Brotherhood of District 23 Complete Series

by Amy Briggs

  “I’m fine. I’m just frustrated. And I’m tired. You know, Brian and I are well aware what we do for a living can be dangerous, but I have such a bad feeling this has something to do with us, and I can’t stomach people getting hurt because someone might have it out for us or something.,” I essentially exhaled all of that out to her. She turned her body to face mine and put her hands in her lap before replying thoughtfully.

  “There are people in this world who do bad things for what they think are good reasons, and some who just do bad things because they are cold inside. We have to just take care of the people we can and look after our loved ones. It is the best we can do. You boys take the weight of the world upon you sometimes, and you need to remember you cannot fix everything. I know it seems hard to do, but I promise you this will all work out in the end the way it is intended.”

  I knew she was right, but it didn’t make the situation suck any less. I was actually glad I was staying with her; she had a way of making me feel much calmer. Isabel did the same thing to me; she brought me peace, and we fit together in a way I couldn’t explain, like she was part of a puzzle I’d been looking to solve without even knowing it. While she may have hesitated and she may have reservations about dating or relationships—and hell I did too; I hated that label that tended to ruin things—my desire to break down her walls and bring her into mine was overwhelming my thoughts.

  “I know you’re right, mama. I just worry.” I leaned back on the sofa, relaxing a little bit and getting lost in my thoughts of the investigation, the fires, and Isabel.

  “I saw you outside taking to that beautiful detective. She seemed to know you quite well.” My mom was trying to get information out of me now.

  I turned my head to her, seeing her smirk and raising eyebrow, causing me to laugh. “She’s just a friend, mama. Don’t start. Between you and Jo, I swear I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”

  “She might be a friend right now, but I saw something. You know I know things, Matthew.”

  “Not this time.” I looked away, knowing she would be able to tell I was a big fat liar.

  “Mmmhmm. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Have your secrets. I still know things. Would you like a drink, sweetheart?”

  “Mama, I would absolutely love a drink. We’re drinking the good stuff tonight though. I’d say we earned it.” As I got up to fix us both a whiskey, she stopped me.

  “You sit. I’ll get it for us. And yes, let’s have the good stuff. I’ll make one for your brother too. I see him walking back up this way now.”

  “Hey, the crews are cleaning up and heading out now. You guys ok in here?”

  “Yea, mom is fixing the three of us a drink. Then you should go home to Jo. You’ve been gone since dinner time, and she’s called me three times. I texted her and let her know what was going on.”

  “Fuck, I completely forgot my phone in my truck. She’s gonna kill me.” He smacked his own head after checking his pockets and not finding his phone.

  “She isn’t going to kill you, because I told her you were outside handling things, Isabel was here, and I was staying with mom. I also let Jax know too, because you know he would’ve been over here in two seconds as soon as he saw the dispatch here.”

  “Oh, he wasn’t home with you?” Brian asked.

  “No, I actually don’t know where he was. I assumed he was out having drinks someplace or something. We are roommates. We don’t do everything together, you know,” I replied sarcastically.

  “Yes, I know. So, you gonna tell me where you were the other night when you didn’t come home? Or where you were this morning?”

  “Nope, I’m not.”

  My mama was saving the day with some drinks, thank the Lord. The three of us talked and sipped our whiskey on the rocks, agreeing the next afternoon Jo and Brian would come and relieve me so I could go do some things I needed to while someone would still be with mom. They didn’t know those things I needed to attend to were Isabel, and no matter how many times Brian, Jo, or my mother questioned me, I was protecting what I had going on. Frankly, Jo and Brian had no room to bitch about it either, since they’d kept their little relationship secret for who knows how long before they both confessed to me. Once it was out in the open, it was up for scrutiny and judgment, and I wasn’t game for that; and I knew Isabel sure as hell wouldn’t be either.

