20. Leo （Now）
Leo (Now)
Leo walked down the stairs from Lynne’s apartment and into the alley then turned toward Main Street.
The November sun was bright, but the alley still felt like the inside of a freezer.
Despite his fleece, he felt exposed as the wind whipped through the bare trees.
The storefronts were still decked with artificial orange and red garlands, pumpkins, and hay bales.
Some had even started their Christmas decorations.
He’d always kind of loved that, the way the holidays all blurred together in November.
But today he hated it. Autumn Ridge’s cheeriness was a harsh contrast to how he felt inside.
Leo combed his hand through his hair. The talk with Mike about where to live could wait.
He headed toward the fire station instead.
He needed something he could solve—wiring, panels, anything that wasn’t a human heart—and the false fire alarms were as close as he was going to get to solving anything today.
He could still feel the imprint of her back against his chest from that morning, could still smell her shampoo on his T-shirt.
If she wanted me, she’d fight for me, he reasoned.
Just like I’ve been fighting for her. But for once, he forced himself to stop there, to resist the urge to turn around and knock on her door until she gave him the answer he wanted.
The idea attached itself to his ribs. They’d said too much, done too much, and part of him screamed it was his fault for not being wiser. He dove head-first into nostalgia instead of giving Lynne’s kiss some time to breathe. He’d just wanted her back so badly. He thought this was finally it.
He shook his head. Was he wrong? Had he misread everything? Maybe her desire didn’t equal readiness. Never had. Never would. Maybe what she did and what she said would never match—or at least never make sense to him.
The red brick building and its cherry-red bay doors, all closed, materialized one block away. All was quiet. This meant the C crew hadn’t gone out for the false alarm. Good. It also meant Chief Bob would still be there.
His buddy, Mark, spotted him first in the apparatus bay.
“March—what you doing back so soon? Aren’t you off shift today?”
“Yeah. Chief here?” Leo asked.
Mark pointed toward the common area. “Just went to grab more coffee. You okay, man? You look…” He cocked his head at Leo. “Not okay.”
“It’s those damn false alarms along Main again. Thanks, Mark.”
Chief Bob was sitting in one of the leather recliners, watching bad TV and slurping back a fresh mug of coffee when Leo tapped his shoulder.
Bob jostled his mug enough to spill some on his lap.
He cursed at the mess he’d made. “Wasn’t expecting you here, kid.
What’s going on? Hey, grab me a paper towel. Will ya?”
Leo retrieved the paper towel roll as he spoke. “Can we talk? Those false alarms just happened again. Looks like you all weren’t even notified. I want to figure this thing out once and for all.”
Bob could see the determination on Leo’s face. He nodded at the rest of the crew and stood, wiped off his pants. “Sure. Let’s go to my office.”
Once they were inside, Bob put down his coffee mug and gave Leo his full attention. “You know something I don’t? Because we’ve been trying to figure this out for a while.”
“So hear me out. I have a theory. Alarm tripped at O’Donnell’s several minutes ago. Local only. No dispatch, no tones.”
The chief frowned. “It stopped on its own?”
“Yeah. People were already heading out when it went quiet.”
“Fireworks again?”
Leo shook his head. “Nope. The Mayor’s busy with other things, as far as I can tell. No fireworks, no kitchen mess, no heat. It just … went.”
The chief leaned back. “Hmm. So you think that block’s still tied together?”
“That’s what it looks like. Feels like a bleed-over—one detector sneezes and the rest catch a cold.”
The chief rubbed his jaw. “And it didn’t route to us.”
“Not even a blip.”
Bob sighed. “Christ. That could explain the randomness of it. Those panels should’ve been separated twenty years ago. Long before I was chief.” He stood. “I’ll call inspections. Have them start with the shared runs behind the apartments.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“Good instincts,” Bob told him. “We don’t want to miss the day it isn’t a false alarm.”
They both went still.
Bob’s hand braced on the edge of the desk. “Wait. That building…”
Leo nodded. The memory rose before he could stop it—his dad, the fire, the questions he’d asked at ten years old that no one had been able to answer. Why didn’t they come sooner? Why hadn’t his dad gotten out?
The chief cleared his throat. When he looked back at Leo, his expression had shifted to resolve. “I’ll have inspections out there as soon as possible.”
“Today?” Leo pressed.
Bob met his eyes. “Let me go make that call right now.”