Chapter Six
The crash woke Hazel with a start. She sat bolt upright in bed, her hand on her chest. Where the hell was she? Heart racing after being jolted out of a sound sleep, reality slowly dawned. She was at Aiden’s place, her new home.
The cadence of her heart eased, until her room lit up with a flash of lightning with thunder following on its heels. The whole house shook. Rain, finally.
She eased out a long breath and started to lay back down when she heard another crash, this time from inside the house, along with a lot of cursing.
She hopped out of bed and opened her bedroom door to the hallway. She crept over and looked down the staircase. Aiden was sitting on the bottom step, trying to get a wicker basket off his foot. She’d left it there upside down and he must have put his foot through it in the dark and crashed into the wall.
“Shit,” she mumbled as she went down the stairs. “Are you okay?”
Aiden glanced over his shoulder at her and glared. “Fine.” His voice was clipped.
“I’m really sorry. I was so tired after unpacking everything that I just left the basket next to the staircase. I figured I would take it back to Mom’s in the morning.”
“Uh-huh.” He said nothing else, just kept pulling at the basket until he finally freed his foot.
“Really, I am sorry.”
“Yeah.” He started pulling on his boots. The house lit up with a lightning flash again, and then the thunder rolled. Hazel shuddered. She was glad she was inside.
“Wait, where are you going? It’s the middle of the night.”
“The lightning set off the trees on the outskirts of town by the apartment complex. It’s all-hands-on-deck. I’m heading to the station and then out to the fire.”
“Is everyone okay? Should I come along? Do they have ambulances going as well?”
Aiden stood up. “I have no idea.” He grabbed his raincoat.
“Maybe I should come with you.” She stood watching him put on his slicker.
“I don’t think—" His cell phone went off, and he hit the screen. “Jor, man, I’m on my way.” There was silence but it was interrupted by a bright flash and a loud peel of thunder. He looked up at Hazel and locked gazes with her. “Are you sure?” he asked. “Okay. Be there as soon as I can.” He hung up. “Go get dressed. Jory said to bring you. The fire has hit the apartment complex. We need everyone they can get.”
Hazel turned and ran back up the stairs. Eight minutes later, they were on the way to the firehouse. “Won’t the rain stop the fire?”
Aiden shook his head. “Usually, a rain like this will help stop the fire from spreading, but it won’t put it out. It’s only been raining for about a half hour. That’s not enough time to make all the undergrowth wet. That will burn. I’m not sure how it spread to the building. That will keep burning because the fuel inside the building is dry. With a lightning strike, if that’s what it was, there could be lots of sparks, which is maybe how the building caught fire.”
They pulled up beside the firehouse. “I’ve gotta go with the guys on the second truck. They’re waiting on me. You take my truck and follow us over. Stay well back and find the other medical people.” He started to get out but then turned back. “Hazel, please be careful.”
She nodded, and then he was gone. She slid over to the driver’s side and adjusted the seat. Then she waited for the fire truck to pull out. It wasn’t what Aiden had said that scared her. It was what he didn’t say. He hadn’t said he thought the arsonist was behind it, but she knew he was thinking it. She was, too. If someone died, then the arsonist went from being a firebug to being a murderer.
Ten minutes later, she parked the truck near the ambulances and stared through the windshield. The flames were reaching for the sky. It was like nothing she’d ever seen. The rain had let up on the drive over so she could see clearly. The apartment building was only three stories, but it was long and broken into eight sections. There was a staircase in between every two sections so there were four staircases in all.
Hazel did the math. She’d looked at renting a place here a while back and had discovered there was one apartment per floor in each section. That meant there were twenty-four apartments. Twenty-four people or families that were in danger. Her heartbeat ticked up at the thought. The back and the far end of the apartment building were on fire, and it looked like the fire might jump the stairwell and light up the next section.
She got out of the truck and staggered from the intense heat of the fire on her face. Was she too close? There was a loud roar, and something crashed down inside the building. Should she move Aiden’s truck back? She glanced around and realized the street had filled in behind her so there was no way she could move even if she wanted to. After scanning for and locating the medical area, she made her way that direction. A uniformed officer held up a hand to stop her, but Phoenix called her over to him to let her by.
She met up with Phoenix next to one of the ambulances. “Is anyone hurt?”
Phoenix frowned. “Not sure yet. They’re checking. Someone said Mrs. Josephs was still inside.”
Her stomach dropped to her shoes as she looked down to the far end of the complex. “Which one is hers?”
“Bottom floor.”
“Oh, my God! The entire thing is in flames.”
Phoenix gestured toward and area being used as triage where a knot of people in pajamas and robes had gathered. “Some cuts and bruises and one with minor burns. Maybe you can look at them?” Phoenix took her gently by the arm and led her away from the fire.
