By the Light of the Moon

by Cindy Caldwell

  The kiva stood from floor to ceiling, built into the corner, a tiled seat all the way around it. It reminded him of the fireplaces in the adobe houses in New Mexico, and he spent many nights reading by the light it produced, basking in its warmth. Now, he wanted to share that with Hanna.

  She walked into the room, her long, black hair shiny and wet, hugging his flannel shirt around her and looking a little lost in the sweats he’d given her that were way too big. Her eyes grew wide at the fire and she walked quickly over to it, sitting along its edge.

  “This is a beautiful kiva,” she said, holding out her hands to warm them.

  He held out his hands closer to the fire next to hers. “Thank you. I love it, too. It reminds me of home.”

  She quickly pulled her hands back and looked at him. He held out a glass of wine to her. “Thought you might appreciate this.”

  “Yes, thank you.” Her eyes sparkled by the light of the flames. “So, now that we don’t look like chimney sweeps any longer, tell me what you’re thinking about the fires now.”

  As he finished explaining about each fire having what he would consider to be an explosive device, and believing that those explosive devices ignited the fires, Hanna fell silent for a moment.

  When she finally spoke, she said, “So, you believe that the lacquer thinner can in the first fire had been full of something and had been ignited, starting the fire?”

  “Yes, exactly. I saw the can the second time I was there, hidden under some rubble. The homeowner said he did hear pops, like an explosion, but assumed that it was fireworks on the beach.”

  “And on the second fire, we all know there were two explosions. Everybody heard them.”

  “Yes, but Mike swears that he had only one propane tank and there was nothing else in the structure that could have, or would have exploded.” Colin was pacing now as Hanna asked more questions.

  “Today, at my house, we both know there as an explosion,” she said, smiling slightly.

  Colin rubbed the bump on his head slowly. “Yes, that’s a pretty safe statement,” he said.

  “Well, I can tell you that there was nothing in there that could have exploded. It was just a secondary garage that I kept tack in...horse feed and saddles. Nothing at all that could have gone up like that.”

  “That’s not your primary garage? No gas? Nothing flammable? Not even any cleaners?”

  “No, I am positive.”

  “Did you see anyone in it or around it? Someone who didn’t belong?”

  “I hadn’t been in there yet this morning, but I had been out walking the horses around the corral. I was just getting ready to go in and get their saddles when I saw the smoke.”

  “When was the last time you were in there?”

  “When we came home from the resort last night, Megan and I fed the horses and put the saddles away. There wasn’t anything in there out of the ordinary.” She filled his wineglass, handing it to him as he continued to pace.

  “So, if someone had placed something in there, an explosive, it would have had to be last night or early this morning.

  “Yes, I guess so,” she said, adding another log to the fire. “But how would it have ignited? Certainly someone’s not gone as far as to have something that sophisticated. Here, in Baja? I just can’t believe it.”

  “I don’t want to believe it either, Hanna, but something’s not right. First thing in the morning, we can head over to your house and see what’s left in the rubble. Maybe we’ll find something that can point us in the right direction.”

  Suddenly, Colin stopped pacing. He slapped his forehead with his palm, almost spilling his wine. He set it down quickly and rushed into the kitchen.

  “What’s up? Where are you going?” Hanna asked as he ran back in with his camera.

  “With all the commotion, I forgot I’d taken pictures of the fire scene. I want to take a closer look at the pictures of the things I think may have caused the explosions. Maybe we can see something that I missed the first time. I wasn’t looking for an arsonist then. Maybe I’ll see something new now.

  Chapter 20

  “There has to be something in these that I’ve missed,” Colin said, flipping through the pictures on his phone. “Here are the pictures of the first fire.”

  Hanna slid her thumbs over the screen of the phone, enlarging picture after picture. “I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. You said you saw a can of lacquer thinner in there afterward?” She handed over the phone. “Find the picture that shows that area.”

  Silent, he flipped through the pictures one by one, his frustration clear on his face. “I’m not sure I took one,” he said, looking at picture after picture. “Ah, here it is. Right here, in this corner. Under this pile of debris.”

  Hanna turned on his computer, plugging in the phone to transfer it to the bigger screen. As they waited for it to boot up, Colin started a pot of coffee, pacing as the aroma filled the room. He didn’t want to believe that somebody could be doing this on purpose, but the signs were adding up.

  “Colin, look at this,” Hanna said, staring at the screen. “I don’t know if it means anything or not.”

  He rested his hands on the back of her chair, leaning over her shoulder and peering at the screen. “Can you make it bigger?” he said, his stomach dropping as he noticed something familiar.

  “What is that?” she asked, pointing to the screen near where he’d said he’d found the can.

  He stood up, stepping back from her chair. Rubbing his eyes with his hands, he shook his head, not wanting to believe what he saw on the screen.

  “What is it?” she asked again, reaching for his hand.

  He walked toward the window, his gaze steady on the ocean. “They’re wires, Hanna. Wires and a timer.”

  Her gasp startled him and he turned to her. His heart ached at the fear in her eyes.

  “But they weren’t there when you went back the next day. And the can was covered up.”

