Into the Flames

by Multi-Author

  Her smile widened.

  The door opened and Josh Bennet stood looking out at them. He was dressed in tidy jeans and a white button down shirt, appearing every bit the professional architect he was. His brown hair was combed neatly to one side, looking as if it had been sprayed into place. His gaze settled on Duncan, dark and brittle, before sliding to his sister and warming. “Thanks for coming, Hildy.” He reached for her hand, pulling her into an awkward hug.

  Duncan fought the urge to snatch her back. “Thanks for the invite,” he told Josh, just to see him stiffen.

  Josh inclined his head. “Come in. Come in.” He wrapped an arm around his sister and led her across a tile-floored entryway, leaving Duncan to let himself in. “I tried to call you a few minutes ago. I wanted you to bring some cream.”

  “Oh. Sorry. The police took my phone.”

  “What? Why?”

  “They’re just being cautious, I think.” Hilda shrugged, appearing unconcerned about the confiscated phone. Duncan knew better.

  “I think I have a burner phone you can use until you get yours back,” Josh told her.

  “That would be great. Thanks.” Hilda’s smile was genuine and, despite his reservations about her brother, he was happy to see it.

  “Come on, I’ll get it for you.”

  Hilda turned to Duncan. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Sure. I’ll be fine.” After they’d gone, Duncan stood just inside the door and looked around, noting the curving staircase and the crystal chandelier that threw diamonds of light across the walls.

  Whatever Duncan thought of Hilda’s brother, Joshua certainly seemed to have done well for himself. Duncan followed the sound of voices to the kitchen. When he arrived he stopped, blinking in surprise.

  A tall, good-looking man was hugging Hilda. A man who wasn’t her brother.

  “What a nice surprise,” Hilda told the older, distinguished looking man. “Josh didn’t tell me you’d be here.”

  The man grinned down at her. “We wanted to surprise you.” He grasped her hands. “Are you okay? You’ve had quite a time of it lately.”

  Duncan took note of the stiff way Hilda held herself and the way she tugged her hands away as quickly as manners allowed. She turned as he walked into the kitchen, holding out an arm for him. Duncan moved to her side, his gaze locked on the older man, and took the arm she offered. He noticed she held a cell phone in her other hand.

  “I don’t think you’ve met Duncan?”

  The man’s smile didn’t reach his eyes any more than Josh’s had. He offered Duncan his hand. “Nice to meet you, Duncan. I’m Adam Standish. Hilda’s friend.”

  “And boss. He owns…owned…Standish’s.” She frowned.

  “Now, let’s not bury the patient before it’s dead, honey.” Standish obviously spoke to Hilda but his gaze stayed locked on Duncan’s…almost hostile. “We’re going to get the old place up and running again.”

  Hilda nodded. “Adam’s an old friend of the family,” she told Duncan.

  “Oh?”

  “A friend of our father’s,” Josh added. “Would anybody like a drink?”

  “I’ll take some wine,” Hilda told him. “You know what I like.”

  Josh grinned. “I do. But since I knew you were coming I stocked up with a few of your favorites. Why don’t you come with me and tell me which of them you’d like?”

  “I can do that.”

  Duncan watched brother and sister go off arm and arm with mixed emotions.

  Standish touched his arm. “Let’s go into the living room and get comfortable, shall we?”

  Once they’d moved into the other room, Standish fixed Duncan with an assessing look. “You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”

  He jerked his gaze to Standish. Despite the other man’s coldness, Duncan saw no reason to lie. “I am. I probably always have been.”

  Standish frowned. “What do you mean?”

  That was when Duncan realized Standish didn’t know who he was. “You’ve been a friend of the Bennet family for years?” When Standish nodded, Duncan added. “You don’t remember Cecily Yves? Or, as you would have known her then, Cecily Bennet?”

  Standish’s face paled slightly and he scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “Ahhh…Duncan. Of course. I always wondered where you ended up.” He shook his head. “How in the world did you two find each other again?”

