Noah gritted his teeth. He had nothing but the faith that Carly was okay to hold this all together. Any other thought wasn’t tolerable. The worst-case scenario seldom occurred. If and when it did, there’d be time enough to deal with the incredible fear banked down behind his heart.
Right now, Carly being alive was the only reason for him to be sitting here wearing out his enamel. He’d been husbanding his energy, going down deep. It would be light in less than an hour. When the sun cleared the horizon, he was going to tear Fort Worth apart and find Carly.
He stood and came forward slowly. “Mark mentioned a pattern. Arsonists usually work an area, for the sake of convenience.”
He moved before the large map of Fort Worth posted on another wall with the fire precincts clearly marked. The sites of active arson investigations were pinpointed on the map, alike colored pins used to show which had been linked.
He’d stared at the six orange pins that represented some of the arson fires he’d been investigating. These were the ones he had now been accused of starting. They’d never stood out before. Six among a dozen more he knew were arson but had no leads on. They weren’t high priority. Nothing of true value had been damaged. In most cases, the houses had been derelict so long the city couldn’t find the legal owners. The locations weren’t clustered by convenience, neighborhood, access to highways, none of the things that usually led to an eventual suspect and arrest. These six fires were almost uniformly spaced around the city, which made them impossible to connect together until the source of the gasoline had been found to be identical to the gasoline in his lawn mower tank. That’s all he had. What had he missed?
Noah pointed to the middle of the circle of orange pinpoints. “The only thing these fires have in common is that they—Fuck!”
He stared at the place where his finger was jammed against the map. It was his block, practically on top of his house. “He made my house his bull’s-eye. That’s it!”
“Let me see that.” Durvan, Mark, and Jack moved in together behind him.
“Damn if you’re not right. The fires are spaced just about equally distant from your street.” Durvan smiled for the first time. “Good catch, Glover.”
Noah removed his finger. “There’s more. There’s a fire in an almost perfect ring around the city, except for—”
“—Edgecliff Village.” Mark looked embarrassed to have beaten Noah to speech. “Sorry.”
Jack smiled. “You know what they say. Don’t shit where you eat.”
Noah took a deep breath. “My fake suicide was a one-off. Up until then Cody was trying to frame me for arson. Because I didn’t know that, I didn’t notice the pattern.”
Crissie, who’d come in to work the desk, appeared in the doorway. “We just got a call. There’s a grass fire in Edgecliff Village. But it’s bordering on Fort Worth proper so FWDP is sending out a crew.”
“Who called it in?”
She looked at her notes. “An Edgecliff Village firefighter volunteer.”
“J.W. Cody,” Noah and Mark said together.
Crissie frowned. “How did you know?”
CHAPTER THIRTY
The sun was rising by the time Noah and Mark sighted the distant plumes of smoke from the grass fire that was their destination. Durvan was right behind in his own vehicle. They needed his truck to carry their equipment. The early rays illuminating the smoke showed the deeper gray was turning whitish closer to the ground as water and other flame retardants were applied at the base fire.
Unfortunately, they were wedged in with rush-hour traffic streaming up and down Village Parkway, along with school buses turning in and out of neighborhoods to pick up students. The snarl was further complicated by rubberneckers with nothing better to do.
Cursing under his breath, Noah pressed the floorboard on the passenger side with his right boot. He hated being a passenger! More than that, he hated not being in command. Every minute of delay was eating up his self-control.
Harley, in the backseat, began to vocalize softly. The pheromones pouring off his handler were disturbingly intense. Noah might look a study of coolness in his slouch, but Mark and Harley knew their travel companion was anything but.
Noah reached back a hand and stroked his partner. “It’s okay, Harley. It’s just taking us too damn long.” Useless anxiety wasn’t doing the job for either of them. Hold back, control emotion, and wait for the opportunity. That was practically his job description.
“Easy, bro.” Make flicked a glance Noah’s way. “This is our first solid lead. It’s going to get us what we want.”
Noah didn’t answer. Nothing to say. Carly was out there, somewhere. He knew it. He had to find her. Fast.
The thing he couldn’t keep from eating at him was why. Why had Carly put herself in jeopardy by talking with Cody? Why did she feel the need to do anything at all? For him? The idea scared the living hell out of him.
He wasn’t accustomed to anyone taking care of him. That was his job. He’d always shouldered it just fine. Would be doing so now, if she hadn’t disappeared.