  “Right. Means somebody went back and took them before they could be found. Wanted it to look like an accident. We might have found the same thing if we’d gone back to Mike’s earlier. Too late now.”

  “Well, it’s only been a couple of hours since the fire at my house. Think anything might be there?”

  “Oh, no. People who do this kind of thing are dangerous. I’m not having you involved. Don’t even think about it.” His hands on her shoulders, he pushed her back down on her chair.”

  Brushing his hands away, she stood up, her hands on her hips. “If you think you’re going by yourself, you don’t know me at all, Colin.” Her expression had changed from fear to anger in a flash. “It was my house, after all, and if someone’s doing this on purpose, I want to find out.” She pulled on her sooty boots and grabbed her hair into a ponytail, throwing on a baseball cap from the rack by the door. “If you think for one minute—“

  He raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. We’ll see what we can find, but he may have already been there to remove the evidence.”

  “Well, we’ll never know unless we go check. And the sooner the better,” she said, grabbing her coat.

  He’d grabbed a couple flashlights before he’d headed out the door. Nala refused to stay behind, tossing her ball at him before he’d gotten out the door. “Not now, girl,” he said as he closed the door behind the three of them. “Later. I promise.”

  As they drove to Hanna’s house, she grew silent, her eyes trained out the window toward the desert. “It’s so beautiful here,” she said as the moon glowed, casting night shadows of the giant saguaro and ocotillos. “It’s just so hard to believe that someone would be so disrespectful.”

  “Disrespectful?” Colin said, glancing in her direction as they turned down the dirt road to her campo.

  “Yes, disrespectful. To people, to nature, to the community,” she said, her eyes brimming with tears.

  “I suppose that’s one way to look at it. I couldn’t begin to guess why people do these things. I just
wish they would stop.”

  She wiped the tears that had spilled down her cheeks with her sleeve. “I guess I just believe in the good in people. And I’m always surprised when it’s not to be found.”

  “Cheer up, lass,” he said. His jaw clenched as they approached her house, the moon lighting up the rubble. “We could still be wrong about this.” He hoped he’d sounded convincing. “I’d much rather it be nothing rather than something,” he said, attempting a smile.

  They pulled up to the house, Colin pulling around the back, away from the road. As they walked around to the corral, Violet and Regalo greeted them loudly. Nala jumped out of the Jeep and slipped through the posts of the corral, heading toward the horses.

  “Nala, stay away,” Colin called as he whistled for her. Handing Hanna a flashlight, he headed toward the building which hours before had been engulfed in flames.

  “You said it started in here, right?” he said, motioning to the horse shed.

  She came up behind him, her flashlight pointing to where she believed the fire had begun.

  He handed her the hard hat he’d grabbed from the car and placed his own firmly on his head. “Here, put this on.”

  She took off her baseball cap, shoving it in the waistband of her oversized sweats. Putting the hard hat on, she said, “This has to be the most ridiculous outfit I’ve ever worn.”

  “I promise I won’t take your picture,” he said with a smile as he moved forward into the remains of the shed.

  Grabbing her hand, he pulled her behind him slowly as he moved debris aside. “You’re sure there were no propane tanks in here?”

  “No, none. Like I said, only horse feed, tack and water.” She gingerly poked at the charred saddles and bridles as they crumbled at her touch.

  They stood in the building, moving their flashlights around slowly, illuminating every corner in turn. On the last corner, they both stopped. From behind a rack of bridles still hanging on the wall, Colin noticed something different.

  “What’s that?” she said, her flashlight trained in the same area.

  Colin moved toward the rack, his hand reaching out to one of the strings hanging with the other bridles. “It doesn’t look like leather.”

  As he held it in his hand, he followed it up beyond the rack, tugging gently. It led up the brick wall, ending at a ledge about a foot over his head.

  Hanna moved her flashlight upward, following the wire. She gasped with surprise as it the light rested on the shelf just above their heads. “That wasn’t there yesterday. I didn’t have any shelves in here.

  “I need something to stand on. I can’t see over the ledge.” Colin looked around for something intact to give him a boost.

  Hanna turned her flashlight outside, spotting a five-gallon bucket that had held water in the shed and had been thrown outside in the blast.

  “Perfect,” he said as she handed him the bucket. He turned it over, stepping on it to get a better view of what was on the shelf. “Oh, no.”

  “What? You have to stop doing that. Just say it. You’re killing me.”

  He handed down a gallon can, empty, and several wires. She looked at them as he climbed down from the bucket. “What is this?”

  “Smell it,” he said as he inspected the wires he held in his hand.

  She took a whiff of the can, her nose crinkling. “Ugh. Lacquer thinner. So glad you showed me what it smelled like before,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “I didn’t have anything like this in here. I’m positive.”

  “And I’m betting you didn’t have one of these, either.” He held out his hand, showing her the timer.

  Her eyes widened as she saw what was in his hand. “A timer. A can of lacquer thinner. Not an accident,” he said slowly as he grasped the meaning of what they’d found.

  “I don’t like this at all,” she said, drawing her jacket closer around her. “If the pictures you took of the other fires were accurate, he’d come back later and remove the evidence, at least the wires and timers,” she said, shivering.

