The Pretender by Helenkay Dimon

Author:Helenkay Dimon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-12-26T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

No one got much sleep that night. The fireboats arrived after the flames had been doused. An inspector and her team spent hours searching through the charred remains of the library. The sun had risen before they left.

Armed with a cup of coffee and operating on less than an hour of miserable sleep on a porch chair, Harris approached the main house. He’d showered at the guesthouse, but now he was back and ready to figure out the next step.

The smell of burned wood and metal tinged the air. The smoke had cleared and architects, handymen, builders and a host of other professionals would soon descend to clean up and repair. Harris figured they had three days—tops—before they lost control of the island. That meant less than three days to solve Tabitha’s murder or risk Gabby being a perpetual suspect. Or worse, in jail thanks to whatever trumped-up charges Stephen could create.

Harris walked into the house, no longer too haunted to walk around freely. A new danger lingered. The front of the house had escaped the blaze but still looked like a war zone. All the fire and rescue people had stomped through it. There were muddy tracks on the floor. Tables were moved. Two hoses lay in the entry.

He made his way through the hall to the library. The wallpaper darkened and peeled the closer he got to the room. In the doorway, he saw it. The devastation. The room had been transformed into a black-and-gray wasteland. A few of the bookcases closest to the patio doors appeared relatively unscathed. The rest of the room looked like it had been leveled with a blowtorch.

Black streaks stained the ceiling. The table had been reduced to ash. Curled ends of burned books and papers littered the floor. And Damon stood in the middle of it all with his hands on his hips.

“Should we be in here?” Harris asked as he sipped on the steaming-hot coffee Ted had made for him.

“The inspector said it was safe but not recommended. I took that as a yes.” Damon bent down and picked up a soggy blob that was once a mantel clock. “Her report will say the fire was intentionally set, but that’s not a surprise to any of us.”

“And once again Gabby will be blamed.” Harris could see it on the news now. A new scandal for Gabby Wright. Another unexplained moment of horror in her life that the media and gossip blogs would twist.

She lived in a cloud of suspicion and Harris couldn’t understand why. Even now, no one had pointed a finger at her, but he knew it was coming. From the tense way she’d walked around Kramer’s cottage this morning with her head down, keeping to herself, she expected the bright light to shine on her once again.

“Good thing you were sleeping with her when this crime happened.” Damon’s eyebrow lifted as he stared at Harris. “It would be really helpful if you were awake.”

“We were.” This time he could actually provide her alibi.

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