Free Kill Me Once by Jon Osborne Page A

fair.’
    The little girl still looked uneasy, glancing around the barn to make sure no one was watching. ‘OK. Just hurry up and do it already before we get caught.’
    Nathan plucked out another match and slid it across the scratch-strip. The head of the match popped, flickered for a moment, then finally caught hold.
    ‘Hurry,’ Jamie urged.
    Nathan kicked a space in the hay and dropped the matchbook on the floor. Leaning down, he carefully applied the burning match to the rest. The entire book immediately went up in flames.
    ‘C’mon,’ he said. ‘We have to hurry.’
    They knelt down on the floor of the barn and jumped their cars over the burning matches for thirty seconds before Nathan’s ears suddenly began to ring.
    He looked over at Jamie and grinned. ‘Hey, wanna play another game?’
    The little girl didn’t notice the swirling in his dark brown eyes. ‘What game’s that?’
    ‘You go up into the loft with the police car and jump it down after the bank robber from there. It’ll be just like Robert Mitchum in Thunder Road . You be the cops and I’ll be Robert Mitchum.’
    ‘Who’s Robert Mitchum?’
    ‘The actor in the movie.’
    ‘What movie?’
    ‘Thunder Road.’
    ‘What’s Thunder Road ?’
    Nathan sighed. ‘Just go up into the loft, Jamie. It’s gonna be a lot of fun, I promise.’
    The little girl brushed her sweaty blonde hair out of her face with both hands and picked up the police car before heading toward the loft. She looked over her shoulder at him as she climbed the rickety ladder. ‘OK, but this better be a lot of fun, Nathan. If it’s not, then I’m definitely telling on you.’
    Nathan nodded. ‘OK, just go up into the loft already. It’s going to be so much fun, I promise. Just wait, you’ll see.’
    The little girl ascended the ladder and looked down at him from above. She was afraid of heights, but Nathan had promised a good time, so she was willing to take a chance. ‘Now what?’ she asked.
    Nathan waved a hand in the air. ‘Hold on a minute, OK? I have to do something real quick before we can start.’
    He walked over to the ladder and pulled it away from the entrance to the loft before making his way back over to where she could see him.
    ‘Now what?’ Jamie repeated.
    ‘Now we have some real fun,’ Nathan said.
    He was very careful not to burn his fingers as he picked the matchbook up by one corner and pressed it against the hay covering the floor of the barn. The hay smoked for a moment, then burst into bright orange flames.
    ‘Hey!’ Jamie shouted down from the loft. ‘What are you doing down there? Is this part of the game?’
    Nathan smiled up at her. ‘Sure is, Jamie. Just stay up there a minute, OK? I have to go get something from outside, and then we can play Thunder Road .’
    ‘What’s Thunder Road ?’ Jamie whined.
    But Nathan only smiled as he pulled the barn doors closed behind him. Inside, the fire began to spread. Thirty seconds later it reached the metal drum filled with heating oil.
    The deafening explosion ripped both doors off the barn. A tractor wheel shot fifty feet into the air. The blue sky instantly turned black.
    He quickly worked up an eyeful of tears as he ran toward the farmhouse to get their parents. He had to tell them that Jamie had insisted on playing with the matches even though he’d begged her not to. She just wouldn’t listen to him, he’d say.
    The whipping that night nearly flayed the skin off his backside, but it had been well worth it. If he lived another hundred years, Nathan didn’t think he’d ever see anybody die hotter than little Jamie Hufford.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    Cleveland – Hopkins International Airport – 3:30 p.m .
    Dana exited a yellow cab outside the busy terminal, flipped her cellphone open and punched in a number. A deep voice answered.
    ‘Templeton.’
    ‘Gary,’ she said to the Cleveland cop. ‘It’s Dana Whitestone. Something’s come up and I’m gonna have to go to DC, I’m afraid.