Part 38 (1/2)
”Us navy boys,” Grit said with a grin.
Sean was more pensive. ”Jasper didn't screw up. Neither did we. He got beat by a bad guy.”
”Jasper was right about a serial arsonist,” Nick said. ”Brett enjoyed setting fires, but he was never a firefighter or tried to become one. It wasn't that he could or couldn't cut it.”
”Jasper never suspected you, Nick,” Sean said. ”Or at least not for more than three seconds.”
Three seconds too many, but Nick didn't blame Jasper. He blamed Brett Griffin. ”Griffin was from Chicago. Abusive father, narcissistic mother.”
Grit glanced around at them. ”So? No excuses.”
Nick nodded. ”His photography allowed him to move freely. He started pa.s.sing himself off as Feehan last year. He'd already been contracting his services as part of Lowell Whittaker's network. Griffin's the only one of Lowell's killers to figure out who he was.”
”Griffin knew the Whittakers had a place in Black Falls,” Sean said. ”He's why Lowell panicked. Lowell knew he had a committed arsonist on his hands who'd kill him if he left any loose ends. I doubt Lowell had any idea who it was.”
”Griffin manipulated Derek Cutshaw and Robert Feehan.” Nick pushed back images of their two burned bodies. ”Scott Thorne and Jo found pictures at Griffin's house that he'd taken of Rose with me last June. We figure he used them to get under Cutshaw's skin. He and Feehan were asking too many questions, becoming a problem with their drug-dealing.”
”Griffin used your arrival in Black Falls as a way to get rid of them and give you Jasper's firebug,” Sean said.
Grit looked up from the pool. ”Griffin had an excuse to set those fires. More fun for him.”
Nick rolled to his feet, restless. ”He liked being apart, watching the action.”
The SEAL stared again at the clear water of the pool. ”He loved the drama he created.”
”He made sure that boy wandered off last year.” Nick remembered the alert going out, having no idea then, that Rose would be the one who found the boy, or even would be a part of the organized search for him. ”He wasn't supposed to survive. He and Rose were supposed to die in the same fire as Jasper.”
”Brett liked the drama,” Grit said, ”and he liked showing up you smoke jumpers. You two played a key role in stopping that fire from spreading.”
Beth finally spoke. ”Jasper Vanderhorn died, but Brett didn't want what he saw as a partial victory. You and Rose spoiled his fun.” Her turquoise eyes leveled on Nick. ”When do you go back to Vermont?”
He didn't answer, just picked up his keys and left.
He drove over to his condo in a high-rise just off Wils.h.i.+re Boulevard.
They'd caught Lowell's most elusive and mysterious killer. It was over.
Nick walked into his bedroom and everything there reminded him of Rose.
h.e.l.l, he thought. Nothing was over.
Grit drove with Beth Harper down to Coronado, showing her where he'd trained. ”I was a different man then. A kid, really.”
”You got the name Grit here?”
”Yeah.”
”Who gave it to you?”
”Another SEAL. We trained together. Michael Ferrerra.”
Beth's eyes were clear, and she didn't look away. ”He's the SEAL who died in the firefight that almost killed you and Elijah.”
”We called him Moose.”
Grit took winding roads to a simple neighborhood in San Diego. Moose's widow was on the front steps of her stucco bungalow, waving a bubble wand for a baby boy, less than a year old, sitting on a blanket. The baby grinned and tried to catch the bubbles as they floated above him.
”His name's Ryan Cameron Ferrerra,” Grit said as he slowed the car.
When he looked at Beth this time, she was crying.
He continued past the house and on to Beverly Hills. He and Elijah would visit Moose's widow when the time was right.
Finally he glanced over at Beth, still red-eyed from her tears. ”You're finally going home, aren't you?” he asked her. She nodded.
”Charlie Neal found out his sister Marissa has a crush on your brother Zack,” Grit said.
”Are you bothered?”
”Nope.”
”There's someone out there for you, Grit.”
”I believe that. I didn't a while ago. I do now.” He smiled at her. ”Thank you.”
Beth flew back to Black Falls with Sean and Hannah the next day. Grit stayed in San Diego to finish his navy business. She wasn't sure anyone would figure him out, but someone, surely, would fall in love with him. She'd never met a better man.
She entered Three Sisters Cafe. It was cleaning night. Bowie, Dominique, Myrtle and Rose were there. Myrtle was going home to South Carolina. Her niece was having a baby. Myrtle wanted to be there. She insisted she only stayed in Black Falls as long as she did because she liked being around other people who were home.
She was trying to talk Jo and Elijah into buying her house in D.C., furnis.h.i.+ngs and all-except her teacup collection. That would go with her to South Carolina.
Jo had finally decided that the cabins on the lake had to come down.
Not everything was meant to last forever.
Beth dipped a sponge into a bucket of hot water. Scott would sometimes join her for cleaning night.
In the past, anyway.
Liam O'Rourke walked into the cafe. He was hesitant at first, but then Dominique smiled as Beth had never seen her smile before and ran to him.
Rose's jaw dropped. ”Bowie! You let us all think-”
”I was running interference for them. They're buying the Whit-the estate on the river, turning it back into a working farm. Cows, pigs, chickens, horses and gardens.” The big stonemason grinned. ”Life.”
Dominique already had spoken to Beth and Hannah about starting the dinner service Myrtle had been pus.h.i.+ng for. Maybe, Beth thought, her friend and Liam were already planning for their ”farm” to provide meat and produce for Three Sisters Cafe and O'Rourke's.