“Yes, I could hear you calling my name behind me. I could hear you pounding your way up the stairs.” She fisted her hands in his shirt and clung. “But in front of me, I saw someone else.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know.” She closed her eyes tight and shook her head. “I don’t know. But someone else was there, Joe. I know it.”

“Your mother?”

“No. No, she couldn’t have been.”

“She’s covering for something.”

“Someone.” Summer dropped her head to his chest and drew a shuddery breath. “I think she’s covering for someone.”

“Tina?” Joe asked.

“Well, look at my timing,” Tina said, and came into the room. “Chloe called your mom, darling, but she’s not home, so you get me. I’m sorry it took me so long to get here. There’s a jackknifed semi on I-5.” She looked from Joe’s face to Summer’s, then back to Joe’s. “Tell me what’s happening.”

“We’re talking about the first warehouse fire,” Joe said.

Tina’s smile faded. “Oh.”

“Someone else was at the fire that day,” Summer said.

“Are you sure?” Tina’s face was all concern as she hugged a clearly shaken Summer. “Darling, are you sure? Or are you wishful thinking?”

“There’s nothing wishful about it. Someone else was there.” Summer stared at Joe as the implications sank in. She was now a witness to a crime. To a possible murder. “Do you believe me?”

He looked into her eyes. “Yes.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“How about a hot bubble bath?” Tina asked. “That’ll soothe your mind enough to help you sleep later, at least.”

She nodded, and let Tina lead her out toward the hallway.

Joe knew she’d want to be alone. And wasn’t that half the problem. He had no choice but to watch her walk away, and he had to wonder, when the hell would he get used to it?

They spent long hours working on the accounting discrepancies, not an easy process. Summer, Camille, and Tina started by figuring out which dates had cash missing from the deposit. This in itself was a huge chore, as the original deposit slips had not been kept with the daily records, but in a filing cabinet. Actually they’d been literally thrown into the bottom drawer and never looked at again. All the hundreds and hundreds of little white strips were in there like a tossed salad.

Summer had taken the job of pulling them out and putting them in order to compare with the bank statements. After that, she’d go back and figure out who had been working on each day, who had closed, and who had gone to the bank with the day’s deposit. She didn’t know what she’d find, but she knew she wasn’t going to like it.