Page 66 of Silent Ridge

I know Dan keeps several foam fire extinguishers handy, but I don’t think it will be enough. There are two extinguishers on his small, covered porch. I grab one of these and Ronnie grabs the other. I pull the pin. It’s heavier than I thought. I’ve seen them used at the academy but never used one. I do remember one of the instructions. I yell at Ronnie over the roar of the fire, “Ronnie, sweep from side to side at the bottom and work your way up.”

Ronnie pulls the pin and holds the heavy extinguisher under her arm with the bad wrist and moves toward the fire, squeezing the handle. White foam bubbles off the scorched wood.

I see Ronnie has this as under control as it’s going to get until the fire department gets here. “I’m going to find Dan,” I say, and run to the house. The door is cracked open. Dan doesn’t do that even when he’s home. He lives out in the sticks but that doesn’t mean there are no thefts. I go inside still holding the fire extinguisher.

It’s not a large place. The front room serves as living room and kitchen. A small bedroom and bathroom are at the back. There’s nothing in the front room. I go behind the counter that separates the kitchen from the front room and nothing is amiss. I see the bedroom door is shut.

I put a hand against the surface of the door. The door is cool to the touch. I push it open and go in, extinguisher hose at waist level, ready. There’s nothing. Dan’s bed is messed up where he slept in it. I’ve never been in his bedroom before. I check the tiny closet. There are several more lumberjack-type shirts, worn jeans, canvas coveralls, boots, shoes and one blue suit with a white button-down shirt on the same hanger.

The bathroom gives nothing away. A toothbrush, toothpaste still open on the sink. The towel is still damp; the shower has been used recently.

I turn to go outside to help Ronnie when I see something on Dan’s pillow. It’s the laminated picture Dan had of me as Rylee. I stick it in my pocket. No blood is on the mattress or pillow. No blood is in the bathroom or any area I’ve been through.

And no sign of Dan Anderson.

I rush back outside and spray foam around the fire, but these extinguishers have no chance of putting down the conflagration that threatens to eat everything in sight.

Then I hear the familiar sound of fire trucks not too distant. It couldn’t have been timed better. Both extinguishers are running out of foam.

Fifty-Six

After the firemen arrive I squeeze the Taurus around their equipment and park on Forest Service Road 2850 a safe distance from the blaze. I sit in the car with Ronnie, watching the flames rise above the trees. We might have saved Dan’s house by acting so quickly, but all of his carvings will almost certainly be ash. I think of the bear he carved and gave me and of how I moved it because it was in my way. I can be mean-spirited sometimes. I need to value things more, but I grew up moving from one place to another and leaving everything behind at the drop of a hat. I learned not to get attached to things.

Ronnie sits with her arms crossed over her chest. We both smell of smoke. We have the windows down and smoke drifts our way when the wind changes direction.

“Maybe someone is mad at him for something else entirely and set the fire? Or maybe it started on its own. Spontaneous combustion.” She doesn’t sound like she believes it. Neither do I. The fire was meant to draw me here. Of that I’m sure. Well, I’m here. So what next?

“I think we may have saved his house at least, Megan.”

I don’t say anything. She’s trying to make me feel better. It doesn’t work but I’m grateful anyway. Here she is, sitting with me, when she’s to be sworn in shortly at the Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Gray must be losing his mind, wondering where we are.

“Call the store again and ask Jess if she’s heard from him.”

Ronnie calls Dan’s shop and gets the voice mail. She leaves a message that Dan or Jess should return the call right away. She says it’s a police matter. As she does this my phone rings and I dig it out of my pocket.

It’s Dan’s phone number.

“Where have you been?” I say a little sharper than I intend to. He doesn’t answer. “Firemen are at your place.” Still no response. I’m starting to get a little miffed. And then I feel a chill. I ask, “Who is this?”

A synthesized voice comes over the tiny speaker. “Do I have your attention?”

What the?… “Who is this?” I ask, but I know who it is. Rader.

“Where is Dan?”

“He’s with me. He’s alive. For now.”

“Why are you doing this? And why are you using a voice synthesizer? You think I’m recording this call.”

“You know why, Rylee.”

“I think you have me mixed up with someone else,” I say.

Ronnie leans toward me trying to hear. I push her away.

“Oh, I don’t think so,” the robotic voice says. “I’ve been following your career closely since you murdered Alex and Marie. I was there when you drove your aunt’s car into the river. Did you get the present I left for you at your friend’s house?”

I assume Rader’s talking about Monique. But something about the way he’s using words is different. For one thing, there was that pause between the last words. It feels like the words are being read from a teleprompter. I saw a deputy playing with a computer program that did that. It could change the voice to anything. A man, a woman, cartoon characters, celebrities.

---