She straightened her shoulders and looked him right in the eye, all attitude gone. “I was here. I closed at six and spent the next few hours working on my books. I was alone. I have no one who can verify that, but I can tell you right now, you’ll find no evidence of my doing Creative Interiors any harm. I don’t need to, they do enough harm to themselves.”

Next up on the interview list was Braden. Joe and Kenny crossed the street from Ally’s Treasures to Creative Interiors, getting drenched all over again. Halfway across, Ashes saw them from the truck and resumed her howling.

Kenny laughed, and because of it, Joe made him go back and get the damn puppy.

Kenny ran and opened the truck, scooping the puppy against his shirt. “She’s shedding.”

“Bummer for you.” Joe no longer bothered to swipe the rain out of his eyes. It was six o’clock, closing time, and as they came up to the door of Creative Interiors, Braden walked out.

“You’re looking for me,” he said, and opened his umbrella, tucking himself and his laptop neatly out of the way of the slashing rain.

Joe and Kenny, neither of whom had an umbrella, stood there with water running down their no longer repellent clothing. Ashes licked the rain off Kenny’s jaw.

“Make it quick.” Braden eyed them both with a cool gaze, not offering to share his umbrella or to go back inside. “Or do I need an attorney?”

Kenny squinted through the drops on his glasses. His blond hair was sleek to his head, his shirt clinging to him, and there was a squirming puppy in his arms shedding all over him. He was not a happy camper. “Can we take this inside?”

“Do I have a say in that decision?” Braden asked.

“What? Of course you have a say.” Kenny’s irritation was beginning to show, the way it always did when things weren’t neat and tidy. Or dry.

“Then no,” Braden said. “I don’t want to go inside. I’m perfectly comfortable out here.”

Kenny opened his mouth but Joe put a hand on his tense, wet arm. “We’d like to ask you a few questions,” he said calmly. “You don’t need a lawyer, unless you want one.”

Braden just looked at his watch.

“You don’t seem all that surprised to see us,” Joe noted.

“Look, I’m not stupid. I’m the new guy and I don’t talk much. Plus, I was there the night of the fire. I was alone in the room where the fire originated.”

“Were you?”

“You know I was.”

Joe sighed. “Can you elaborate? Tell us how you came to be alone there?”

“The whole staff was around, working. Then they left, and it was just Summer and me. I think I scared her.”

“Why?”