Stacy started toward the house with the expectation that Levi would follow, and Levi did. If he wasn’t going to move on right away, he could only hope to get through the coming interview without divulging too much.
As soon as they walked in, Rifle dashed out of the kitchen where Callie was making breakfast. He hadn’t liked being shut up, away from all the action. But he had a several cuts on his forelegs from when he’d jumped through the window, and Callie had wanted to clean them and keep him inside so he wouldn’t sustain any more injuries.
“You two hungry?” She’d followed her dog as far as the doorway between the two rooms and was looking from one to the other as if eager to ascertain the tenor of their business.
“No, thanks. But a cup of coffee would be great.” Stacy removed his hat and placed it on the table at his elbow as he took a seat in one of the wingback chairs.
“Levi?” she asked.
“Nothing for me.” He carried the wooden bench from its location near the door over to the couch. His clothes were too dirty to sit on the upholstered furniture.
Callie disappeared and came back with Chief Stacy’s coffee. She brought sugar and cream, too. Then her cell phone rang. With a final anxious look in their direction, she said, “It’s my parents. I’m afraid they’ve already heard about the fire, so...I have to take this.”
Levi nodded, and she went into the kitchen to answer it, but Rifle stayed by his side. “What can I do for you, Chief?”
Stacy had been busy fixing his coffee. At this he glanced up. “Let’s begin with the fire.”
Levi inclined his head. That seemed like a good idea to him.
“Can you tell me how it got started?”
“No.”
He paused to take the first sip from his cup, grimaced as if it was too hot but swallowed, anyway. “You don’t smoke? You weren’t burning candles or setting off firecrackers?”
Firecrackers? What was he? Twelve? “No, sir. Everything was calm and quiet when I hit the sack. Next thing I knew, Rifle was trying to drag me from my bed.”
“How’d he do that?”
“The only way he could.” Levi stretched out his arm to show the fresh bite marks.
“Wow.” Stacy set his coffee aside, clicking his tongue. “They aren’t anything compared to all those stitches, though, are they?”
“Rifle wasn’t trying to tear me apart.”
“I heard about the pit bull attack, of course. Godfrey told me he took care of you. But I had no idea your injuries were so extensive.” He rubbed his hand over his jaw with a rasping sound. “I’m afraid Whiskey Creek hasn’t been a lucky stop for you.”
Levi could tell that wasn’t the throwaway remark Stacy pretended it was. “Depends on how you look at it, I guess.”
“Excuse me?”
“If Rifle hadn’t risked his life to wake me, I wouldn’t be sitting here now. I’d breathed in so much carbon monoxide I was halfway unconscious, so it’s a miracle he got to me in time. I guess that makes me pretty lucky.”
“Oh...right.” Stacy chuckled, then whistled to Rifle. “What a good boy,” he said, giving the dog a pat when Rifle walked over. “Callie told me he jumped through the window to reach you. That’s impressive.”
“He’s got the cuts to prove it.”
Stacy jerked a thumb toward the broken window, which had to be boarded up until Callie could get it fixed. “Sailing through a window like that? Believe me, his injuries could’ve been a lot worse.”
Levi raised his eyebrows. “See what I mean about luck?”
“I’d call that devotion. He must like you a great deal to go to such lengths to keep you safe.”
As if to prove that he did indeed like Levi, Rifle returned to his side and lay at his feet.
Stacy motioned to the dog. “Would you look at that! You’ve won him over in record time.”
Levi managed a self-deprecating grin. “No accounting for a dog’s taste, I guess.”
Callie was still on the phone. Levi could hear her in the other room, working hard to convince her parents that she was safe and had things under control. Someone had alerted them to the fire, all right.
Stacy could, no doubt, hear her, too, but he twisted around as though looking for her. Then he lowered his voice. “And what about Callie? How much does she like you?”
“I’m not sure I follow,” Levi said.
“I just asked if there’s something between you and Callie. That’s simple enough, isn’t it?”
It was his reason for asking that bothered Levi. Their relationship wasn’t a matter of police business. “Does that have anything to do with the fire?”
Stacy had been reaching for his cup, but he straightened without picking it up. “Maybe.”
Levi blinked at him. “I’m afraid I don’t see the connection.”
The police chief made a show of brushing a piece of lint from his uniform. “Then I’ll spell it out for you. I know her parents quite well. I knew her grandparents before they passed, too. And many of her friends are my friends.”
Levi’s heavy-lidded look was meant to suggest he didn’t give a shit. “You’re trying to say you’ve got a personal stake in how we feel about each other?”
A muscle flexed in Stacy’s cheek. Forgetting his coffee, he slid forward. “I’m trying to say I’ve sworn to protect the people of this town, and I plan to do that.”
Levi leaned forward, too. “From what?”
“From whatever threat they might face!”
“Too bad you weren’t around tonight.”
Stacy obviously recognized the sarcasm in his voice. He gave Levi a dirty look as he reclaimed his cup. “Don’t worry. I’m going to get to the bottom of what went on here. I promise you that. And I’ll make sure Callie’s safe from any other threats, too.”
“You mean...like the threat posed by an unsavory drifter?”
Stacy’s cup hit the saucer with a loud clack. The glitter in his eyes told Levi that he didn’t like meeting with any resistance. But Levi didn’t like what he was hearing, either. After growing up with an overbearing father and coping with the rigid structure of the military, including one or two superior officers who should never have been given authority over other soldiers, Levi could no longer tolerate those who overstepped their bounds. What had happened to Behrukh only made it worse. The men in her life thought they had the right to tell her whom she could love.