8. Going To Find Out
GOING TO FIND OUT
The ringing of her bell had her opening the door with the bowl of candy in her hand.
It’d been years since she’d done this and hadn’t realized how much she was missing it.
The quiet reminder of home. Of what a community shared.
No worries. No fears.
Just knocking on the doors of their neighbors and getting a few candy bars.
And what she didn’t hand out, she’d eat while she worked.
But the minute she shut the door, she heard her scanner going off.
Skye waited and listened. Could just be a false alarm like often with the fire department.
Or the police department. Especially tonight of all nights.
There it was though. A vehicle fire.
She waited to get the address, then quickly wrote a note for kids to take two pieces and set the bowl outside her door as she raced away.
The minute she pulled onto the scene she saw the firefighters dousing the flames in the front and the back of the truck.
Interesting and something a bit different.
Which of course made her think maybe it wasn’t the same person.
She was looking around, trying to see if there was anyone else here that might have been at the last one. Most times the guilty stayed to watch the action, but with it being Halloween, there were more people around and half in costume.
Definitely making it much harder.
But one guy caught her attention. Someone almost elbowing everyone out of the way and mumbling, “not again.”
“Hey,” she said, reaching for his arm. “This is nuts, huh?”
“It’s getting out of hand,” the man said. “I heard and came over.”
She frowned. “How did you hear so quickly?”
“What? Oh, sorry. I was walking with my kid and brought her home and raced over. I’m a fireman.”
“Oh,” she said. “I’m Skye Lancaster, doing a news article on it. Maybe you’ve heard of me or read my piece on the last one.” She put her hand out for his.
“Yeah,” he said. “Alan Mitchell. Are you related to Tate by any chance?”
“My brother,” she said. “Doesn’t look as if he’s here right now.” She was looking around and trying to catch sight but couldn’t get that close. “Not sure if he’s even working.”
Since Alan was a lot taller than her, he could see, “No, he’s not out there.”
“So tell me, just by first glance, do you think it’s the same person?”
More people were listening to them now. Alan looked around as if he was unsure how he should answer.
Or if he even wanted to. Maybe he didn’t like the attention.
“That’s what I want to find out too,” Alan said. “Looks like it’s under control now.”
She looked around the side of him, noticed the fire was out in the back, the one in the front doing more smoking than anything.
“It’s the first the fire was in two parts of the vehicle, correct? Do you think it could be a distraction from what they normally do? Or maybe a progression?”
“Sorry,” Alan said. “I’m not the one you should talk to.” He pushed his way closer and left her standing there trying to tag close by, but his long legs left her in the dust.
By the time she caught up, he was talking to another fireman who’d been scanning the crowd also. Maybe doing what she was, trying to find a common person who’d been to them all.
She stopped looking though when she noticed Ash was the one talking to Alan.
The two men were serious, as if they were in thought.
Trying to get closer wasn’t working though. Alan had moved past the police and closer to Ash. No way she was getting through right yet. Not without Tate here.
She’d try though once things settled down. When the firetrucks took off, she’d gotten a few pictures for her story and hoped to get some more while she interviewed the fire captain again.
Looked as if the chief might be here too. Not surprising since it was the third fire in about two weeks.
She’d missed the first one, but not these two.
Another interesting tidbit to file away. Both had been on the same shift. She wondered about the first one.
She made a note to check into that.
Once the fire was out, most of the crowd took off.
Her eyes had been half on Ash moving around, and she hated herself for that. For remembering the hot jock in school who flirted with everyone, including her.
She knew what he was after back then. Just a good time.
But he gave her attention when few others did.
Most knew her family history. Her parents were drunks, and even if they worked and there was a roof over their heads, their home life sucked.
After the fire though, that was when Ash changed.
When she moved in with the Lancasters and she had to see him more. See the concern in his eyes when he looked at her.
When he tried to get her to smile or laugh and she’d walk away to her room.
Or when he wanted to be a friend and she only wanted to be alone.
She had some regret about the way she treated him when he was only being nice.
But back then, she barely could function the rest of that school year.
Then, everyone just moved on. Including Ash.
His attention was less on her when he came over. Just a hi or goodbye, and that was it. It was for the best.
“Hey, can I talk to the captain?” she asked one of the officers. “Skye Lancaster, reporting.”
“Tate’s baby sister, right?”
She forced her smile. If it got her closer, she didn’t care.
“That’s me.”
“Hang on, and we’ll get the captain over here for you. Can’t have you crossing the line.”
“No problem.”
She waited when the officer waved the captain over. He knew her now, blew out a breath and prepared himself to start answering her questions.
“Hi, Captain Richards. First question, do you suspect it’s the same person from the two previous fires?”
“We’ll know more after the fire inspector completes his report.”
“But surely you’ve got an idea already?” she asked, her cell phone recording the conversation.
“An idea and facts are two different things. I’m sure you’re aware of that.”
She smiled, tried to keep it friendly. “I know exactly. I’m just trying to get those facts for the people. We all want to know if we’ve got anything to worry about. Like a potential arsonist on the loose.”
“For now, we are treating this like we do any other fire. Nothing will be released just yet. But I’m sure you’ll be the first one to call for that report tomorrow.”
She laughed. “You know it.”
She opened her mouth to ask another question when his radio went off of another car fire. An electric car this time.
That was going to be worse. Much worse and not as easily put out.
“Sorry,” Captain Richards said. “Got to go.” He turned to the officer who had called him over. “Keep the scene closed off until the inspector is here!”
Skye had two choices. She could stay and try to get more information on this, or she could follow the captain to the next fire because, without her scanner, she didn’t know where it was.
Thankfully, she was in sneakers and took off for her car a block over, hoping she could catch up.
And when she did. When she pulled into that blaze in the driveway of a home in a residential area, she knew things were escalating.
This one was different though.
Too many houses were close by. A newer car. Could have been tons of witnesses with people out with their kids.
Kids and parents who were being held back by the police as the firefighters battled the blaze that didn’t want to be contained, worried it might catch the house on fire.
Another truck came on the scene five minutes later as backup for the homes in the area.
She watched Ash at work. His body tense, but in control at all times. His focus on the job at hand.
She took pictures of the fire. Then pictures of the crowd, just like she’d done at the last two fires, then followed it with a video.
Maybe she’d get lucky and see if there was anyone who was the same at both.
When she turned back around, she noticed Alan again.
He was looking at her, just as she was him.
The drive over was less than two minutes and she was trying to figure out if it was possible for one person to get from the last location to this one and then have it called in.
She just didn’t know, but she was going to damn well find out.