Brett hesitated, gripping his camera, and jumped, visibly startled, when Zack exited the shed.
“It won’t be easy to figure out exactly what happened here,” Zack said.
Nick was right behind him. “It often is with a fire. Arson’s one of the hardest crimes to prove, solve and prosecute.”
“Too many of these bastards get away with setting their little fires,” Zack said, his disdain clear. “You can’t generalize about arsonists. Each one’s an individual. They have their own methods, their own reasons, if you want to call them that, for doing what they do.”
Brett’s breathing was rapid, shallow. “Do you know for sure this even was arson?”
Zack’s turquoise eyes seemed lighter in the brightening sunshine. “You’d have to talk to the lead investigators.”
“First they have to rule out a natural or accidental cause,” Nick said. “In this case, that’s going to be difficult because of the circumstances. Coleman fuel is easily accessed and commonly used. If it works under pressure in a little camp stove, why not in a kerosene lamp? I can see someone thinking like that, just making a stupid mistake.”
Brett shook his head. “Not Derek.”
“It could have been one of the Whittakers, even one of their guests.” Zack bent down and rubbed Ranger’s front. “That was a rough morning for you, wasn’t it, buddy? You come out here to play fetch and get put to work.” He stood up again and looked at Rose. “I promised Beth I’d fill in for her tonight at the café. It’s cleaning night.” He grinned. “Feel free to take my place.”
Rose knew his good humor was as close as she’d get to an apology from him for his earlier surliness. “I’ve done cleaning night with you, Zack. Mostly you just eat leftover brownies.”
“Dom’s brownies are the best,” he said. “See you all later.”
He took the path around to the front of the shed. Rose sighed at his retreating figure. “Zack hasn’t changed since fifth grade.”
Brett had stepped just inside the shed, his gaze fixed on the spot where his friend had died. He backed out suddenly, stumbling, dropping his camera in the snow. “I knew this’d be hard, but—” He broke off, looking agonized, and scooped up his camera. “Why didn’t the whole damn place didn’t catch fire?”
Nick answered, his tone neutral, professional. “It looks as if your friend Derek put out the flames when he hit the floor.”
“He probably wasn’t killed instantly, then.”
“Probably not, no,” Nick said. “If this was arson, his killer undoubtedly intended for the shed to burn down. There’d be even less evidence for investigators to go on.”
Brett held his camera in a bare hand, staring at it as if its familiarity gave him comfort. “I can’t imagine what it was like to find him. I’ve never seen a dead body. I’ve dealt with a few injuries skiing and giving lessons, but nothing like what Derek must have suffered.”
“I know it’s difficult,” Rose said quietly.
“If you’ll excuse me, I have to get out of here.” He cleared his throat. “I’m glad you two were here. I thought I wanted to do this alone, but I see now I was wrong.”
“I can drive you down to your car.”
He shook his head. “It’s not far. The walk will do me good.”
Nick waited until he was out of earshot around the other side of the shed before he spoke. “Griffin seems to get along with you. Does he know about you and Cutshaw?”
“There was no me and…” Rose stopped herself, hearing the defensiveness in her tone. “Some. Not as much as Robert.”
“Either one of them date local women?”
“Not that I know of. I thought from something Brett said that he might be interested in Beth but he said no. I don’t know him or Robert that well.”
Nick picked up the brick that had been propping open the shed door and set it inside, then shut the door. “You’d all let a newcomer like Brett in?”
“It’s not a question of ‘newcomer,’” Rose said. “Most of the people I know in town take newcomers one at a time, if that’s where you’re going with this. Derek, Robert and even Brett hurt their chances by what they did last year at O’Rourke’s, but nobody would hold it against them forever.”
“Bowie and his cousin Liam would,” Nick said without hesitation. “So would Sean. What about you?”
“I told you. I wasn’t there.” She looked through the woods, down at the frozen river, and noticed deer tracks disappearing down the hill. “Derek found me up at the falls on Cameron Mountain about this time last year. I was training Ranger. It wasn’t as cold and as windy as it is today. It was one of those mild late February days that make you think spring is closer than it is.”
She could feel Nick behind her. “What happened?”
“He was in a rage because I’d told him I didn’t want to see him again. Saying we broke up is too strong, at least in my mind. I always knew we weren’t meant to be together forever.” She shivered, then turned to Nick. “Anyway, Derek stomped and swore at me and got nasty and pathetic. Then he left.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“He tried to grab my arm. I backed off and tripped, and Ranger jumped between us.”
Nick came up next to her. “Good for Ranger.”
“When I picked myself up out of the snow, Derek was gone. I wasn’t hurt. I didn’t tell anyone.”
“Did he stalk you? Threaten you?”
She shook her head. “He more or less left me alone after that,” she said.
“What does ‘more or less’ mean?”
“It means he didn’t do anything that would have made me go to the police.”
“Or tell your family and friends,” Nick said.
She didn’t answer.
He didn’t back off. “Bowie knew?”
Snow blew off the shed roof into her face. “He ran into Derek when he was still raging about my having stood up to him at the falls. Derek bragged about things that never happened between us. He wanted to get under Bowie’s skin because he knew we were friends.”
“So Bowie was ready for a fight that night at O’Rourke’s.”
“He thinks his presence provoked Derek to start in on Hannah in the first place. Derek was spoiling for a fight.” Rose signaled Ranger to come to her side. “It’s complicated.”
“Not that complicated,” Nick said. “It’s a small town. Your brothers were there. Cutshaw wanted to hurt you. You’re a trusted canine search-and-rescue expert. All he had to do was lie or exaggerate, and you’d be hurt.”
“What happened between Derek and me was bad enough without him making up stuff.” She glanced back at the ell of the shed where he’d died, smelled the burned wood. “I told the police everything.”
“Was Cutshaw interested in search-and-rescue work?”
“He wanted to get into mountain rescue, but he wanted it for his ego, which is exactly the wrong reason.”
Nick studied her a moment. “Did your father know what went on between you two?”
“I don’t know. He asked me if I was okay not long after Derek came after me at the falls. It wasn’t like Pop. I said yes, and that was the end of it.”
Her throat tight with emotion, Rose signaled to Ranger to heel and headed briskly with him around to the front of the shed.
Nick kept up with them and eased in next to her behind the farmhouse. He nodded to the boarded-up back door. “Did Sean run in through the back when he saved Bowie from the fire?”
“Yes.” Rose crossed her arms against the cold. “Bowie grabbed Vivian Whittaker after Lowell set off a bomb on the second floor and ran downstairs with her. She thanked him by tripping him and leaving him to burn to death. Who’d ever know? She wanted him to take the fall for Lowell.”
“Sean got Bowie out of there,” Nick said, pensive. “That’s not as easy to do as it looks in the movies. It’s an older house. Always a nightmare for firefighters.”