Page 21 of Never Fall Again

Cal considered that before he asked, “Where’s the investigation stand?”

“Nowhere. I’ll get into the details once everyone’s here. But right now, beyond the near certainty that this was arson, we have a big fat goose egg for evidence.”

“What do you need me to do?”

Gray ran a hand over his head. “Just pay attention. Keep yourears open around town. And tell me when we’re done if you think of anything I’m missing.”

“You’re the chief, Gray. Not me.”

“And you know everyone in town. Not only do you know them, you know their parents, grandparents, second cousins twice removed, and the people who are related but don’t know they are because someone’s uncle fooled around with someone else’s aunt.”

“That only happened once.”

“Sure it did.” Gray tapped his pen on the desk. “I’ve watched you plan and execute missions. You think of everything. I need you to reverse engineer this thing.”

“You want me to think like the arsonist?”

“Or the person who put the arsonist up to it.”

Cal sat back in his chair. “You don’t think the person who started the fire was working alone.”

“I don’t know. What I do know is that Jesslyn was back out there this morning. Her exact words were ‘This was elegantly done.’” Gray rubbed his hands over his face. “How many skilled arsonists could be walking around Gossamer Falls? I’d say not more than one. But how many people have enough money to hire one?”

“If you include the people who frequent The Haven? A lot. If you’re talking about Gossamer Falls natives?” Cal considered the people of his community. There were a handful sitting on small fortunes that few knew about. Still others who could be wealthy if they sold their land. But none of them would set fire to The Haven. “There’s my family. Quinns and Shaws.”

Gray nodded.

“The Pierces.”

Gray nodded again.

“The McClures have the money. So do the Nelsons. But the only ones who might have motive would be the Statons.”

Gray put his pen to work on the yellow legal pad he had on his desk. “Tell me why you focused on them.”

“I’m not accusing them—”

“Didn’t say you were.”

“Fine. There’s a man. He’d be about fifty now. He went to school with some of my older cousins. He was raised as a Staton, and he looked like his mother when he was young. But as he got older, some people noticed a resemblance to a certain Pierce. The rumors have flown fast and furious over the years that he was illegitimate.”

Gray wrote for another minute before looking at Cal. “I’m guessing your family had an opinion on the matter?”

“Their opinion was that it wasn’t any of our business, and we should stay out of it. That it was unkind to gossip, and we should be nice to all the people involved.”

“Sounds like Papa Quinn was behind that.” Gray took a sip of his coffee.

“Probably. I wasn’t born yet when it all hit the fan.”

“So why mention it?”

“Because that man has kids. They’re in their twenties, and they hate the Pierces.”

“Names?”

“Julian and Jeremy Staton.”

“Twins?”