She Tried to Poison Me novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Gasoline

Seth put a finger to his lips and slid out of bed.

He pulled on his jeans without a sound.

I found my phone on the floor and texted the deputy at the end of the road:

"Gas. Dock. Now."

Bishop stood rigid with his nose at the crack of the door.

Seth reached up and took the big work light off its hook, the one he used for night repairs on the pilings.

He looked at me.

I nodded.

He threw the door open and hit the switch.

White light flooded the dock.

A man stood in the middle of it with a red gas can in both hands, soaked to the knees, his pressed shirt dark with splashed fuel.

Nolan.

The boards around the shed's doorway glittered wet.

Behind him a lodge motorboat bobbed at the end of the dock with its engine ticking.

"Emme," he said gently.

He had a silver lighter in his right hand, and his thumb was on the wheel.

"Go back inside, babe. It's the middle of the night."

"Put it down, Nolan."

"I can't do that."

"The deputy is two hundred yards away."

"Then I'll be quick."

He flicked the wheel.

A flame stood up between his fingers, small and yellow and perfectly steady.

Across the black water, a light came on in a cottage window.

Then another.

Seth took a step forward, and Nolan swung the can at him, and gas slopped over the boards.

"Stay there," Nolan said. "One more step and we all go up. My mother said the stove, but a fire's a fire."

"Your mother," I said, and my voice shook, "sent you."

"She called me from the kitchen at midnight, crying. She said the sheriff had found something and you had to be stopped tonight."

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