19.

Avery was awakened by the sound of sirens again. She groaned and turned, blinking at the red numbers of her alarm clock. It was a few minutes past three in the morning. Instead of an ambulance, this time it was the distinctive wail of the firetruck sirens as they went past the house.

She sat up and yawned sleepily. She'd tried to go to bed early that night since Mark had kept her up the night before. He wasn't with her. He said that he had some things to take care of. Avery tried not to be too disappointed. She knew he was still digging into Rob's past, and into the sheriff. It worried her. Not the thing with Williams so much. Sheriff Walls was different. Avery had not had any reason to cross paths with him until Mark came back into town. And she preferred it that way.

She went to the window and looked outside into the darkest hour of the night. The sirens had faded and died. Apparently only a few blocks away because in the distance she could see the glow of red flashing lights. And her eyes adjusted enough to make out the dark column of smoke that rose into the air.

Something bigger must have caught fire at that point. Orange light flared brightly and the smoke turned black for a few moments, flames shooting upward. It was in the direction of town. Mark's motel.

Avery caught herself on the verge of panicking. No. The motel wasn't on this side of her view line. If she went into Emily's room and the view from the front and side...

The fire was in one of the neighborhoods near town. Her tired brain was still trying to puzzle it out when her phone rang, scaring her into a yelp. Her nerves were on edge from the rude awakening.

"Yeah?" She grabbed it and answered, still looking out the window.

"Sirens wake you up?" Mark's voice filled her ear.

"Of course. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." He sounded surprised she'd asked. "It's the asshole's house."

"Oh yeah?" Avery looked at the smoke again. It was in the right direction.

"I'm lookin' at it. The whole house is up in flames."

Avery could hear the noise in the background wherever Mark was. Engines, voices. "That's pretty convenient." She finally said.

"You're tellin' me. We were talkin' about goin' over there and searchin' the place. Only we didn't know what the hell we'd be lookin' for. Apparently there might have been somethin' to find, because somebody went to a lot of trouble to burn it down."

"Could it be the sheriff?" Avery asked, sounding unsure. While she couldn't investigate the way Mark had, she could still think about things. And that thought had occurred to her earlier. "If he already was bailing Williams out, and he knew about the murders staged to look like accidents and natural deaths, then maybe there was something in the house that tied him to everything and he couldn't find it. So he torched the place."

Mark was quiet for so long Avery almost wondered if he'd dozed off. "That actually makes sense."

"Maybe Walls shot him too." Avery ventured.

"But why?" Mark couldn't see the angle.

"Not to kill him. Maybe it was a warning. It's kind of funny how it happened after you showed up and then Walls wanted to question you. Maybe he thought he could kill two birds with one stone. Keeps Rob's mouth shut, and get you out of his hair as the prime suspect. But he can't kill Rob. Maybe Rob knows too much stuff about Walls, maybe he's got some kind of evidence hidden somewhere. Or maybe Rob even agreed to be shot in a non-lethal place because it's the kind of sick thing that would amuse them."

"Where the hell are you gettin' all this from?" Mark sounded impressed. Avery smirked.

"CSI. And maybe Law and Order."

Mark chuckled at that. "Good theories though. I want to get my hands on the police report from the night that bastard got shot. Just to see what kind of cover story they went with. Other than him getting shot, it's like a lid was put on it." The noise on his end reduced. He was moving away from the majority of the excitement. "But I'm not gonna be able to get it tonight. I know it's late but how about some company? Suddenly the idea of sleepin' alone in a lumpy motel bed has lost all of it's appeal."

Avery smiled at that. And felt a little bit of relief. Because she would never admit it but she had been feeling a very low level of unease ever since it had gotten dark. It had taken her a long time to fall asleep, and every small noise had pulled her awake. The sirens had interrupted just as she'd fallen into a deeper sleep. "Get over here. I'll meet you downstairs."

It only took him a few minutes. Avery held the door open and smiled at Mark as he walked up the porch steps. "That's weird." He said, his voice low. Avery raised an eyebrow as he went into the house and she closed the door.

"What's weird?"

"There's a deputy parked across the road." Mark waited until she had locked up before he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. "You look tired."

"I couldn't sleep." Avery rested her head on his chest. "Why would there be a deputy parked outside?"

"I could go find out."

"Don't." Avery cut him off before he could full get it out. "Maybe that's what they want."

Mark snorted at that. "Let's get you to bed. We'll worry about that in the mornin'."

It was actually closer to the afternoon. Mark snuggled up to her and Avery was asleep within minutes. And slept deeply. When she woke up finally, just past noon, Mark was no longer in the bed but she could hear him down in the kitchen, and she could hear cabinet doors opening and closing. Then his voice, answered by a feminine one.

Avery frowned at that. It couldn't be Emily, she and her dad were going on a road trip to visit his family and she wouldn't be home until Sunday. She sat up and blearily looked around the bright room. It looked like she'd be playing hooky from school again. She eyed the door, which was open. And decided that whoever was there, Mark had obviously let them in. Which meant it was probably his partner, Leah.

She sat up and stretched, trying to work out the kinks. She'd take a shower, get dressed, and then maybe she'd be ready to meet Mark's friend. She had barely stepped into the water when Mark spoke from behind her, making her jump.

"You're up."

Avery shot him a sour look. "Finally."

"I'm making breakfast. If you're hungry." He was eyeing her bare body, unmistakable look of hunger in his own eyes.

