“They might have been held up by the fire, it being arson and all,” Divine said quietly. “If they were, I’ll clear things up so they can continue with their schedule. If not, then I’ll still clear things up with the local firemen and police and what have you, and then I’ll follow them to the next town.”
She wasn’t sure if that last part was true. Divine had no idea what she would do. She might catch up to the carnival just long enough to see how Bob and Madge were taking things and to assure them she was all right. After all, she’d disappeared rather abruptly. But after that, she’d have to move on to something else. The problem was, she wasn’t sure just what she’d move on to.
“Divine’s right,” Jackie said thoughtfully.
“She is?” Marcus asked with amazement.
“About what exactly?” Vincent asked.
“Well, we’ve been so busy worrying about whether she was . . . er . . .”
Divine raised her eyebrows and simply watched as the woman floundered. She knew the ending to that sentence had been “whether she was Basha or not.” However, she also knew Jackie wasn’t going to say it now that she’d caught herself. The question was, what would she use in its place?
As it turned out, Jackie didn’t say anything. It was Vincent who saved her bacon by suggesting, “Whether she was healing all right?”
“Yes,” Jackie breathed on a relieved sigh and even managed to smile. “We’ve been so worried about these two healing that we didn’t consider what would be going on with the local authorities.” She glanced to Marcus. “You said you could smell gas and that the flames erupted all around the RV at once? Filling every window?” She barely waited for Marcus to nod before saying, “Well, it won’t take long at all for the authorities to decide the fire was deliberately set, and since you two disappeared directly afterward . . .”
Marcus blinked in surprise. “You think they’ll think Divine and I set the fire?”
“More likely they’ll think you set the fire since Divine wasn’t there,” Vincent commented, looking thoughtful. “But the two of you disappearing after that will probably make them think you set the fire and maybe kidnapped her or something when you realized she wasn’t caught in the fire.”
“What?” Marcus squawked with dismay.
“It’s all right. We can fix this,” Jackie said at once and then gave her head a shake and admitted, “Although I’m a little embarrassed that we didn’t think of this when you first arrived. The sooner we’d tended to it, the less fixing there would have been. By now, a lot of people are probably involved and every one of them will need mind wiping and such.” She clucked with irritation and then suddenly said, “Who are you calling?”
Divine didn’t bother glancing around from the phone she’d picked up, but punched in numbers as she answered, “Information. I need the number for a taxi service.”
Marcus immediately snatched the phone from her hand. “You don’t need a taxi. I’ll take you back. I’m certainly not letting you go back alone with people bashing you over the head and setting your home on fire.”
“We’ll all go,” Vincent said, suddenly sounding cheerful. “In fact that was the plan all along. Marcus was sure you’d want to return to the carnival as soon as you were up and about, so I called the office and had a couple of our vehicles sent over.”
Vincent moved past her to the front door, and threw it open with a dramatic gesture that was punctuated by the house alarm suddenly blaring all around them. Cursing, he rushed to a panel on the wall and began punching in numbers to silence it.