“Sorry,” Cedar said again.

The other Atamasco firefighters stopped short, and Chigger raced between their legs until he found Cedar. He leaped into her arms, and she held him still long enough to get a good, long sniff of Eugene Loach’s body odor.

Chigger barked and growled, signaling the presence of sodium.

I pumped my fist. Yes! Loach was the perpetrator.

“Get that mutt away from me!” Eugene yelled.

“Sorry officer.” Cedar backed up to the curb. “He gets a little wacky in crowds.”

“I ain’t no cop,” Eugene growled. “I’m a goddamn firefighter.”

Loach was a lot of other things, too. One of them was arsonist.

The other was cold blooded killer.

9

A few minutes later, I met Cedar on the front steps of the public library.

“Yes!” I leaned down to rub Chigger’s ears. “Good boy, you caught the bad man. Yes, you did.”

“No, he didn’t,” Cedar said.

I laughed, thinking she was teasing. “But he snarled at Eugene. You said he got aggressive when he detected a smell.”

“No,” she said. “He sits when he detects bomb materials. He snarls when someone’s threatening me.”

“You mean—“

“Eugene Loach isn’t your bomber.”

10

“You look bummed.” Cedar set her iced tea on the metal table and pulled up a chair to join me and Luigi at Red Fox Java’s patio.

 The parade inch past us. With almost two hundred groups marching, it would take over an hour to finish, and we were stuck downtown until it was over. With Loach off the list of prime suspects, the case had reached a dead end.

“I’m disappointed,” I said. “I thought the crime was solved.”

“You sound like Nancy Drew,” Cedar said.

“Ahem.”

“The Hardy Boys then.”

“That’s not much better.”

Luigi looked at them with a curious expression. “Is this an obscure American cultural reference?”

“Quaint is a better word.” Cedar scratched Chigger’s ears. The dog was sunning himself on the patio, defying Mercer’s ban on animals. “The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew were books about young detectives.”

“Ah,” Luigi said. “Why is this relevant?”

“Boone has read them all,” she said. “He always wanted to be a sleuth.”

“A fact that has nothing to do with this situation.” I took a long sip of iced tea. How could I explain that I felt personally responsible for Mrs. Vega’s death? Finding the arsonist was the only way to wipe the slate clean. “It’s something I have to do.”

“So what’s the plan now?” Cedar said.

“I have no idea.” I saw Eugene Loach and his boys approaching. “Here comes trouble.”

“Look what we got here, boys,” Eugene said. “A flaming liberal and his foreigner butt buddy.”

Luigi watched as Eugene passed the table. His eyes narrowed, and for the first time, I saw a certain look on his face, a mixture of disgust and anger. “There is a word in Japan for men like you. We call them baka yaro.”

“Means evil white man, right?” Loach said.

“No,” Luigi said. “It means stupid bastard.”

Cedar laughed.

“Think that’s funny, huh?” Loach reached over the iron banister and grabbed Chigger by the scruff. “You ain’t so tough now, are you, pooch. Huh? Huh?”

Chigger growled and showed his teeth. Cedar threw back her chair and locked onto Eugene’s arm.

“Let go of my dog, you stupid, fucking, inbred redneck asshole!” She grabbed the glass of iced tea and threw it into the Loach’s face. “Now!”

Eugene blocked the glass with his left and threw Chigger with his right.

I moved without thinking.

Leapt like a wide receiver going for an overthrown pass, fingertips extended.

Chigger fell into my hands, still snarling, as the dive carried me over the banister. My elbows hit the asphalt, and the pavement ripped my skin wide open.

Chigger jumped free.

Just as a horn sounded.

Fire truck!

Bearing down on me.

Twenty feet away.

The tires are bald, I thought and pulled my legs off the banister. I felt another rip as I fell back against the railing.

The firetruck’s brakes filled the air with metallic smoke. It jerked to a stop, inches from where my head had been.

Before I could thank my lucky stars, I heard Chigger growl.

“Luigi!” Cedar screamed. “Asshole! Let him go!”

Ronnie had Luigi in a headlock, and Donnie was trying to pull down his pants. Luigi kicked like a pissed off mule, yelling in Japanese and pounding Ronnie with his fists while Cedar hammered his back.

Eugene was laughing.

“You think that’s funny?” I grabbed a chair and was deciding which moron to lay out first when I heard Lamar yell.

“What the Hell is going on here?” Lamar hopped off the Allegheny tanker truck. He had my hooligan tool, and he carried it like a club. “Loach! Tell your boys to lay off before I tear them a new asshole!”

 “Lamar, stand down!” I said, “I can handle these guys! Ronnie! Donnie! Back off!”

Surprised by the command, Lamar complied. So did Ronnie and Donnie, without any word from Eugene. They put Luigi on the ground.

“We was just having a little fun," Ronnie said.

“Go have it elsewhere,” I said, and they stepped back, holding up their hands.

That left only Eugene.

“You ain’t my daddy,” Eugene grabbed Cedar and growled at me. “You ain’t my boss. You ain’t the law. Where you get off telling me what to do?”

I took the hooligan from Lamar. Held the tool lightly in my hands, ready for anything. “Get your filthy hands off my girlfriend, Loach.”

“You want her?” Eugene pushed Cedar toward me. “You can have her.”

I caught her in one arm. “You okay?” I asked Cedar.

“I’m okay,” she said.

“You got your little girlfriend,” Eugene said. “We’re done here.”

“Not even close,” I said. “You let a human being die in a fire.”

“Like hell. That Mexican women was dead meat the minute the house blew.”

“You knew the house blew,” I said, “which means you got there in time, but you didn’t try a rescue. Admit it.”

“Yeah, so what? I’m tired of working my ass off to pay taxes so the government can spend it all on foreigners.” Eugene spat chewing tobacco between his teeth. “You expect me to risk the lives of three white men for one old wet back?”

I swung the blunt end of the tool up in an arc, connecting with the tip of Loach’s chin. The force of the blow traveled to the edge of the mandible, striking the cerebral nerve. He was out cold before his carcass fell backward onto a metal table, rolled, and landed on the concrete sidewalk.

Then I whirled, bringing the lance tip of the hooligan to bear, and pointed it at Ronnie, who looked like he had swallowed a cow patty. “It’s a different ballgame when your victim can't fight back, isn’t it?”

“Now don’t do something you’ll regret,” Donnie said.

 “I won’t regret it!”

“Yes, son, you will.” Lamar grabbed the hooligan. His hand was strong and his voice steady.

My hands began to shake, and I let him take the hooligan away.

“Ronnie and Donnie,” he said. “Get the hell out of here.”

He didn’t have to say it twice. They left Eugene were he lay and high-tailed it across the green.

Lamar radioed Julia to send the EMTs over. “We’ve got a Caucasian male, late twenties, possible head injuries.”

As Lamar checked on Eugene, I hugged Cedar, who was holding Chigger in her lap, scratching his ears. The dog had given up chewing on Eugene’s pants, but he had the proud look of a David who had just taken down Goliath.

A flock of customers surrounded us, patting Cedar’s hand, offering her free drinks, which she gladly accepted.

Through the mass of bodies, I caught her eye. You were awesome! I mouthed.

Thanks, she answered as someone put the straw of a chai latte to her lips. “This is amazing! What flavor is it?”