Page 93 of Controlled Burn

From the moment I picked Keith up at the station, I could tell something was off. At first, I just assumed it was having to sit and watch at the station all day while everyone went about their daily routine. My Daddy wasn’t good at doing nothing.

“So what should we have for dinner? I know you made baked ziti for the crew, so I can make us something here. A rice bowl, maybe?”

“That sounds good, Rabbit.”

He sounded distracted, or maybe he was just tired. Today was the first day he’d been out of the house since the accident, and he’d stayed out all day.

“Why don’t you take Heathcliff out back so he can play while I put it all together?”

“Heathcliff?”

“It’s better than Lucky.”

He raised one eyebrow at me, but his lip quirked just a bit. “But is it, though?”

“At this rate, the poor little guy will be nameless.” I added a dramatic sigh for effect.

“It’s been less than a week. I’m pretty sure we’ll come up with something. Won’t we, little bit?” He started towards the doors that led out onto the deck, but he paused at the door. “You know what? Dinner can wait. Why don’t you come sit outside with me? There’s something we need to talk about.”

I was standing there with the refrigerator open, about to start taking out ingredients, so I closed the door and looked at him. “Okay, do you want something to drink?”

“A beer would be good.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you out there.” I grabbed him a beer and poured myself a glass of wine. I had no idea what was up, but it sounded serious.

I handed him his beer and took a seat. He took a long drink and then a deep breath. “Do you remember Fox?”

“Yeah. I haven’t met him, but I remember you saying he used to work with you.”

“Right, but he moved over to the fire marshal’s office. He works as an investigator now. Anyway, he’s almost positive the fire in the old hotel was arson.”

“Seriously? But why?”

He shrugged. “Why do people do what they do? I’m sure it makes sense in their head somehow. But that’s not all.”

He stopped and looked out over the yard for a minute. I didn’t rush him. This was going somewhere, and I wasn’t sure I even wanted to know.

“My fall… that wasn’t an accident. The floor had been cut.”

“What? Why? That doesn’t even make sense. Who would want to hurt you? And how would they even know you would be there?”

He looked over at me then and reached for my hand to reassure me. Or maybe to reassure himself, I didn’t know. That was terrifying.

“It wasn’t meant for me specifically, just—”

And I got it then. “Just for any firefighter who happened along. That could have been my dad or Andy. The arsonist is targeting firefighters.”

“We don’t know that for sure. Pretty much anyone would have gone in there to try to save a puppy that was tied up and couldn’t escape.”

I gasped as the implications of what he was saying hit me. “The dog was bait. Fuck, that’s messed up.”

“That’s the theory, anyway. But our little guy survived, and so did I.” He squeezed my hand. “Okay, Rabbit? We are both just fine.”

“This time. But what about next time?”

“That’s the main thing I wanted to run by you. Samuel offered me another position. It’s Community Relations, so I’d be doing fundraising, special events, things like that. But I wouldn’t have to fight fires.”

That all sounded wonderful, but he didn’t sound particularly excited by the idea. “When did he tell you about that job?”

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