Chapter 5
FIVE
Sam pulled the pencil from her mouth and marked the number of boxes of nitrile gloves in the supply closet. They’d need to order two more boxes of extra large, three boxes of large, and one box of medium. She set the clipboard and pencil on the shelf and moved on to inventory the gauze.
Anything to keep her mind off Bella and yesterday. Or the handsome marshal who’d shown up at their house. She shook her head, pushing his face from her memory. There was no room for a man in her life, especially the man who was in charge of her safety.
The story about the vaping was plausible, but was it the truth?
Sam had no reason to doubt Bella, but what if she was lying?
Their lives depended on both of them minding their p’s and q’s.
All it took was one small mistake, and the perfectly crafted life the US Marshals had created for them would crumble.
Was she overthinking? Would a simple issue at school snowball into DeLuca finding them?
She couldn’t be sure. She’d never thought going to work for a sick man would end with her in WITSEC.
“Williams.” Greer’s voice out of nowhere startled her.
Sam’s hands slipped, and the boxes of gauze rained down on her feet. She sighed as she squatted to clean up the mess she’d made. “Where did you come from?”
“Well, when a man loves a woman and they get married—”
She reached out and grabbed his pant leg, making sure she grabbed leg hair, and gave a quick pull.
“Ouch.” He jumped back.
“I know that part.” She looked up at him from her crouch. “I just meant you scared me.”
Greer bent over and rubbed his shin. “You’re so violent.”
She rolled her eyes and gathered the gauze. “Did you need something? I’m busy.”
He grabbed the clipboard and looked at it. “Isn’t this Dean’s chore this week?”
“Maybe.” She stacked the gauze back in the closet. “I needed something to do.”
“In that case, you can do my chores as well, yeah?” He tossed the clipboard back on the shelf. “I don’t mind.”
The station siren blared. “Engine 4, respond to a commercial fire alarm. Marshal Samuel Dennison High School.”
Sam’s breath caught. Bella’s school.
She raced to the engine and donned her turnout gear.
Once everyone was loaded, Murph pulled the truck onto the road.
Lieutenant Fischer turned to them. “Looks like an alarm activation from the pull station on the west side of the building. Evacuation in progress. No sign of smoke or fire.”
Sam’s leg bounced on the engine floorboard. It was just a pulled alarm. There was no danger. “That’s Bella’s school.”
Greer clapped her on the shoulder. “I’m sure she’s good.”
Sam stuck her helmet under her arm and nodded. “She better be.”
Murph turned the engine onto the school’s road, and Sam studied the structure, looking for any signs of fire. “Everything looks normal.”
Except for the students calmly filing out of the school and congregating in class groups on the field so their teachers could do roll call. Sam strained to see if Bella was among them.
Fischer shoved his door open. “Williams, take the panel. Greer with me and Captain Bennett on three-sixty. Murph, you man the engine.”
The ladder truck pulled in, and its crew unloaded, having gotten their instructions from Captain Bennett.
Sam hoofed it past a line of students streaming out the main entrance, none of them her sister, and made her way to the school office.
Using the universal key she kept clipped to her belt loop with a carabiner, she unlocked the panel and flipped the plastic cover.
She juggled the helmet and squeezed her radio.
“Pull activation Zone 3, west side of the building. No smoke alarms tripped.”
“Three-sixty complete and clear,” Captain Bennett said. “Williams, silence the alarms. Let’s clear the building. Engine, take the west. Ladder, take the east.”
Sam silenced the audible alarms, then met Lieutenant Fischer and Greer at the entrance. Captain Bennett would be with the school personnel.
“We’ll sweep out.” Lieutenant Fischer gestured down the hall, indicating they’d start here and work out.
He readied the thermal imaging camera and took the lead, sweeping to determine if there were any hidden fires, like in walls or lockers.
Meanwhile, Sam and Greer followed behind, listening.
Greer carried the Halligan and axe as they moved along.
If a thermal area was detected, they would have the iron tools to gain entry to the area to check for certain.
The trio walked methodically through the west side of the school. No smoke was visible, so every few feet, Sam took a deep breath, sniffing for the smell of fire.
They reached the end of the hall. “No thermal indicators, and no visible or olfactory indicators,” Lieutenant Fischer relayed to the ladder team. “West wing cleared.”
Even with the building evacuated and the hall cleared, unease settled in Sam’s stomach. Putting eyes on Bella would be the only way to relieve it.
“Ten-four. We’re checking the auditorium now,” Dean advised.
