Chapter 4
Four hours later, an explosion jolted Tess awake in her bed, her heart thumping wildly as if trying to escape her chest. The deafening crash had come from the other side of the house.
Throwing off her covers, she jumped up, confused and scared, and tried to turn on her bedside lamp to no avail.
The power was out, but she found her cell phone on her nightstand, brought the screen out of sleep mode, and turned on its flashlight so she could see.
Seconds later, Andy burst into her room, his eyes wide in alarm.
“Holy shit, Tess! What was that? Are you okay?”
With a shaky hand, she reached for her bathrobe. Lightning flashed outside her window, moments before thunder roared overhead. The heavy rain came down in sheets as the wind rattled the windows. “I—I’m fine. What the hell happened?”
“I don’t know,” her brother responded as he spun around and hurried out into the hall with Tess following.
It didn’t take long for them to figure out what, in fact, had happened.
Andy stopped short at the entrance to the family room—or what had once been the family room.
A large elm tree that had stood in the backyard for longer than Tess was alive had crashed through the roof and the back of the house, landing right where she’d been relaxing on the couch earlier.
The downpour whipped in through the massive hole, and more lightning crackled through the air, followed almost immediately by booming thunder.
A pounding on the front door was accompanied by their next-door neighbor, Al Reynolds, shouting, “Andy! Tess! Are you okay? Open the door! Andy? Tess?”
Andy hurried over and unlocked the door, letting the middle-aged, soaking-wet volunteer fireman in.
Relief flashed in his eyes. “Thank God. I just got back from a call out... was in the house for maybe two or three minutes, then heard the tree cracking, followed by the crash.” He held up his cell phone. “I’ll call it in.”
Tess’s body trembled from the drop in adrenaline and the shock.
The family room was destroyed, and outside, the storm still raged.
Their neighbors across the street, Frank and Amelia Carbone, were the next ones through the still unlocked front door.
They wore raincoats over their pajamas, not that the outer garments did much to protect against the ongoing deluge.
The couple had lived in the neighborhood for as long as the Bingham family, and Tess went to school with their twin daughters.
While Frank eyed the damage and let out a low whistle, Amelia rushed over to the siblings. “Oh, my God, Tess, Andy, are you okay?”
Somehow, Tess managed to pull her attention from the wreckage and nodded. “Yes, Mrs. Carbone. W-we were both in bed.”
“Dear Lord, thank goodness.” She glanced at the opening in the roof as Al told Frank the police and fire departments were on their way, then turned back to Tess and Andy.
“Why don’t you gather your things and come over to our house?
I’m not sure what the police and fire department can do right now, but you can’t stay here tonight. ”
“I—I don’t—”
Al went out the rear kitchen door to survey the damage from the patio, while Frank joined the rest of them, still standing in the hallway.
He interrupted what Tess was about to say.
“Amelia’s right, Tess. Both of you grab a bag of clothes and things for the morning.
You can get anything else you need tomorrow.
Al said the fire department will make sure the gas and electrical lines aren’t damaged, then cover up the hole with tarps for the night.
The building inspector will have to look things over in the morning, along with your insurance company.
Then we’ll get the guys from the neighborhood over here with chainsaws.
Once the tree is out, we’ll help you recover anything salvageable in there. ”
Tess was still in shock and didn’t move as tears filled her eyes.
Many sentimental items were in the damaged room—photos of their parents, a beautiful quilt their mother had made, memorabilia from family vacations when the siblings were younger, their dad’s leather-bound collection of classics, and much more.
Her brother put his arm around her shoulder. “C’mon, sis. It’ll be okay. Let’s grab our things.” At that moment, he sounded older than his sixteen years—as if he sensed she was seconds away from falling apart and needed his support.
Silently, Tess let her brother lead her back toward their bedrooms. Not for the first time that day, she wondered how much more bad luck, tragedy, and worry over Andy and everything else she could take before she had a nervous breakdown.
“Holy cow! Are they okay?” Brian asked Patty the next morning at the coroner’s office as she explained the dreadful reason for Tess’s absence after he and Rafe arrived for the autopsies on yesterday’s fatal car accident victims. Due to the amount of drugs recovered at the scene, the SBI had taken over the entire case.
