“How?” Cal asked. Perri found herself dreading the answer.
Shiloh’s face flushed with anger. “They broke into my house, stole some things she didn’t know about, and sent them to her.” He took a step toward Cal. “Now, Brenda wanted nothing more than her house, a fresh start, and I wanted nothing more than Mimi, and someone’s taking her away from me. This Liv Danger. I looked on your Faceplace pages after Brenda told me. You and this Jane Norton, there’s a lot of hatred there. I don’t appreciate it spilling over onto me.”
“We have nothing to do with this.”
“Bull. You blame that girl. Maybe you blame me and Brenda, too. That it? We didn’t do enough to save your kid?” He glanced at Perri, gave her a measured look. “That your problem, sugar? You want some kind of sick revenge?”
“Please leave,” Cal said.
“Last chance. Confess to doing it and I’m not going to go to the cops. I’m sure they’d love to talk to you about Brenda’s house.” He glanced around the entry hall, the nice painting on the wall, the sculpture on the marble-topped antique counter, the fine furniture in the living room.
“We don’t know anything about you or Brenda’s arson,” Cal said. “Now, get out of here.”
“Fine, don’t be helpful.” His gaze went between them, lingering on Perri. “Weird, though, that you and Jane Norton came together to see Brenda, isn’t it? Sorry to have bothered you.” He turned and walked back out the open door. Cal shut the door and locked it. Perri went to the window.
“He’s walking to the Nortons’ house,” she said.
Cal opened the door. Perri slammed it. “They’re not our problem.”
“What has happened to you?” he said, pushing her aside and opening the door. “Do you honestly see Jane or Laurel Norton burning down the house of the woman who helped save Jane’s life? Or taking on that thug? If you target these people, you’d have to learn about them. Do you see Laurel wanting to provoke someone like Shiloh Rooke?”
“But you see me doing that.” She steadied her voice.
“I don’t know what you might do right now,” Cal said.
She followed Cal onto their front steps, her heart pounding at his words.
But Shiloh Rooke, glancing back and seeing Cal follow him, veered off from the Norton house and got into his car. He started it up and drove away. It was an unexpected retreat.
Cal turned to Perri. “If you know anything about this, you better tell me, right now.”
“I don’t.” Some of her shock had been replaced by anger. “The same goes for you.”
“I don’t know anything.”
Perri said, “What do we do?” But she was thinking, You know what you have to do. You have to prove it’s Jane or Laurel. And then you have to end it. Not with an arrest and a trial that could go wrong. End it, forever. That second thought made her tremble.
Cal said, “I need to talk to the arson investigator in San Antonio and tell them what we know. I promised Ms. Hobson that. And I think we need to find out more about this Shiloh Rooke guy. Will you be OK here alone?”
“I’m not afraid of him,” Perri said.
“OK. Have a good day. I’m going for my run now.” And off he went.
She had to get ready for work. But she had a new purpose: find out how Laurel and Jane could be responsible for what had happened to Shiloh and Brenda Hobson. She could call Randy Franklin, hire him again.
Or just talk to Jane. She had to come out of the house at some point.
Maybe there wasn’t a need for a lot of subterfuge. She texted Mike that she had an emergency and would be a bit late to the office. She went and poured two cups of coffee. She went outside and crossed the driveway and, taking a deep breath, rang the doorbell, thinking, Beware of grieving mothers bearing gifts.
27
JANE HAD SLEPT in her own bed for the first time in months, and slept late, a combination of exhaustion and the unexpected comfort of being home. Mom had been asleep when she got home from San Antonio. One of the wine bottles was mostly empty. Jane put it in the recycling and went to bed.
When she woke up, Laurel was gone, a note left at Jane’s bedside:
You know you are welcome to stay here as long as you need. You can stay here forever. I’ll take care of you.
Jane showered, dressed in some spare jeans and a favorite black T-shirt still in her closet, and checked her phone: Amari Bowman, the student who had seen them at Happy Taco and passed David’s note to her in class, had left a voice mail for her while she was in the shower. Amari said, I really have nothing to say to you. Don’t call me back.
Jane thought, We’ll see about that. She ate a quick bowl of cereal, and when she was washing her bowl, the doorbell rang.
She opened the door to find Perri Hall holding two cups of coffee, and Jane thought, She’ll throw one in my face.
“I would like to talk to you,” Perri said. “Calmly.”
“No slapping, no hair pulling? The coffee is not poisoned?” She kept her voice steady.
“No,” Perri said. “If I said I was sorry, you wouldn’t believe me. So I’ll say I was deeply upset by what had been done to my son’s grave, and I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“That’s actually fair. Your husband was very fair to me last night.”
Perri waited. You want to be accepted, forgiven. I hope I can sell you on this. “Might we talk? About what’s going on? Please?”
“Come in.” Jane held the door wider and Perri came inside.
“Is Laurel here?”
“She is not,” Jane said.
Maybe Laurel was spending her time and resources playing the Liv Danger role, Perri thought. Burning down houses and upsetting thugs.
They went to the kitchen table, just off the entrance to Laurel’s home office. Perri set down the cups of coffee. Jane picked up one. “Hazelnut, not arsenic?”
Perri ignored the comment. “I’ve seen the postings on Faceplace from this Liv Danger,” Perri said. She had to be careful. She needed Jane to make a slipup, so she could not be threatening. “That must have been very upsetting for you.”
“She seems to be blaming you.”
Hence, it’s you or your mom, Perri thought. “So. Who do you think this is?”
“Someone who hates me. Or you. Or both of us.”
“You understand that Brenda Hobson wasn’t the only target. The other paramedic was targeted, too.” Briefly Perri explained about Shiloh Rooke.
“Brenda told me he’s dangerous.”
“I would say that was fair. After accusing us, he headed toward your house, but Cal followed him and he got into his car instead. He might still bother you. Or your mother. I thought you should know.”
“Thanks.” It felt strange having this conversation. Because this was a war against Jane, too, and she could think of only one person willing to wage it: Perri.
Perri took a deep breath. “If this is just someone who hates you, then why involve innocent people? These people were only doing their jobs.”
“‘All will pay.’ Someone is mad at the people involved in the crash. All of them.”