  The next morning, Mom made me an absolutely insane breakfast that consisted of bacon, eggs, toast, sausage, and she even tried to push pancakes on me too. Her cooking was amazing, but I wasn’t trying to be a slug all day. I actually wanted to go to the gym at some point before setting my plan of breaking Isabel’s walls down into motion. I still couldn’t call what I felt about her feelings, because ugh, feelings; however, she was on my mind constantly, and just having a plan for the next time I’d see her made me happy.

  Much of the day dragged while I checked my watch what seemed like a thousand times waiting for Brian and Jo to tag me out. After a good night’s sleep and an amazing home-cooked breakfast, I was feeling much less anxious about the fires and how they might relate to us, and I was far more excited to go work out and see Isabel than anything else.

  Once Brian and Jo arrived, we exchanged some quick pleasantries before I ran home to get changed so I could work out and then get the rest of my plan together. There hadn’t been any fires that day, which was a welcome break for all of us, but that left a nagging feeling something was still looming. Knowing it was a waiting game, really, I went on about my business for the day, simply hoping for the best.

  After sleeping like the dead, I met Kevin back at the station to regroup and get our list of potential witnesses together while we waited for lab results to return. Fortunately, the overnight had been uneventful, and there were no new fires to investigate yet, so we were able to sleep and get back to the business of solving this crime. We briefed the captain on our progress and made our way back out to the scene of the first fire. Brian’s report gave us a list of about five witnesses we would reach out to who had given statements, and I hoped one of them would be able to give us a description we could go on.

  “So, do you think this arsonist is trying to make a statement or something?” Kevin asked me on the ride.

  “You know, I’ve been thinking about that. I feel like he is, but it’s only a gut feeling. I obviously have nothing to go on there,” I replied thoughtfully, thinking through what we knew.

  “I’m having the same feeling. It’s obvious none of these fires are truly related, but the abandoned building fire last night truly did seem like a diversion from the car fire at Cavanaugh’s mother’s house.”

  “I think you’re absolutely right. Today, we’ll talk to the fire marshal about the building fire, because maybe some other clue was left behind. Those fires were so close together, I’m hard pressed to believe the same person started them both, but I still think they were connected.” I definitely believed the building fire was a diversion, but that could mean two arsonists and not just one. “I think we should send the forensics team over to the abandoned building fire now, to get a jump on any evidence that might be there.”

  “Yea, you’re right. Give them a call now, and we’ll meet up with them after we talk to some witnesses.”

  I made the call. I explained our suspicions to the forensics team leader and requested a team be sent over right away to look for evidence outside of just the normal fire investigation. I also reminded him we had been finding piles of the same brand of cigarettes at each of the other fires in locations that appeared to be prime for viewing the scene, making sure he had his team looking for that as well. In the chaos of the evening and leaving that fire to get to Cavanaugh’s mom’s so quickly, we really hadn’t spent any time on that scene, and I was concerned we had left something unfound in the heat of the moment.

  We arrived at the first house and knocked on the door, where a small older woman with grey hair met us with a concerned look.

  “Good morn
ing. Are you Mrs. Lorraine Hill?” I asked.

  “Yes, I am. Who are you?” She seemed scared.

  “I’m Detective Isabel Cruise, and this is my partner, Detective Kevin Connor. We are investigating the fire that happened a couple days ago. We understand you gave a statement to the fire department, so we wanted to talk to you about what you saw. Do you have a moment?” We showed our badges, and she opened the door fully, inviting us in.

  “Please come in and have a seat. I’ll tell you anything I can. Although, like I told the fire department, I didn’t see much.” She showed us to a small sitting room off of the front of the house. As I looked around, I saw several pictures of family on the walls, and a lot of books. This woman read a lot.

  “No worries, ma’am. This is really just a follow-up. We have to do our own set of paperwork on things like this, so we want you to tell us what you told the fire department, and we’ll go from there so we can get out of your hair.” Kevin smiled at the woman. He could be very charming, and the lady was falling right into it, smiling back and even blushing a little bit.

