Debra Cowan - Wild Fire

He pivoted and stalked out. Her captain turned, eyeing her intently. “You okay?”

“Yes.” Her muscles, gone rigid as Vince talked, finally relaxed. The headache returned. “Thanks for stepping in, y’all. I guess he just didn’t want to take no for an answer.”

“We’ll keep an eye out for him.” Shep’s dark eyes reflected concern.

Captain Oliver’s gaze narrowed as he watched Tyner pull away from the curb in his ambulance. “I don’t like him coming around my firehouse.”

“I’m sorry, Cap. I had no idea he’d come here.” Shelby tried to calm the boiling mix of fear and anger inside her. “I’ve told him more than once that things are over.”

“It’s not your fault, Fox.”

The phone in his office rang and the captain jogged past Shelby to answer it. Shep and Monroe moved up beside her.

“You sure you’re okay?” Jay’s ruddy face was as serious as she’d ever seen it.

“Yeah, thanks. I don’t know why the guy won’t leave me alone.”

“He might be a jerk,” Dylan said, “but he knows a good woman when he sees one.”

She cut him a look. “Don’t start with me, Shepherd.”

He grinned, opening his mouth to say something only to be interrupted by the shriek of the fire alarm. He and Monroe bolted for their gear; Captain Oliver rushed out of his office, stepped into his own bunker pants and steel-soled boots, and climbed into the driver’s seat.

Shelby wished she were going. She stayed out of the way and in two minutes flat, the truck roared out of the garage. She waited until they disappeared and then went into the kitchen, shaken up more than she liked by Vince’s visit. She finished putting away the groceries, giving in to a little self-pity that she couldn’t go on the call with the others.

Glancing at the clock, she saw it was nearly three. Her usual time for a snack. She took a bag of popcorn from the cabinet and stuck it into the microwave.

As it cooked, she fixed a bowl of cat food for the firehouse cat and carried it outside. Just as she started back in, an explosion ripped through the air. Training had her ducking as metal clanged against metal, thudded into the wall. Debris shot through the kitchen’s open doorway and across the bay’s cement floor. Smoke rolled out. She jumped to her feet, awkwardly grabbed the nearest fire extinguisher with her uninjured hand and then raced into the kitchen, killing the small blaze in short order.

She stared in disbelief at the powder-covered mess. The microwave’s door was across the room, its glass shattered. What if she’d been standing in here, watching the corn pop as she usually did? She might’ve been killed.

Fear formed a knot in her belly. Making sure all the embers were dead, she left things as they were and called Clay.

He arrived in less than ten minutes, his jaw stiffening when he saw the microwave. Despite having left for work early this morning when she had, his navy slacks and green-and-blue striped polo shirt looked fresh.

He took her chin in his hand and looked her over from head to toe. “Are you okay?

“I’m not hurt. I was just coming back into the firehouse when it happened.”

“Blue eyes, you’re gonna give me a heart attack.”

“Tell me about it,” she muttered. She wrapped her arms around herself. “This is too strange, Clay.”

He brushed her hair away from her forehead and eyed her healing cut, then propped his hands on his hips. “Show me where you were and what you did.”

Shelby walked him over to the cabinet where she kept her popcorn. “After Vince was here, the guys got a call—”

“Tyner was here?” he asked sharply.

She nodded.

“When? How long? What did he want?”

“It was less than half an hour ago. He was here maybe five minutes. He wanted to talk about getting back together. At first, I told him here wasn’t the place to talk, but he wouldn’t leave so I told him—again—that I wasn’t interested in seeing him anymore.”

“How did he take it?”

“Not any better than last time. He kept after me until Cap and Monroe and Shepherd came out, and told him to back off.”

“Did Tyner threaten you? Try to push you around like he did the night you broke up with him?”

“No, he just grabbed me.”

A savage light flared in Clay’s eyes. “I really want to hurt that guy.”

A police cruiser pulled up. Two uniformed officers stepped out of the black-and-white, met at the end of the sloping firehouse drive by the crime scene technician who was removing his work kit from a white van.

“Are you bruised?” Clay asked.

“No. He scared me more than he hurt me.”

Clay’s eyes turned cold and hard. Shelby knew that look. He waved the crime scene tech into the kitchen then turned back to her. “Where did you first see Tyner?”

“In here. I came in with a bag of groceries and he was waiting.”

“Was he alone?”

“Yes.”

His gaze shifted to the destroyed microwave. “How long after he left did the microwave blow up?”

“Maybe five minutes.”

“Did you know he was coming?”

“No.”

“He was in here alone for a bit before you knew he was here. Maybe no one else knew he was here, either.”

Her eyes widened. “Do you think he did this? But why?” She felt sick. “Just because I broke up with him?”

“People do take revenge for those kinds of things, Shelby. But it might not have been that at all.”

“What else?”

He searched her face, then said quietly, “It could be related to M.B.’s murder.”

“Clay!” Her surprise left in a rush as realization sank in. “You mean, Vince might’ve killed M.B., then come after me?”

“I have to look at all the angles.”

“But he hardly knew her.”

“Are you sure?”

She froze. “No.”

“I want to find out what connections he had to Ms. Perry.”

“She met Vince a couple of times here when she brought over goodies. He took his ambulance to her school and showed the kids around.” Could there have been more between the paramedic and the teacher? Something that might make Vince want to hurt M.B.? Shelby suddenly couldn’t breathe.

“Did you notice if any of the firefighters were in here alone at any other time?”

“You’re scaring me.”

“Did you?”

“Alone?” She thought hard. “Maybe Shepherd.”

Clay nodded. “I’ll check him out, too.”

“We already know he was friends with M.B. We all were.”

“How did he act around her?”

“Flirty, like he does with every woman.”

“We’ve been assuming M.B.’s lover was married, but maybe not.”

“That’s true,” she said slowly, her stomach still in knots. “You really think Shep could’ve had something going with M.B.?”

“We’ll have to find out.”

“You’re making me paranoid, as if Vince weren’t enough,” she muttered.

“Sorry.” His gaze searched her face. “You sure you’re okay?”

She nodded. “Thanks for getting here so fast.”

“I need to talk to your captain, as well as Monroe and Shepherd.”

“Just to see if they saw or heard anything, right?”

There was something in his face.

“You don’t suspect either of them?”

“I suspect everyone until I have a reason not to. I want you to wait for me, then you’re moving to my house.”

“Do you think that’s necessary?”

“I think Tyner would’ve hurt you if your captain hadn’t stepped in. And I’m real suspicious about the timing of Tyner being in the kitchen just before the microwave blew.”

“What do you think caused the explosion?”

“We’ll have to wait for the lab guys to give us a solid answer. Was popcorn the only thing in there?”