“Sure.” She knew he was trying to keep her calm and she was being “handled” to a certain degree, but at the moment, she just felt relief at not having to stare at the fire.
They rounded the end of the ambulance where she found Tommy Vincent sitting on the bumper. She immediately walked over to him. “Are you okay?”
Tommy’s face looked sullen, but she was pretty sure she saw fear in his eyes. “I’m fine.” He shook off the EMT who was trying to clean a wound.
She glanced up at the EMT, who shrugged. He told her, “A few contusions and minor burns.”
Hazel focused on Tommy again. There was a jagged gash on his arm. “Let someone take care of that, Tommy. You don’t want that cut to get infected.”
He glared at her but remained silent.
“How about if I do it?” She pulled on some gloves. The EMT stepped out of the way, and she grabbed an alcohol wipe. “I’m just going to clean this, okay?”
Tommy narrowed his eyes are her but then nodded. She touched the wipe to the cut on his forearm. He winced but didn’t stop her from doing it again.
“Are you hurt anywhere else?” she asked him.
He raised his other arm, revealing an angry red swath of singed skin.
It wasn’t a bad burn, but he was going to need to have it seen to. Better if he went to the hospital. “Tommy, is your dad around?” His mother had run off years ago, but last she’d heard his dad was still in the picture.
Tommy shook his head. “He’s…”
She swallowed but didn’t say anything for fear the horror of that statement would be reflected in her words. Tommy was tired and frightened and couldn’t think fast enough to come up with a lie to cover the fact that he was only seventeen and was on his own. Did no one know this? Not like he would have said anything to anyone. Who paid the rent?
Then again, she’d moved out on her own at seventeen. And look how that had turned out.
“Is he coming back anytime soon?” She kept her voice quiet and used a soothing tone.
He shook his head, but his eyes were bright with unshed tears. She wanted to wrap him in a hug, but instinctively knew he wouldn’t let her. “Okay, Tommy. You’re going to have to go to the hospital to treat those burns on your other arm properly.”
His eyes got big, and he started to stand. “I don’t need— “
“Tommy,” she said in the same soothing voice as she put her hand on his chest and gently pushed him back down, “I’m afraid you really do need to go. It’s okay, though. If you want, I will go with you.”
He blinked and nodded once, then relaxed back down on to the bumper.
“I have to see if anyone else needs help, and then we can go.”
He gave her another quick nod.
She straightened and pulled off the gloves. She tossed them with the rest of the discarded biologicals in a bag.
“Hazel, what are you doing here?”
She turned to find Doctor Bryson coming up next to her. “Do you live here?” His look of confusion seemed to strike a false note somehow. The overly concerned tone of his voice had the same false note he’d used with patients he’d been trying to placate or make them believe he gave a damn about them. She gave herself a mental shake. Why would he be acting weird with her now? She was seeing things that weren’t there. The fire jangled all her nerves.
“No. Jory called about the fire, so I came over.” She wasn’t sure why she wasn’t telling the whole truth, but she just didn’t quite feel comfortable saying anything about living with Aiden just yet.
“That’s right. Your brother is a firefighter. I forgot.” He touched her arm and looked over her head at the fire as he said, “I hope he’s okay.”
She glanced back at the burning building. The fire seemed to be lessening. She hoped that was true and not just wishful thinking on her part. She turned back to Dr. Bryson. “What are you doing here?”
“I was driving home from the hospital and saw the flames. I thought emergency services might need help.”
She frowned. It was the middle of the night. Why was he at the hospital now?
He must have sensed her confusion. “Emergency by-pass surgery. It’s my night on-call.”
“Did it go well?”
“Thankfully, yes.”
There was the sound of yelling, and then a group of EMTs appeared around the corner of the ambulance with an elderly woman on a stretcher.
“Mrs. Josephs?” Tommy said as he stood up, his voice full of panic. “Is she okay?”
Dr. Bryson sprang into action next to the EMTs. “What are her vitals?” He helped set up her saline drip as they got her ready to be placed into the back of another ambulance that was standing by.
The EMTs recited a flurry of information to the doctor. They worked efficiently on either side of the gurney as they loaded her into the ambulance. Bryson immediately whipped out his cell phone. He must have called the hospital because he was giving them details on Mrs. Josephs’ condition.
Hazel felt someone touch her arm. It was Phoenix. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Just worried about Mrs. Josephs.”
“She’s a tough lady. I hope she pulls through,” Phoenix said, but his gaze was following Dr. Bryson. “What’s he doing here?”
“He said he was on the way home from the hospital and saw the commotion.”
“At this hour?” Phoenix raised his eyebrows.
Hazel shrugged. “He was on call. There was an emergency surgery.”
Phoenix nodded. “Easy enough to check.”
Although he’d said it out loud, she had the distinct impression he was talking to himself more than anyone else, but that begged the question: Why would he want to check?