Page 98 of The Texas Sterling Collection
The fire chief rushed up to them. “Horses out?” He shouted above the noise of the fire and the spraying water.
“Yes,” Wyl shouted as he continued to shovel.
“Men…dirt!” the fire chief shouted at his crew. They grabbed shovels off the fire truck and rushed to assist Wyl.
“Water not doing much good?” the chief shouted.
“Accelerant,” Rod shouted.
“Gotcha.” The chief ran to a couple of his men. “Foam,” he shouted, and they went to the truck and revved up the engine as the nozzle boom raised enough to aim down at the fire. Soon, a white stream shot out of the nozzle, blanketing the fire with foam and extinguishing the flames. A sizzling, smoking, white-foam-covered black mess remained.
Wyl turned off the water to the fire hose. Rod dropped the heavy hose, his arms weakened and shaky from the strain. Wyl came to him, and they stood shivering from wet, adrenaline, and shock. The fire department EMTs rushed over to place blankets around their shoulders and helped them sit up in the back of the ambulance. “Are you okay, Mr. Sterling?” one of the EMTs asked Rod, lifting his eyelids and shining a beam at his pupils, checking for shock.
“Yes,” Rod answered through chattering teeth as he searched the chaos for Wyl…not realizing he sat beside him.
“Are you okay, Mr. Sterling?” one EMT asked Wyl, going through the same process with him.
“Yes, I’m fine,” Wyl’s teeth chattered too. He tugged the blanket around him and leaned against Rod.
Sheriff Johnson approached the Sterlings. “You two okay?”
Wyl tried to focus on the face, finally recognizing Jack. “We’re fine, Jack. A bit shaken but unharmed.”
“Any idea what happened?”
“A rock with a note tied to it shattered our front window,” Rod said.
“As we read the note, I glanced at the broken window and thought I saw someone running,” Wyl said. “I raced outside to check, and the fire caught my attention. I remember hearing what sounded like a sputtering engine fading in the distance, but the fire and the horses concerned me more, so I can’t be sure. I ran to the barn, and Rod called 911.”
“Note?” Jack asked.
“It saidyou were warned,” Rod said.
“It sounds like someone purposely set the fire,” Jack said.
The fire chief stood by. “No doubt about that, Jack. As Rod tried to put out the fire, the water worsened it. Accelerant was involved. My guys used foam to smother everything.”
“Any idea who did this?”
“Probably Shifty Anderson,” Wyl’s teeth chattered. “We lack proof, but nobody else threatened us. I bet money on it.”
“Did the note look like Shifty wrote it?” Jack asked.
Rod thought and shook his head. “Come to think of it, Jack, the language and the printing didn’t look like Shifty. But the sputtering engine Wyl mentioned sounded like Shifty’s old truck.”
“Did you hear the engine too, Rod?” Jack asked.
Rod shook his head. “No. I focused on calling the fire department. We were in panic mode.”
Jack shook his head. “Shifty may be doing the dirty work for someone else. Do you have any enemies?”
“Jack, plenty of folks disagree with our marriage and lifestyle,” Wyl said. “Take your pick.”
The fire chief spoke up. “We turned off the sprinkler system. The inside of the barn is soggy. The fire didn’t reach the interior except for the one exterior wall that burned through at the very bottom. The inside is still smoky, but with the open doors, it will air out overnight. We’ll assess the damage to the exterior tomorrow after daylight. I’ll leave the pumper truck here for a couple of hours to be sure nothing flares up. You two go on in the house and get changed. We’ve got everything handled out here.”
“Horses, okay?” Jack asked.
“They’re in the pasture,” Wyl said. “We got them out as quickly as we could.”
