It had to have been the former Mrs. Duncan, Ms. Fitzgerald.
"It's an act of revenge," she'd explained to Logan and Tara on the way back to the police station after Mark had officially been pronounced dead. "Her older son's a trouble maker, and her husband broke her heart."
"I don't know," Logan had said. "It makes sense, yeah, but what about all that alimony and child support he's paying? She'd lose it."
"Not if he had a life insurance policy. She'd get a lot more that way."
"That's a good point."
So now, with the warrant in her hand and Logan at the wheel of his truck, they were on their way to talk to Ms. Fitzgerald. And to search her house. Since she was a liable suspect now with motive and no alibi, a warrant could be issued to search for evidence in her house.
Clasping and unclasping her hands, watching the birch trees fly by, and seeing the sky, still somewhat dark from last night's rain, Kenzie went over and over in her head what all she was going to say to Ms. Nina Fitzgerald. An arrest couldn't be made unless evidence was found. And that's what Kenzie was hoping to find in the house. A police cruiser followed them with two officers at the wheel. Kenzie, not being allowed to carry a weapon of any sort, was required to have at least one officer with her whenever she searched a suspect's home, in the event that said suspect returned, or if someone else was in the house.
When they arrived at last, Logan said, "Hey, I've been thinking about what you said. About going back to college."
"Really?"
"Yeah, and after seeing you so passionate about your work, and now what we're about to do...well, I'm really excited about it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to take out a student loan and go for it."
"That's great! I'm happy for you."
"Thanks. So let's do this part."
"I'm on it."
The two walked toward the house. Since it was Sunday, there would be no school, so that left a sure sign that Nina was home with the rambunctious Adam. Kenzie rang the doorbell and Nina, more dressed up than yesterday, answered.
"Oh, it's you two again," she said. "What now?"
"We have a warrant to search the house," Kenzie said, holding the piece of paper up.
"A warrant? What? Why?"
"Please come with me, ma'am," one of the two officers said as he gently took Ms. Fitzgerald by the arm.
"Adam!" Nina called into the house. Adam came running downstairs, then stopped when he saw his mother being held by a police officer.
"Mom, what's going on?" he asked.
"Just come outside," Nina replied.
Adam obliged, but he looked timid. Kenzie then entered the house, Logan right behind her.
"Okay," she said as she looked around the room after Logan closed the door. "We have to have to check every single room in the house. Look for anything incriminating. Life insurance papers, gas, matches, anything. Anything that seems important, just yell. And look absolutely everywhere, like places things could be hidden easily."
Logan saluted Kenzie. "Yes, ma'am."
Kenzie playfully shoved Logan, who trudged upstairs. Kenzie took the downstairs area.
She started with the kitchen area, since it was the closest. She looked inside all the cabinets, the fridge, the trash, everything. In the living area, she looked at all the toys, flipped the sofa and chair cushions over, and even looked in the TV cabinet. Next came the bathroom. It took quite a while to look through those three areas, yet she still came up empty-handed.
Determined not to let this get her down, Kenzie headed upstairs. She checked Nina's bedroom first. She could hear Logan rummaging in Adam's room. Nothing was in the dresser or book shelf, or stuffed inside the pillowcases or under the mattress. The end table drawers were bare except for reading glasses and magazines.
"Uh...Kenzie?" Logan suddenly called. "You better come take a look at this."
Kenzie walked to Adam's room. Logan was standing at the foot of the bed, with a concerned expression on his face.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Check under the mattress."
Frowning, Kenzie kneeled down and lifted up the mattress...
...and nearly fell over. For under the mattress were at least half a dozen match boxes, most of them used. Kenzie now understood Logan's facial expression. The innocent bedroom of an eight-year-old boy had match boxes underneath the dinosaur-sheeted mattress. What was the world coming to?
********************
Kenzie managed to get some fingerprints off the match boxes, but that didn't make it any better. The size alone gave it away that the prints were too small to be an adult's. DNA later confirmed that they belonged to Adam. Ms. Fitzgerald hadn't planted them, nor had anyone else.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Tara asked Kenzie from the other side of the interrogation room at the police station. "I can do it instead."
Kenzie shook her head. "I can do this. It's my job."
Tara nodded and Kenzie walked into the next room. Sitting at a table was Adam, his mother next to him with a shocked expression on her face. Kenzie couldn't blame her. Nina had been convinced her elder son was the trouble maker, not her youngest.
The interrogation room was so depressing. It looked like an industrial prison. No wonder Adam looked so unhappy. And his mother too, for that matter.
Kenzie sat down across from Adam.
"Hello, Ms. Fitzgerald," she said. "And hi, Adam."
"Hi," Adam said. Nina said nothing.
"Hey Adam," Kenzie began, "we found some matches in your room. Can you tell me about those?"
"I play with them sometimes."
"Why's that?"
"Fire's cool."
"I see. But why did you have so many?"
"I just collected them, and I got a whole bunch."
"Where all did you play with them?"
Adam shrugged.
"Tell her the truth, young man," Nina scolded.
Adam looked at Kenzie and said, "I showed them to Aaron one time."
"Was that the night you went to the movies?" Kenzie asked.
Adam nodded. "Yeah, and then they took me home. Now Aaron doesn't have a house."
"Do you know why?"
"Because of me."