  “Right. He hasn’t had time to come back to this one. We’d better get out of here,” he said. Whistling for Nala, he grabbed Hanna’s hand, quickly pulling her toward the Jeep.

  Chapter 21

  The full Baja moon was dead overhead, shining so brightly that they turned their flashlights off as they walked quickly to the car. They started to round the remains of the building, heading to where Colin had parked in the back of the house, and stopped dead in their tracks as the headlights of a car approached.

  “Who’d be out here so late at night?” Hanna asked, holding Colin’s hand tightly.

  “Not like anyone should be on this road,” he said, pulling her quickly behind the only remaining patio wall.

  As the car came closer, it slowed, the driver turning off the headlights. It crept slowly forward, eventually pulling alongside the arena. It stopped, the engine idling, as Colin and Hanna watched.

  “Do you think that’s the arsonist?” Hanna whispered. “I don’t know who else would be out here.”

  “Could be anybody in a Jeep like that. Everybody has them,” he said, taking note of the dark blue Jeep, just like his. They were almost standard issue here in Baja and many people had them.

  “Well, it’s my house. I’m going to see who it is,” Hanna said, stepping out from behind the wall before Colin could stop her.

  The car door had opened before she started over, the driver with one foot on the ground. Hanna turned on her flashlight, shining it in the direction of the car. Colin turned on his flashlight with a sigh and headed out after her.

  They’d taken only a few steps, their lights trained on the car, when the driver slammed the door, gunning the engine and doing a u-turn. Rocks flew in the air as the car sped back toward the main road, dust shooting behind it, Nala chasing behind.

  Colin whistled for Nala, and she gave up the chase, running quickly back to him and sitting by his side.

  They both stared at the retreating car, their flashlights hanging limply at their sides.

  “Did you see that?” Hanna finally said, her voice low.

  “Uh, yeah,” he said, not believing his eyes.

  “I get that it was a blue Jeep. There are tons of them around here.”

  “Right,” Colin said. “But I thought I had the only one with flames painted on the sides. That one was exactly like mine.”

  Chapter 22

  Colin woke slowly, his head fuzzy, and it took a few moments for him to realize he had fallen asleep on his couch. Hanna was beside him, and he pulled a blanket over her as he got up, tucking it under her chin. Her black hair was tousled, part of it falling over her eyes. He smoothed it back gently, surprised at the feelings he had for this woman he’d only recently met.

  We have been through a lot together in a very short time. He watched her sleep and knew he wanted to keep her safe, out of danger. Am I the one who’s put her in danger in the first place? He shook off the thought and headed to the kitchen to start the coffee.

  They’d traveled back to Colin’s house almost in a daze. “Too much information,” he’d said as he put another log in the kiva. They’d talked about the fires, the Jeep, the timers, trying to make sense of it all.

  She’d insisted that they find out who was behind it. She wanted to make it right, to stop the fires. But how? All they had was some pictures, some wires, some timers and some ideas. By the time they’d talked it over, she’d convinced him to get the local police involved.

  He stood on the patio, the dolphins once again gracing him with their morning travels. As he watched them jump, splashing gracefully into the sea, he felt Hanna’s arms reach around his waist from behind. Her cheek felt warm against his shoulders, and he hoped he’d be able to keep her safe.

  A knock at the door startled him, and he looked at her quizzically, his eyebrows raised.

  She shrugged her shoulders. “Not my house. Not that I know the visitors I get either,” she said, smiling.

  He opene
d the door, his eyes widening. “Captain. Good morning,” he said, opening the door wider.

  “Good morning, Colin. Sorry to disturb you.” He tipped his hat and nodded toward Hanna. “Good morning, Hanna.”

  “Morning, Captain,” she said. “Would you like some coffee?”

  The captain cleared his throat as he twisted his hat in his hands. “I’m afraid I’m on official business. Brought some company. Colin, the Delegado would like to talk with you. About the fires.”

  Colin knew the local Delagado, the South Campos appointee responsible for disagreements and anything criminal. He’d met Senor Jimenez several times at fire scenes.

  “Oh, great, sir,” Colin said, smiling at Hanna. “We’ve found some things that might be of interest.”

  The captain shifted from one foot to another, looking uncomfortable. With his eyes lowered, he said, “Son, I think you’d better just answer their questions today.”

  Colin’s brows furrowed as he looked from the Captain to Hanna. Her face was expressionless as she moved to the computer, seemingly straightening the desk up and placing the prints of the photographs in stacks. She turned off the computer, quickly placed a book on top of the photographs, grabbed her coffee and sat on the couch.

  The Delgado strode in the front door, a uniformed police officer behind him.

  “Hello, Colin,” he said, extending his hand with a wide smile.

  Colin shook his hand, stealing a glance at the captain who now sat on a barstool at the counter. “Hello, Senor Jimenez. What can I do for you?”

  “We have been asking questions about the fires. Three fires in almost as many days is very many,” he said, leaning against the kitchen counter. He folded his arms over his chest. “I hear that you have done a good job with the fires, and have been back afterward to investigate.” He peered at Colin from under the brim of his hat, his eyes narrowed.