“All right, I just . . . thought I’d offer,” she muttered uncomfortably.
He just got a nod in to share the offer was heard but not accepted before Janie tore into the room, waving Shnookie and shouting, “Got ’im!”
“Come here, you. Let me get your jacket on,” Kim called.
“Okay, Mommy,” Janie replied, going to her mother but keeping hold of Shnookie, transferring the bear from one hand to the other as her mother put her jacket on and zipped her up.
And Coert watched his beautiful little girl, thinking Kim’s play had been whacked but now he couldn’t imagine the world without Janie in it, which sucked because he couldn’t quite get over being pissed at her mother, but he was still grateful to her.
So Coert was also not a big fan of women who dredged up conflicting emotions that messed with his head.
He’d had his fill of that too.
Especially very recently.
“Mittens,” Kim said as Coert moved to the couch to grab Janie’s hat that was laying there.
Kim put on the mittens and Janie held Shnookie close to her chest while Coert pulled her hat on her head and made sure it was over her ears.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Yeah, Daddy.” She beamed up at him, moving to take his hand.
“Hug for your mom,” he ordered.
She instantly turned and threw herself in her mother’s open arms.
Janie kept hers around Kim even as she pulled slightly away and asked, “See you tomorrow, Mommy?”
“Yeah, sweetie,” Kim replied, giving their daughter a smile.
Janie danced to Coert and took his hand. He led her out to the truck, muttering his goodbyes to her mother, and strapped her in her seat in the back when they got there.
He angled in behind the wheel and reversed out of Kim’s drive.
“We gonna go have dinner at Weatherby’s?” his girl asked when they were on the road.
“Nope. Makin’ my baby dinner at home,” Coert answered.
“Hamburglers?” she asked.
“You want hamburgers?” he asked back through a grin.
“Yes!” she yelled.
He kept grinning at the windshield. “Then I’m making hamburgers.”
“And curly fries,” she ordered.
“And curly fries,” he agreed.
“And after we clean up, we can make cupcakes.”
Coert chuckled but said, “Maybe the next weekend I have you we can make cupcakes, Janie.”
“But it’ll be fun to make them tonight.”
Only she thought it was fun. Coert having to clean up after the cupcake-making bomb exploded in his kitchen was not fun.
“Weekend, baby,” he said quietly.
“Al’right, Daddy.”
Damn, she was a good kid.
She’d always been a good kid.
This was obviously awesome and always had been, but right then, something about that rattled him.
He got them home. They made hamburgers and they ate them. His Janie “helped” him through the making and the cleaning up after. She then grabbed one of her coloring books and sat on the floor by the coffee table, and with her tongue sticking out, colored with her book by his stocking feet up on the table while he watched TV.
When she started to get tired, she crawled up next to her dad and burrowed in, cuddling and not really watching what was on the television.
And when it was time, without a word after he said she had to go to bed, she went up with him and did what she did every night he had her with him. She brushed her teeth and got in her pajamas and she picked the book she wanted him to read to her. She then climbed into bed, snuggled into her dad and listened while he read until she fell asleep.
That night, however, after Coert closed the book, unease stole over him as he stared down at her dark head and he thought about his sweet Jane.
She was the perfect kid.
This was not a proud father thinking that.
She just was the perfect kid.
Even her terrible twos had been more like mildly annoying twos. She didn’t throw tantrums. She didn’t get moody. She didn’t talk back. She did what she was told. She was bright and cheerful and sunny. She skipped and danced. She didn’t pout when she heard no.
And stretched in her bed with his sleeping girl tucked into his side, Coert wondered if somewhere in her little girl psyche she got how she was made, and she got how her mom screwed that up and she got how it pissed off her dad, and they—most importantly he—were making her feel that she had to be perfect in order to smooth all that over.
To make all of that worth it.
Kim had stuck holes in the condoms he was obsessive about using even though they were in an exclusive relationship, precisely because he did not want to get her pregnant and that was one gravely messed-up move.
But the bottom line was, he got Janie out of it.
So why the fuck was he still pissed and taking that out on his daughter’s mother?
This being a mental road Coert knew he needed to travel not only for his daughter and his relationship with her mother, but also another woman who was suddenly back in his life. It was also a road he couldn’t travel right then with his girl fast asleep beside him in her little bed.
So he carefully extricated himself, tucked her in, kissed her temple, made sure Shnookie was close, turned on her nightlight, turned out the bedside light, and he walked down his stairs.
The full report on the arson his deputy gave to him four hours ago sat on his desk next to Coert’s open, beat-up leather folder with the legal pad inserted.
His notes scribbled everywhere on the pad, pages flipped up, others torn off, Coert looked from computer to his notes, pen in his fingers, flicking pages, touching keys on the keypad, back and forth.
They’d found fires fitting the same MO in Nevada, Wyoming, Minnesota, one each in those states, four in Colorado.
Minnesota and four in Colorado.
And Maine.
Could seem random. Could be a firebug for hire. Could be copycats admiring the work of the man out west and trying their hand. Could be the man out west had apprentices in the North and East.
But the instant Coert read his deputy’s report on the fires, he felt his stomach sink because Colorado, Minnesota and Maine were not coincidences.
It took four hours but he found it. He found the link. He knew why those shops had been burned down. And after he checked and double checked and the facts did not change, every molecule of his body prickled with adrenaline.
The first thing he did was get up, grab his jacket, and he had to stop himself from jogging to his county Explorer.
Or sprinting.
He got in and drove directly to Janie’s preschool.
He punched in the code to get in the front door and walked right into the administrator’s office.
She was fortunately at her desk and looked up at him, surprise hitting her features.
“Hey, Coert. Is everything okay?” she asked.
He shut the door behind him, walked to the front of her desk and did not sit down.
“When Kim and I enrolled Janie here, we had a chat about vigilance due to my position. I’m regrettably in a place where I need to remind you of that chat, Linette. I also need to request you speak to your teachers and staff and make sure they’re consistently aware of the grounds, outside the fences in the playground, and you do not buzz anyone in or give the code out to anyone that is not known to you, not expressly related to one of the children or on a parent’s official list.”
“Oh my goodness, Coert, is everything okay?”
No.
Everything was far from okay.
“A reminder of vigilance is good as a matter of course. Though I apologize if this alarms you but there’s a reason I need to make that reminder. Now just to say, starting very soon, there will be regular drive-bys of sheriff cruisers and at times there will be a manned cruiser parked close to this property. This is simply a precaution. Frankly, a father with the means doing what he can to be absolutely certain his daughter is safe. Cruisers or not, I don’t care if you or one of your staff feel you may be acting rashly, but if you’re even mildly concerned about someone you see, you call the station and me or one of my men will come and check it out.”
“Of course, Coert, but I have to know if Janie, which means the other children, is in danger.”