  Laughter, bright and cheery sounded from another part of the big house and something warm swirled in Duncan’s gut. Hilda sounded happy. “Fate, I guess. I’m a fire investigator and I was called to Hilda’s house fire.”

  “Of course.” Standish shoved his hands into the pockets of his slacks. “I have to admit I’m surprised, son. You of all people should know to keep your distance from Hilda.”

  The man’s words, delivered in such a matter-of-fact way, gave Duncan a jolt. “I’m sorry?”

  “She nearly killed you, son. That is why you and your mother left isn’t it?”

  Duncan was too shocked to reply at first. A moment later, Hilda and Josh returned with tall glasses of wine and he didn’t get the chance. Forcing a smile onto his face, he took the wine she’d brought him.

  “This chardonnay is excellent,” she told Duncan. “I hope you don’t mind that I picked it out for you.”

  “Of course not. I trust your judgment completely.” Duncan took her hand and lifted it to his lips, kissing it as he slid Standish an angry glare.

  “Dinner will be ready in a half hour,” Josh told them. He threw Standish a conspiratorial look and Duncan’s pulse spiked. He had the sudden urge to get Hilda out of there.

  “Until then, why don’t we take a seat? Adam and I have something we want to discuss.”

  Hilda’s smile dimmed and worry slid through her blue gaze. “That sounds daunting.”

  Josh placed a hand on her shoulder, urging her to sit. “I won’t lie to you, sis, it is something we weren’t looking forward to, but it has to be done.”

  Duncan didn’t sit. He reached for Hilda’s arm and pulled her close. “I think we should go,” he told Hilda.

  She held his gaze for a moment and then frowned slightly, turning to her brother. “What’s going on, Josh?”

  Her brother looked to Standish and the older man inclined his head. “Honey, I think you know. Obviously we all wanted to believe your problems were in the past…”

  “Whoa!” Duncan interjection. “You two are crazy if you think she had anything to do with these fires.”

  Hilda blinked. “Is that what this is about?” Heat climbed into her face, turning it pink. “You think I set the fire at my house and at the restaurant?”

  “We love you,” Josh interjected. “We’re just trying to help—”

  “Help!” Shock lifted Hilda’s voice a few octaves. “Accusing me of burning people’s homes down and…and killing people…that’s how you help?”

  Josh stepped forward. “I know it’s not your fault, Hildy. What happened to Mom…”

  Standish threw Josh a look and he clamped his lips closed, lowering his gaze self-consciously.

  She started toward the door. “I’m leaving.”

  The older man grabbed Hilda’s arm. “You need help, honey.”

  “Let go of me!” She tried to jerk away but he refused to release her.

  Duncan barely bit back a growl as he moved forward, gripping the older man’s wrist. “Let her go now or you probably won’t like the consequences.”

  Standish released Hilda, raising his hands and stepping away from them.

  Hilda lifted a gaze that was snapping with rage toward Standish. “I can’t believe you think so little of me, Adam. You let me run your restaurant. Gave me all kinds of responsibility. How could you do that if you thought I was an arsonist?”

  “I didn’t want to believe you started that fire on purpose all those years ago. Like everybody else I thought it was an accident.”

  Hilda sw
ore, her small hands clenching into fists. She turned her ire on her brother. “And you…do you really think I’m capable of doing these things?”

  “I don’t want to believe it…”

  “Bastards!” Hilda started toward the door.

  Duncan got into her brother’s face, his jaw so tight he thought it might break. He was holding onto rage with the slimmest string of control. “You ripped your sister’s heart out tonight, Bennet…again. You got her here under false pretenses and then ripped her in two. You are the vilest form of life.”

  “Yves, if you love her you’ll work with us. She needs help.”

  He turned his rage on Standish. “You’re an idiot if you think Hilda would do this.” He pointed a finger at the older man, moving into his comfort zone. “Stay the hell away from her.” Jerking a look at Josh he added, “Both of you.”

  He was halfway to the door when Josh spoke again, stopping him in his tracks.

