by Alec Peche
“Having a police car parked inside the garage when a house is on fire is probably a bad idea,” Emma replied.
“I don’t have another building to hide your car inside.”
“It’s your lucky night. I’m driving an unmarked vehicle as my patrol car is in for maintenance. I'll park it in front of your garage but take the government plates off.”
“That will work. I’m going to park down the road and walk to my house with Nathan. We’ve got to get going if we’re to beat the arrival of the Burnt Widow.”
With that, Jill walked into the bedroom, turning the lights on, and woke Nathan up.
“Special Agent in Charge Ortiz believes that the arsonist is on her way to my house. I have Deputy Emma Davis on her way there now. We need to leave as soon as we get some clothes on.”
Nathan didn’t ask any questions. He just got dressed. Once they were in her car and on the way, she told him about the fire at Leticia’s house. She also described her plan for protecting her property and capturing the arsonist. He couldn’t think of a better plan.
Jill pulled into a convenience store parking lot about half a mile from her house. Jill saw lights approaching on the road and hoped it was not the Burnt Widow. She released her breath when she saw Emma’s unmarked police car.
They moved over to Emma’s car, and she pulled out onto the road and toward Jill’s vineyard.
“I never know whether to love or hate the phone calls I get from you, Jill Quint,” Emma said. “You’re usually in some kind of bad trouble, but you make my shift go much faster, and I get a rush of adrenaline trying to arrest whoever’s trying to kill you.”
“Personally, I love having you on my side. You’re really good with a gun and cool under fire. That’s the kind of help I need when I’m facing down a crazy criminal.”
“Gee, what am I, chopped liver?” asked Nathan.
“Nathan, the problem with you and me is we’re good at those martial arts moves, but we’re not faster than a speeding bullet, which is where Emma comes in.”
The tension in the cruiser was thick. Emma drove by Jill’s property, but they saw no cars or trucks on the road or parked in a certain radius around Jill’s house. They drove back to her house, and she used a remote to open the gate and close it again as soon as they were through. If the arsonist got close enough to the vehicle and looked in the windows, she would see that it was a police car. Jill tried to talk the officer into parking it inside her garage, but Emma was adamant that she needed to keep the car safe if the fire did start.
In the end, Jill had her park the car against the side of her barn that couldn’t be seen from the road. The car was in a safe spot yet wouldn’t get damaged if Jill’s house caught fire.
Jill looked at her watch and said, “If she was coming straight here from Leticia’s house, she should be here in about ten minutes. Where should we hide?”
“I would argue between the house and the vineyard. Most of your criminals seem to think they can walk to your vineyard and attack the house. If we lay in wait in the dark, we should get a warning of when the Burnt Widow enters the property, and that will clue us in to which path she’s taking,” Nathan said.
“I wonder how she found me. I went to all the trouble of transferring ownership of the winery to a corporation, and yet she still connected it to me.”
“You don’t know that. Maybe she’s not coming here at all. Maybe we’re sitting outside in the dark for nothing,” Nathan suggested.
Emma was typing something on her phone. She would need backup quickly if things went south here. Maybe she had the other patrol car parked in the same lot as Jill’s car. The deputy looked up from her phone and said, “You have your picture and name on your winery website. You may have gone through the trouble of transferring your property to a corporation, but you forgot to fix your website.”
“Darn, I thought I was so smart protecting my property.”
Jill heard the unmistakable sounds of a car approaching on the road. She whispered to Emma and Nathan, “Maybe this is her.”
The three of them watched and said almost in unison, “It’s the Burnt Widow.” What other explanation was there for the car slowing as it passed Jill’s property with its lights off at three in the morning? If it was an intoxicated driver, they would’ve hit a tree by now. The car continued past the vineyard entrance, and they heard it pull over. A car door opened, and then they heard a second sound.
Jill looked at Nathan and whispered, “What’s that sound?”
“I think she was getting something out of the trunk.”
Emma was talking quietly on her police radio. Jill wished she had thought to bring her night-vision goggles with her. If the Burnt Widow had them, she would see them much sooner than they would see her. That was a scary proposition as the arsonist could torch them before they had a chance to take cover. She had sweat rolling off of her at the thought of dying in a flame.
“We have a second patrol car, a fire truck, and an ambulance in the lot where we left your car. I have my body camera on so they can see and hear what’s going on.”
“We think she got something out of the trunk.”
“Doesn’t she use accelerants at most of her arson scenes? It would make sense that she would drive with them in her trunk. Anyone looking at the back seat of her car would be suspicious if she was carrying several gas containers.”
“Isopropyl alcohol containers,” Jill whispered.
“Iso what?” Emma asked.
Jill described what she had done to the victims as well as at Agent Ortiz’s house.
They were quiet and listened for any sounds.
They thought they heard the sound of a boot on dry soil. The three of them were crouched in a vine row farthest from the road. Jill caught movement and tapped the arms of Emma and Nathan to point out where she was.
Jill was milliseconds away from gasping out loud at what the woman was carrying in her hands. She thought she had seen pictures of it—it was a flame thrower. She almost lost it right there, she was so angry at the thought that this woman was going to burn her house down.
She whispered to Nathan, “I’m going after that arsonist. I’m not going to let her torch everything I love and have worked for on this vineyard. I’m going to turn the vineyard’s bright lights on, and we’ll go from there.”
Deputy Davis listened and shook her head in agreement. “Turn your lights on and see what she does next. Does she continue toward the house, or is she freaked out by the security lights and so she stops advancing on your house?”
