Both boys shot each other a look of alarm. Yet they both immediately moved to create a space between them, then promptly looked around as if expecting someone to explain the facts of life to Lily. There were respectable people all over the place that she could be talking to.
“Did you hear anything about how the fire started?” she asked.
“Lot of people talking, but nobody who knows.” Steve shifted on his feet. “It wasn’t, like, electrical. Because it wasn’t in the walls or like that. And the one fireman, he was talking about accelerants. Like how fast a fire burns, how it burns? I heard him say something about gasoline. Which means somebody set it.”
“Nobody shoulda done that to Griff,” Jason said heatedly. “Nobody.”
“That’s exactly how I feel,” Lily agreed. “I don’t know him well. But as far as I can tell, he’s decent to everyone, not at all the kind of person to make enemies. More like the kind of man who’d make serious friends.”
Steve lost some of his stiffness. “He doesn’t care who you are or where you come from. You’re good to him, he’s good to you. He doesn’t rush to judge people.”
“That’s my impression, too. So, can either of you think of someone who might have done this?”
Jason toed an imaginary spot on the cement. “Some people think that’d be you. Not that I’d be thinking that, of course. But some people been saying that.”
Steve shot him a look. “Not us. Griff, he set us straight about you. We know you’re okay.”
Lily kept an intrusive eye on Jason’s face. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate hearing that. It really hurts to have people think the worst of you-especially when they don’t really know anything about you.”
Jason suddenly squinted at her hard, then said slowly. “Yeah. I know what that’s like.”
A moment later he shifted a little closer. She knew better than to push for any closer connection this soon. The gifted kids Lily taught tended to be well dressed and quiet, wealthy kids; but these two were so similar in other ways. Her students all had sharp edges, radiated the same don’t-fit-in loneliness. They were always braced for people to judge them as “different.”
In the meantime, the crowd was slowly drifting away. The smoke was still thick, the burned stench pervasive, but the fire was out, the danger clearly over. The fire truck had turned off its flashers. The authorities still hovered with Griff. Lily was uncertain how much time had passed. One hour? More? For darn sure, it was well past midnight…and the two boys were weaving on their feet.
She didn’t ask if their parents knew where they were. She would have bet the bank it was a waste of time. She just said, “I can see they’re starting to close this down. And I was thinking…”
“What?” Steve asked.
“Well. Nobody’s going to be allowed to touch anything until they take off the yellow tape-which I assume will be tomorrow, at the soonest. But the thing is-it really looks like a mess.”
“You’re not kidding,” Jason said.
“Griff is really going to need some help. But not now. So, it’d seem the best thing to do for us is to go home and get some rest. Because he’ll need all the energy we’ve got to help him tackle this tomorrow.”
“I don’t think we should go,” Steve said.
“I know. It feels wrong. But I keep thinking, if we’re all exhausted tomorrow, how much help can we really be for him? And there isn’t a prayer anyone will let us do anything tonight.”
“I don’t know,” Jason said unhappily.
But twenty minutes later, when the last bystanders disappeared into the night, the boys finally agreed to pack it up-after some more ardent words about being there for Griff first thing the next day.
Eventually, the fire truck left. Then the sheriff drove off with the fire chief right behind him.
An older man with a thatch of gray hair parked in front of the place, opened his windows-it looked as if he’d been assigned to stay the night, make sure no one trespassed on the fire scene until morning. Griff stood talking with him for a while after that, before turning around and aiming for his car.
Initially, he didn’t notice Lily sitting on the curb, which suited her just fine. He wasn’t devil-may-care womanizer Griff now. The lazy stride was gone.
He was mad. He had to be beyond exhausted, but he stalked toward the car with a clipped step, an iron cast to his chin, his mind obviously working overtime at a hundred miles an hour. The character in his face fascinated her. So did the splotches of soot decorating his clothes and arms and face.
He was startled when he suddenly spotted her. “What are you still doing here, you crazy woman?”
“I figured I’d take you home.” She stood up, wiped the cement crumbs from her fanny.
“I assumed you’d have already gone home. You weren’t supposed to wait-”
“I wanted to.” She wanted to wrap her arms around him right then, too, but she didn’t. He moved tighter than wire, every muscle coiled up and bunched. “It was arson, yes? Gasoline as the accelerant?”
“Yeah. I take it you heard some of the talk.” He scraped a hand through his hair, which only added more soot to the mess. “It’s actually not as bad as it looks. The clean-up will be a godawful mess, for sure. But the two locked rooms in back-the freezer section, and my experimental kitchen-those would have taken serious money to replace, and they’re fine. It’s just the main part of the store that’s a wreck. Apparently, someone used a skeleton key, dropped a homemade gasoline explosive in a wastebasket. It seems impossible. A crime with no motive. Vandalism for no purpose. But planned.”
“So…”
“So, the fire team needs to see the scene by light of day. Do their investigative thing. Then I can get in there. Rather than clean up, frankly I suspect it’ll be easier to gut the place, start with new sheet rock, new floor, just redo the darned thing. What?” He seemed to suddenly notice that she was dangling her car keys in front of him.
“I want to hear more,” she assured him. “But it’s been a long night. Let’s get you in the car first. I’ll take you home.”
“You’re taking me home?”
“Don’t get your hopes up. I’m not offering a wild night of sin and surprises. You’re just not going home alone tonight. I’m driving, because you have to be stressed. Then I’m putting you in a hot shower, and after that, tucking you into bed.”
He shot her a look. “I don’t think so,” he said dryly.
She did.
She was gaining a certain comfort level in this odd, powerful attraction she had for him. It was like looking at a diamond so expensive that she couldn’t have it. Griff was a fantastic flirt, but he couldn’t really be interested in her. His home was here. Hers would never be here again. He played a sophisticated game. She went to makeup and jewelry parties. He had a secret life. She never had a reason to keep a secret. Bottom line was that she might as well let this singing, zinging fire between them smoke through its course, because she couldn’t imagine how she could get burned. He wasn’t for her. She’d never lie to herself about that.
But tonight wasn’t about such heavy issues. Tonight was just about watching over a man who was beside himself and worn out.
His house was dark. Neither had thought to leave an outside light on. Griff gave her grief every step of the way, insisting she go home, that he didn’t need a babysitter, that he could get his own towels-when she turned on the shower, she prowled around for a linen closet and clean towels, then prowled in the kitchen until she found a bottle of Talisker’s.
She wasn’t exactly positive what kind of liquor that was, but when she unscrewed the top and smelled, she knew it was exactly what she was looking for. She splashed a couple shots in a water glass, and put that on the bathroom counter, too.