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“No,” I say, “But it probably seemed like that to Jason. Like I said, horse shifters need a lot more attention than other shifter children and certainly a lot more than non-shifter children. I imagine Jason felt very left out when Reggie started to shift and Mom and Dad had to spend most of their time with him, leaving Jason to his own devices.”
“So why would he take that out on Reggie?” she asks.
“Because he can,” I say. “Because his parents are dead and Reggie’s the only person in his family he can hurt. Because the house reminds him of his childhood. I don’t know. Maybe none of those reasons. Maybe it isn’t him and this is all just useless speculation. I’m just saying, I understand now why he might want to destroy the house.”
“Hmm,” Kellie says. “Any word on the arson investigation?”
“Not yet,” I say.
“Well, then,” Kellie replies. “We’ll just have to be patient and see what they say.”
I look at her in surprise. “Patient? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you patient before.”
“Watch it, Buster,” she says with a smile.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Kellie
“Are you going to be okay?” I ask. Stone sits next to me in my office. At any moment, Reggie and Jason will arrive. Reggie already knows something’s up, but he doesn’t know what it is. When I asked Jason to come in, he reacted with delight, thinking it meant he was getting the money.
“Any way we can arrest him, but you still pay the policy?”
“Sorry,” I say, “Reggie’s hurt by this, too. I wish he wasn’t, but he is.”
Finding the proof wasn’t all that difficult. Ordinarily, I might get a subpoena to search bank records and such, but it turns out my cousin Mayra works for the bank on the wiring instructions Jason was happy to send me just two days after the fire. She owes me a substantial favor. Well, she’s paid me back in full now, I guess. She was five months behind on her mortgage and I paid it. I never intended to get anything back for it at all but when I called and asked her how hard it was to get records without a warrant, she just did it.
And I have copies of the wire to a known arsonist.
It’ll never hold up in court.
This whole meeting is to bluff him into admitting it or confessing.
“He won’t be hurt,” Stone says.
“What? Who won’t?”
“You just said Reggie will be hurt, too. He won’t. He was a volunteer at Company 417 for twenty-two years. We take care of our own. Have you ever seen shifters on a construction site? You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a gorilla the size of a house lifting lumber.”
I giggle but then make my face serious as I see Reggie and Jason stepping in. Reggie looks worried. Jason looks overjoyed. He won’t for long. Stone opens the door and the two of them step in. As I shake their hands and they sit, Stone remains at the door. “Do you mind if Firefighter Argyle remains in case I need him to explain any fire terms?”
Reggie raises an eyebrow. I hope I convey in my gaze why I need him to stay. Jason, though, says, “No problem. We’ve been waiting too long for this. At least there’s a bright side, though. Reggie’s credit is good enough now he can rebuild without me, so I get paid off and out of his hair and he gets to build his dream ranch house.”
I slide a paper over to him and one to Reggie as well. “This is the denial of your claim and there’s a place for your signature, consenting to the denial with no need for an appeal.”
Jason says, “What? What the hell is that supposed to mean? How can you deny the claim?”
I look at Reggie and say, “I’m terribly sorry to have to tell you this.”
“Tell me what, Stone?” Reggie says.
Jason’s eyes flick from me to Reggie and back to me before he addresses Kellie. “No, I want to know why you can’t process our claim? What the hell is this bullshit?”
“Jason started the fire,” I say. “He burned the house down. Or rather, paid to have it burned down.”
Jason started toward me, red-faced. “Where the hell do you get off?” he begins.
“That’s enough, Jason!” Reggie thunders.
