Page 84 of Inferno

Julio didn’t want to wait until the police questioned Walter into giving up the name of the arsonist who paid him to deposit those shoe boxes. He didn’t want to wait for them to find another person their suspect had paid to leave devices in another building.

The basic profile of a pyromaniac said he would be at the scene, watching things unfold. The need to see their handiwork was part of what drove them. That’s why FD had long ago started recording the crowd at scenes. Firefighters were focused on their duties, trying to save lives and contain a blaze so there would be as little property damage as possible. They didn’t spend time looking around at the crowd to see who was loitering.

If everyone today was focused on the fires—and the situation was overwhelming given the smoke rising from the street with all those buildings on it—no one would be looking around.

Julio was going to search for the guy.

If he could end it, here and now, that’s what he was going to do.

“Get us as close as you can,” Julio instructed.

Romeo turned onto the street and right into an ocean of people. Vehicles. Twilight was setting in, giving the whole place an orange glow. Firefighters raced around, water sprayed from multiple ladder trucks. He spotted a wildland truck, their hose all hooked up.

“There aren’t going to be enough hydrants for this.” Julio pushed open the door, overwhelmed by the scene on the street in front of him. The street blocked by vehicles, total chaos. Every ambulance in the county here or pulling onto the street.

People all over. Someone screaming across the street on the other side.

It was worse than the day a limo had exploded.

He scanned the roofs of buildings, looking for someone watching. Another high-rise, maybe a street over. Or behind him. Or at the far end, maybe.

There were a thousand places this guy could hide.

Flames licked out of open windows in the upper floors of the police department. Down the street, at city hall, black smoke chugged up into the sky from what had to be a hole in the roof.

Another building down from that, someone jumped off a roof. He raced to the sidewalk and caught a flash of air bags on the street. They’d cushioned the woman’s fall with inflated mats. It had to be bad if the situation had reached that stage.

He turned back to the car, where Samantha still sat. He didn’t like leaving her. They should’ve driven her somewhere nearby where she could wait safely, and maybe get some medical attention.

This situation…

He could hardly process the volume of fire on the street. Just one of these blazes would require multiple trucks to extinguish it.

This was a five alarm.

Maybe even worse than that. It would take everything they had to put it out.

Julio set his good hand on the roof of the car and leaned down to the open door. Before he could say anything, Samantha signed,Go.

He signed back,Love you.Still warm from when she’d signed that to him before, in the car. The way she had years ago. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten it.

Romeo had already run off.

Julio dug a radio out of the duffel on the front seat and handed her his phone.

She gave him a soft look, but she really did look exhausted.

The woman needed to stay put. And he could tell she wanted to fall asleep, so that worked.

Julio twisted the dial on the radio and let the chatter wash over him, quick snatches of conversation. He switched between channels and heard another firehouse doing the same. Someone had divided the response into sections, organizing it.

He went to a channel the bosses used. “This is Captain Coda. I’m going to look for the arsonist.”

THIRTY-THREE

Samantha watched Julio walk away into a sea of chaos. She shuffled down in the seat and closed her eyes against the cacophony of noise and movement. Settling into the feeling she’d had with Julio and Romeo here, the security of being safeguarded.

Even with them gone, she felt it.

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