Chapter 7

Wisps of smoke still curled from the wreckage of Autumn's apartment, as Judd stood with Fire Marshal Charlie Hammond. The acrid stench of smoke, burnt chemicals, and melted plastic hung in the air, a strange counterpoint to the bright blue morning.

"Preliminary results confirm Ben's assessment. It's absolutely arson. On first inspection, it seems the perp splashed accelerant all over the far wall of the structure."

"Opposite the other side of the duplex?"

"Yeah. Origin was definitely Miss Buchanan's side. Burn pattern suggests it started downstairs. So he came in, did whatever he was going to do, splashed accelerant on the wall, and lit it from the back door."

Judd locked away the rage and tried to ignore his personal connection. He had an investigation to conduct, and he needed a cool head. "Why just the one wall?"

Charlie shrugged. "A half-assed attempt to protect the other half of the duplex? Don't know yet."

"Ben mentioned he thought the place had been tossed before it was lit up."

"Less to see at this point that would verify that, but it's common enough. Arson is often someone's attempt to cover up a robbery."

Autumn was a librarian. What did she have to steal? And why wouldn't a perpetrator toss Riley's place, too? Harder to get into somehow? No, this wasn't a crime of convenience. Typical burglars didn't travel with accelerants. Taking the time to light the place up added to the time for the overall job. The idea of a robbery just didn't play for Judd. This kind of destruction felt personal and not just because that was the most obvious answer.

"What about just straight up vandalism and maliciousness?"

"Sure, sometimes. I'll know more after I've been through. I'm waiting on my backup to arrive before I attempt to enter the structure."

"I need everything you can find. I've got a personal stake in putting this son of a bitch away."

"Soon as I know anything conclusive, you'll be the first to know."

The radio on Judd's belt squawked. He pressed the button on the handset at his shoulder. "This is Hamilton. Go ahead."

"Tyrell Weller is here with the suspect, Chief."

"Copy. I'm on my way."

"Got one on the hook already?" Charlie asked. Being out of Lawley, he didn't know the history at play here.

"The victim's father just got out of prison yesterday."

Charlie whistled. "Damn. Stupid and spiteful bastard if the first thing he did was come here to torch her place."

"She's the one who put him away. If stupid and spiteful will get him locked away permanently, I'll take it. Anything you can find, Charlie," Judd called, and climbed into his cruiser as the fire marshal gave a two-fingered salute.

He checked the dash clock on the drive. Autumn and his mother were meeting Nanna in Lawley to shop for essentials. Despite the fact that he'd rather have splinters shoved under his nails, Eli was tagging along. Not that any of them really thought Jebediah would make a move on her in broad daylight, but there was safety in numbers. Even secure in the knowledge that Jebediah was presently in custody, Judd felt better knowing his brother was with them.

Autumn had been annoyed with him this morning. He'd refused to leave her alone at his place until his mother could swing by. Instead, he'd hand-delivered Autumn to his parents' house, with firm instructions that she not be left alone. He needn't have worried. Patty had full Mama Bear mode engaged. Autumn hadn't raised any protests about his mother's fussing.

Neither of them had said a word about last night - at least not the part of it spent in his bed. He'd woken first, still tangled up with her. With any of his girlfriends, he would've been itching to climb out of bed, get his space, get started on his day. But he didn't move a muscle, not wanting to disturb Autumn, despite the fact that his arm and shoulder were completely numb.

He'd never been able to actually sleep with anyone but her. Maybe because he was afraid of what might come out of his mouth. He had no idea if he still talked in his sleep, but he dreamed of Autumn so often he didn't want to risk it. His girlfriends had been threatened enough about her. He'd never wanted to try to explain how they'd shared a bed for a year. Not one of them would've believed it had only been platonic.

It hadn't felt platonic this morning. It had felt like coming home.

Guilt prickled at that. Less than twenty-four hours ago, he'd been together with Mary Alice. And yet, in two years together, he'd never shared this intimacy with her. He'd never been content just to watch her sleep and memorize the lines of her face.

As he pulled up to the long, low brick building that housed the Police Department, Judd locked all those thoughts away. The last thing he needed to have in his mind when going head-to-head with Jebediah Buchanan was how his daughter had looked in his bed.

Tyrell rose from his perch on the edge of Darius's desk. "Didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon again."

Judd shook the other man's hand. "Where is he?"

"In interrogation," Darius replied.

"What's his demeanor?" Judd asked.

"Cooperative."

"Look, Chief, there's something you need to know before you go in there. I know you like him for this arson, but he's got an alibi," Tyrell said.

Judd fixed him with an expectant stare.

"He didn't even get into the county until this morning. Most of yesterday was spent purchasing a car. He checked into a fleabag motel in Greenwood at 5:30 yesterday and was seen eating at the truck stop across the street at 7:00."