“Williams, you go reset the panel, and I’ll go talk with the captain,” Lieutenant Fischer instructed.
“Yes, sir.”
Sam repeated the process of opening the panel and did the necessary steps to reset the system. She was locking the clear protective case when the principal and school resource officer entered the room.
“We can look at the surveillance and see who pulled the alarm,” the resource officer said as he passed by Sam and into his office, leaving her standing in the lobby with Principal Duncan.
Sam had confidence in the SROs in Renegade. They’d know who had set off the alarm before the engine pulled out of the lot.
“Sam Williams?” Principal Duncan asked.
“Yes, ma’am.” Sam stopped and looked at the principal, who was in her forties, dressed in a silk blouse and black trousers.
“I thought that was you.” The woman smiled.
Principal Duncan knew Sam and her team because Station 4 had been to the high school a couple of times on career day and for other school activities. She couldn’t recall a time they’d been here on an official fire call though.
“Please thank your team for responding. We greatly appreciate it.”
“Our pleasure.” Sam meant it. It was not only their job but something they took pride in. The ability to keep Renegade’s youngest citizens safe.
“Ms. Duncan,” the SRO called from his office. “I’ve got the video pulled up.”
“Excuse me. I have an issue to deal with.” Ms. Duncan gave a tight smile and disappeared into the SRO’s office.
Sam locked the panel box and exited the office.
Students filed slowly back into the building. Sam moved against the flow and made her way outside to where the others had reconvened at the engine.
“Good job, everyone.” Lieutenant Fischer often praised his team after a job was finished.
Sam shucked her turnout coat and tossed it on her seat.
“Here comes the principal.” Greer nodded to the approaching woman.
Sam turned around to find a scowling Ms. Duncan.
The principal looked at Sam’s boss. “Lieutenant Fischer, would it be possible to have a moment with Ms. Williams?”
Was the panel not properly reset? Sam replayed the reset in her mind. No, she’d done everything she was supposed to do.
“Uh-oh, someone’s in trouble,” Greer whispered beside her.
She rolled her eyes. “For the love of Pete, Greer. We’re adults.”
“Yeah, adults being called to the principal’s office.” He snorted. The man actually snorted.
“As long as another call doesn’t come in, we’ve got a few minutes.” Lieutenant Fischer nodded his approval.
“Ms. Williams, follow me, please.” Ms. Duncan turned on her heel and walked back into the school.
Dread filled Sam’s stomach as she followed the principal like the troublesome kid Greer had insinuated she was. “May I ask what’s going on?”
“Unfortunately, it appears that the fire alarm was pulled by two students. One of whom was your sister.”
Heat flushed Sam’s body as her nails bit into the palm of her hand. “Are you certain it was Bella?”
Isabella knew the importance of Sam’s job—every firefighter’s job—and that false alarms were a waste of time and resources. Sam had lamented it a couple of times over the last few years. She thought Bella had more sense than that.
“There is video of Bella and another student around the fire alarm, talking, before the alarm was pulled. Bella opened the cover, and the other student pulled the lever.”
Sam pinched the bridge of her nose. “Unbelievable.”
The principal entered the office waiting area, giving Sam no choice but to follow. Bella was seated in the chairs next to another girl about her age with shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair that accentuated her full cheeks.
The girl sat stiff and silent, staring straight ahead, while Bella sat hunched over, not making eye contact with anyone.
“Isabella, in my office please.” Ms. Duncan led the way down the hall to her office. Sam and Bella fell in line behind her.
“Have a seat, ladies.” Ms. Duncan shut the door and took her seat. “Isabella, would you like to explain to us why you pulled the alarm?”
Sam turned her full attention to her sister and waited for her response.
Bella looked down at her hands clasped in her lap. “I don’t know.”
Sam narrowed her eyes at her sister. “A—Isabella! What do you mean you don’t know?”
Bella didn’t bother to look up from her hands. “I don’t know.”
“‘I don’t know’ isn’t an answer,” Sam ground out. Of all the people in the world to pull the fire alarm, it had to be the sister of a firefighter. “There’s an explanation, and I want it now.”
Bella just shrugged.
“Are you sure you don’t want to tell us anything about what happened?” Ms. Duncan prodded.
Sam glanced at Ms. Duncan, who had a knowing look on her face. There was more to this than she had told Sam in the hall. The other girl sitting outside the office was probably the real troublemaker.
“I pulled the fire alarm. That’s all.” Bella looked up and met Ms. Duncan’s gaze.