Page 65 of Face Her Fear

Nicola said, “You were supposed to be watching him! Wouldn’t you have seen it if he ‘did something’? What are you saying, exactly, Sandrine? You think Brian—whose childhood trauma was a fire that destroyed his group home—set this fire?”

Josie found a space along one of the walls away from everyone else.

“I didn’t say that,” Sandrine said quickly.

A cloud of smoke pushed through the doors. Alice, Nicola, and Sandrine began coughing.

“Cl-close the doors, please,” Alice stammered.

Brian took one last look at the inferno and then pulled them closed. He walked over and sat beside Nicola. “I didn’t ‘do’ anything to the generator,” he mumbled. “I was trying to see if we could get anything more out of it, but it was completely out of fuel.”

Alice rubbed her face with both hands. “Does it matter what happened or how? The only question we should be asking ourselves is what do we do now?”

Josie pulled out her phone and checked the text messages. No one noticed, or if they did, they didn’t mention it. Nothing from Noah but several messages from Gretchen.

Got new info for you. Heather checked out Cooper Riggs. He’s retired army, 10th Mountain Division. No criminal record. No one’s heard from him since the storm began. Sheriff’s office said they’ll look into it. No word from Noah so also looking into that.

Josie tried to quell the worry that bloomed in her stomach at the sight of Noah’s name. Why wasn’t he in touch with the team? Where was he? Where was Cooper? What was going on down there? She pushed her worries aside, trying to focus on the rest of the messages from Gretchen. There were many.

Haven’t forgotten you. Deputy from Sullivan County said they’re trying to figure out the best way to get up there and then get all of you off the mountain. They’re coordinating with the state police. Hopefully not much longer. Also, we think we found two of your people. Tara Pietro, age 39. Originally from Florida. No priors. No warrants. Here’s the article. Pasting it since you probably can’t follow the link.

Josie scrolled down. Tara Pietro had to be Taryn Pederson. She’d chosen a name similar to hers. The article was from theSt. Augustine Record, dated twenty-two months ago.

St. Augustine Man Dead After Whale Collides with Boat

Josie skimmed through it, noting that the details were exactly as Taryn had given during the week. She and her husband had been out on a small fishing boat off the coast of Florida when a whale crashed into the boat, causing it to tip. Taryn’s husband had fallen into the water and drowned. She’d been able to get his body back onto the boat and perform CPR, but he couldn’t be saved. Alone at sea, shaken and not as skilled at handling the vessel as her husband, she had made a distress call. Local authorities had come to her aid.

Gretchen had followed up the story with a message that said:

Tara Pietro moved to South Jersey after the accident. We talked with a neighbor who is bringing in her mail. Tara doesn’t work. Got a payout from her husband’s accident. Travels a lot. Neighbor said she’s away on vacation for two weeks right now but didn’t know where so I’m pretty sure this is who you’re looking for.

Alice’s voice brought Josie back to the situation at hand. “What do we do if the fire spreads?”

Smoke slid beneath the door, lingering inside the space.

“Oh God,” Brian groaned. His face was in his hands.

Sandrine said, “The wind is pretty calm right now. I don’t think it will. Maybe this will be good. Emergency services might respond more quickly. They won’t want a forest fire on their hands.”

“But should we stay here?” asked Nicola.

Josie scrolled down to the next message.

Next one is Bradley Davison. Currently residing in Los Angeles. Copying and pasting again.

“What choice do we have?” Alice said. “We need shelter.”

Josie looked up from her phone. “We could go to one of the cabins. They, at least, have water. It might be easier to stay warm if all of us are in a more confined space.”

“But all of our food is gone,” Nicola said. “Our source of heat is gone. Sure, the cabins have stoves, but we don’t have anything left to burn, and we can’t chop anything down because the axe was in the main house!”

Alice said, “Our source of heat is right outside those doors. That place is going to be burning for a long time.”

Josie scrolled down and quickly read the next article, which was fourteen years old.

Survivors of North Star Boys’ Home Fire Still Struggle with Loss Fifteen Years Later

Bradley Davison remembers the day his group home went up in flames like it happened yesterday. “That kind of thing gets permanently imprinted on your memory, you know? I still think about it almost every day. I have lots of triggers. Nightmares. It’s tough.”

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