Daniel collared the man with the torch and told him to move back.
Grace tried to stand. She held on to the doctor's arm so she wouldn't
fall, but, Lord, she was so dizzy the world was spinning around her.
"What do you think you're doing? " Daniel muttered. "Sit down before
you pass out again."
"You're as white as a sheet, " the doctor told her. "Do as the marshal
says and sit back down. You need to rest."
"I want to find Jessica.
I must talk to her."
"I'll find her, " Daniel promised.
He headed for the field behind the house and saw Jessica coming toward
him. She obviously had heard her son crying, for she'd dropped the
clean clothes she'd only just gathered from the wagon and was running
toward him. Cole was following behind. He noticed the ground was
littered with trash and shouted to Jessica to watch where she was
walking, as there were pieces of glass in the grass that could easily
cut through her soft slippers.
Daniel shouted to Cole and then stopped near the edge of the lot. He
stared down at two empty milk bottles. It had rained hard the past
week, yet the bottles were clean. Curious, he picked one up. The
smell of kerosene was still strong, and when he looked, he could see
the residue in the bottom of the glass.
He showed both to Cole. He took a whiff of one and nodded. "When we
first got here, I noticed there didn't seem to be a starting point.
The back of the house was burning as fiercely as the front. It was
like the whole house was primed."
"Whoever did it must have circled the house with the kerosene."
"You thinking the Blackwater gang's responsible? They might have seen
the article in the paper, and a fire in the dead of night would be a
sure way to get rid of a couple of possible witnesses. Rebecca's lucky
she didn't move in here."
"She could be next on their list, " Daniel said, his voice grim.
"We're going to have to keep close to all three of them, and as soon as
they have had some sleep, they're going to tell us the truth."
"Are you going to tell them the fire was set? " Daniel took the bottle
from Cole and put both of them on the ground next to a tree. "Not yet,
" he said. "I don't want to scare them any more than they already
are.
" Cole looked at the house. "What a hell of a night, " he muttered.
"Let's get everyone settled, " Daniel said. "There's too many people
here. I don't like crowds." The marshals could hear Rebecca issuing
orders as they headed back to the front lawn. She had stepped forward
and had taken charge with a vengeance. She sounded like a military
commander who wasn't going to take no for an answer, and the crowd she
was ordering about responded like new recruits. They did whatever she
told them to do.
Jessica and Grace didn't know what they would have done if it hadn't
been for their friend organizing the townspeople. Neighbors were sent
home to fetch blankets for the women and the baby, Dr. Lawrence was