Page 107 of Not Mine to Rescue

“Yes, and Honor wrote it down.”

“You were there?”

“Mary, Sierra, and I went there from barn. We rode with Hayley and Snake, and he dropped me off last…here.”

The women were rallying. “Does Walt know?”

Olivia shot me a “duh” look. “Who did you call?”

“Right.” I had my mind on other things. “Did they find Hoot?”

“T-the owl? No.”

Damn it.

Olivia tugged on Boots’ sleeve and whispered in his ear. She was quiet enough about it that I couldn’t hear. He frowned. “I’ll tell him.”

“Tell me what?”

He hesitated. “The fire marshal thinks it’s arson.”

That tracked with my luck. “Was Honor there when he said that?”

Olivia tugged on her husband’s sleeve harder.

“Liv, just tell him. It’s been a long night.”

“But…” her mouth worked.

Boots sighed, then grimaced a bit. “Okay telephone game. You whisper it all to me. You don’t have to talk to anyone else unless I get it wrong.”

Olivia slid closer and pressed her body against his. It must be bad if she was having issues with her autism so hard that it clammed her up.

Her voice was quiet as she poured out what she remembered. “Honor got angry that he jumped to conclusions about the fire. And then she started spitting out all sorts of legal jargon, and finally they yelled at each other for about two minutes. Eventually, he walked away saying she wouldn’t change his mind, and she’d have to file in court if she wanted to fight it.

“And then, Lemon asked if she should file a claim with her insurance because if it was arson, then they wouldn’t get enough money to rebuild, and the company would probably drop her, and… it was awful.”

Boots looked at me. I nodded back, letting him know he didn’t have to play telephone to tell me anything. “Ask her if it was arson, who started it?”

He murmured my question in her ear.

“They don’t know,” Olivia said.

I mused aloud. “Nickel?”

Boots nodded. “Good idea. Any cameras?”

“I had a couple put up a week ago. They might have caught something. It was mostly on the house, but I had one pointed at the barn. It’s mounted on the garage roof in that little gazebo thing in the middle.”

“That is called a cupola.” Olivia couldn’t talk to me directly, but give her a piece of trivia and she practically shouted it.

“Right, I forgot the word, thank you.”

She beamed, then her face fell. “I’m sorry I c-can’t…”

“It’s okay. Tell him what else your photographic memory caught.”

Her mouth fell open. “You know about that?”