Heat quickly followed, and with it came the roar of flames—although I would have thought that after the power of such a blast there’d be little left to burn.

I twisted around, looking for Jackson, and spotted him half kneeling behind the driver’s side rear wheel.

“I’m okay,” he said, “but I’m guessing Janice won’t be.”

I looked over at the house. Though the air was thick with dust and smoke, it didn’t do much to hide the devastation. The house was one huge pile of debris. Only one exterior rear wall remained upright, and flames were already beginning to consume that. Metal carport supports were embedded in one neighbor’s wall and holes were punched into his roof, and Janice’s little Honda was now sitting in the same neighbor’s yard, on its back and on fire. The house on the other side had enough blast damage to expose the front interior wall, and the fence between the two properties was on fire.

I climbed out from under the SUV, then pulled off my jacket and shook it free of rubbish. “Amanda—or someone else in Rinaldo’s employ—obviously came back to finish what she’d started.”

“Yeah.” Jackson stopped beside me, his expression glum. There were scratches on his face, a chunk taken out of his chin, and his jeans were torn and somewhat bloody. But all in all, there wasn’t much damage, considering how close we’d been.

“I’ll ring PIT,” he said. “You want to douse those flames and see if you can spot anything in the mess?”

“I’m not sure the police or even PIT will appreciate us contaminating a crime scene.” And there wasn’t much left to find—not without carefully sifting through that pile of remnants, anyway.

“I’m not really caring what they think right now.” His voice held an angry edge. “Not when they could have kept Janice safe and didn’t.”

“That’s a bit harsh, Jackson. They do have bigger problems right now.” Not to mention a lack of staff to cope with it all. As priorities went, it wasn’t really surprising Janice had been low on the list.

“Except Janice may have been the key they needed,” he said. “Rinaldo obviously feared she could tell us something, given he came back for a second shot at her.”

Which was true enough. I glanced around at the sound of approaching footsteps and spotted a number of people hurrying down the street toward us. There was no reaction or movement from whoever owned the houses on either side of Janice’s. They were going to get one hell of a surprise when they returned from wherever they were.

“Go,” Jackson said. “I’ll stop those people from coming too close.”