Page 5 of Forged By Fire

“Can you describe the shooter? You mentioned it was a man. How did you know? Was he taller or shorter than you?”

Leslie used one hand to massage her forehead with the tips of her fingers. “I heard his voice. But even before that, I knew he was a man. Because of his stature, I guess. I’m five feet seven, and he was at least four inches taller than me. I truly thought it was Bryce Keyes when I first saw him.” She held one of her hands out in front of her. “He wasn’t wearing a glove on his right hand. The one he used to hold the gun. He was light-skinned, but I couldn’t tell anything more than that.

“Did you ever see his face?”

“No. Not more than an outline. He didn’t have facial hair, but then no active firefighters do. It wouldinterfere with their masks. We were in the same room together, but I wouldn’t know him if I bumped into him again.” There was a bitterness to her voice.

“That’s not your fault, Leslie. You had no idea what was going on. No one did.”

She nodded her head, but didn’t look convinced. “I know that’s true. Everything about him looked legit, down to his gear. The only thing that didn’t add up was the fact that there was no name on his jacket. If it weren’t for that, it looked exactly like the gear every station in the Destiny Fire Department uses.”

“Okay, walk me through what happened from the moment you guys first saw him, what he said, and what happened before he ran away.”

He listened intently as she told him about seeing the shooter motion for them to follow him. They’d originally thought it was Keyes or Cho needing help. Even when they didn’t speak on the radio, Leslie had momentarily wondered if they were having trouble with communications.

Clint could imagine her shock when she rounded the corner to find the mystery firefighter standing there, gun aimed at them.

“Danny tried to talk him down. Suggested we get out of the building and talk. But it didn’t make a difference.” She wrapped her arms around herself again.

Clint wished he had a jacket or a blanket to offer her, even though he knew the chill she felt was beyond physical cold. He waited patiently for her to continue.

She took in a slow breath. “The guy said that it was too late. That’s when he shot Danny.”

Chapter Three

She’d lived through the ordeal, and even though she was telling Clint everything, it still didn’t seem real. It was as though Leslie was trapped in a strange dream—the kind induced by a high fever—and she couldn’t snap out of it. All she wanted to do was wake up and find herself in her bunk at the fire station with Danny’s laughter filtering in from the dining area.

“Can you remember exactly what he said? The words he used?”

Leslie nodded. “He told Danny, ‘No. It’s too late for that.’ And that’s when he pulled the trigger.” She swallowed hard. “I don’t understand why any of this happened.”

“Did you or Danny approach him at all?”

“No. Danny had both of his hands up, trying to show that we weren’t a threat.” And she’d been rooted to the floor. Leslie knew there was nothing she could’ve done to prevent the chain of events, but she wondered if she’d tried to speak, if she might have been able to dissuade the shooter. Even as the thought flitted through her mind, she knew the answer.

“Did he ever aim thegun at you?”

“I’m not sure. Danny moved to stand between me and the gun. After that, it was aimed squarely at Danny the entire time.” She felt the familiar sting of tears behind her eyelids and tried her best to blink them away. Crying right now would serve no purpose except to give her an even worse headache than the one she was already dealing with.

“After the gun was fired, what did the suspect do?”

“He immediately turned and left the room.” She closed her eyes and let the scene play again in her mind. “He didn’t run, and he never looked back. He walked out. Like those action movies where someone throws a grenade into a building and walks away like it’s no big deal as the explosion goes off behind him.”

When she opened her eyes again, she half expected Clint to be looking at her as though she might be going crazy. Instead, his gaze was filled with a combination of respect and determination.

Maybe she and Clint weren’t close friends, but she’d known him long enough to trust he would do everything in his power to find the man who’d tried to kill Danny. She just wished she had a description or something to help. Because if he did manage to get out of the warehouse alive and undetected, once he dumped the gear, it’d be nearly impossible to find him.

Clint must’ve been thinking along the same lines. “If you heard the man’s voice again, would you recognize it?”

She wished there’d been something distinctive about the shooter’s voice. “I don’t think so.” The idea that, if this guy managed to escape the warehouse and make it past everyone outside, he might get away with it all made her stomach ache. “I keep going over it in my head, and none of this makes sense. There had to be something else we coulddo. But we never thought something like this could happen.”

Leslie wanted some answers. Becca would need them when she arrived in Destiny. Right now, they had nothing.

A touch to her hand brought Clint’s face into focus.

He watched her with concern. “No one could’ve predicted that an armed assailant might be hiding inside a burning warehouse.” His phone rang, and he gave her hand a gentle squeeze before standing up and answering it. “Baker here.”

Leslie slid her hands between her thighs and the chair she was sitting on. She jiggled her right foot up and down as she watched Clint. Had someone found the shooter? She really needed some good news. When Becca arrived at the hospital, Leslie wanted to be able to tell her that the man who shot her husband was in custody.

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