Eli dreaded coming face-to-face with Alfred Price - not because he was afraid. Price was too old and drunk to be a danger to a full-grown man. No, what Eli feared was facing a prison sentence for murder. For that reason he'd asked Stan Glenn, the fire department's mechanic and best ladder man, to accompany him out to Nettie's former home. Never, he swore silently, she's never setting foot in there again.
He'd been utterly honest with her when he talked about love, but he also couldn't deny that he cared about her - so deeply even he couldn't understand it.
Eli had been engaged once before - to the daughter of one of his father's colleagues. Clara had been a model bride for an up and coming young businessman, but Eli had never felt the kind of protectiveness or, almost contradictory, respect, that held for Nettie. Nettie might be vulnerable physically, but her intellect was a sharp as anyone's. Eli could see himself discussing cases with her over dinner, and her helping him sort fact from fiction. Her common sense was extraordinary, and her courage could put some of his fellow firefighters to shame. Lord knew he wanted her in his bed, but he could also happily look forward to fifty years of seeing her at the breakfast table. He'd been ready to announce their engagement in this Sunday's paper, but Nettie had asked for a little more time.
Still, someone had to know. He couldn't keep his mouth shut entirely. So as they barreled down the dirt road in Stan's Model-T pickup truck, Eli said, "There's something you should know - in case something happens to me at a fire, or anywhere. I'm engaged to Nettie Price."
Stan whistled. "You're a braver man than I am to take on old Al as a father-in-law. Figured something was up, though when I heard she'd moved into your house. Beat the tar out of her, didn't he?"
"Yeah." The amount of damage the bastard had inflicted still made Eli's stomach turn. "I don't want him to ever get his hands on her again, even if for some reason I'm not around. Get the boys, take her to Lawson Pines, or put her on a train to my sister in Chicago. I should have my will changed by the end of the week, but that will only make him want to get his hands on her even more."
"Right." Stan didn't even question the instructions. "Always thought she was a good girl. Sweet. Hard worker. Pretty. A fellow could do a lot worse - except for the old man, of course. When's the wedding?"
"As soon as she's out of that blasted cast." She still had three or four weeks left, by his reckoning. "Small wedding, but I'd like to invite the boys and their ladies."
"You'd be in for it if you didn't." Stan chuckled. "So what are we doing out here? Can't you afford to buy her a brand-new machine?"
"She wants her mother's." Eli had tried bringing up the other option. She'd said it would be fine. Every man knew that when a woman said fine, it meant anything but.
"Ah." Stan went silent for a minute or two, and finally said, "You noticed we've been a bit busier than usual?"
"We have, haven't we?" Of course Eli had noticed. He wasn't stupid. "Smelled kerosene or gasoline at a few of them too - maybe most. We've got ourselves an arsonist, don't we?"
"Could be." Stan nodded slowly. "Hate to say it, but it looks that way."
"Any idea who?" Eli couldn't think of a likely suspect off the top of his head.
"Nobody new in town. We saw a few back before your day, when the Brennan Mill closed down, but those tapered off after a month or so. Figured whoever it was either burned himself up in one of the fires, or wandered away."
"If we're looking at old employees of the mill, that's a whole lot of men - and it doesn't make sense. That was what? Six - seven years ago?" Eli had opened up his practice only five years earlier, so he'd been away at school when the mill had closed. "What would make him start up again now?"
"Oh, maybe his daughter running off with a big-shot lawyer? Without her as a punching bag, Price might have gone around the bend." Stan turned onto the rutted driveway of the Price property. Once again, Eli noticed all the char marks on what might have once been a nice lawn.
"Damn it to hell." Eli gasped as he looked out over the still-smoldering ruins of the house where Nettie had lived. "How did this happen without us getting a call?"
They both climbed from the car and made their way to the fallen timbers. "Last night was cloudy, and this place is a ways out from any other houses." Stan picked up a shovel from the back of his truck and handed Eli a rake. "Let's see if we can find a body."
There weren't enough live embers to warrant calling the rest of the company. Grimly, they set about raking and digging out the remains of the fire, and removing what they could of the roof and rafters.
"Well, there's her sewing machine."
Eli used the rake to haul the wrecked carcass from the rest of the debris. Maybe something of it could be saved as a memento, at least.
"And it fell on whoever was sitting under it." Stan dug out the second story flooring to reveal the charred remains of a human. The face had been obliterated, showing bare skull in a grim smile. Even the hair was gone. Bits of flesh remained, one arm covered in coarse black hair, while the other hand was missing. "Average-sized, male, dark haired. Looks like our firebug did himself in."
"Looks like." Eli had come across bodies a time or two in his work with the fire department. It was never pretty, but this - this burnt pile of flesh had once been Nettie's father. She'd broken off from him, but this would still hit her hard. She'd see it as a validation of his need for her, and bear the guilt of breaking her unrealistic promise. Eli mechanically went through the motions of putting out the remaining embers and wrapped the body in a tarp before stowing it -or rather the falling apart pieces of it - into the bed of the truck. He didn't think he'd ever be able to stomach the smell of bacon again.
"Most of the machine is all right, the metal parts, at least." Stan knocked bits of charred wood from the sewing machine. "We can get a new case for it." He laid the parts alongside Price in the truck.
"Thanks." Eli climbed into the cab and sighed. "So much for a romantic dinner with my new fiancée tonight."
"Might be the best thing, in the long run." Stan's tone was grave. "You smell the kerosene in there? It wasn't an accidental fire. Whole town might be safer with him gone."
"And Nettie will be for sure." Eli understood that. "She's going to blame herself."
Stan gave a short chuckle. "Women do that sort of thing. And that, my friend, is why I'm single."
"You're a bastard, Stan."
"Naw. My parents were married." The older man laughed. "You'll get past it, you know. All you have to do is be there for her and give her the time she needs."
"Pretty smart for a single chap." Eli forced his muscles to relax. Nettie was safe now. That's what he had to focus on.
"Grew up with four sisters," Stan said. "Had enough women around to hold me for the rest of this lifetime."
"Sure. You wait. One day you'll meet someone like my Nettie." Eli liked the sound of that. My Nettie. "Then, boom, you won't know what hit you." At least that's what it seemed like to Eli - although he'd never considered himself a confirmed bachelor, at least not after the initial shock of being jilted by Clara.
Jesus, he hoped Nettie wouldn't leave him over this. Clara had hurt his pride. Nettie would hurt something far more vulnerable.