Page 53 of Deadly Evidence
“Fire extinguisher! Where is it?” Dante spun around, searching the kitchen walls. “Hurry!”
Lacey bolted out of her chair at the kitchen table and raced to the end of the counter next to the stove. Flipping open the plastic clamp, she pulled the extinguisher from the wall.
Dante grabbed it from her and took off like a rocket out the door.
Lacey whirled back to Anna, her face white. “Should we call 911?”
Not if Brady handled this right. “Let’s go check this out first, okay?”
Lacey darted after Dante. Anna followed, close enough to make sure that it was indeed Brady’s cabin and not something much worse.
Sure enough, she could see Dante racing for the last cabin, where Vicente stood outside motioning wildly for him to hurry.
Anna ran to the cabin and schooled her features into an appropriate amount of anxiety.
Which, if Brady wasn’t as good at this as he’d indicated, might just be warranted. What if he’d inadvertently burned the place to the ground?
Could she really expect him to rebuild before he was on his merry way to some other assignment?
“What’s going on?” she asked as she pulled to a breathless halt next to Vicente and Lacey.
Dante was already inside.
“Fire—electrical panel,” Vicente wheezed, gripping Lacey’s shoulders with both hands to hold her back. “We came running when we heard the smoke detector go off. Brady shut off the electricity quick, but the fire started to spread.”
Mia came at a run as well, her black hair flying behind her. “Is everyone okay? What happened?”
“You all stay here,” Anna ordered. “I’m going in. Lacey, you wait here.Promise.”
“But Mom!” Lacey’s voice rose to a wail. “Don’t go in there—please!”
Anna dropped a swift kiss on the top of her head. “I’ll be right out.”
A faint haze of smoke met her as she stepped inside. Moving cautiously, she walked through the kitchen, the living area, and back to the single bedroom, where the electrical panel was set in the wall.
Dante and Brady had already opened the windows wide to air the place out, but an acrid odor of burned wiring and melted plastic hung in the air.
“Fire’s out,” Brady said. “Let’s leave—these fumes are toxic.”
She held a hand to her mouth as she backed away. “The damage?”
Dante raised his hands about two feet apart. “The wood paneling burned—this much. The electrical panel istoast. There’s no fixing it, that’s for sure.”
Brady shooed them both out, then joined everyone out in front.
Lacey rushed forward and hugged Anna. “I was so scared—what if the placeexploded, Mom? You shouldn’t have gone in there!”
Anna wrapped her arms around her. “I was really careful, honey. But don’t you ever go into a dangerous situation like that.” She looked up at Brady. “So how bad is it?”
“Like Dante said, mostly just the electrical panel and some of the wood paneling, which will need to be replaced, along with some wiring.”
“But you’re okay, right?”
“Fine. The place will need to air for a few days, and there won’t be any electricity for lights or the baseboard heaters. Know any good electricians?”
Vicente rocked back on his heels and frowned as if he was thinking hard to remember a familiar name that was just on the tip of his tongue.
“There’s one I can call up in El Paso,” she said. “He’s definitely the one I want. He’s done work in the house before, and he’s...a second cousin, so he’ll give me a decent quote.”
