“Sounds like you have your doubts about his guilt.”
“Doubts, yes.” He glanced sideways at Runyon. “You know much about pyromania?”
“Some. I handled a couple of firebug cases when I was on the Seattle PD. You’re convinced that’s the kind of case it is?”
“Where the fires are concerned, what else?”
“Could be a grudge thing. Somebody with a mad-on for the community.”
“That’s possible, I suppose,” Rinniak said, “but it doesn’t fit Jerry Belsize. No cause to torch the school or the Odd Fellows hall or the Adamson barn. Looks to me like they were random targets. That argues for the firebug explanation, only he doesn’t seem to fit there, either. You investigated him. What’s your opinion?”
That was the main reason Rinniak was being so candid; he wanted Runyon’s input. “On paper he doesn’t seem to fit the profile.”
“Except for the fact that he’s young. Most firebugs come from poor environments, broken or dysfunctional homes-adore their mothers, hate their fathers. Repressed loners with low intelligence, low self-esteem, emotional retardation, deep-seated sexual hang-ups. Setting fires is a substitute for the sex act, the shrinks say. Gets them excited, temporarily relieves the sexual tension. But it doesn’t last, so they keep on doing it.”
Runyon started to nod. The steady throb in his head changed his mind.
“Belsize had a normal upbringing, and seems to be anything but sexually repressed. He’s had a string of girlfriends ranging back to when he was about fourteen.”
Runyon said, “Not every bug is a textbook case. Some have other problems, other motives.”
“But you’d think that if Belsize was one of those, there’d be something in his background to hint at it. Sure, he’s had some brushes with authority, but it’s all been pretty minor stuff-two speeding tickets, a public scuffle, driving with an open beer in the car. He’s got a decent job; his employer likes him; he seems to fit into the community at large. So why would he all of a sudden go off on a crazy spree this summer-setting fires, committing homicide?”
“Simmering under the surface all along.”
“That’s possible, sure. All firebugs are potential murderers, so the experts claim, whether they fit the profile or not. But here’s another thing. Belsize comes from a solid home and has always gotten along with his folks. Seems to’ve gotten along with Manuel Silvera, too. Doesn’t make sense to me that he’d beat and hang a man in his own backyard. Psychos don’t do it that way, unless they’re the kind that take out their entire families and then themselves. They set their fires and make their kills somewhere else.”
“If Belsize is innocent, those kerosene cans and the timer material were plants. Who’d want to do him that much harm?”
“Good question. On the surface, he’s an unlikely target. Everybody I’ve talked to likes the kid.”
“Except Kelso,” Runyon said.
“Yes. Except Kelso.”
“Sounded to me as if he’s got it in for Belsize.”
“I think maybe he has. There’s a personal angle-he’s a single father with a daughter not too long out of high school. Ashley’s the rebellious type. She went against his wishes and dated Belsize on the sly for a while last year. Kelso caught them in some heavy breathing one afternoon and literally kicked the kid out of his house. Slapped him around in front of Ashley and two of their neighbors. If Belsize is guilty, why didn’t he torch Kelso’s house or the substation instead of a couple of public buildings and a barn?”
“Afraid of the man, maybe. Vented himself on others’ property instead.”
“That’s a stretch, seems to me.”
“Is Kelso as hard-nosed as he seems?”
“And then some. Runs his office with an iron fist. He wouldn’t give his own mother a break if he caught her jaywalking.”
“Maybe he was hassling Belsize. Or the real perp, if the kid’s innocent. Hound somebody enough, he might just go off the deep end.”
“I’d hate it if that’s what’s behind these crimes. Don’s hard and stubborn, but he has a good record. If he overstepped himself, the entire sheriff’s department will suffer for it.”
They’d reached the Gray’s Landing exit. As they rolled along the road into town, Rinniak said, “Might as well stop at the station and pick up your belongings now. Be quicker if I’m along.”
The substation was in an old Spanish-style building across from an oak-shaded park. There were no security barriers when you walked in, just an open office with a countertop bisecting it a few paces from the door. Runyon wondered if Kelso knew how good he had it up here in the country. Probably didn’t care, if he did. This was his town, his world. He wouldn’t worry about anybody breaching it; if anything, he’d dare it to happen.
He was seated now behind a desk that had a polished top and everything on it neatly arranged, talking to a stringy middle-aged man dressed in a suit and tie. The older man was bareheaded, but from the way he stood, his entire demeanor, he might have had a hat in his hands. Oozing deference, as if he was there to beg a favor.
There was a hinged flap in the countertop; Rinniak lifted it and Runyon followed him through. “Hello, Mayor,” Rinniak said to the stringy man.
“Joe. I just came to see if there was any word yet.”
“We’ll get him,” Kelso said flatly. “Don’t you worry about that.”
“It can’t be any too soon. The media is already sniffing around.. there’s a reporter and camera crew from Redding in town…”
“I know. They were waiting for me when I got back a little while ago.”
“Negative publicity. My God, it’s just what we don’t need.”
Rinniak saw to introductions. The stringy man was Carl Battle, owner of a local hardware store and mayor of Gray’s Landing. His handshake was damp and so brief his palm barely touched Runyon’s. Battle oozed sweat as well as deference; his scalp, visible beneath sparse caramel-colored hair that had a dyed look in the overhead fluorescents, glistened with it. If ever a man didn’t fit his name, it was this one.
He said to Runyon, “I’m sorry about what happened to you last night.” As if he felt compelled to take personal responsibility. “Gray’s Landing is normally a quiet, peaceful town. No crime or violence to speak of until… well, I guess you know about the fires. And now a murder, and the assault on you…”
Runyon said nothing.
“I understand your concussion isn’t serious. You’re feeling all right now?”
“Passable.”
“We’ll pay your hospital costs, of course. The county, I mean. We can authorize that, can’t we, Joe?”
“I doubt it,” Rinniak said.
Runyon’s Magnum, license case, car keys, and flashlight were in a tagged plastic evidence bag; Kelso produced them from a file cabinet drawer, demanded that Runyon sign a release form before he turned over the bag. The deputy wore a tight, fixed expression the entire time. He wanted Runyon gone-Rinniak, too, for that matter-as much as Battle did. The difference between Kelso’s reasons and the mayor’s was that the deputy didn’t care about negative publicity. He didn’t like outside investigators, county or private, invading his territory or questioning his conclusions or taking the spotlight off him. Runyon had known cops like him before. Minor tyrants and righteous glory hounds. What Kelso wanted more than anything else was to arrest Jerry Belsize himself-be the hero, cement his authority, bring in a promotion.
Outside and moving again, Rinniak said, “You wouldn’t know it from that display in there, but Carl’s a good man. Civic-minded and honest. It’s just that he doesn’t know how to deal with a situation like this.”
“He seemed afraid of Kelso.”
“I don’t know about afraid, but Don makes him nervous, that’s for sure. Part of it’s the iron fist and Carl being mild mannered. Part of it is that his son, Zach, is dating Don’s daughter.”
“Kelso doesn’t like Zach any more than Jerry Belsize, is that it?”
“He doesn’t think any man’s good enough for Ashley, but he tolerates Zach. I think what worries Carl is that his son will get Ashley in trouble. There’s no telling what Don would do then, given his temper and his moral and religious stance.”
As they bounced along the uneven access lane to the Belsize farm, Runyon had flashback images of last night’s ambulance ride. He held himself rigid on the seat to keep the ache in his head to a minimum. The place looked the same as it had yesterday, everything wilted and shimmery from the heat; the only signs of what had
