“What the hell?” His voice must have come out louder than he meant, because the two kids shrank back against the seat.
Kate peered over his arm. “S.G.? Dylan? You guys did this?”
“Yes, they did. I caught them in the act.” Emma waved the hose at the kids, getting them even wetter in the process. “They snuck over from Denaina’s property. That’s why my geese didn’t wake up. But I don’t sleep much anymore and I saw them.”
S.G. shot a look at the boy, Dylan. She seemed to be urging him to say something. But he set his jaw and refused.
“Who are you? Who are your parents? Why’d you do this?” Darius demanded.
The kid stared back with a mulish scowl. With his wet hair and soaked clothing, it was hard to tell much about him. He seemed to have brownish hair and bluish eyes and looked much like other kids in town.
Darius turned to S.G. instead. He knew her—or thought he had, up until now. “What’s going on here? Why would you do something so stupid? Denaina has a zero-tolerance policy for this kind of shit. Do you want to get kicked out of Denaina’s place?”
That was a little unfair, because Denaina loved S.G. and would probably be willing to give her some leeway because of her very strange history. But he intended to get the truth here, one way or another.
His strategy worked. S.G.’s pale eyes filled with panicked tears. “I didn’t do it! I was trying to stop him. I saw him out the window at Denaina’s. I got up and followed him. By the time I caught up he’d already started the fire.”
He looked back at Dylan. “Is that true?”
Dylan glared at him, all sheer stubborn bravado. “I want to speak to a lawyer.”
“I’m a lawyer,” said Kate. “I’m not an Alaska lawyer, but I’m happy to advise you that your best chance here is to answer the question. All the questions. Like why you’d try to hurt the people who are employing you.”
“I wasn’t trying to—” Dylan stopped and folded his lips together.
Ah ha. That sounded like a confession to him. All they needed now was a motive. Why the hell was this strange kid running around Lost Harbor setting nuisance fires?
Darius exchanged a look with Kate. He lifted an eyebrow and jerked his head toward the house. She nodded slightly. Maybe it was all the time they’d spent in bed, but they seemed to understand each other perfectly.
Kate turned to the two shivering kids. “How about this? You’re both wet and probably freezing your butts off. Let’s go inside the house and warm up. You can sit by the fire and … never mind, we’ll skip the fire. But we can get out of this truck and have some food and then we’ll try this again. Deal?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Darius had to check on the firefighting crew, so Kate and Emma led the two teenagers into the farmhouse. Emma was still muttering furiously as she turned on the light in the mud room.
“Setting fire to my shed. What a stupid, stupid thing. What was the damn point?” As the kids crowded into the entry, she added, “Take off your shoes!”
Kate tugged her grandmother into the warm living room, ahead of the kids. “I want to hear what they have to say, okay?”
“So do I!”
“Just don’t scold them the way you did me at that age. They’re not used to you.”
Emma scorched her with an indignant glare. “You didn’t set my shed on fire.”
“I could list twenty things I did that made you just as mad. I’m not saying they don’t deserve punishment. Just give me a chance to talk to them first. We’ll get more information that way.”
A glance at the two kids put that in doubt. Looking anxious, S.G. perched on Emma’s old corduroy-upholstered couch right away, but Dylan refused to join her. With his hands in the pockets of his hoodie, he gazed down at the old planked floor as if he wanted to strip the varnish from it with his eyes.
Kate decided not to give up her height advantage by sitting down. She took a position a few feet away from him, blocking the path to the mud room in case he tried to make a run for it. “Look, Dylan. This is just my friendly advice, but I promise you that stonewalling the legal system is not a good idea. If you were behind this fire, and the other ones, there’s going to be a serious price to pay. Your best option is to be open and forthcoming.”
He snuck a glance at S.G..
“You should just tell her,” the girl urged him. Tears streaked her face through a layer of dirt and soot. “Tell her everything.”
Dylan’s shoulders hunched forward. Even though she was furious about Emma’s shed, Kate’s heart went out to him. She remembered exactly how it felt to do something stupid and get in trouble for it.
The question was, did he know it was stupid? Did he regret his actions?
He looked up long enough to meet Kate’s eyes, then dropped his gaze down again. “If I tell you, will you be my lawyer?”
His voice wobbled as he made that request. He looked so young and out of his depth.
“Like I said, I’m not licensed here in Alaska. But I can help you find someone who is.”
“You would?” Another crack in his bravado as he glanced up at her. “Why? I—I set fire to your grandma’s shed.”
Emma marched over to him like one of her strutting roosters. “Why would you do such a thing? There was nothing in it! You emptied it yourself!”
Dylan turned red and twisted his hands in his pockets. “I know that! That’s how I knew it wouldn’t be a big deal.” He looked Kate’s direction again. “Why would you help me?” he demanded.
Emma whirled on her too. “Why would you, Kate? After what he did!”
Kate stood her ground against her furious grandmother. “He’s a minor and deserves representation. Besides, I know what it’s like to be a kid on your own. It sucks.” When Emma’s expression relaxed, she turned back to Dylan. “Tell me more about your situation. Where are you from?”
“Can I wait until he’s here?”
“He? You mean Darius?” That surprised her. As intimidating as Darius could be, why would the kid want to spill his guts in front of him? “You know he’s the fire chief, right? He’s not too happy with you right now.”
“I know who he is.”
Kate’s eyebrows lifted. There was something in the tone of his voice that set off her legal Spidey senses. “Fine, we’ll wait for Darius. Emma, want to make some tea or something?”
Her grandmother folded her arms across her chest. “I’m not making tea for the juvenile delinquent who burned my shed down.”
“I’ll fix it!” Dylan burst out. “I can work for free if you want. I can feed your chickens or whatever.”
“You’ll be feeding chickens until you’re thirty to make up for it.” Emma threw up her hands and headed in the direction of the kitchen.
“It’s just a stupid shed!”
“Okay, okay.” Kate came to Dylan’s side and shepherded him toward the couch. “Good rule of thumb. Don’t yell at the woman who could sue you for destruction of property.”
He snapped his mouth shut and plopped down on the couch next to S.G..