Flame in the Dark (Soulwood #3)(28)

Sonya walked away from her husband, closer to the fire, as if mesmerized. Justin followed, the flames reflected off his skin, glowing golden.

Schultz turned, her gaze following the Tollivers’ actions, her face to the fire, her dark skin gleaming. “This house burning like a torch might be a crime of opportunity, a fluke of timing.” Softer, so it didn’t carry, she asked, “Are the Tollivers getting along?” No one replied.

Rick said, “Ingram? Thoughts about this fire?”

I flinched just the tiniest bit, then raised my hands to lower my hood, taking the time to evaluate Rick’s question and think how I wanted to say this. “Since Justin Tolliver was at the scenes of both shootings, coincidence, while possible, seems unlikely. Even though there’s a different MO here, there’s a good chance it’s tied to the Holloway crime scene, and the restaurant even if only by copycat or opportunity.”

“How high?” Rick asked.

“I’m not a mathematician,” I said, keeping my words toneless. “This is just common sense, using reason and probability.”

I hoped that was what Rick had wanted to hear. However, if I was right, and killing Justin or Sonya was the objective all along, that meant that Ming, the witches, and Senator Abrams Tolliver could be cut from the possible list of targets. And with no absolute proof that the assailant was a known paranormal creature, the Secret Service and PsyLED both would probably pack up and go home. Until we had a witness, a clear video, or a tissue sample that could be analyzed, there was no paranormal.

“What can you tell me?” Rick asked me. It was a hint to go read the land.

I pulled my flash from my pocket and nodded to the group. “I’ll check the grounds with the psy-meter. Mr. Tolliver?” I called out. “Your wife needs a hug.” I spun on the grass and left the group before Rick could tell me to mind my own business.

The Tollivers, Justin and Sonya and their children, had a good three acres, which was a large patch of ground this close to inner-city Knoxville and Sequoyah Hills. I stayed out of the way of the fire crews, and under the dripping forest of trees and shrubs on the boundaries of the property. There was a shed in back, with an old flatwater kayak leaning against the wall. It looked recently used, clean, and not covered with yard dust, as it might if it had sat for a while. Beside it, there were a pair of wading boots, a tackle box, and what looked like a fishing rod, broken down into easy-to-carry segments. At the back of the shed, the psy-meter 2.0 showed the telltale spikes at level four. Spikes that led toward the house. I caught Rick’s eye and held up four fingers. I knew he’d see them in the dark. Cat eyes. He gave me a minuscule nod.

I put the expensive device away and got my blanket. It was faded, frayed, an ugly pink thing, but I liked it. It made me feel good about reading the land, as if I brought part of Soulwood with me each time I sat on it.

I stopped several times to try to read the ground, but the fire had woken the plants. Usually when I read flora, I got nothing, because plants were sluggish thinkers, slow to recognize anything of humankind other than the fire that came in our wake and the destruction of chain saws. But this was the ancient enemy of life. Fire was the destroyer. All I got from the plants I touched was, Fearfirefearfire, from everything: from the grass, shrubs, the old firs and oaks; the warnings had spread from plant to plant. At the back of the property, behind the shed where I had first found the level four psysitope spikes, I finally found something other than fear sizzling through the flora. I found several spots of death when I placed the blanket down and sat, hidden by shadows and winter-bare flora, put my hands into the earth, digging my fingernails down for a light read.

The plants in a narrow opening between two maples were beginning to die, exactly the way the plants had died at the other house. Standing again, I traced the passage of death. Sliding into the dark undergrowth between the trees, I switched off the flash. Tucking my coat under me, I sat in the shadows and placed my hands flat on the ground, digging my fingertips into the soil beneath. The roots were dead. Here was the spot the assassin had come in by. I got up and brushed my hands off. Using the flash, I followed the trail back through the woods, along a rivulet creek that fed the Tennessee River, to a tertiary road, where I lost the trail of dead plants. Tracking my way back, I fingered the plants, tearing off leaves and small stems and digging out rootlets. They looked and felt dead, but also smelled, very faintly, burned. Had I missed the scent at the Holloways’? It had been much colder that night. I had been exhausted. Hungry. It was possible I missed something.

Back at the house, standing in the overhang of trees, I studied the yard, where I’d felt a second patch of dead. It was near the garage, where the Tollivers seemed to park their cars. I needed to go back to the Holloways’ and smell the plants at the first crime scene.

Rick caught my eye across the lawn and I nodded slowly, hoping he understood what I was saying, that it was the same attacker. He nodded back curtly and gestured me over. I made my way along the edge of the property back to the small group. “So,” I asked, “gas?”

“Yes and no,” said a man in a fire department uniform and a winter coat. “Gasoline was recovered from the gas can under the porch, but the can was below the worst of the heat and didn’t explode. Didn’t contribute to the fire at all. From the way the fire started—on both stories at the same time—and the way it spread—inward from both levels and fast—I’d say the structure was targeted with a flamethrower, but we didn’t get a hit on known accelerants except the gasoline. If the sprinkler system hadn’t come on, some of the family, particularly the kids, might not have gotten out alive. The fire ate right through their rooms.”