Rick doesn't run. Maybe he should have

"Tell Dan Hughes you're seriously interested and tell the McKinney cops you're waiting for your lawyer." Rick had called Eliza the second he'd gotten off the phone with his ex-boss.

While he waited to see whether Eliza or the McKinney police would arrive first, he, Usha and Kat stumped around the gym parking lot and considered whether to break through the police crime scene tape to recover whatever they could from the ashes of the gym.

"We've got to contact our members," Usha said. "And we've got to issue refunds to those who've bought memberships. Plus Rick has a bunch of appointments for massage, I've got my yoga classes and you've got strong girl boxing classes set up."

"But the tape says 'do not cross,'" Kat pointed out. "All we need is more police trouble."

Normally Rick would have agreed with Usha. If the cops really wanted people to stay out, they would have stationed some uniformed officers to make sure that happened. Besides, once they knew the fire wasn't insurance fraud, they would probably assume it was some kids who'd gotten drunk and decided to make some trouble. Given that it was Plano, if it was white kids, the cops might look the other way. If it was black or Hispanic kids, they'd come down like a ton of bricks... if they bothered looking at all. Given that he was waiting for more cops to arrive, however, he didn't think it would help his position if they found him violating a police line.

Unfortunately, it didn't look like asking for a hummer for stress release would work, either. The women were as stressed as he.

Bottom line, though, he had to assume he was the locus. One car-bombing could be bad luck. The car-bombing followed by an arson fire could be a terribly unlucky coincidence. But the car-bombing, the arson, and the murder of Olivia Hughes after she'd blown off his advice to stop all investigation went beyond any possible coincidence. bio-DNA was striking back at anyone who was probing its secrets. Dan's job offer almost certainly was a bribe to get Rick back under control. He suspected, though, that his life expectancy as an returning employee at bio-DNA would be measured in days at the most.

The McKinney cops arrived first.

"Mr. Peters."

Rick nodded. "I'm Peters."

"Officer Garcia. This is Officer Trimbel. We're here to escort you to McKinney for routine questioning."

Routine, my ass, Rick thought but managed not to say. "I'll be happy to accompany you as soon as my lawyer arrives."

"Perhaps we gave you the idea this was optional, Peters."

That polite 'mister' hadn't lasted long.

"As I said, I have no problem accompanying you. Once my lawyer arrives."

Garcia fondled his night stick while Trimbel ostentatiously unsnapped his pistol holster.

Rick forced a smile. "I'm sure she'll be here any minute."