Broken [In Revision 2023]

Chapter 28 - Questions

Officer Harris gave the family the courtesy of twenty minutes before going over and introducing himself. Partially to allow them to come to terms with the shock of the incident, but more-so, so he could evaluate their behaviour for any clues as to the culprit. Ranch houses rarely spontaneously combust, they almost always have help.

The firefighters had won the war against the flames, the building still belched great quantities of smoke and steam, but it was safe enough for the crew to start looking for the root cause. Cautiously, they made their way through the safer sections of the house, using metal rods to turn over charred objects looking for the ignition source.

"How are you holding up?" Harris asked Jake as they walked towards the back of Harris' patrol car. "Bit of a shock, huh?"

"You could say that," Jake clung to his empty bottle of water, the sensation of it crunching in his grip offering a distraction from his dark thoughts.

Harris' car smelled heavily of greasy junk food, no doubt a result of his love of the local diner's takeaway hatch. A few scraggly waffle fries had fallen in the gap between the driver's seat and the handbrake column. Two 30oz Styrofoam cups had been precariously wedged in the too-small cup holders below his radio.

Jake sat uncomfortably in the backseat, not under arrest, but not free from suspicion either.

One of the younger officers came running up to the car and tapped on the window.

Harris cursed him for making him heave his bulk out of the vehicle. He waddled a short distance so he was out of earshot, and turned his partner so Jake couldn't read his lips. He nodded a couple of times before heading back to his car. He groaned as his gut rubbed on the steering wheel, forcing him to manually manipulate his folds until he found a more comfortable position.

"I didn't know you had a dog, Jacob."

"I don't," Jake looked thoroughly confused at the notion.

"Funny, they found one in your house, burnt to a crisp. Poor Leyland almost lost his lunch at the smell, bless him." Harris pulled his notepad and pen out of his pocket and started scribbling notes, "So you are saying that you have no idea who the dog belongs to, or how it got there?"

"All I am going to say is this; I do not and have not owned a dog for the last five years." Jake nudged an empty soda bottle away from his feet. "Rocco was a black Labrador, he's buried in the flowerbed over the other side of the barn, he was always digging it up in life, seemed the right place to lay him to rest."

"I see, so it is unlikely that it was him lurking around in the house?" He chewed the end of his pen hungrily, "we've taken some DNA, of course, to try and identify whose dog it is."

"Was," Jake corrected, regretting it at once as Harris turned in his seat and narrowed his eyes.

"Talking of 'was' was the house insured?"

"No, I couldn't afford the payments." Jake noticed that Harris had stopped writing and was now focused solely on his face, trying to force him into maintaining uncomfortable eye contact.

"So that's not the motive here then," Harris stated.

"Motive?"

"Usually it's an insurance job, but perhaps for you, this was more about vengeance or steady decline into mental illness... who knows what drove you to do it." He smiled as Jake's complexion flushed with rage. "I see you're all packed up, heading somewhere nice?"

"Maddy was heading out to a show and I thought it would be a good idea to take my young horse to get some experience in a busy showground." Jake struggled to keep his cool.

"Where's the old mare?" Harris flipped to a new page, "I noticed only two horses in the trailer."

"She's dead, the fire must have spooked her and she dropped dead at the side of the road, you can call Sean, he picked her up probably 45 minutes ago."

"Oh, I will. So, any theories as to who 'might' have done it?" the sarcasm was heavy in his voice.

"I don't think my mother would have done it, this is probably one of the few things that are a little too far, even for her. But I wouldn't put it past Jenny, someone started a rumour about me having someone new in my life, so perhaps this was an act of revenge."

"I doubt it," Harris took a long slurp of his drink, "she's over you, this seems much more personal."

Layland tapped the glass a second time and jumped back as Harris opened the door. He felt the heat of his superior's breath as the man bellowed at him. It took him a moment to find his voice, embarrassment hot in his cheeks. "The girl mentioned a threat, it sounded serious, so I thought you should know."

"So what's this about a threat then, Jacob, who have you been upsetting now?" Harris yanked the door shut and waved off the young officer.

"The guy from the Rookery was giving Maddy a hard time, he thought she was invading his privacy or some other BS, she was just hanging out with her best friend. She's been avoiding the place ever since, and we both thought it was all water under the bridge, but it seems that wasn't the case."

"Was this ever reported?" Harris said with an air of disbelief.

"No, I don't think getting the police involved would have helped matters, we just accepted his terms and stayed well away." Jake grew irritated that Harris had stopped taking notes, "My horse got loose a few weeks ago, we had to search the whole valley and I guess we got too close to the old back road up to 'Mad Dog'. He turned up here completely off his rocker, waving a gun in my face and threatening to make us pay, his family had to drag him away. I promised his sister in law that I wouldn't press charges."

"What happened to your arm?" said Harris, changing the subject in the hope of forcing Jake to make a mistake and confirm his guilt.

"I had an argument with a particularly malicious roll of barbed wire, want to see?" Jake held his hand up ready to peel the bandages away, but the threat was enough for Harris to back down.

Outside the chief fire-officer was beckoning him out of the comfort of his car, he held out as long as he could before conceding. "You stay here," he snapped to Jake, who had little other option. His throat was begging for a coffee and his stomach a flame-grilled triple cheese stack, but he knew the diner would probably be closed long before he got away from the scene. His wife's meat-free meatloaf seemed pale in comparison, but he had to at least look like he was trying to shift a few pounds.

The fire chief's words spun around his head like a waltzer, he hadn't expected to hear what he had heard. The Todd family had made this mess a thousand times more complicated. He could feel the veins in his forehead pulsating as his mouth flooded with saliva. His appetite lost as his stomach acid surged past his sphincter and scorched his throat. He unclipped his tin of mints and prayed they would be enough to cover the smell of his vomit.

A truck barrelled down the dirt track, its engine roaring. It pushed through a gap in the congregation of vehicles and parked alongside Harris' police cruiser. Helen stepped out, her hair semi-tamed and in a fresh shirt. The colour didn't compliment her skin and it was far too snug in the chest, suggesting that it was borrowed, rather than one of her own.

"Who are you, some reporter itching for a story?" Harris jogged over and put his hand out to stop her releasing Jake from the back of his car. "Or perhaps you are something to do with this mess?" He eyed her with great suspicion.

"I'm not here to cause trouble. This case needs to be lost, Code Midnight, you know what to Bernie." She whispered.

"Who are you?" Harris looked alarmed; he backed away from the woman as though she had poured burning oil in his ears instead of words.

"Helen, wife of Randy Todd," she saw the look of fear in his eyes and softened her features so she was less imposing, "there are protocols in place, just bury this, it's already being dealt with."

Harris looked downtrodden, he pulled the handle on the door and let Jake out of the car. He put his hand on Jake's shoulder and whispered: "Seems like your luck is in this time, friends in high places and all that, but you need to watch your back, they're animals."