  “You’ve always been blind to her faults, Yves. You wouldn’t see that Hilda’s sick if she dumped gasoline on you and lit the match. You’re the idiot.”

  He wasn’t going to do it. Had told himself he wouldn’t throw old rumors and accusations around…but Josh had pushed him too far. Duncan turned around and let the poison infesting his mind loose on the room. “And you’ve always tried to blame her for your weakness, Bennet. You hate that your sister is good. She’s smarter than you and a better person than you’ll ever be. You had to take her down to your level, didn’t you?”

  He looked at Standish. “You asked why my mother and I left? I’ll tell you why. Because my mother saw that vile monster over there torturing some of the neighborhood animals. She found him with Hilda’s little dog. He’d killed it. My mother told her husband what she’d seen but he not only didn’t believe her, he lashed out at her…at me.” Duncan felt his lips curling with distaste as he looked at Josh again. “If anybody’s capable of doing what you’re accusing your sister of, it’s you.”

  “My dad was right, Yves. That stuff your mom thought I did, that wasn’t me. That was my friend, Tommy. I was trying to get him to stop when she saw us. He was sick. He did all sorts of stuff that summer.”

  “That sounds like a very handy excuse,” Duncan told him. “Too bad you can’t prove it.”

  “It’s not an excuse. It’s the truth.” Josh glared at Duncan. “But I don’t expect you to believe me. You’ve always hated me because Hilda and I were close. You never could forgive me for that.”

  “And yet you’re the one accusing her of being a killer, and I’m the one defending her.” Duncan turned and stormed out of the house then, so mad he was afraid that if he hesitated he might just kill the two smug jerks with his bare hands. He burst out of the house, prepared to reassure Hilda that the two men in the house were wrong about her.

  Nearby, down the street happy voices broke the night. The carefree sound seemed strange framed within the events Duncan had just experienced. A door slammed nearby. Seconds later, an engine fired and someone, probably the neighbors Duncan had heard talking, drove quickly down the street, away from Duncan. He barely noticed, his mind so full of what he had to do next.

  He knew he’d have his hands full because Hilda was starting to have doubts about herself. Standing on the sidewalk next to his car, Duncan quickly realized he was going to have a harder time reassuring her than he’d imagined.

  She was gone.

  * * *

  Hilda felt guilty for ditching Duncan, but she needed time to think…to be alone. Having Josh and Adam gang up on her and basically accuse her of being a murderous sociopath not only broke her heart, it was also terrifying when added to what Detective Raul was thinking.

  As she’d stood there listening to her family beg her to seek help for something she didn’t do, she realized she was in real danger of going to prison for the arson she herself had been a victim of, as well as the murder of some poor stranger.

  Hilda trailed her toe through the loose dirt beneath the swing and stared at the headlights flashing by on the overpass in the distance. Her mind raced along with her pulse. How was she going to prove she was innocent? She’d tried so hard to put the ugliness of her past behind her. Coming to Indianapolis was supposed to ensure that happened. But the past had risen up again, grabbing her in its choking grip, and she was somehow right back where she’d been before.

  Trying to leave it all behind hadn’t worked. Hilda suddenly realized that, if her past was going to wrap ugly fingers around her present, the only way to extinguish it and find the arsonist was to go back and solve the mystery of that long ago time.

  Hilda closed her eyes, letting the obscurity of night in an empty playground slide over her. She took a deep breath and forced her mind back to that other time…that other place…where her once carefree life had begun to take a bad turn.

  At ten years old, she’d probably been too old for dolls, but she still liked to play with them. She’d pretend the Barbie doll was her and the Ken doll was Duncan and they’d do all sorts of fun things together. Go to the movies, to the beach, to romantic restaurants like the ones Hilda had seen on TV and in the movies.

  That day she’d been behind the couch, hidden from view of her brother so he wouldn’t razz her about the dolls when he came home. Barbie and Ken, a.k.a. Hilda and Duncan, were at a restaurant, sitting on doll-sized chairs with a potted plant arching overhead for ambiance.

  Thinking of the work she’d put into the setting made Hilda smile. Every detail of that pretend date was still clear in her mind.

