Chapter Twenty-Four

"Explosion?" I start pacing the floor while biting my thumb. "What kind of explosion?"

"I'm not sure. The fire department thought maybe the gas can I had in there fell over on a bag of lawn chemicals and ignited a flame that caused the explosion, which I suppose is possible. At this point, I don't have any other explanation."

"Do you think maybe..." How do I say this? "That maybe someone did this? I'm sure you have some angry spouses that want revenge for you ratting them out."

"If that were true I would know. I have a guy keeping tabs on those people, knowing they might come after me."

He does? I didn't know that.

"But is there any way to tell if someone did this or if it was just an accident?"

"We'd have to run some tests. Or the police would. I couldn't do it myself. I don't have the equipment."

"Have you called them?"

"No, and I don't plan to. I don't think anyone did this. I think it was just an accident."

"Are you okay?" That should've been the first thing I asked. Now I feel bad that I didn't. I was too focused on who did this, certain it was Niles. I still think it was him.

"I burned my arm pretty bad. Just got back from the hospital. The doc bandaged me up and said I'll be fine. But I gotta tell ya, it hurts like hell."

My dad never complains so if he says his arm hurts, it really hurts.

"I'm coming over. I'll stay overnight. I'll leave right now."

"Honey, no. You don't need to drive all the way up here."

"I want to. You shouldn't be alone when you're hurt. I'll pack a bag and leave in a few minutes."

"Kate, you don't have to do this. My arm will be fine."

"You don't want to see me?" I ask, knowing that will make him say yes.

"Of course I want to see you. When are you leaving?"

"In a few minutes."

"I'll make your bed up. Have you eaten? I could make you something."

"I'm not hungry. I don't need to eat."

"Be careful on the drive. It's getting dark earlier now. I don't like you driving in the dark."

"I know. I'll see you soon." I end the call and race down to my room with Megan trailing behind.

"Why are you running?" she asks. "What happened to him?"

"There was an explosion in his shed and his arm got burned." I grab my duffel bag and start filling it with clothes. "He had to go to the hospital."

Megan sits on my bed. "Is he okay?"

"He said he is but I need to see for myself. You know my dad. If he was hurt really bad he'd never tell me."

"Are you coming back tomorrow?"

"I don't know yet. I might stay another day or two. He might need help if he can only use one arm."

"You better call Gavin and let him know."

"I don't have time to call him." I get out my phone. "I'll text him."

There was an explosion in my dad's shed, I text. He got hurt. I'm going to go see him. I hit send.

"Are you going to call your mom?"

"Could you do it?" I toss some socks and pajamas in the bag. "Every time I call her lately, I can't get her off the phone and I don't have time for an hour-long call."

"Sure, I'll call her. We haven't talked for a couple weeks. It'll be good to catch up."

I look at Megan. "You talked to my mom a couple weeks ago?"

"We talk once or twice a month. You didn't know that?"

"No." I yank some t-shirts from my closet. "She never mentioned it."

"I love your mom. She's so hip, and not like she's trying to be hip, but she actually is hip. She's more on trend with stuff than I am. Did she tell you about that new workout she's doing with the bands that hang from the ceiling?"

"Yeah. She even sent me pictures." I zip up my bag. "When's the last time you talked to your own mom?"

"A few days ago." She steps aside as I go past her out of the room. "She's driving me crazy." Megan follows behind me down the hall.

"Why is she driving you crazy?"

"Because every time she calls she says, 'When are you going to marry that boy with the bow tie?'" She raised her voice to imitate her mom.

I laugh. "And what do you tell her?"

"That it's never going to happen. I never should've told her about Decker. I never tell her stuff like that."

"But you did because you couldn't help yourself." I grab my keys and phone and walk to the door. "Because you love him." I smile, then go out the door before she yells at me.

"I don't love him!" she says, her voice ringing down the hall.

"Was that Megan?" I hear someone say.

I look up and see Decker. "Oh, hey, Decker. Yeah, that was Megan."

He stops and points to our apartment, where the door is now closed. "Did she just say she loves me?"

I smile. "I don't know but it sure sounded like it."

"I thought so too." He fights back a grin. "Why is she yelling it down the hall?"

I shrug. "You know what they say. When you're in love you can't help but shout it from the rooftops."

"Yeah." He lets loose his grin, a big wide grin. "See ya later."

"Yeah, bye."

He hurries down the hall. Megan may say she's not in love with him, but he's definitely in love with her.

As I'm getting in my car, my phone rings. It's Gavin.

"Hey, I'm just leaving," I say. "Can we talk later?"

"Uh, no. Seriously? You just sent me a text saying your dad got hurt in an explosion. What the hell happened? Is he okay?"

I love that Gavin is showing so much concern for my dad. My dad wasn't exactly nice to him when they met, but Gavin knows my dad was just being a protective father.

