, instead of the fridge being on top of my truck, it would have landed on someone else’s a mile away.”
Okay, that’s a big explosion. “So you’re saying this was done by an amateur.”
“I’d say an Internet-savvy, anti-social person intent on hurting someone.”
“I’m an idiot when it comes to gas, although I can light my grill.” I sipped my iced tea.
Ty nodded. “Yeah, I’d say you’re at least that smart.”
I smacked him on the shoulder. “Funny. But we still don’t know Morty’s whereabouts. All we do know about whoever’s trying to hurt me is that he’s some half-cocked person spending too much time online. That’s probably half of the population of the US.”
“True. But he was obviously trying to blow up the Moore’s house. And just that house. As I said, Mr. and Mrs. Moore have been out of town for a while. They weren’t the target. Someone wants Morty dead, someone who knew he’d been staying there.” Ty ate a couple of bites. “The real worry is when whoever’s doing this decides to get smart.”
“Because they’re trying to kill me now, too,” I added. We didn’t comment more on that but ate instead. My burrito didn’t taste as good as it had a minute ago. Or maybe it was the whole death and destruction thing that put me off my food.
My cell phone rang. I jumped in my seat and grabbed for my bag, frantic to find the phone.
“Relax, the kids are fine.”
I gave him the evil eye. I looked at the caller ID. Phew, not CNN calling about a downed commercial airliner.
“Hi, Goldie,” I said. I took a deep breath, my heart rate slowly dropping back into normal range.
“We’ve got a doozy of a problem.”
“Okaaaaay.” That could mean a thousand different things.
“No, no, don’t worry, I’m fine. You’re the one with all the secret admirers,” she said sarcastically. “Remember the bachelorette party we arranged to do?”
“Sure, it’s next month.” I absently forked up a bite of burrito. Ty watched me as he ate some fries.
“Actually, it’s tonight. It’s a surprise party. The bride was at the store with her girlfriends and they couldn’t blow it by giving the actual day. So, they told us next month. Unfortunately, dingbats that they are, they forgot to call us and tell us about the real date. Until now.”
I looked at my watch. Six thirty.
