fire.”
“Did you hear a pop?”
She closed her eyes and tried to remember. Did lightning always pop? “I don’t think so.”
“Well, I can tell you, I don’t think it was lightning.”
Leigh and Ben both turned to stare at Sarah.
“How do you know?” Ben asked.
She put her hand on her hip. “’Cause I smelled something funny before I ever smelled smoke.” She nodded at Leigh. “Don’t you remember me asking about that strange odor? And you said it was pizza.”
“Are you sure?” Ben asked.
Sarah nodded. “I’ve been thinking it was gasoline, but the smell wasn’t quite right. Now I think it was coal oil.”
Ben frowned. “Coal oil?”
“I think younger folks call it kerosene.”
Blood drained from Leigh’s face and an icy chill shook her body. No. Sarah had to be wrong. Lightning had struck the house. She clenched her hands. It had to be lightning.
Because if it wasn’t, her insistence on staying in the house, on handling things on her own, could have cost TJ his life.
7
T he muscles in Ben’s shoulders tensed. “Are you certain you smelled kerosene?”
“Not 100 percent . . .” Sarah’s voice trailed off. “But I smelled something.”
If Sarah was right, it meant Billy Wayne Gresham had not acted alone. It meant Ben had made a mistake. It meant three people could’ve died tonight.
Headlights swung into the drive, and Ben recognized his mother’s old Cadillac. How had she found out about the fire so quick?
Marisa Logan slammed the Cadillac door and marched toward them with the look of a drill sergeant. When she was within ten feet of him, she nodded. “You can wipe that surprised look off your face. I heard about the fire over the scanner. The reverend and his wife are with your dad.” Then she took Leigh by the hands. “You and TJ are staying with us. Sarah too.”
He shouldn’t be surprised to see his mom. But, he was glad she was here because he’d already decided the safest place for Leigh and TJ tonight was at his parents’ house.
“No.” Leigh hugged the stuffed bear to her chest. “I can’t impose.”
“Dear, you don’t have a choice. You don’t have a place to stay, and we have plenty of room. You’ll need some things, of course, but we can stop at Walmart.”
His mother’s voice was gentle but firm. There’d be no opposing her. He ought to know. He’d butted his head against her iron will more than once and lost.
“I’ll pick up whatever they need,” Ben said.
“Wait a minute. I’m not staying with your family. I’ll stay at Sarah’s hotel.”
“I can’t protect you in a hotel.” He shifted his weight, digging in. “If I have to make it official and put you in protective custody, I will.”
“But you don’t know if the fire was set. I—”
Sarah laid her hand on Leigh’s arm. “Honey, you don’t know it wasn’t. Do you want to risk TJ’s life? I don’t see that you have much choice.”
Leigh opened her mouth. And closed it. She took a few steps toward the ambulance, and he followed her gaze. TJ, with a Braves baseball cap on his head, had stripped off his T-shirt and had the medic’s stethoscope pressed to his thin chest, listening to his heartbeat. He shifted back to Leigh. Worry lines pulled her brows together, and something akin to panic rode in her eyes.
Ben wanted to take her in his arms and hold her until she could smile again. “It’s going to be all right.”
At first he thought she hadn’t heard him, but then she turned and stared at him, her green eyes dark. He knew what she was thinking—that he had let her down.
“Nothing will ever be all right again,” she replied just as softly.
Leigh couldn’t think with Sarah and Marisa pressuring her. She walked toward her car, the teddy bear hugged to her chest. Sarah meant well, she acknowledged that, but there had to be another way besides going to the Logan house.
“Leigh, what’s so bad about accepting help?”
Ben had followed her.
She whirled
James Patterson
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