"I think he's okay," I say. "When I talked to him, he sounded fine but I want to go there just to make sure."

"I'll go with you. I'm heading down to my car."

"No, Gavin, don't. I'm staying there overnight."

"So I'll bring a change of clothes."

"My dad wouldn't want you staying overnight. And I really just want it to be my dad and me. If you don't mind."

He sighs. "Yeah, I understand. So what happened?"

"He thinks maybe the gas can fell over on a bag of lawn chemicals and caused some kind of reaction that started a fire."

"You said there was an explosion."

"There was, but I don't know how bad it was. He didn't say. But it was bad enough to burn his arm."

"He's lucky it wasn't more than that."

I've been trying not to think about that, but he's right. It could've been much worse. What if my dad was in the shed when the explosion went off? He could've been killed.

If Niles really did this, was that his goal? To kill my dad? I can't believe he'd really do that. But he already killed one man. What's one more?

I have to get there. I have to see my dad. I have to somehow warn him without giving too much away.

"Gavin, I have to go."

"Okay but call me when you get there."

"I will."

"Love you."

"Love you too."

An hour later, I'm at my dad's house. He's waiting for me on the front porch.

"Dad, what are you doing out here? It's cold."

"It's not that cold. Besides, you know me. I run hot." He gives me a hug. 

I stand back and look at his arm. It's bandaged from the wrist to the elbow.

"Got a few scrapes from the debris," he says showing me his hands. "Nothing too bad. They'll heal fast."

"How about your arm?"

"That'll take longer to heal. They gave me all these instructions on how to clean it and rewrap it."

"Can you do that without help?"

"We'll see. I haven't tried yet."

"What if you need help? Do you know anyone who could come over?"

"Lisa said she'd help if I need it."

"Lisa? Who's Lisa?"

"She lives down the road." He opens the door for me and we go inside. "You want something to drink?"

"No, I'm good."

We sit on the couch.

"So are you and Lisa friends?" I ask, assuming they are if she agreed to help him.

"We're been seeing each other on and off for a year."

"You have?" I'm surprised because my dad almost never dates. Chasing after cheating spouses all day tends to ruin your faith in relationships. "So she's your girlfriend?"

"It's nothing serious." He leans back and rests his good arm up along the back of the couch. "Like I said, it's an on and off thing."

"So are you on or off right now?"

"On. She was here last night. Made me dinner."

"Do you like her?"

He chuckles. "I wouldn't be seeing her if I didn't."

"Then why isn't it going anywhere?"

"Kate, you know I don't want to get married again."

"Dad, not every woman cheats. Mom didn't cheat."

"It's not about that." He picks at the fabric on the couch, then runs his hand over it.

"Then what's it about?"

He smiles. "What's with all the questions?"

"I just wondered. You don't date very often so if you're dating this Lisa woman you must really like her."

"We get along well. She tolerates me." He chuckles. "That combo's not easy to find. So what about you? Still dating the rich kid?"

"Gavin, and yes, we're still dating."

"I'm surprised he didn't come with you."

"He offered but I told him he should stay there. He has class in the morning."

"Are you two getting serious?"

"I guess we are." I chew on my lip.

"You guess? You're not sure?"

"We haven't talked about the future yet. It's too soon for that." I don't want to tell my dad about the plans Gavin and I made for after graduation. For one, he doesn't need to know that, and two, I don't know if those plans will still happen.

I love Gavin and want a future with him, but after what happened with his dad, I'm not sure if that's possible. I keep imagining myself at the dinner table with his family, staring across at his dad, knowing he's a killer. How could I just sit there and act like his father is the great and wonderful man Gavin thinks he is when I know it's all a lie?

"Does his family approve of this?" my dad asks.

"Of what?"

"You and Gavin being together."

"Probably not. But Gavin doesn't care what his parents think. And they really shouldn't be judging us given that Gavin's dad didn't come from money." I pause. "How much do you know about his dad?"

"Niles Bishop?" My dad shrugs. "He's a politician. They're all crooks. I wouldn't trust him or anyone else who goes into politics."

"What do you mean by 'crooks'?"

"Thieves. They take people's money. Do backroom deals. Cheat and lie to get what they want. They're criminals."

"How do you know that? Are you just assuming that or do you have proof?"

He cocks his brow. "Why do you ask?"

Shit. I need a reason. Think, think, think.

"Because I'm dating a politician's son," I say. "And if I marry him someday, I may have a senator as my father-in-law."

"Niles is behind in the polls. He's not going to win."

"He might. And if he wins, he'll be a senator and probably still will be by the time I marry Gavin."

He huffs. "If Niles Bishop becomes a senator, I'll never let you marry Gavin. I don't care if you hate me. It's not gonna happen." He stands up and walks to the window, looking out at the back yard.

