“Do you think they knew we were there?”
“My guess is now they do. How many houses have library doors locked from the inside?” Matt ground his teeth and accelerated down the road.
“What do we do?” I asked, defeat sitting heavy behind my breastbone.
“I’m going to talk to Ed. Let him know what I’ve found out.”
“Without incriminating us,” I hurriedly added.
“Yes.” Matt’s grin pushed his frown aside. “I’ll keep how I found the information out of it. But I want to see if I can get back into the house and find that book. I know I’ve only just read snippets from those diaries, but I believe your theory is right. Paul has—had the book I need.”
“Will Ed let you have it?”
“If we find it then I’m hoping he’ll let me read it before he takes it.”
“Providing we’re correct in our assumptions.”
“Yeah. Fingers crossed.”
We drove towards home in silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts. Traffic was light, but as the occasional car passed us in the opposite direction their lights illuminated Matt’s face and I could see his thoughts in the creases of his brow.
“You’re itching to read that book, aren’t you?”
He grinned. “Am I that easy to read?”
“It’s the tapping of your fingers on the steering wheel giving it away.”
“The snippets I read back at the house didn’t mention any names. I’m hoping in this later diary he stops using letters and actually names those involved.”
“Life is never that easy. Oh geez,” I commented, looking at the road. Red and blue flashing lights lit the path of the oncoming fire truck, its sirens getting louder the closer it approached.
Matt maneuvered the car to the side of the road. “That’s not good for someone.” Once it had passed, he monitored it in his rear-view mirror, before moving back into his lane.
Five seconds later his phone rang, the caller ID flashing up on his Bluetooth audio system.
“Hey Sam.”
“Mate, did you hear the radio call there’s a serious house fire? I know it’s your night off work, but there’s no other reporters who can cover it tonight. Boss is going to be pretty pissed if we miss it and the other networks get the story.”
Matt released a resigned breath and glanced at me. “Sorry Molly. I need to turn around. It shouldn’t take long though.”
“Is Molly in the car with you?” Sam called. “Hi Molly! Sorry to disrupt your night.”
“It’s all good, Sam. Whoever that fire belongs to is having a much worse night than me.”
“So, I should meet you there?” Sam asked.
Matt checked behind him, seemingly looking for the fire truck. “Yeah. What’s the address?”
“Thirty-two Jacaranda Drive.”
The car swerved as Matt white knuckled the steering wheel. “But we were just at that address!”
“What were you doing there? I thought it was the address of our recent murder victim?”
Matt performed a U-turn narrowly missing an oncoming car. “It’s a long story,” he said, ignoring the blast of the other car’s horn. “One that is getting more interesting by the second.”
I hated to think how many red-light camera charges he was going to get the following week, as more than once he pushed the boundaries between orange and red. Speeding through intersections Matt was lost in thought as he retraced our path.
“Do you think the fire was deliberately lit, or do you think we did something to start it?” My voice shook as I faced the question I feared.
“We didn’t do anything,” Matt soothed. “My money is on whoever was on the other side of the locked library door started it.”
“By why?”
“I don’t know. But I’m damned sure going to find out.”
As we pulled to a stop across the road from the three fire trucks, the house was well and truly alight. Smoke billowed from the windows, dancing on the eerie light of the full moon. Police vehicles had the entrance to the property closed to any bystanders and neighbors lined the street in their pajamas, their faces filled with concern.
“Why don’t you take the car and go home?” Matt suggested, unclicking his seatbelt. “I’ll get Sam to drop me off later.”
“I don’t mind waiting.”
“You’ll be safer at home and a lot more comfortable, and I have no idea how long I’ll be.”
“Will you be okay?”
“Sure. Sam will be filming as much as he can, and I’ll interview a few of the neighbors in case they saw anything. Then I want to chat with Ed. I may just need someone to post bail for me after that.” Matt joked, as he reached across to the back seat, and found the diary he had previously taken.
I gulped.
“Please be careful,” I warned. “You don’t know if the person who did this is still around.”
“I’ll stick close to the police. Promise.” He leaned across and planted a soft kiss on my lips. Placing both my hands on either side of his face I held on tight, only letting go as his soft sigh broke the connection.
****
I hated driving away from Matt, but he was adamant on telling Ed he had broken into the house alone. He didn’t want to bring me into it, and he wasn’t going to listen to anything I had to say on the matter. As much as I didn’t like it, I had to respect his opinion, and his argument about my stress levels was pretty compelling.
Driving away from him was no less stressful. The idea of sitting at home waiting to see if he was going to get arrested made my toes curl and my stomach clench.
Harper didn’t seem fazed by any of it. He was curled up on the front seat, his gentle snoring lulling some of my anxiety.
I did however, nearly jump out of my seat when my phone rang loud through the Bluetooth handsfree.
“Lizzie, you scared the shit out of me!” I placed my hand against my chest, willing my heart rate to slow.
“Really? I only just pressed dial. Are you that nervous about callers now?”
“No. It’s been a really stressful night.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m just jumpy.” I pulled the car to a stop at the last red light before I made it home. “What’s up?”
“I saw Matt’s report on the evening news about how he’s investigating the death of Paul Pritchard and how its connected to the hospital.”
“Pritchard was supposed to do a story with him before he died.”
“I just saw a news flash the house of that murdered guy is on fire.”
I hurriedly explained our evening as I drove the final distance to my apartment building.
“Molly, that’s awful.”
On autopilot, I pressed the button on the remote control that opened the security door to the underground parking, then I remembered I was in Matt’s car. He didn’t have an allocated parking spot in the basement, which meant he always had to park around the back of the building in the visitors parking. I was grateful the only cars around were on the street and no one had pulled onto the basement ramp behind me as reversing was never my strong suit. Add that it was uphill, in the dark and I was distracted chatting to Lizzie, and who knew what would happen.