Adam started crying, and Nina cradled him in her arms. Kenzie hated to persist, but she had to. Tara was on the other side of the two-way mirror. If she was needed, she'd come in.
"Adam, did you play with matches at Mrs. Tolliver's house too? Or at your dad's house?"
Adam suddenly stopped crying and looked angry. "No. I was just listening to Mark."
"What do you mean?"
"Mark said it was all Dad's fault he and Mom don't live together anymore. He said Mrs. Tolliver did something to him and that's why he left. Mark showed me some of his tricks, like the whoopee cushion. But I like fire, so I just threw matches at the house."
Nina gasped. Kenzie continued, "Were the matches lit? Did you want to set the house on fire?"
"I wanted to scare her and make her feel bad for what she did. She took my dad away from me and Mom."
"What about your dad's house?"
"Mark said it was Dad's fault too. I wanted to make both of them sorry."
"So...you wanted to hurt your dad? And Mrs. Tolliver?"
"Yeah. When people do bad things, they should be punished. That's what Mom always told me."
Nina put her hand on her head in a depressed manner. Kenzie's brain was still processing this information. Adam was looking even more frightened.
"How did you get to Mrs. Tolliver's and your dad's house?"
"I went with Mom to the police station one night but I told her I wanted to wait in the car. But that Tolliver lady lives really close to there, so I sneaked out and threw the match, then ran back to the car. And this morning Mom woke me up early because she had to get groceries and didn't want to leave me alone. Dad doesn't live too far from the store, so I told Mom I wanted to wait in the car again. Then I ran to his house and threw a match in an open window, then ran back to the car."
"Didn't your mom notice you were missing?"
"No, she had a lot of groceries to get. I was back before she was."
Nina sunk even lower in her seat. Clearly she was disappointed and at a loss for words.
"Adam, what about Aaron's house? Why did you burn it?"
"That was an accident," Adam said, crying all over again. "I was just trying to show Aaron how cool fire was. I lit a match to show him, but I threw it away before we left for the movies."
"And it caught fire while you were gone because it was still burning," Kenzie finished. Adam just cried harder.
When Kenzie first took her job as a detective, she never expected there to be a criminal that was a child. She didn't even know where to begin with that. Adam's fate would be up to the district attorney. But Kenzie knew that if he was convicted of a murder, he could be held until he was 21 years old.
Finally, Kenzie got up and let a nearby officer take it from there. She met Tara outside.
"You did good in there," she said with reassurance. "I know that was hard."
"A kid...just a little kid..."
"I know. It makes you worry about what's going to happen to the world, doesn't it?"
"You have no idea."
********************
"So, you're leaving?" Logan asked as Kenzie packed her suitcases back at the hotel.
"Yeah, I have to get back to Riverview," she said sadly.
"Why don't you stay? There's no law saying you have to go back there. And Twinbrook could really use a detective like you."
"Thanks, but Riverview is home. I just can't leave it. Not yet."
"Well, my offer's always open. You can always move in with me, and keep your job."
"That's a very tempting offer. I'll give it some thought."
"Come on," Logan said with an irresistible smile. "Why don't you at least stay one more night? It's getting late now. By the time you get home, it'll be pitch black. Why not start fresh in the morning?"
Kenzie looked down at her partially packed suitcase. Her job was done, but she didn't want to drive home at night. A good night's sleep would be more beneficial.
"Oh, okay," she said playfully. "You convinced me."
"Great! After you leave tomorrow, I'm going to go talk to some people about student loans. School's not really my thing, but..."
"I'll help you out. I'll have you know I was an honor student in high school and college. Just email me whenever you need it."
"Thanks, I think I'll do that."
Kenzie looked up into Logan's eyes. For the first time in a long time, she felt like she was really alive. She was finally being more carefree like she'd promised herself and Jillian. Her distrust of men had been extinguished.
"I'm going to miss you," Kenzie said at last.
"I'll miss you, too."
Logan wrapped Kenzie in his arms and the two shared a kiss. It was amazing how fast he'd melted the ice around her heart.
He melted it so much that she had no regrets for how they shared their last evening together.
********************
The next day, Kenzie finished packing around 10 and prepared to depart Twinbrook an hour or two later.
"Come visit me whenever you can," she said to Logan.
"Same to you. But don't be surprised if I'm still a bounty hunter when you see me next. I have to make some sort of living while I'm going to college."
"I know that, but you may want to get a second, more stable job. Bounties aren't always available."
Logan playfully tickled Kenzie, who laughed and reached up to put her arms around his neck. She really was going to miss Logan. It was true they had telephones and email, but somehow, it wouldn't be the same if they couldn't be physically together.
At last, Kenzie gave Logan a final kiss goodbye before she climbed into her car and headed back to Riverview. During the drive, along with Logan, she thought of Adam, and how he was her first case where the guilty party was a child. If it were anyone else, she would have felt relieved to have solved the case. But now, she felt sad. Adam was just a kid. He had his whole life ahead of him. And it was hard telling where he'd spend a lot of that life.
This was the first time that Kenzie felt sympathy for a criminal. But she remembered the night she'd told Logan that some mysteries couldn't be solved. And as she thought about how Logan had torn down the walls surrounding her, and of Adam's fate, she realized just how true that statement was. Some mysteries couldn't be solved, and never would be. One such mystery was that of the heart.
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