Page 38 of Lock ’N’ Load

Matt covered her hands with his, guiding the cup to her mouth, patiently waiting while she sipped and swallowed. She cast him a grateful look before continuing.

“I went back to the bedroom, grabbed Poofy then crawled into the kitchen because it was easier to breathe on the floor. I was trying to get out the back door, but it wouldn’t open.”

“Did you unlock it?” Detective Sorensen asked.

“Of course, but it still wouldn’t open.” Her hands began shaking again, so she set the cup on her lap for fear of spilling it. “So I went into the basement. There’s one window down there, and I’d just opened it yesterday. I do that regularly to prevent the basement from becoming too damp and musty.”

“I take it the window didn’t open,” Detective Sorensen said, more than asked.

“It didn’t, so I broke it with a crowbar.”

“Did you see or hear anyone else in the house?”

“No.” She thought back to Poofy’s odd behavior. “But before we went to bed, Poofy sat directly in front of the main door, looking up at it. It was strange, since he’s not an outdoor cat. I thought I heard something outside but thought it was just another dead tree limb falling from the old oak tree out back.

“Aside from smoke, did you smell anything unusual?” Matt asked.

She’d been about to say no, when she remembered that wasn’t true. She had smelled something. “Gasoline, only maybe not quite gasoline.”

“Could have been some other form of petroleum distillate,” Matt added. “Kerosene or turpentine. I smelled it, too.”

Detective Sorensen nodded as he jotted in his pad. “Did you see any lines of demarcation in the fire?”

“Yes.” How could she have forgotten? “There were distinctly straight lines of fire running from the curtains down to the floor and the furniture, both in the living room and the kitchen.”

Matt crossed his arms, looking none too happy. “Those were probably made when he poured the accelerant all around.”

Detective Sorensen looked up from writing. “Anything else you remember?”

She nodded. “When I went to bed, I left my cell phone on the desk in the living room. After the fire started, it was gone.”

“Are you sure you didn’t leave it somewhere else?” Matt asked.

“Positive.” Her fingers dug into the Styrofoam cup. “That’s where I always leave it at night so my parents don’t wake me up with their three a.m. text messages. Someone was inside my house and took it.”

Detective Sorensen looked first to Matt, then to her. “So it would seem.”

Wayne cleared his throat. “What about your laptop? Did they take that, too?”

“No. I assume it burned up or melted in the fire.”

He paused to stare at her for a moment. “Were you using it for anything work-related?”

Trista gulped, squeezing the cup tighter. “I, uh, was doing some internet searches on it.”

“Searches on what?” Genevieve narrowed her eyes.

She hesitated, knowing that if she fessed up, she’d be neck-deep in trouble. Someone’s trying to murder me. I’m already in trouble. “Iqaluit,” she reluctantly answered.

Genevieve pressed her lips together then exchanged looks with Wayne. “And?”

And now I’m about to dive headfirst into deep, deep shpooh. “I had a copy of Dark Curtain on my laptop.”

Wayne exhaled forcefully, telling her she’d pay dearly for that indiscretion.

“What’s Dark Curtain, and what’s Iqaluit?” Chief McIntyre looked at Trista, then to Wayne and Genevieve. “And don’t invoke any of that top secret need-to-know shit, because at this point, it’s safe to say we need to know. From what Sgt. Connors related to me about the attack on Ms. Gold earlier this week, the hit in CODIS on her attacker, and—”

“Wait!” She grabbed Matt’s arm, forcing him to look at her. “You got a hit in CODIS?” That meant her attacker already had a criminal record. “Why didn’t you tell me?”