Through the Flames Read Free Page B

crazy schedule. The lights were on now and would go off early in the evening. Ryan thought about going in and resetting the timer and opening the drapes so it looked like the house was lived in. But as usual, he couldn’t force himself to even move up the driveway by himself, let alone approach the front door. What in the world was he going to do when the lawn needed mowing?
    Ryan headed off to the other side of town, where Lionel had lived. He would be scared to death to approach that house with all of André Dupree’s so-called friends living there. But still, he wanted to see it, to spy on it. He couldn’t figure out what was happening with Lionel’s uncle André.
    Ryan had been there when Lionel had played the answering machine message from André. He had to agree, the guy sounded ready to kill himself. Lionel was only kidding himself, Ryan thought, to think that someone André owed money to had killed him and made it look like suicide. The two guys Lionel said had threatened André once were the leaders of the bunch that had moved into Lionel’s house, supposedly with André’s permission. And they talked about how great it would be when André joined them. How did that make sense, especially now that Lionel had discovered that whoever had been killed in André’s apartment, in André’s clothes, wearing André’s jewelry, and carrying André’s wallet, was not André at all?
    Ryan was as curious as he could be, but on the other hand, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. What would he do with that information?
    He looked at his watch. He knew Judd Thompson had been serious, and that if Ryan was not back at Judd’s house and ready to go to the meeting with Bruce that night, he would no longer be welcome. He still had an hour. Ryan rode idly up and down the sidewalk on the other side of the street from Lionel’s. There was little going on at the house across the street, but the van was there and lights were on in the house.
    At one side of the house was a wide driveway that served the home next door. No one seemed to be home there. Ryan wondered if he would be noticed if he parked his bike out of sight and just moseyed over there, appearing to just be hanging around, playing. That would be a test of his courage, wouldn’t it? He didn’t think anyone in Lionel’s house would recognize him as the one who had sped away from there on bikes with Lionel. And if anyone didn’t want him playing in that area next to the house, he’d just move along.
    The plan sounded reasonable to Ryan, but he found himself petrified when he actually began walking across the street. He wasn’t sure why he was doing this, except that he was hoping to take some bit of information back to Lionel. Maybe Lionel would respect him if he actually did something grown-up, something brave. Plus he really wanted to be helpful. He figured Lionel would rather live with the others at Judd’s anyway, but it wasn’t right to be driven out of your own home for no reason.
    The police were too busy with all the other emergencies to be worried about something like this, but what if he and Lionel took them solid evidence on the fake suicide? It had obviously been a murder. If the police could be convinced of that, maybe Lionel’s invaded house would wind up higher on their list of what needed to be investigated.
    But what if it had been André who had committed the murder? Who else could have gotten into his place and put all his stuff on another person before killing him? Ryan was beginning to think he was in over his head.
    Worse, he felt conspicuous walking across the street. He knew no one noticed or cared, but he felt as if every eye on the street was on him. Just putting one foot in front of the other took all the concentration he could muster. He tried to look casual, as if he were just strolling nowhere.
    When he finally reached the driveway between the