  “Well, I sit out here and read every night. That night, I heard the alarm for the store across the street go off, so I went to the window but didn’t see anything. Sometimes alarms go off around here; most of the time, people just ignore them anyway. I went back to my book but couldn’t get into it because of the sound. When I saw smoke coming from the back of the strip mall, I dialed 911. I went out to my porch to watch what was going on. A small crowd of people had started to form, mostly my neighbors,” she said.

  “When you say mostly your neighbors, were there other people standing around too?” I asked.

  “Well, there was one guy I didn’t recognize. This is a small little neighborhood; I know just about everyone. There was one guy standing in front of my house, smoking cigarettes, and I asked him to move down the block, because I just can’t stand cigarettes.” Hot Damn! That was our guy. It had to be.

  Trying to not sound too excited, I exchanged a knowing glance with Kevin as I asked, “Mrs. Hill, can you describe that man for me?”

  She looked at me thoughtfully for a moment, and then began. “Well, he was tall and fairly thin. He was white, and when he turned around to look at me, I noticed he had piercing blue eyes. They were cold. He didn’t answer me; he just tossed his cigarette butt into the street out front and walked away. He didn’t seem like a kind man at all.”

  “Mrs. Hill, do you think you could come down to the station and work with a sketch artist? Describe this man so we could get a better idea of what he looked like? We think you may have told the arsonist to get off your lawn, and having a description would be a tremendous help to us.” Kevin went right in for it. He knew as well as I did this was the guy we were looking for and we had just struck gold with Mrs. Hill here.

  “Of course, I can. If you could just give me a few moments, I can go right now. Anything I can do to help.” She stood up and went into the kitchen, where I heard water running. She must have needed to clean something, I guess.

  “Ok, I’m going to go outside and call this in so we have a sketch artist waiting for her. This is the lead we’ve been waiting for.” I stood up.

  “Yea, agreed. I’ll figure out what she’s doing, and we’ll see if she wants us to take her or what. I’ll meet you out front in a minute.”

  My adrenaline was pumping knowing we finally had a solid lead and soon we’d have our lab results and a sketch. We were closing in on this guy. That’s what I loved about my job. He wouldn’t be on the loose much longer. After I called in and arranged for the sketch artist to be waiting for Mrs. Hill, I wandered around the front porch area and the adjacent street just to see if there was anything of note. Sure enough, there was a small pile of butts right in front of the house. This guy smoked a ton and left us breadcrumbs everywhere he went. It was like finding Easter eggs.

  Mrs. Hill and Kevin came outside, while I was putting the latest set of cigarette butts in an evidence bag. Kevin and I grinned at each other; he knew what I had found.

  “Mrs. Hill is going to have us give her a ride over to the station. Her son is going to come meet her there so she can get home later,” he informed me.

  “That sounds lovely. Mrs. Hill, would you mind if we stopped for some coffee along the way? I could use a refill. It’s our treat.” I smiled at the little woman clutching her purse on her front porch.

  “I’d like that very much. If your station is anything like the ones on TV, the coffee is probably terrible, so let’s stop before we go,” she said very seriously, making me laugh out loud.

  Kevin chuckled as well and led Mrs. Hill to the car, letting her into the back seat and then meeting me in front of the car for a quick chat.

  “So, it looks like our guy was going to watch from right here until Mrs. Hill told him to scram. That must be when he went over to the parking garage. I think by this time tomorrow, we might be able to make an arrest.” I was almost giddy. “And he keeps leaving these butts everywhere. It’s crazy he doesn’t know we can pull DNA off of them. I could do a happy dance right now. I love catching bad guys.”

  “You’re hysterical. Come on, let’s get the fuck out of here and check in with the lab. I know they were backed up, so we might not have anything until morning, but between the sketch and the DNA, we should be able to identify him no later than tomorrow.”

  We hopped into the car and took Mrs. Hill and ourselves to get some decent coffee before we made our way back to the station. All of these fires and scenes were scattered around town, so it took longer than I would have liked to get everywhere we were trying to be, but Kevin and I agreed that after dropping her off with the sketch artist, we would take the rest of the day off unless we got a call from the lab.