"Witnesses?"

"Spoke to the guy he bought the car off of. Just an ad in the paper. And there's video footage of him at the truck stop. Time-stamped."

"Where'd he buy the car?"

"Indianola. Another former inmate picked him up and dropped him there," Tyrell explained.

Charlie hadn't reported an estimated time for when the fire started but it'd been 8:00 when Autumn called him. Not enough time to set the blaze and get back to Greenwood, seventy-five miles away, to be caught on camera at 7:00. Unless Charlie found some evidence of a remote starter, Jebediah hadn't been here.

"All that means is he wasn't the one to directly strike the match." Judd strode toward interrogation.

He'd only seen Jebediah Buchanan once since the trial. Because of Autumn's PTSD, their annual testimony to the parole board was made without his presence. But when Judd had graduated police academy, he'd made the trek to Parchman to look the bastard in the eye and make it clear that if he ever got out of the hole, Judd would be there to stop him from getting anywhere near his daughter.

That had been a brief visit. Jebediah had sat across from him in his orange prison jumpsuit, shackled to the metal table, his lean form gone mostly to fat from years of a prison diet. Judd had said his piece and waited for the pseudo-religious babble and invective. But Jebediah had said nothing, merely taking in Judd's full police uniform before staring off into space somewhere over Judd's left shoulder.

As he stepped into interrogation, Judd's first thought was that this man bore no resemblance to the Jebediah he'd last seen. The full head of hair had gone to dirty gray and thinned until a speckled pate showed through. The puffy, pallid skin was shrunken now, as if he were being slowly mummified. The gnarled, knobby hands were liver spotted and curled with arthritis where they lay on table. But the eyes - the same vivid green as Autumn's - were clear as they flicked up to meet him. Even from across the room, Judd could see the deep grooves in his face, dug from pain.

"What is it? Cancer? ALS?"

"Why do you care? It's terminal."

And it couldn't have done its worst any faster?

Judd took a seat across from him, something niggling him about the other man's appearance. "You know why you're here?"

"Figure you've got to make your point and harass me now I'm on the outside."

"That was my original plan. See, I'm Chief of Police now, and this is my town. I'm not happy you're here, as you might expect."

Jebediah looked neither impressed nor afraid. "The Lord says, if I confess out loud and seek forgiveness from others, then I'll be cleansed of all unrighteousness. I just want to make things right with my daughter before I go."

He doesn't look crazy, Judd realized. He didn't believe for a minute that Jebediah was actually better. That kind of delusion just didn't up and go away, even when the alcohol dried up. But apparently, in all these years, he'd learned to hide it. Maybe that was how he'd finessed the parole board.

"Cleansed of all unrighteousness," Judd repeated, struggling to keep the incredulity from his tone. "Well now, I guess you're really pushing the envelope on that one, what with wiping out all her worldly possessions. As I recall, you weren't big on worldly possessions."

The old Jebediah would've gone off on a rant about the evils of material things or some shit. This one just sat, surprise flickering over his face, along with a dawning realization that this was why he'd been dragged in. On the heels of that came the anger. "I haven't been anywhere near Autumn, and I don't know where she lives."

Judd wanted to poke at that anger, add fuel to the fire to get him to incriminate himself. "Bet you could've found out. Maybe tagged one of your prison buddies, who already got out, to drive up here and set her place on fire, while you were conveniently caught on camera, eating dinner, calm as you please, more than an hour away."

"Autumn's house burned?" Jebediah blinked in apparent confusion, understanding that this wasn't a hypothetical question.

"Yeah. Last night. Curious thing that should happen the day you got out."

"I had nothing to do with that."

Like he was gonna say anything else.

"Right. And you want to make amends. With the daughter whose welfare you haven't even asked after."

"If she were dead or hurt, you wouldn't be sitting calmly in that chair."

Calm was the very last thing Judd was feeling. But he had years of experience hiding his emotions in stressful situations. He didn't like the casual way Jebediah made the statement. As if Judd were of no concern.

Jebediah leaned forward. "You think I don't know you want to take me apart? You're looking for the first excuse to put me back inside. But I have news for you, Chief. I'm not going to give you the satisfaction. I was a model prisoner, and I'll be a model parolee for as long as God allows me to grace this earth. So whatever it is you think you have on me, keep looking. There's nothing there."

"I'll be the judge of that," Judd said. "Let's talk about your day yesterday."

* * *

"I really wish you had let me buy you those boots," Patty complained as they hauled purchases in from the car.

"You've done plenty," Autumn assured her. "I feel bad enough I couldn't rein Nanna in." As it was, Judd's grandmother had bought her a work week's worth of dresses, two new pair of dress shoes, and a pair of completely unnecessary but gorgeous earrings.