"Because you think he's a crook?"

"I know he's a crook. He was governor. But that was a while ago so he doesn't have the power and connections anymore. But if he were to get in the Senate..." He shakes his head. "That's a whole other ball game."

I meet him at the window. It's getting dark but I can still see out back. I can see the shed. The roof and sides are collapsed, pieces of charred wood sticking up everywhere. Some of the pieces are scattered across the lawn.

My heart's pounding just talking about Niles. I keep feeling like he's listening. I even checked my car for listening devices. My dad has a whole box full of tiny microphones he uses for work, so I knew what to look for.

"You think he'd do something bad?" I ask. 

My dad looks at me. "Are we talking about Niles?"

"Yeah." I keep my eyes facing forward.

"If he has that kind of power, then yes."

I nod.

"Kate." He holds my shoulders and turns me toward him. "Why did you ask me that? Did Niles do something you're not telling me about?"

I swallow and look down at the floor. I want to tell him. He was a cop, and now he's an investigator. If anyone could help me with this, it'd be him. But I'm afraid to put him in danger. I may already have if Niles really was responsible for that shed.

"Tell me what happened," he says.

"Nothing happened," I keep my head down. If he sees my face, he'll know I'm lying.

Why did I bring this up? I know how well my dad can read me. So why did I bring it up? Was it my subconscious making me do it, knowing my dad would get the truth out of me? 

"Come here." He takes my arm and walks me to the couch. "Sit down."

I sit, still not looking at him, not saying anything.

"We'll sit here all night if we have to."

"Dad, I told you, nothing happened."

"I know when you're lying, Kate."

I sigh. "Fine." I glance up at him. "I might have seen something, but I don't know what I saw so it really doesn't matter."

"What did you see?"

"I um..." I can't do this. I can't tell him the truth, at least not the whole truth. "I saw Niles hit a man. Knock him to the ground."

"Where? When did this happen?"

"It was last Tuesday night. At a party at his house. I went to get ice from the pool house and I heard Niles fighting with some guy. Then I saw Niles punch him."

"Did the man fight back?"

"No. Niles knocked him unconscious."

"From one hit?"

"Um, I think it was two."

"Still. They'd have to be pretty hard punches to knock the guy unconscious. Niles isn't a big man. Last I remember, there wasn't much to him."

"Yeah, he's tall but thin."

"What happened next? After he hit the guy?"

"Niles went inside. I went back to the kitchen, and when I came out again the body was gone."

His brows furrow. "Body?"

"Man," I blurt out. "I meant man."

"You said body."

"I know but that's not what I meant."

"Kate." He grips my shoulder. "Was this man dead?"

I shake my head. "No. I don't think so. I mean, he probably just got up and left."

"How much time went by between the time you saw this happen and then noticed he was gone?"

"About five minutes."

"If he was hit that hard, he wouldn't be up that fast."

"Then maybe he wasn't hit that hard."

My dad stares at me for a few long seconds. "Why wasn't this on the news? The former governor hitting a man? That'd be a top story."

"The guy must not have told anyone."

"If he didn't tell anyone, then there's a reason he didn't. He was bribed or paid off or blackmailed into keeping quiet."

"You said that happens all the time with politicians so I guess we shouldn't be surprised," I say, trying to make light of it.

"Just because it happens doesn't make it right. And if Niles has that kind of power..." He shakes his head. "He's working with some bad people."

"How bad?"

His eyes go to mine. "I want you to stop seeing Gavin. End it now before it gets more serious."

"Why? Why would I break up with him?"

He bolts up from the couch and rubs his hand over his face as he walks around the living room.

"Dad, what's going on?"

"I should've done a background on him," he mutters to himself. "But they'd hide it. They'd hide it all. I'd never find proof."

I race over to my dad. "Who'd hide it? And what's 'it'? What are you talking about?"

He stops in his tracks and turns to me. "Stay out of this, Kate. I mean it. And I'm not kidding when I say you need to end things with Gavin. You can't trust his family, especially his father."

"Why? What do you know?"

"I can't tell you."

"Can you at least give me a hint? If you expect me to break up with Gavin, I need to know why."

He sighs. "When I was working on the police force, I saw things. Heard things. Things I can't tell you about. And the worst part is, I couldn't do anything about it. My boss told me to look the other way."

"The police chief was covering stuff up?"

"It's the reason I started drinking and couldn't stop. Eventually I told him I couldn't keep doing it. I couldn't go along with it. And so he fired me."

"But I thought..." My head is hurrying to figure this out. I was really young when it happened but I read the articles online when I was older. "They said you were fired because..." I look at him. "Because you were drunk."

"You can't tell anyone this, Kate. Any of what I just told you, or am about to tell you. Do you hear me?"

I nod.

"I wasn't drunk on the job. That's not why I was fired. It was all a lie."