Page 65 of Up In Smoke

“Six-thirty-seven.” Orlando replied. “She hasn't responded to anything since. It was fifteen minutes age her phone went to voicemail. I called again right before I called you but … nothing.”

“Me too.” Luke looked down at his own phone, popping up the keyboard. “What was the phrase she sent? What could she have typed that would have been corrected to that?”

Silently, the two men each thought about that for a moment. Luke traced his own finger over the keyboard but saw nothing.

He tried swiping the word “various” to see what was close. He got “basis,” “carrots,” and, of course, the word he intended.

“Carrots,” he said out loud.

“Carrots?” Orlando asked.

“Sorry. That's what autocorrect suggested. She wouldn't have saidit's carrotswould she?” But even as he asked, Luke felt his heart stop beating, his blood and his muscles came to a standstill, as he looked at the keyboard, and swiped what he now suspected. Sure enough, the name was corrected to “various.”

He told Orlando, “It'sCarlos.”

Chapter Forty-Seven

Luke was numb by the time the barn fire was out enough for two of the firefighters to safely check the ground floor.

Honestly, it wasn't safe for them, and they did it anyway. They did it because that's what they do. And maybe because it was Ivy.

He watched as they slowly and carefully entered the charred space. It could come down at any time, on them, on Ivy, on his dreams of the future. If he was breathing, he couldn't tell. He stood back on the gravel drive in this spot where he'd stayed since he completed his loop. There was nothing more he could do. Though he’d debated running back to the station, pulling out his turnout gear, and coming back to help, he’d not wanted to leave the scene.

Even though Redemption was small, the time that would have taken was too long … or so he deemed at the time. Now that time had passed and they still hadn't found Ivy, he wished he'd done it. He wished it was him going in and searching.

Luke watched as two of his fellow FD brothers emerged from the space. He watched as they spoke but couldn’t hear as he wasn’t connected to the comms. Patrick Kelly had stood next to him the whole time … until now when he moved away specifically so that Luke wouldn’t hear the report.

Did it matter though?

The firefighters emerged with no Ivy supported and coughing between them. No person thrown over a shoulder as they raced for safe space. If she was in there, they weren’t bringing her out.

Kelly listened closely then came back. Whether it was to report to him, or for emotional support, or to be able to grab him if he decided to do anything stupid like running inside and searching, Luke didn’t know.

Captain Kelly only shook his head.No.

But quickly, the older man opened his mouth. “She wasn't in there.”

“Are they sure?” He had to ask.How many times had a body been found later?People hid. They died trying to escape in any number of ways. And sometimes they were hard to find. Ivy would have tried to escape.

“Did they search the loft?” He knew this place, had played here as a kid. Hours spent with his brothers, going up and down the ladder, running in and out of the doors, hiding in the tall grass. He still wanted to believe she’d escaped the burning building and was somehow miraculously safe.

But he looked around the building, too. Aside from some recent markings in the tall grass, where it appeared someone besides Luke had walked a loop closer to the building, it didn't seem anyone had even been here.

That would have been Carlos, he thought. But then he turned again to the Captain. “Was she in the loft?”

“We couldn't get up to it. It's not safe,” Captain Kelly told him.

“The ladder?” He’d climbed that rickety, dangerous thing so many times years ago. It had been insanely dangerous, Luke knew now. But as a kid, it had been fun.

He watched as Kelly asked the two firefighters still walking toward them slowly as the others did their best to finish the job. The building would have to be thoroughly inspected to be sure there were no stray sparks, no burning embers that could ignite and set the building on fire again later.

There was clean up, double checking every piece of wood, and more. Making sure every last thing was taken care of was more than half of the job.

“There was no sign of the ladder. They don't think it was even there when the barn was lit.”

Luke nodded.What more could he do?

He could break free and dash inside and do his own inspection. But he didn't have his SCBA, so what would he breathe? Though he honestly didn't care if he had air or not, the others would run in to save him. If Ivy was in there, she wasn't still alive and they would find her later.

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