Guarding the Witness by Margaret Daley

Author:Margaret Daley
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2013-04-08T16:00:00+00:00

EIGHT

The moment the door to the storeroom opened and light from the living room flooded inside, Brody bolted up in the cot. “Why are you waking me up? If it’s time for my shift, you should be asleep.” He swung his legs over the side.

“There’s a fire to the south. I’m gonna wake up Charlie. It could be his place. Even if it isn’t, his house could be in danger.” Arianna swung around and hurried to the bedroom. She had to shake him awake.

His eyes opened, and he frowned. “It’s time already?”

“There’s a fire toward where you live. You need to check it out. Are there a lot of trees around your place?”

“Yes. It’s mostly woods.” Charlie stuck his feet into his boots then scrambled to his feet and headed for the front door to the cabin. “Stay inside. I’m going to jog a ways and see what I can discover.”

Brody stood by the window from which she’d seen the fire. “Be careful. Someone might have found out you’re helping us. How easy is it for someone to figure out about this place?”

“It would take some work. I didn’t get to know Paul until after I retired. The same for Willow, Paul’s sister.” Charlie opened the door then paused. “If I can get to my house and it isn’t burning, I’ll bring back my computer. Forget sleep. I want to know who is behind this.”

Brody shook his head. “I don’t know about staying.”

“Let me see what’s going on before we decide.”

Brody went back to the window to follow his friend’s progress across the yard in the dim light of dusk.

Arianna took up guard at another window. “I agree with you. We need to leave. I discovered in my research on Rainwater that his men like using fire. It can cover up so much. I think some of Rainwater’s men are getting close.”

“It doesn’t surprise me he has a few pyromaniacs on his payroll.”

“He has a variety of different skilled murderers. I hope it wasn’t Charlie’s house.”

Brody nodded his agreement. “I shouldn’t have brought him in on this.” A minute later Brody said, “He’s coming back and he doesn’t have his computer.”

Arianna went into the bedroom. “I’m gathering our stuff. We need to get out of here.”

“Agreed.” Brody opened the door before Charlie knocked. “Your place is burning?”

“Yes, the fire department is there, but I didn’t let anyone know I was there. Two men stood out in the crowd gathering. They aren’t my neighbors. Also as I was leaving, I saw Ted pull up.”

“That was fast, even if he heard it over the radio.” Brody strode to the fireplace and took the rifle down from over the mantel. “I’ll make sure I get this back to Paul. We need all the firepower we can get.”

“We’ll go to Willow’s ranch. I’m leaving my Jeep and taking Paul’s old pickup truck. I think it’ll get us there. Paul’s been talking about selling it for scrap so there are no guarantees.”

“It’ll be better than your car.

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