Page 42 of Up In Smoke

The four of them began their way toward the front of the building, all of them shuffling along on their hands and knees. Ivy was holding onto the tail of Jo's robe, another hand clutched to hers. She could only believe the other women in the chain were hanging on tightly behind them.

They made painstaking progress. There was a roaring static that assaulted her ears. She couldn’t tell whether it was the fire crackling and consuming everything around them or if it was just the churning of her own noisy thoughts. Ivy wanted to believe she heard sirens, but she didn’t think she would be able to even if they were right outside the building.

As they got toward the front, she saw splashes of orange and yellow light as she finally caught sight of the fire. It roared beyond the windows. And Jo yelled out, “Lobby!” as though that was enough.

Ivy looked up again, blinking away the smoke and ash that tried to invade her eyes. Was the fire even inside the building? Or had the arsonist just ringed the place? Had the flames already made it through the walls? She didn't know.

They moved further into the space, and she felt Jo come to a halt in front of her. Behind her the other woman bumped into her. One by one they came to a stop.

Lowering her towel, Ivy opened her eyes fully into the smoke and the heat. She felt the heat searing them but could see that they were trapped.

Jo had turned to the employee asking if there was another door. The woman shouted back, it was difficult to be heard through the thick towels and the crackle of flames.

Ivy heard, “Yes.”

But even as she said it, a dark figure emerged from the other hallway. Low and crawling and coughing its way along, it was clearly not the firefighter Ivy wished to see.

She couldn’t see anyway, and she lifted the towel back into place over her head. Her hands were probably blistered. She’d been so excited to protect her feet with sneakers and she’d spent the whole time crawling on her knees.

Her lungs were seared now too, even though she’d not breathed the air except through her wet towel. But she could hear as the other employee shouted.

“That way’s blocked, too!”

Chapter Thirty-Two

The click and static of the scanner on the seat beside him made Luke’s heart race.

He didn’t recognize the address, and he wasn’t on shift. But his fears about the arsonist targeting him or one of his brothers had more than offset the relief of figuring out the criminal wasn’t a family member. He’d been listening in to dispatch whenever he was alone. Even Ivy didn’t know he was doing it.

For the first time, he’d caught a full-blaze fire.

He’d been on his way to get his oil changed, but he pulled a quick U-turn and headed toward the other side of town.

The trucks were already there when he pulled up in front of the small spa. Luke watched as Ann stepped down from the driver’s seat of the first rig and the small red pickup that was the Chief’s pulled up nose to nose with the truck.

Ignoring the trucks for a moment, he found his view blocked by the Chief’s truck, so he stepped out of the car, but stayed back. Taggert saw him but hardly paid notice. Luke and Ivy had handed over everything they had to the local arson team. The Chief could hardly be surprised to see him here.

Moving across the front lawn, he thought he saw flames on all sides of the building. Flames burned differently depending on what they encountered inside the house, whether the air was on, and what kind of ventilation it had, so he couldn’t say it was arson just from the glance. But he was thinking that it was.

The mulch beds burned hot and a line of fire tracked along the driveway, right next to the house. It licked at the brand new siding, making his stomach churn with the reminders of Ivy’s house going up much the same way.

This fire already had so many odd substances, all burning wildly, that his heart clenched as he could no longer deny what was happening: the building was ringed in accelerant. His only consolation was that this time the chief knew all about his brothers, knew that they'd been cleared, and had been investigating anyone associated with the Hernandez family who might have been following their path.

Still, Luke was afraid something about him might have put a target on this house. But he didn’t recognize the location even now that he was here.

He was about to volunteer as a medic if anyone came out. He could do that without being in his turnout gear. But even as he thought of it, two ambulances cut down the street, sirens wailing for the other cars to get out of the way.

It looked like whoever had called it in had given clear information.

He watched as the team began their search, checking out the building and trying to find places to vent or see if it was safe to enter and search.

From across the lawn, he saw a woman frantically waving her hands over her head. “I think they were open today! I think there are people inside!”

Craning his head, Luke saw what the firefighters would have already spotted: cars parked in the lot behind the building. He nodded to the woman, then headed quickly over to talk to her. He could do this, even if he wasn’t on shift.

“I’m a firefighter, ma’am. Off duty right now, but I can relay any information the team needs.” She was nodding gratefully at him as he said, “I assure you, they are checking for people inside right now, and their next move will likely be to go in. See where they are dousing the front? That’s where they’ll go in.”

She sighed with relief and was clutching his arm to thank him, when he saw the small silver Mercedes parked in the back. He only knew one car like that in town. It was possible it wasn’t her, but …

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