  She’d thought about the pretty candle which always burned in a romantic restaurant and looked around for something she could use. Spotting a red crayon beneath the couch, Hilda had dropped down to reach for it, and had seen the book of matches there, hidden among the dust and clutter.

  She’d pulled out the matches and held them in her hand.

  The matches disappeared and a photo appeared. Hilda cried out. She shook her head and she was holding matches again.

  But the photo couldn’t be that easily discarded. It was too monstrous to be real…

  Hilda’s heart began to pound. Her mind tried to swing away from that moment, preferring the gray cloud of ignorance to the reality hidden just beyond the fog.

  Hilda gritted her teeth and forced the memory forward…

  Josh’s voice…angry and scared. She looked up from the matches and frowned.

  What’s he doing home? He should be at his game.

  Realization bloomed. She’d missed Josh’s game! He was going to be so mad at her. Still clutching the red crayon, Hilda shoved to her feet, placing her hands on the back of the sofa and stopped as a tall, stiff form strode past the door. Angry eyes swung in her direction, then past her, to a spot just beyond her shoulder.

  She started to turn.

  Movement flashed.

  Pain flared. The crayon dropped from her fingers.

  The gray fog swirled.

  “I thought I’d find you here. You always visit playgrounds when you want to be alone.”

  Hilda jumped, her eyes shooting open. She nearly fell off the swing, grasping the chains just in time to keep from tumbling to the flattened grass beneath her feet. “What are you doing here?” She pushed to her feet as he approached, a chill razoring along her spine.

  He moved closer, reaching for her arm. And then the fog slipped away and she remembered.

  Hilda cried out and started to run, but she didn’t move quickly enough. Long arms wrapped around her waist…pinned her arms to her sides…and she threw her head back trying to hurt him enough to escape. It didn’t work, he only tightened his grip, laughing.

  As he dragged her toward a nearby car, Hilda finally realized all she could do was scream. But the roar of the cars spinning by overhead overwhelmed the terrified sound.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Duncan slipped a shaky hand through his hair, pacing the sidewalk beside his car. His gut told him she was
in danger, but he was at a loss as to how he would find her. Reason said she couldn’t have gone far on foot. Unless she’d managed to snag a cab. Duncan dismissed that option as being unrealistic. She’d only been away from him for a couple of minutes.

  It would have been a monumental coincidence for a cab to drive by right in the moment she exited the house.

  No. She was on foot. He eyed the street Josh’s house was located on and despair bloomed. It was situated at an intersection, with streets going off in all four directions. She could have gone in any one of them.

  If he could only call… Duncan’s head shot up. The burner phone! He turned around and ran toward the house. He’d get Josh Bennet to tell him the number of the cell he’d given his sister and, if she didn’t answer, he’d have Detective Raul trace it. With any luck he’d find her within the hour.

  He only hoped she could stay out of the killer’s sights for that long.

  * * *

  Hilda tugged at the strips holding her wrists to the chair and looked around. The loft studio was the epitome of retro chic, with a flare that seemed compatible with the man who owned it.

  The man who’d abducted her from the playground stood looking down at her, his expression contemplative.

  Wide strips of wet cloth had been wrapped tightly around her hands and feet, crushing her fingers and toes painfully. More of the strips lay in a pile on the floor nearby. Nausea bloomed as she remembered the poor manager in Sissy’s building. The stained pile of discarded wrappings on the floor beside the tub. “Why are you doing this?”

  He cocked his head. “I think you know why, Hildy.”

  “No, I don’t! I don’t know anything, except that this is somehow tied to that fire years ago.”

  His expression didn’t change. There was no regret in his gaze, no concern about what he was doing to her. She couldn’t believe she’d so misjudged him all those years. “You heard something you shouldn’t have heard that day, Hildy. Something that presents a great danger to me. I had hoped pinning the Artist’s handiwork on you would take you out of the picture…” He shook his head. “But I hadn’t counted on Duncan showing up and getting in the way. He always was a pain in my ass.”