"That just proves you're human." Eli dumped his load of bags in the living room floor. "Trying to stop Nanna from doing anything she wants to do is like trying to lasso a runaway train."

"That is the absolute truth," Patty agreed.

Autumn looked over at her little brother, who'd let them drag him all over Lawley, for everything from clothes to underwear to toiletries, without complaint or even so much as an eyeroll. Stepping over the bags, she rose on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. "Thanks for coming with us."

Eli flashed his crooked grin, a mirror image of Leo's. "Clearly someone had to haul all this booty."

They'd all worked hard to pretend this was just a big shopping spree instead of the first step in Autumn starting over. She'd let them have the thin illusion because they thought it made her feel better and their support meant more than she could say. But her own mind had been occupied running numbers, sorting out how much she could afford to spend on necessities, what had to be bought now and what had to wait.

The vast majority of the clothes had come from the Goodwill and Salvation Army thrift stores, as well as a trendy little consignment shop she and Riley had found on a previous trip to Lawley. The used clothes didn't bother Autumn. Most of her wardrobe had been secured in a similar fashion growing up, so she had ample experience with how to stretch a buck. She still wanted to make a pilgrimage to Starkville and Oxford to hit up the thrift stores there - college towns tended toward high turnover and a lot of nice brands - but she wanted to go on her own, so it'd have to wait until she got her car back. Still, the day's haul was a good start to a long road.

"I wish we could've just gone straight to Judd's to drop all this off. Then I could at least get things put away instead of taking over your living room." And she could have some much needed alone time to have a good cry over all the things no amount of money could replace. The loss of those mementos, gifts, and memories had been hovering at the back of her mind all day, a heavy weight on her heart.

"He was clear about you not being left alone, and I'm not going to cross him on this," Patty said.

Autumn sighed. "I know."

Patty wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I know you'd like to get settled."

Settled. Because she was living with Judd now. The thing she'd been trying to avoid for years because proximity made hiding her feelings all the harder. She gave brief thought to asking Patty if she could stay here. The offer hadn't been retracted, but Autumn knew absolutely no one was willing to cross Judd on the best way to protect her. Autumn had no desire to paint targets on Patty or Owen's backs either, so she didn't ask. And a tiny part of her could admit that she wanted to be close to Judd, which just reinforced that she needed to get the hell out of town.

She'd email her mother tonight. Start making plans. She couldn't go right away. Even though she'd been frugal, between all the must-haves and the new laptop, she wouldn't be able to move now. Deposits on a new place, utilities, first and last month's rent all added up to an out of reach total. But maybe she could get that ball rolling by planting the seed with her mother. Then after another couple of months of royalties...maybe.

She needed to get her new laptop set up and finish the next book in Redemption Ridge. Fans were primed for the next installment about the Oliver family, and God knew she was going to need whatever boost in income it could provide. Thank God for cloud storage. The backup of everything ought to be on the servers, so she shouldn't have lost anything there.

"Can I borrow a couple of suitcases so it's at least easier to haul in?"

"Of course. Eli, you want to grab some from the attic?"

"On it."

As Eli disappeared down the hall, the kitchen door swung open. "Mom? Y'all back?" Leo called.

"In here!"

He came in, Boudreaux trotting at his heels. The dog broke away and came straight for Autumn, giving her a thorough sniff from breast to toe.

"Who's a good boy?" She gave him a good rubdown. "What's he doing with you?"

"Picked him up this morning. Judd said you were worried about leaving him alone out at the house."

This family was just racking up the brownie points. There was a guard posted on Judd's place, but even so, she'd been worried that someone might try the same treatment on his house. It was bad enough she'd lost all her things. If anything happened to Boudreaux...she couldn't even think about it.

"Did you finish?" Patty asked him.

"Just. Thought I'd come straight over with it."

"Straight over with what?" Autumn asked. Because they all had that look that said they'd been up to something.

Leo produced a thumb drive from his pocket. "Why don't you fire up that new laptop there and see?" He picked up the box and examined it. "Nice specs."

"If I had to get a new one, might as well upgrade to one that will last for a while." Especially since one of her major sources of income depended upon it.

She pulled the new machine out and began the process of setting it up as Boudreaux stretched out at her feet. "Has anyone heard from Judd since this morning?"

Eli returned with the suitcases. "Not about the investigation. Just to check on you."

Autumn knew he'd be bringing her father in for questioning. Whether he'd yet found enough evidence to charge him with anything was another matter. If it was there to find, she had faith Judd would find it. His entire career as a cop had proven him thorough and dogged. He always got his man.

She wished she knew what was going on.