The suspect was high as a kite at the time, so three counts of vehicular homicide would be added to the charges.
“Yes, thank goodness. It came down in the family room, and they were both sleeping in their bedrooms on the other side of the house when it happened. When I spoke to her about an hour ago, the building inspector had just arrived, and the insurance company was sending someone out. The fire department covered the opening with tarps last night to keep any more rain from getting in and flooding the other rooms. That poor girl. She’s been through so much these past few years.
” She shook her head sadly. “But, she’s strong—I’ll give her that.
She and Andy will get through this too. I just wish I had room in my condo for them to stay with me, but it’s only a one-bedroom. ”
Rafe frowned. “Where are they going to stay?”
“I don’t know. Right now, they’re at a neighbor’s house, but from what she told me, the Red Cross will find them a place. I’m sure it’ll be weeks before the insurance money comes through and longer than that for the damage to be repaired.”
Brian felt awful—Tess needed this like a fish needed feet.
He wished there was some way he could help her and Andy.
He was about to ask Patty if she knew of anything he could do for them when an idea popped into his head.
Pulling out his cell phone, he told Rafe he’d meet him in the autopsy suite in a few minutes and then stepped out into the lobby.
Hitting a speed-dial button, he waited for the call to be answered.
“Hey, Brian. Didn’t expect to hear from you this early. Everything okay?”
“Yeah, Uncle Dan. I’m fine, but a friend of mine is in a jam.
” He filled his uncle in on what had happened to Tess’s house.
“They’re going to need a place to stay for a while, and the Red Cross usually puts people up in motel rooms. I was hoping you’d be okay with me inviting them to stay at the beach house for a few weeks until the damage can be fixed. ”
Uncle Dan was famous in Whisper for aiding anyone in need.
In fact, that was how Moriah and KC had met.
Dan had run into Moriah as she looked at flyers for rooms to rent.
The man had a keen sense of when someone needed a helping hand and offered her the beach house to rent, dirt cheap.
He just hadn’t told KC about that before the eldest Malone brother arrived home while on leave from the Navy for a few weeks.
The unlikely house guests eventually fell in love, despite Moriah being on the run from some bad dudes who were now in prison.
“I’m fine with that, but KC, Moriah, and Megan will be down tomorrow through Sunday.
” While the home’s bedrooms were large enough, there were only two of them.
When the three brothers moved in after their parents died, Sean and Brian shared one of the downstairs bedrooms, each with a bed, while KC took the only finished room upstairs.
It was tight, but they made it work. A year later, when KC left to join the Navy, Brian claimed the futon he’d left behind, but when he moved out, the upstairs space gradually turned into little more than storage over time.
Now, a queen-sized bed occupied the downstairs guest room.
The second floor was still mostly unfinished—just that one room and a walk-in attic that had never been fully converted.
With the Malone family growing, Dan had started thinking it was time to do it right—turn the space into real bedrooms and bathrooms, rather than the patchwork setup they’d lived with for years.
He paced the lobby. “That’s okay. Maybe Tess and her brother can stay with their neighbors or some friends until then.”
“Works for me. Let me know if she needs anything that I can order through the store. I’ll give it to her at cost.”
“Will do. Talk to you soon.” Disconnecting the call, he opened the door to the hallway that led to the autopsy suites and steeled himself against the gruesome sight awaiting him.
After getting the preliminary causes of death for the accident victims and a brief meeting with the assistant district attorney assigned to the case, Brian and Rafe got Tess’s address from Patty and drove there.
Normally, the M.E.’s clerk wouldn’t have given out an employee’s personal information, but the two agents could’ve easily gotten it.
Besides, she knew they just wanted to do what they could to help Tess.
Brian was surprised to learn the address was in Camden, since he lived in a condo on the other side of the same Elizabeth City suburb.
He parked the department-issued vehicle by the curb, climbed out, and surveyed the scene.
Yellow “Caution!” tape was stretched between trees and shrubs around the house.
That and the edges of a blue tarp tied down near the peak of the roof were the only indications from the street that anything had happened.