Page 44 of Coyote
I was flustered for a moment, but quickly regained my composure, I knew I needed to talk to Coyote, but now wasn’t the time or the place. “She’s two. Two and a bit.”
They both shot each other a strange look. Coyote set my cup of coffee down in front of me and proceeded to bring me up to speed on what they’d learned so far about the fire.
“This whole situation is worrisome. I wanted to call and check on Reggie, but after what happened last night, the last thing I want is to be a nuisance.” I remembered Thomas telling me that I had to leave because Reggie almost died because of the danger I inadvertently brought into his life. I know he’d apologized, but still.
“What’s wrong,” Coyote asked, clearly noticing my change in mood.
I cleared my expression and answered truthfully. “Reggie’s partner Thomas seemed angry at me last night. I don’t blame him, I think I’d have reacted the same if I was in his situation.”
Coyote murmured softly, “I’m sure he didn’t mean it. People say things they don’t mean in the heat of the moment and later regret it.
“It’s nice of you to try to make me feel better, but the cold hard truth is now that his house is a smoking pile of rubble, Reggie will need me out of his pool house so he and Thomas can live there while the house is being rebuilt. It leaves me and Nessa in a bit of a jam. I can afford housing, it’s just a matter of finding something that meets our needs.” I paused long enough to take a sip of my hot coffee. “It feels really shitty to be talking about the logistics of my life, while my friend is probably still suffering from smoke inhalation. But I have more than just myself to worry about.”
Coyote responded, “You don’t have a thing in the world to worry about because you’re both welcome to stay with me for as long as you like.”
“I’m not a charity case anymore,” I joked. “I can contribute to the expenses.”
“What expenses?” He asked. “I own my house free and clear, and my utilities are insignificant. Trust me, Bethany, you don’t have to worry about paying anything to live here. I barely pay anything myself.”
I glanced from Coyote to his sister, trying to gauge whether she was going to see me as a leach if I took him up on his generous offer. She didn’t even seem to be paying attention to our conversation. She was busy pulling something out of the oven. I finally nodded and replied, “Then I accept your generous offer. I really should spend today clearing my stuff out of the pool house so Reggie can move back in when he needs to.”
Callie walked over with a plate of fresh biscuits and Breaker followed behind with a platter of bacon and eggs. “I can stay here and keep an eye on Nessa if you like?”
Breaker put the platter down on the table and stretched his arms above his head until his back popped. “Ah that’s better. I can help move your stuff if you want. Between me and Coyote, we can probably have you out of there in a few hours.”
When I didn’t immediately reply because I was getting choked up with emotion, he quickly added. “I mean that if you’re living in a pool house, you can’t have all that much stuff, right?”
“It was originally designed to be a mother-in-law suite, so it’s a bit larger than your typical pool house.”
Breaker sat down and started eyeing the platter of biscuits. “Either way, we can make short work of clearing it out.”
“I don’t know how to thank you all for everything,” I said humbly.
Coyote walked off and I saw him scoop Nessa up off the floor, “Time for breakfast, princess, your cereal will be getting soggy,” He started swishing her through the air like she was flying, “Your mermaids will love that, soggy fishes!”
She just giggled, and it warmed my heart to watch him interact with her.
I wondered if it was obvious to everyone at the table that she could be his daughter. They looked so much alike that it almost put my fear of Cyclops being her father to rest once and for all. Then again, I couldn’t allow myself to indulge in that fantasy until I knew for sure.
***
After breakfast we took Coyote’s van, stopping by his auto repair shop to pick up some boxes. He had a lot of them from all the deliveries while setting up his business.
When we were just about at my house, we passed the prospect who had thrown Rufus out of the supermarket, and he gave Breaker a thumbs up sign. I wondered what he’d been doing here, though I guessed the Dark Slayers wanted to find out who set the fire just as much as I did.
When we pulled into the driveway, I was surprised to find smoke still coming off Reggie’s house and several police officers milling about. My door was standing open and that alarmed me, because I thought I’d locked it behind me. Breaker parked up and headed down the driveway to the street, there were some cops parked out there, so he probably wanted to see if they were more forthcoming.
I jumped out of the van and ran towards my door, only to be met by a plain clothed detective with a badge clearly visible on a lanyard hanging around his neck. “What’s going on? Why are you in my house? The fire was next door.”
“This entire property belongs to Mr. Archibald, so we don’t need a court order to look around.”
“Fair enough,” I responded. “But what is it you’re hoping to find?”
“Anything that might give an indication of who set your neighbor’s house on fire,” he said bluntly.
Coyote stepped up. “Let me guess, you didn’t find a single clue, right?”
The man sighed. “You’re right. There was no indication of any discord between the vic and Ms. Marks. Nor were there accelerants of any kind of the premises.”