Page 95 of Burning Justice

Sally swallowed, and it was obvious she was on the verge of tears. “I’m sorry I’m late. I was at the Weld County Coroner’s Office.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “Identifying my brother’s body.”

“Oh, Sally.” Gemma draped an arm over the woman’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry about Johnny.”

Bonnie wriggled to the edge of the sofa and stood. “Let’s go to my office. It’s quiet, and no one will disturb us there.”

The moment Bonnie closed her office door, Sally burst into tears. Picking up on her mother’s anguish, little Paige began fussing.

“Why don’t you let me hold Paige?” Bonnie held out her arms, taking the baby and settling on a cushioned chair, crooning to the infant, who cried louder at first, then began to settle. “You two take the sofa.”

Gemma grabbed a box of tissues from Bonnie’s desk and indicated Sally should sit. As much as she wanted to get to the point of the meeting, the woman’s grief took priority.

“Thank you.” Sally dabbed at her eyes, sniffling. “I need to tell you some things, and I’m not proud of it. When you came to see me last week, I-I lied to you. I’m sorry, but Johnny is—oh god, was—my brother. He wasn’t always a bad person.”

“I’m sure he wasn’t.” In her heart, Gemma believed that was true. “Circumstances often dictate the path a person takes in life. Some paths lead to the darker side.” Brett’s life had definitely taken him down a dark path, yet she couldn’t help but feel he was at a crossroads. The question was whether he’d continue down the same path he was on or change directions.

Sally nodded. “I believe that’s what happened to Johnny. He used to be a good person, a good brother, but then things changed.” She began shaking her head. “He did some bad things, I know that, but he was still my brother. Until Paige came along, he was all I had for my entire life. He always protected me. I felt that I had to protect him back. Can you understand that?”

Actually, Gemma could. “I have three brothers. They were always getting into trouble. I lost count of how many times I covered for them.”

“Not like this.” Again, Sally shook her head, more emphatically this time. “But now that he’s gone, I don’t have to protect him any longer. It’s important to the families of those dead kids that they know the truth.”

Gemma tensed, trying not to let her excitement show. The woman’s brother had been murdered, after all. Whatever Sally said next could be pivotal.

Sally took a deep breath, staring at her clenched hands. “When he got out of prison, he told me that he set the fire that killed those kids. He was very upset and angry about it. They told him the house was empty. The kids weren’t supposed to be there.”

Gemma inched to the edge of the sofa. A hundred questions were on the tip of her tongue, but the best thing to do was let Sally tell Johnny’s story in her own time and in her own way. The woman was grieving and felt bad enough as it was about lying to her and Brett in the first place.

Sally took another shaky breath before continuing. “It was a builder, a flipper, like on those TV shows. They were buying things at the warehouse where Johnny worked. That’s how they met. They’d just purchased a big house that needed a lot of work, so they were at the warehouse a lot. They told Johnny the house had so many problems they were going to lose money on it.”

Gemma could barely sit still. “What else did he say to Johnny?”

“That it would be a godsend if the house just disappeared. Johnny was given money to take care of it on a certain day.”

Gemma couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Sally had to be talking about Michael Hawkin, not David Hawkin, since Michael had been the one to purchase supplies at the Frodo warehouse. By hiring Johnny Nash to burn down the house on the same night that he received the award from the Denver Chamber of Commerce, he had a rock-solid alibi. “Do you know how much Johnny was paid for setting fire to the house?”

“No.” Sally shook her head. “Right after the fire, Johnny was arrested for breaking into some other houses. I only spoke with him a few times when he was in prison, but he didn’t say anything about the fire back then. When he got released a few weeks ago is when he told me what he’d done. He said the least this flipper could do was give him a job.”

Now for the most important question. “Sally, I need you to think carefully. It’s very important. Do you know the name of the guy who paid Johnny to do this?”

When Sally nodded, Gemma’s heart beat faster.

The name Sally spoke next sent a shock wave through Gemma. At first, she’d thought she’d misheard Sally, but no. She hadn’t.

Oh. My. God. She’d thought her heart was beating fast before. Now it was thundering.

She caught the equally surprised look on Bonnie’s face.

Tears began streaming down Sally’s face. “I know I should have come forward sooner, but it wouldn’t have brought those kids back, and Johnny was my brother. I couldn’t do anything to hurt him, but now that he’s dead, it doesn’t matter anymore. Does it?”

Willing her hand not to tremble, she squeezed Sally’s hand. “You did the right thing telling us.”

“Wait. There’s more.” Sally reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. She unfolded it and handed it to Gemma. “Before Johnny went north to see that flipper, he gave me this and told me to hide it for him.”

Gemma’s heart slowed as she stared at the paper. Scrawled in black ink was an address. 18 Torrance Lane. “Did Johnny write this?”

Sally shook her head. “No. He said they slipped him this note one day, so he’d know which house to burn down.”

“May I keep this?” Gemma asked.