Flame by Helen Hardt

Author:Helen Hardt [HARDT, HELEN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Waterhouse Press

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Donny

“Calm down, Murphy. Please.”

Brendan has been yelling at the top of his lungs since he steamrolled into my office two minutes ago. I already made the call to Lambert, and he’s filing the paperwork as soon as possible. An error was apparently made in the location of the potential gas leak.

Yeah. That’s the official party line.

“Calm down? You expect me to calm down? Someone broke into my home, Steel. Ripped everything apart and then left it in tatters.”

“You weren’t even supposed to be there, which brings me to—”

“It’s my fucking home! I needed my medication.”

“You left prescription medication? What were you thinking? You know what? It doesn’t even matter, because—”

“Doesn’t matter? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“For God’s sake, Murphy. Let me get a word in edgewise, will you?”

Brendan plunks down on one of the chairs facing my desk. “What? What the fuck is it, Steel?”

He’s livid, and I can’t blame him. Now I get to give him the party line. It doesn’t make me feel any better, and it won’t make him feel any better. At least my ethics are intact. Sort of.

“I want to tell you that I took care of the situation like you asked. Okay? I called the energy board, and they looked into the permit. Turns out an error was made in the location of the potential gas leak. They were a hundred miles off.”

Murphy stands. “A hundred miles off? What are they? Idiots?”

“It was a mistake. An honest mistake.” God, the words taste bitter. Worse than that wine I tried to pretend I liked last night. “The energy board is refiling the paperwork as we speak. You can go back onto your property now. No problem.”

“Except that I can’t,” he says. “Have you heard a word I’m saying? Someone broke in last night. Tore everything apart at my place.”

His words finally compute.

“What? The bar?”

“No, the bar’s fine. Just my apartment above the bar. Every floorboard has been ripped up. The drywall has been opened up. Now who would do a thing like that, Steel? Unless they were looking for something. And I only know one family in town who might be interested in looking for something at my apartment.” His blue eyes dart arrows at me.

Family loyalty spears out from me. “You’d better not be accusing me of anything.”

“If the shoe fits…”

“Fuck off, Murphy. I just took care of this for you. If I hadn’t made the call, it would have taken the energy board weeks to figure out their mistake.”

God, the lies. Stopping this was supposed to make me feel better.

On the other hand, I’m pretty pissed off that Murphy is accusing my family of coming in and trashing his place. Granted, Dale and I were planning to search it as well, but we would have put everything back in place.

“I’m just as interested in finding out who trashed your place,” I say. “I’m the city attorney, remember?”

“Acting city attorney,” Brendan says snidely.

“For fuck’s sake.” I walk out from behind my desk to the door and open it.

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