Page 56 of Up In Smoke

“None,” he reported. “Not fire, not human, not warm-blooded mammal inside.” But then he added, “I know the place.”

Luke’s eyes flashed to Sebastian Kane, the other arson investigator.

“Another one?” Chief asked.

“Another place that’s part of my history, yes. But part of the chain? I don't know.” All he could do was shrug. “It doesn't look like it's on fire at all. So does it count?”

Everyone knew about his history with the arsonist now, but no one had an answer.

The problem was that the Chief was reporting a call like this each morning. Monday had been the first … this was now the fourth. There had been solid reports from dispatch, yet each time the crew arrived to find nothing amiss. The first time they brushed it off. It was illegal to call in fake fires, but people still did it. The second time was annoying, but Luke could tell the Chief was now very concerned about these calls and their regularity.

Still, they had to inspect everything. It took quite some time to check and double check everything before they could pack up, declare it a prank, and head back to the station. B-shift was already there. They’d shined the ladder truck and begun daily chores and were over an hour and a half into their shift as the others poured out of the truck. They packed away their turnout gear and hit the showers.

They'd been running around in heavy equipment the whole time. So even though they hadn't encountered a thousand-degree fire and backdraft they were still sweaty and dirty. Luke waited his turn, dried off and climbed into his casual clothing, before heading out. He thought about going by the library but, given the time, the doors were already open. Ivy would be chatting with people and helping them with their book checkouts and research questions. His presence would simply be an interruption.

He did, however, head to her place. He had the key. They said they wanted people to see his car in her driveway and know that she wasn't alone. But he liked the idea that people would see his car in her driveway and know that he was with her. He wasn't sure if the better end of that deal was that people knew that he had somehow snagged Ivy Dean or if people believed that Ivy Dean loved him.

He didn't get much time to think about it. He went face down into the pillows, the long shift behind him and sleep ahead of him.

He curled up under the blanket in the bed that smelled like Ivy and didn't hear the buzzing of his phone as he fell quickly and deeply asleep.

Chapter Forty-Two

“Hey, Shannon—” Ivy looked down at her phone, excited, but as she spoke the door chimed and several patrons entered the library and she couldn’t ask.

“What?”

“Never mind. Later.” The timing sucked. Orlando Tavares had sent her more information. But she couldn’t read the attachments on her phone. He’d found something more, something he thought critical, or even plausibly helpful to the case and he’d sent five new documents from various sources to the email.

Ivy set her phone and her excitement aside and checked out two different patrons who were leaving with stacks of books. That made her happy, but as soon as they were down to a single man wandering the stacks, she'd tried again. “Shannon, can you cover the floor for a bit?”

Her assistant readily agreed, and Ivy ducked into the office. It wasn’t her office but the communal space for anyone working the library. She couldn’t close herself into her own space for this because she’d need to keep an ear out in case Shannon needed her. But she looked over her shoulder, double-checking that no one could see the screen of her tablet. Though there were honestly only three people in the building and she knew where Shannon was, and almost exactly where Mr. Miller was. He would be in thrillers, perusing the new releases carefully, then he would check them all out anyway.

Opening the email, she read quickly through the paragraph that Orlando had written.

Hi Ivy,

Hope all is well. Thank you for keeping us posted regarding the case. We're both sorry it hasn’t been solved yet. Still looking through old documents for you though and found these. See five attachments. Not sure how useful they are. Hope they help.

Orlando

Ivy immediately messaged Luke, letting him know that Orlando had sent additional documents. She didn't expect him to reply. He'd messaged about nine thirty that he was on his way back to her place, exhausted.

Knowing she could have an hour or only a few minutes of time, Ivy quickly downloaded each document. Some had several pages and she had to wait as the ancient printer chugged its way through simple black and white prints. Her only consolation was that the beast was too old to retain what it had printed.

As the last page was coming off, Shannon stuck her head in. “Hey, Ivy, we're getting people.”

“Thank you! I'll be right there.” Ivy jumped up, standing over the printer, motioning for it to spit the last page out as though her encouragement would change its speed. Grabbing the documents, she shoved them down into her bag and headed to the front desk.

When she'd first opened the library, she had a small rush of excited patrons the first few weeks. But eventually, the usage had faded to a handful of patrons a day. One of her goals was to increase library traffic. She was even considering running a small after school program staffed with high school volunteers starting in the fall of next year. But they'd gotten more and more of these rushes the longer she'd stayed.

While she desperately wanted to read her documents, she was excited that people were coming into the library more often. A slow steady increase would do more than enough for her numbers.

This time, she let Shannon check out the patrons and set herself up to answer questions. A student needed information on Marie Antoinette. Ivy set him up with several references. A young woman wanted local Native Heritage wondering if it was her own. Ivy turned her to the city birth records in the back room and showed her where the books were on the local tribes. Another needed recipes for sourdough starters. Ivy helped them all.

It was one thirty before the rush ended, and Ivy bought sandwiches for her and Shannon for lunch. She sent Shannon out to pick them up, allowing her to stay at the desk but get them both fed. At three, Shannon headed home and Ivy stayed to close up at six.

Thursday was an early day and she was looking forward to getting home to Luke, but that was still several hours away. She helped patron after patron. They’d seemed to perfectly space themselves out, so that she wasn’t pulled in two directions, but she barely managed a drink from her water bottle … until about five thirty when it finally slowed and she had the place to herself.

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