Page 1 of Scorched Secrets

Chapter One

Emergency department physician Faye Kimble squinted against the bright sunlight piercing the horizon as she walked to the parking garage on aching feet. She hated working night shift. Sleeping during the day was unnatural. Her body clock thought that when the sun was up, she should be awake too. The good news was that after working five days straight, all of them twelve-hour night shifts, she had the upcoming weekend off. Three long, glorious days.

Was it pathetic that all she wanted to do was stay at home, sleep, eat, and binge-watch shows from her favorite streaming service? Yeah, she needed to get a life.

Stifling a yawn, she headed down the cement stairs to the lower level of the parking garage. This was the area with designated physician parking spots. An orange glow at the end of the aisle up ahead made her frown.

Was that a fire?

She rubbed her eyes, wondering if her sheer exhaustion was making her see things. The summer months were always the busiest for the Trinity Medical Center Emergency Department, and she’d lost track of the number of patients she’d seen over the past twelve hours. Over the past five days, each blending into the next.

When she opened her eyes, the orange ball was still there. Flames shooting up from the interior of a car. Taking a few steps forward to see better, she frowned.

Her car!

Her previous exhaustion faded as she called 911 to report the fire, then contacted the hospital security department. While she waited for both the security guards and the fire department to arrive, she searched frantically for a fire extinguisher. Shouldn’t there be one on every level?

Then again, the parking garage was all concrete and steel. Nothing flammable.

Except the cars themselves.

Faye had no idea how long she stood dumbly staring at the fire burning inside her car. It took a moment for her to realize one of her car windows had been broken, providing oxygen to fuel the flames. Hospital security arrived first, with the sound of fire truck sirens a close second.

“What happened, Dr. Kimble?” Calvin asked. Many of the security staff knew her by name as they often were called to the emergency department to help with rambunctious and sometimes dangerous patients.

She waved her hand at the relatively contained fire. “I have no idea. I came out here to see that.” A thought occurred to her. “We’ll need to check the camera video feeds; there’s no way this fire started inside my vehicle by accident.”

Security officer Calvin Richter reached up to speak into his radio, sending the request to save the video to his dispatcher. Faye knew very well the medical center had literally hundreds of cameras set up in strategic locations around the campus. Not in patient rooms, but nearly everywhere else.

The fire had to be the work of a prankster, but the fact that her car was targeted nagged at her. Her car wasn’t expensive like those driven by the senior medical staff, especially the surgeons. Glancing around, she saw a cherry-red Corvette convertible, a couple of BMWs, and a Lexus. Her vehicle was a ten-year-old Chevy sedan.

Was it possible the person who’d done this knew she was the eldest daughter of Fire Chief Dorian Kimble? Maybe someone had a grudge against her dad.

No, they would target his car, a much nicer one than hers. Wouldn’t they?

The wailing sirens grew louder now, making it impossible to speak. Calvin drew her away from the fire as a set of firefighters came down the stairwell hauling a long hose. Seeing the flames, they didn’t hesitate to run toward the fire.

Faye watched with admiration as the crew went to work. When she was younger, she’d thought of becoming a firefighter like her dad but discovered she not only hated the physical training required, but she couldn’t have completed it even if she’d wanted to. Thankfully, her science scores were off the charts, enabling her to graduate from high school early and obtain a scholarship to college where she’d majored in premed. Her dad claimed he was still proud of her, but she thought he was a bit disappointed she hadn’t followed in his footsteps.

But there were plenty of brave men and women who worked for him. Like those she watched now. Thankfully, it didn’t take the crew long to get the fire under control, but from where she stood, it looked as if the entire interior of her car was nothing but a black, lumpy mess.

No question the fire had been set on purpose. But why?

“Faye?” One of the firefighters came over to stand beside her. She recognized him as Colin Finnegan. She’d grown up in Brookland near the Finnegan family; her father’s house was only two blocks away. They were the same age and had gone to the same high school. They’d never dated, but she’d always admired him and the rest of the Finnegan family. He placed a hand on her arm. “Hey, are you okay?”

“As much as I can be.” She blew out a breath, striving to sound calm. “Thanks for responding so quickly.”

Colin’s brown eyes searched hers. “Faye, this fire was set on purpose, so I need to ask who might be upset with you. A patient? A family member? An ex-husband or boyfriend? Who would do such a thing?”

She shook her head helplessly, her knees feeling weak. She crossed over to sit on the bottom step of the concrete stairwell. “Possibly my ex-husband, Rory Owen. Although he isn’t the fire-setting type.”

Colin nodded thoughtfully, crouching beside her. His concern was sweet, but her previous exhaustion was returning with a vengeance. “Okay, that’s a place to start. I’ve called our arson investigator, Mitch Callahan, to examine the scene.”

She was familiar with the Callahans, too, because Mitch’s wife, Dana, was one of their emergency department nurses, as was Colin’s younger sister, Alanna Finnegan. There were rumors flying around about the Finnegans and Callahans being second cousins, which she’d found comical since both families were large on their own. Together they were larger than some towns.

“How long will that take?” Despite her earlier concerns about being able to sleep during the day, she wanted nothing more than to head home and crawl into her bed.

Colin’s expression filled with compassion. “You look beat, but if you can hang on for a few more minutes, that would help.”

---