Jill nodded, liking the deputy’s idea. Jill did a silent count while holding her phone, ready to swipe the app that controlled her security system. They all momentarily shut their eyes, knowing about the blinding light coming. When they were able to see under the bright lights, they noted that the invader was holding night vision goggles in one hand. She would be blind for a few moments as bright lights are especially painful when viewed through night-vision lenses.
Jill and Nathan sprang to a sprint to reach the perpetrator. Emma, loaded down with a bulletproof vest and equipment belt, walked speedily toward the three people grappling on the ground. She moved the flame thrower away from the arsonist and pulled her handcuffs off her toolbelt. In short order, Nathan had the woman’s hands behind her back as she was face down on the dirt. Jill could see flashing lights moving toward the house. Emma’s backup was here.
“Let me go! It’s dark out, and I accidentally wandered onto this property. I’ve done nothing wrong, and you must release me.”
Jill shined her cell phone light at the woman they had captured. It was an older Amanda Moore, but she smiled that they had trapped their arsonist.
“Hello Amanda Moore, or are you more used to the name Allison Montgomery? Local law enforcement and the FBI have been looking for you. As I’m sure you know, I’m Dr. Jill Quint. I’m a pathologist who found your DNA at all of the crime scenes where you murdered male dates.”
“I don’
t know what you’re talking about, and I don’t know who Amanda Moore is.”
Jill said to the two sheriff’s deputies, “If you want to put her in your jail, there are several people who plan to prosecute her. She’s wanted for the murder of FBI Special Agent Brandon Sanderson. She’s wanted by the state fire marshal for starting brushfires. She’s likely started fires in or near military bases, so they may want to interview her too. Why don’t we all head for the sheriff’s station? I’ll call Special Agent in Charge Ortiz and see about getting an FBI team here to interview her.”
Jill made a call to Ortiz, cheering on the fact that they had the Burnt Widow in custody. Leticia was on her way to the Palisades Valley. Jill also called Special Agent Lawrence and woke him up.
“We just took Amanda Moore into custody after she was clearly planning on burning my house down.”
“Where is she now?”
“On her way to the jail under the custody of the Palisades Valley Sheriff. Special Agent Ortiz is on her way. Here’s the address of the sheriff’s station.”
Epilogue
Jill was dressed in a slim, severe black dress with pearls at her neck. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun, and she looked graceful on three-inch heels. At her side, Nathan was handsome in a dark suit, white shirt, and gray tie. They were on their way inside Arco Arena for the funeral of Agent Sanderson.
His casket arrived behind a motorcycle escort of CHP officers. The hearse drove under a large American flag suspended from two hook and ladder fire trucks. From across the nation, law enforcement officers arrived to pay tribute to a lone FBI agent they hadn’t known except as a brother in arms. A limousine carrying Brandon’s fiancée, Leticia, and the FBI Director followed the hearse. There was silence as Brandon’s flag-draped casket was removed from the vehicle, and then eight pallbearers wearing FBI jackets moved the casket to its designated spot in the arena. There were pictures of the agent at various times in his career, and the last one was his engagement picture, Jill guessed.
The service started with a prayer, and then the FBI Director made his opening remarks. Music was played as they moved between speakers who started with scriptures and moved on to stories about his life. Brandon’s fiancée didn’t speak, and Jill couldn’t blame her. It was an emotionally exhausting day. Jill discussed the case she worked with the agent and the fact that it resulted in his death. She also tried to lighten the room, talking about her fear of fire and how the agent talked her through it. After more speakers, the casket was carried by the pallbearers back to the hearse, and many cars lined up to form a long funeral cortege to the cemetery. Once there, a twenty-one gun salute was followed by folding the flag for Brandon’s fiancée. The graveside service ended with bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace.”
Jill had managed to barely hold it together throughout the service, but when the bagpipes played their sorrowful music, she lost it and had rivulets of tears running down her face. Nathan passed her tissues and hugged her back to his car. They got inside and waited while the traffic began to clear.
“That was about the saddest funeral I’ve ever been to,” Nathan said.
“I warned you, and thanks for taking a day off work to accompany me here. I knew it was going to be an emotional day made all the worse by the symbols of a law enforcement funeral.”
“I guess you’ve attended a few over the years in your prior role as a medical examiner.”
“Actually, no. This is the first and hopefully the last I’ll ever attend.”
“It really serves to remind you when you see someone as young as Brandon Sanderson that life is short.
They were quiet during the drive home to the Palisades Valley, each lost in their own thoughts. They entered the gates of her vineyard to be greeted by Trixie. They went inside, and Jill kicked off her shoes and sat leaning against Nathan, sipping wine from a bottle he opened.
“Rest in peace, Agent Sanderson,” Jill said, clinking her wine glass to Nathan’s as they watched the breeze keep a huge leaf aloft and dancing across her vineyard.
The End
Also by ALEC PECHE
Jill Quint, MD Forensic Pathologist Series
Vials
Chocolate Diamonds
A Breck Death
Death On A Green
A Taxing Death
Murder At The Podium
Castle Killing
Crescent City Murder
Sicilian Murder
Opus Murder
Forensic Murder
Embers of Murder
Damian Green Series
Red Rock Island
Willow Glen Heist
The Girl From Diana Park
Evergreen Valley Murder
About the Author
About the author….
I reside in Northern California with my rescue dog and cat. I love to travel, play sports, read, and drink wine and beer. I enjoy the diversity of the world and I'm always watching people and events for story ideas.
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