Page 11 of Never Fall Again

“Did Valerie get in trouble?”

Cal grinned again. “See, no one could ever be sure who did it. This was before there were cameras everywhere. And it was raining. The coaches were giving the guys some practice in inclement weather. The girls wore raincoats with the hoods up, so no one could prove anything. Needless to say, Valerie was a legend with the girls and despised by the football team.”

They’d reached the front gate and were waiting.

“What was her motivation?”

“Revenge. The quarterback had done something, and she was getting him back. The specifics were never made known.”

“How’d he take it?”

Cal winked at her. “Married her after graduation. They have three kids.”

When he rolled down his window, smoke and the stench of melted plastic blew into the cab of the truck. They both coughed as they watched a man approach.

“Cal. We’ve got a bit of a situation here.”

“I can see that, Mick. But I have Ms. Hutton with me. Bunch of the stuff in that store was made by her. She needs to get in there. You know where Bronwyn is? Or the chief?”

“Hang on.” Mick stepped away and keyed some kind of walkie-talkie contraption.

Cal leaned toward her. “Mick once streaked through a baseball game.”

“No!”

Cal laughed. “To be fair, he was four.”

She slapped his arm. “That doesn’t count! You’re exempt until you’re five.”

“Is that a rule?”

“Yes!”

“Well, don’t tell Mick. He’s almost forty, and it’s a story still told to the great delight of the hearers and Mick’s great embarrassment.”

Mick returned and scowled at Cal. “Stay to the right and follow the path. Chief Ward is down there. So is Bronwyn. And some of the other Pierces showed up about fifteen minutes ago.”

Cal stuck his hand out the window, and Mick shook it. “’Preciate the heads-up. We’ll be careful.”

“You do that. When you leave, make sure you get signed out. Don’t need to be hunting you down later just to find out you’re back at your little house on the river.”

“Will do.” Cal left his window down and eased through the gate.

It took several minutes to reach the perimeter, and Landry kept her hands twisted in Maisy’s fur the entire time. She thought she’d understood the wordsfully engulfed, but she hadn’t.

Where an elegant shop had stood a few hours earlier was nothing but the vague outline of a building being swallowed by flames shooting into the darkening sky.

Five

Cal was no expert on fires, but he’d seen more than a few.

This was no accident.

He parked behind a vehicle that he guessed was one of the Pierces’ personal cars and made sure he left plenty of room. No sense in tempting them to “accidentally” back into his truck. He unbuckled his seat belt and tossed Maisy’s lead to Landry. “Why don’t you hang on to her?”

He climbed down and hurried to Landry’s door. She hadn’t had a chance to open it yet, and he waited until she made eye contact. Her nod was a bit shaky, but her back was straight, her shoulders were set, and her expression had settled into a “take no prisoners” variety. He opened her door and helped both Landry and Maisy to the ground.

Then he stayed close as they walked toward the police perimeter.