  Once we had our witness situated with the sketch artist, we dropped our latest batch of cigarettes off at the lab and checked in on how long it would take to process our evidence. Unfortunately, they informed us it was going to be at least late night, early tomorrow before they’d have anything for us. While that news wasn’t the best news we could have received, we weren’t really surprised. It’s not like it is on TV; you don’t get lab results in a few hours in any situations. Most labs are backed up by weeks, and in our case, because there could be felony charges associated with arson, we were getting moved up the list, but we weren’t first.

  I decided to go to the gym before going home and finding out what my appointment with Matt was about. I was kind of tired, but the thought of seeing him gave me a flutter, knowing how he made me feel every time I was with him. I knew anticipation coupled with a good workout would wake me right back up, and I was intrigued by what he had in mind. That devilish smile of his created a warm sensation right to my core.

  When I got to the gym, I found Murphy, the owner, going over paperwork feverishly behind the desk. “What’s wrong, Murph? You look troubled.” I stopped to lean over the desk.

  “Hey, Cruise. Just going over finances for the gym. The fighters aren’t bringing in enough scratch, and we don’t have a lot of members like yourself who come here to just work out and use the equipment, so I’m trying to figure out where I stand financially and whether or not I can keep the place. I’m getting too old for this shit, frankly.” He ran his hand over his aging, bald head. A former professional MMA fighter, Murph started this gym as a way to bring a different style of training to everyone, but also as a way to train professional fighters. I believed he didn’t know enough about business and was probably cutting too many people who were down on their luck a break.

  “You thinking you might sell it?” I was genuinely intrigued. I also didn’t want the gym to close. It was no frills; with all the equipment you would need to get a solid workout and plenty of space.

  “I’ve been wanting to retire for years. The wife has about had it with this place and me as it is. I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I’d hate to foreclose, but I don’t want to sell it to any douchebag who wants to turn it into one of those $
10 per month gyms that gives away pizza to keep people fat and coming back for more,” he groaned.

  “Yea, I hear you there. I hate places like that. It’s like workout fast food. Maybe someone will come along and make you an offer or something. Let me know how I can help. I’ve gotta get a quick workout in today, but I know a lot of people. Maybe I can figure something out with you.”

  “Thanks, doll. Have a good workout. What am I saying? You always do. You put half the guys in here to shame!” He winked at me.

  “Thanks, Murph. I’ll catch up with you later when I have some ideas.” I walked off to the locker room to change and get my workout done.

  As I punched the heavy bag and worked on some of my strength and conditioning, I observed the gym and the people using it. I loved going to that gym, and I’d hate for it to close. I wondered how bad off Murph was financially and if it weren’t something I could invest in. I had plenty of money in the bank, no debt, and generally speaking, I had the time to take on a project like a gym. I mulled it over for a while, continuing to beat up the bag and myself, and made a mental note to call my accountant to see if it would be a worthwhile investment. Maybe if I owned the gym, I could get more cops and firefighters working out here. The more I thought of it, the more I liked the idea. Maybe Matt would come work out here. It’s near his place, and oh how fun would it be to watch him work out?

  Getting turned on thinking about his muscular arms around me, holding me where he wanted me while he had his way with me, all while bringing me such deep satisfaction, I became completely flushed in anticipation of seeing him. My workout almost done, I looked over at my phone to see I had a message from him. Hoping it was details about our appointment this evening, I opened it.

  8pm. I’ll pick you up. I promise you’ll like it. Wear cowboy boots. Remember, it’s not a date, it’s an appointment…

  Wear cowboy boots? I was not a cowboy boots girl. Okay, I had a pair somewhere in my closet my sister had convinced me I had to have. I had worn them that day and never again since. Where in the hell would he be taking me that I needed to wear cowboy boots? I was significantly less excited about this appointment now, knowing there was a costume for it.