"I need to wake all the w1ay up first." Avery put her hand on his chest when he stepped toward her. "Don't you have company downstairs?"

"Oh. Yeah." He smirked, shaking his head. "I hope you don't mind..."

"What are you guys doing?" Avery waved him off and stepped into the shower. She kept the curtain open so she could hear him over the water.

"Going over stuff. Leah's been tryin' to find the fire marshall to see hat happened at the asshole's house last night. He's MIA though. Gonna be one of those things that gets forgotten in a few weeks."

"Hmm." Avery got her hair wet and started washing it, frowning thoughtfully. She glanced at Mark and saw he was now leaning against the sink, watching her shower. "Enjoying the show?" She asked, making him grin.

"Yes." Mark raised an eyebrow as she rinsed soap from her hair and used her hands to spread the bubbles over her skin. "Now you're just bein' mean."

"If you know of another way to take a shower, I'd like to hear it." Avery said, turning her back on him.

"The view is still pretty good from this angle too."

Avery finally snorted a laugh. "Get out of here. Please."

"Fine, fine. I'll be in the kitchen."

Avery heard his footsteps fade. As tempting as it was to get distracted by him, she figured one of them needed to stay focused. Especially since he'd invited company over. Once she was showered and dressed, she headed downstairs where she could smell coffee and bacon.

Leah still looked as gorgeous in jeans and a t-shirt as she had wearing just a towel. She grinned brightly at Avery and took in her still wet hair. "Mornin'. Or afternoon."

"Hi. Again." Avery nodded at her.

"I don't know what magic you've worked on Mark, but he's cooking. Mark doesn't cook." Leah said , the grin flashing again.

"Is it edible?" Avery asked, moving to the stove to peer around Mark's arm at the food. Bacon, eggs, toast. Coffee.

"Smartasses." Mark muttered it under his breath. But he sounded amused. "And just because I don't cook a lot doesn't mean I can't."

The sniping back and forth set the tone for the meal. They really did act like brother and sister. At least, they acted the way that Avery and Joe often acted around each other. It set her mind at ease more than anything Mark had said. Leah was nice and outgoing. Which paired up with Mark's usual standoffish nature, they probably made quite a team.

"So you took a vacation to come help Mark?" Avery asked, once they were eating.

Leah shrugged. "I didn't have any better plans."

"I doubt that." Mark grumbled.

"To be honest, he talked about you so goddamned much I figured I should take the opportunity to check out this woman that left such an impression it was still with him two decades later." Leah poked a forkful of scrambled eggs into her mouth, smirking at Mark's thunderous expression. To her credit, Avery only lifted an eyebrow. But it was nice to know that Mark talked about her.

Mark cleared his throat, clearly embarrassed. "Don't you have better things to talk about? Any luck with the deputies?"

Leah smirked in Avery's direction. "It's so easy to fluster him. And no. Nobody's talking. I don't think it's because they don't want to talk. People honestly seem not to know shit while all the same time knowing everybody's business." She shook her head. "It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen."

"Because you're a city girl." Avery said.

Leah looked at her again. "How could you tell?"

"You don't know how small towns like this work. Gossip wins out on news a lot. It's more important to know who is sleeping with who instead of who's responsible for something that most people can't wrap their minds around."

"You sure she's not a cop?" Leah aimed that at Mark.

"Worse. School principal." Mark smiled at her.

"Elementary." Avery pointed out. "I'm just stating a fact. I always thought this was a safe place, with small town problems like the town drunk beating on his wife every Friday night, or somebody knocking up one of the high school girls out at the lake..." She trailed off at that when it struck her how close that could have been her. She almost laughed. "The first hint I got that anything was off was when Mark convinced me a long time ago that Rob Williams had killed his mother. And it didn't take much convincing."

"Maybe some part of you knew." Leah observed.

"Maybe." Avery shrugged. "So what are you going to do next?"

"Run down the fire marshall. That's number one." Leah finished off her food. "Although I doubt he's going to be much help. I think he's as paid off or willfully ignorant as everybody else I've talked to since I got here."

"I'm going to push the sheriff a little."

Avery looked at Mark as if a bug had crawled out of his mouth. "Why would you do that?"

"Because it's obvious that his plan is contingent on me acting a certain way."

Avery thought that over. "You're talking about that deputy last night."

"Maybe."

"What...he was watching the house, making sure you didn't have an alibi for the fire before he started it?"

"Wow. See...he said you were smart. But not smart-smart." Leah said. Apparently Avery's jump to the answer happened a lot faster than theirs had. Avery couldn't explain it. She just felt as if she and Mark were on the same wavelength.

Avery ignored that. "If you push him hard enough, he's not going to like it." She remembered him casually threatening her job. And maybe he had killed people. Mark only had his suspicions but so far they had been reliable.

"I can handle him." Mark said, reaching over and covering her hand with his. Avery frowned at his tone.

"You can. If you take him seriously."

"Believe me. I am." But there was something in the tone of his voice that made Avery think otherwise.

"I like your confidence but it's not going to do you any good if you go in thinking he's just some old guy with a penchant for killing teenage girls. Do you honestly think he'd still be walking around as sheriff if he hadn't cleaned up bigger messes along the way?"

Mark squeezed her hand. "Sorry. I promise, I'm not takin' him lightly. I just wanna rattle his cage, that's all."

"Great." Avery pushed her plate away. The food was good but she'd lost the desire to eat.