"Okay, hand it over and let's see what you've been up to." Autumn plugged the flash drive into the side and opened the folder. The whole thing was full of JPEGs. She toggled the view to extra large thumbnails and watched her screen fill with pictures. Pictures of her and Judd. Her with the rest of their family. Going back years. Lifting a hand to cover her trembling mouth, she scrolled through, feeling her throat tighten with every row. Her history with Judd was right here. Not all of it, but a huge chunk. Even quite a few she hadn't seen herself. All memories she thought she'd lost to the fire.

"I pulled out all the old albums before we left this morning and had Leo scan everything. I'd been meaning to have it done anyway, and I thought you'd like copies," Patty said gently.

Autumn had to swallow several times before she could speak. "I don't know what to say."

"I put a call out to all your friends, too," Leo said. "Everybody's rounding up stuff from high school and college. I'll put those together as they come in. And if you'll let me know which ones you want, I'll have prints made for you to frame."

The tears spilled over then, cascading down her cheeks in a hot flood. She set the laptop aside and headed for Leo, who took one panicked step back before opening his arms.

"You gave me the best thing ever, so you're going to have to deal with the ugly cry." And it felt so good to be crying with relief instead of the tearing grief. She knew she wasn't through with the grief yet - not by a long shot - but this gift was a balm to her ravaged heart.

Oh, who was she kidding? She could never leave this family. Any of them. And it would kill her when Judd married Mary Alice.

Leo wrapped his arms around her. "Oh, well, it was no big deal. Just a few hours with a scanner."

"It's a huge deal to me." She gave him a tight hug and a watery kiss on the cheek before turning to Patty. "Thank you. I can't tell you what this means to me."

Patty stroked her hair back. "You don't have to, sweetheart."

Part of her wanted to curl up in one corner of the big leather sofa and cuddle the laptop as she looked over all the pictures and lost herself in memories. Instead, she managed to pull herself together. She washed her face and set to neatly folding and consolidating her purchases into the two suitcases Eli had brought down from the attic, while her cloud drives synced to the new hard drive. The small progress left her feeling mostly human again by the time Judd showed up for dinner.

He took one look at her and crossed the room in two strides, reaching out to stroke a thumb over her cheek. "You've been crying."

Everything in her wanted to lean into his touch, to recapture the intimacy of his bed this morning. But the desire was chased by a frisson of guilt. He didn't belong to her, and she didn't have trauma to fall back on as an excuse for infringing on Mary Alice's territory just now. She stepped back and reached for the laptop.

"Happy tears, actually." While the rest of the family finished prepping dinner, she showed him the collection of pictures.

"I've got more at the house. I'll dig them out for you."

"Later. What I really want to know is what happened today." Was her boogeyman still out there?

Judd rubbed a hand across the back of his neck and dragged it over the tension in his shoulders, something he only did when things hadn't gone the way he wanted on a case. "I had your father brought in for questioning. He's got a solid alibi for the time frame of the fire."

Autumn frowned. "But how can that be?"

"Just means he didn't physically set it. It doesn't rule out that he had someone else do it. I'm still waiting on the fire marshal to get back to me with the evidence he collected at the scene today."

"But you didn't have enough to hold him," she concluded.

"No. His parole officer is keeping him on a tight leash, while we conduct the investigation. For now, he's staying at the Mockingbird Motel. He's got a car. Piece of shit Taurus in maroon. Same vintage Mitch used to drive back in high school."

That would be easy enough to look out for.

"There's something else." He tugged her to sit on the sofa, tangling his fingers in hers.

Autumn's stomach knotted. "What?"

"Jebediah's dying. Don't know what of. Cancer probably. He looks like shit. I'm guessing he doesn't have a whole helluva long time."

She waited to feel...something. Any pang of sorrow. But she felt only relief. "He's too mean to just up and die."

"Probably. He says he wants to make amends with you."

"Amends?" Autumn couldn't stop her voice from shooting an octave higher in disbelief. "Is he out of his mind?"

"That was pretty much my reaction, too. But I just wanted to warn you. He'll likely try to seek you out. I've already got Tucker McGee filing a restraining order. We'll get a temporary one in place and then go before the judge as soon as we can get on his schedule to make it permanent. But I don't know how much Jebediah will give a damn about that. If he's really dying - and I'm pretty sure he's not lying about that - he may decide whatever version of making amends is worth more than his freedom for whatever time he's got left."

"Supper, you two!" Patty called.

Autumn rose, disentangling their hands. "I'll be on my guard."

"See that you are. And I'll see that you've got someone on you for the foreseeable future until we determine how much of a threat he is."

She didn't relish the idea of a 24/7 bodyguard. But they'd have to talk about that later. For now, there was poppyseed chicken to eat.