Chapters (24)
- Cover
- Dedication
- sparks
- The Firewatcher
- day one
- day two
- The Great Fire of London, 1666
- day three
- Chicago, 1871
- day four
- San Francisco, 1906
- day five
- The Library at Alexandria, circa 48 BC
- day six
- The Church of the Company of Jesus, Santiago, Chile, 1863
- day seven
- The Second Great Fire of London, 1940
- embers
- Acknowledgments
- Keep reading for an exciting excerpt from the next novel by Russ Thomas, Nighthawking.
- The First Nighthawker
- One
- About the Author
- What’s next onyour reading list?
He doesn’t remember exactly how she convinced him to go with her, but somehow she did. Then she helped him pull himself back together, taught him how to go on. He has no doubt that without her his life would now be very different, assuming he still had one. And this is how he repays her.
“You know what happens next?” Jordan asks.
“You’re suspending me,” he says.
“I don’t have any choice.”
“I understand.”
She escorts him to the door. She pauses before she opens it and says, “I’ll do what I can.”
“I know,” he tells her. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
He isn’t sure it’s worth much.
Doggett is waiting outside. They fall into step together and walk down the corridor. After a moment or two Doggett says, “Did Cartwright know who you were when you met him?”
Tyler says nothing.
“I’ll take that as a yes, then.”
“A friend of mine set us up. I didn’t know that until last night.”
They walk on in silence for a few minutes and then Doggett says, “Elliot ID’d the second body.”
Tyler stops. “Cynthia Cartwright?”
Doggett nods. “Oscar’s mother. Strangled. The body was so well preserved they even got DNA from under the fingernails. Gerald’s. I’m not sure it would hold up in court, but it’s good enough for me.”
“So Gerald killed his wife and buried her in the cellar. That means Edna Burnside lied to us. She must have known what happened. Helped him cover up Cynthia’s disappearance.”
“All that business about a bloody phone call. Then Oscar finds out and takes his revenge. Bricks his dad up in the same cellar where his mother’s buried. Then the old dears help him cover that up as well.”
He wonders if Doggett is really asking his opinion. He gives it anyway. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Oscar hired the builders who unearthed the body. Why would he do that if he knew what they’d find?”
Doggett smiles. “That’s the clever bit. I’ve been looking into his finances, and Rockefeller isn’t half as loaded as he likes to make out. He only inherits his fortune properly when Daddy dearest is legally declared dead.”
“That would happen soon enough without the body. It’s been six years. Why go through all this? It’s incredibly risky.”
“His trust fund’s gone, the mortgage on his flat’s in arrears. He even owes money on his council tax. The only thing he owns outright is that bloody house, and he can’t sell it till his father’s declared dead. I’m telling you, he needed that body to be found. Involving you was his get-out-of-jail-free card. The minute we get close, his tame solicitor starts shouting about conflicted interests.”