Noah shifted in his seat, suddenly uncomfortable. He had buried the situation with Randi as deep in his mind as he could, not that it had done him much good. But seeing her brought all his feelings back again, his love for her and his deep-seated need to be with her. A need he’d fought for six years only to have it blossom to full strength the moment he laid eyes on her.
“Let’s just say I made a big mistake six years ago and move on, okay?”
“We can move on, but I’m telling you this one thing. You can worry about her all you want to. That’s part of the deal. But you can’t control her. If you love and respect her you have to let her do her thing, just like you do with yours. That’s all the advice I’m giving you because other than that, I’m not touching the situation with Randi with a ten foot pole. Now. Tell me about this so-called theory.”
“You won’t like this, either.”
“I get there’s a lot today I won’t like. Now get to the point before I dump this beer on you.”
“Okay, okay.” He pulled out his cell and scrolled to the Notes app. “The source on this is very convoluted but it was passed along to New York because the snitch was afraid if it went to any media in San Antonio it would be swept under the table.”
“I don’t think I like where this was going,” Jeff told hm. “Why not just go to the SAPD if whoever this is has valid information?”
“You won’t like this either.”
“Spit out, Noah.” Jeff’s eyes flashed with controlled anger. “Did he say the cops are crooked? That maybe one of us is setting the fires? For what reason? What’s the point?”
“He says a cop has found them the arsonist to do it.” God, he hated even saying the words. “With a cop to manipulate the investigation the whole thing is a piece of cake.”
Jeff banged his fist on the table. When the waitress hurried over to see if anything was wrong he apologized and waved her off.
“Did this fine upstanding source of yours happen to say why?”
“Money. A lot of it.”
“There would have to be,” Jeff snapped. “I can’t see a cop going off the rails just for a cut of the insurance money.”
“So then what’s the purpose of these fires if not just for the insurance? Besides, if these complexes are all owned by one company isn’t that suspicious? Wouldn’t Randi and Dan get onto that immediately?”
Noah nodded. “That’s another wrinkle in the sheets. Each complex is owned by a separate corporation, with a separate board of directors and separate bank accounts. I need to dig into the money trail and also see if I can unravel the corporate structure. I did some preliminary research before I left New York. These companies are owned by other companies owned by other companies and…Well, you get the point.”
“Damn.” Jeff scrubbed his hand over his face. “It makes me sick to hear this. Bad enough that people were endangered by the fires but to think a cop is involved…” He shook his head. “So what do you think is the plan?”
“Don’t know. That’s one of the things I’ll be digging around for.”
Jeff was silent for a long time. “I can’t just sit still on this one, Noah. You can’t ask me to. I have an obligation as a cop.”
“Right now you don’t even know who you’d be investigating or have any evidence, right? And I don’t want to tip anyone off until I have more evidence.” Noah fiddled with his water glass. Here came the hard part. “I don’t want to go to Randi on this, for obvious reasons. But if you can get me copies of this Dan Kessler’s reports it would be a huge help. I still have sources here in the city.”
Jeff leaned forward on his elbows. “On one condition.”
“And what’s that?”
“That you keep me in the loop. I understand where you’re coming from,” he added quickly as Noah opened his mouth to protest. “Much as I hate doing it this way, I will keep every bit of it to myself until we have concrete proof of who’s doing this. Just don’t get yourself killed doing something us cops are better suited for.”
“Unless it’s the cop who happens to be involved,” Noah pointed out.
They were both silent for long moments after that. Finally Jeff signaled the waitress to bring the check.
“By the way,” he said. “If you aren’t doing anything tonight, like hooking up with a hot date, I’m having a few people over to my townhouse to watch the Texans and the Cowboys. Want in?”
“Yeah, sure. Thanks for that. No hookup. I’d just be watching the game alone in my hotel room, or the bar. What can I bring?”
“We never seem to have enough beer. Game starts at seven but everyone usually stats straggling in around six thirty.”
Noah slid out of the booth. “See you then. And thanks for lunch.”
As he walked outside he couldn’t stop himself from wondering if Randi would be there. And he damn sure wasn’t going to ask Jeff.
Chapter 4
“I’m totally bumfuzzled,” Randi said, leaning her head back against the car seat. Her brain was whirling but it seemed to be in too many directions. “Not a condition I enjoy being in.”
“I have to say, I am, too,” Dan Kessler agreed with her. “If I didn’t know better I’d say we had an arson gang working here,
