Silent Scream (43 page)

David got him back to the kids’ bedroom to find Myers at the window.

“Zell’s down,” he shouted, pointing to the floor. “Unresponsive.” Together he and Myers lifted Jeff into the bucket and Myers
laid him as flat as the small space allowed.

David knew they couldn’t fit the woman’s husband in the bucket as well. “Take him down and come back for me and the victim.”

It seemed an eternity, watching the bucket descend. Waiting paramedics moved Jeff to a stretcher. Then Myers started back
up.

The entire hall was now engulfed in flames and the fire had licked its way into the kids’ bedroom. Fifteen more seconds ticked
by while the fire raced up the walls. Finally Myers was back and the two of them lifted the woman’s husband into the bucket.
David climbed through the window and into the bucket just as the room went up.

Myers maneuvered the bucket several feet from the building as he took it down.

“You okay?” Myers shouted.

David nodded mutely. His chest felt like it was going to explode. His fingers itched to rip off the mask now that he was out,
but he quelled the need, breathing evenly.

They got to the ground and David opened the bucket door, letting the medics drag the victim out and to a waiting stretcher.
David yanked his mask from his face.

“Zell?” he asked loudly and the medics pointed to a retreating ambulance.

“He’s conscious but can’t feel his legs. He said to tell you that you’re even now.”

David’s chest felt frozen.
Oh God.
Spinal injury.
God
. He thought about the way he’d dragged Jeff out but knew it had been the only way to get him out of the fire.
Please, don’t let me have made it worse.
He looked back up at the building. Six more windows had terrified residents waving frantically for rescue.
Zell’s in good hands. Those people are in yours. Do your job.

He strapped his mask back on and looked at Myers. “Back up?”

Myers nodded tiredly. David took the controls and sent them back up, casting worried glances at the ambulance as it screamed
away.

Wednesday, September 22, 1:35 a.m.

“Olivia.” Noah Webster burst into the ER, pale. “Abbott called me.”

She was leaning against a wall outside the room in which Kane lay. She looked up, met Noah’s eyes. “They called it.” Kane’s
time of death. As she’d stood and watched, helplessly. “There was nothing they could do.”

Noah closed his eyes for a long moment. “When?”

“Five minutes after we got here. I don’t know the exact time.”

“What happened?”

“I was too late. I wasn’t there.”

Noah grabbed her shoulders. “Stop that. Right now. This is not your fault.”

“Fine.” In the minutes since they’d taken Kane from the ambulance, her mind had moved from chaotic to precise. Clear. Logical.
Still, her heart pounded like hell. “It doesn’t matter now anyway.”

Noah pinched her chin, made her look up at him. “You’re in shock.”

“No. I’m not. I’m waiting for Jennie and then I’m catching a ride back to the scene.”

“No, you’re not,” Noah said.

She jerked her chin from his fingers. “I’ll function. I owe Kane at least that much.”

“Olivia, you didn’t cause this.”

“No, but I might have prevented it. And I know damn well who
could
have prevented it.”

“Who?”

“Kenny Lathem. That’s who this guy was after. That’s why he called in a bomb threat. One of the cops at the scene followed
us in. He said when the evac started, the
staff had all the kids together. One of the staff told him that a guy dressed like a cop gave Kenny a note that said the detectives
wanted to talk to him again. He led him away and forced Kenny into a white van at gunpoint. And no, nobody got a plate,” she
said before he could ask.

“And Kane?”

“Kane called ahead, told first responders to make sure Kenny was okay. It was the first thing we thought of when we heard
about the evacuation. Kenny was the only dorm kid we talked to and he knew something. When Kane got there, dorm staff told
him Kenny had gone with the cops. He chased and got to them just…” Her voice hitched and she sternly controlled it. “Just
in time. Kane got the van open, Kenny got away. Kane was shot twice, close range. He was probably dead before he hit the ground.”

Noah swallowed hard. “Shit.”

“Yeah. And there’s more,” she said wearily. “You remember at the end of our five o’clock meeting yesterday, when I got the
text from the sign language interpreter?”

“She had another commitment.” His expression twisted. “Oh God, no. That’s how this guy found out about Kenny?”

“I don’t know, but that’s my guess. Her kids say she never came home. Around ten they called a family friend who’s been sitting
with them. Val had texted them, too, saying she wouldn’t be home for dinner. Her agency didn’t have any record of any other
assignments, so they filed a missing person shortly after midnight. Last I saw her was when we broke for lunch yesterday,
right before K—”

She had to stop a minute. Breathe. Wait for the spasm in her chest to ease. “Right before Kane and I went up to David’s to
bring back that Lincoln character.”

“Liv, were you with David tonight?”

She nodded, looked away. “Yeah.”

“That wasn’t wrong, you know. That had nothing to do with this.”

“If I’d been at home, I would have been there faster.”

“And maybe I’d be standing over your corpse right now,” Noah said sharply. “You know it doesn’t work like that. You could
have been caught in traffic, Kane could have waited for backup. A million different things could have happened.”

“I know.” But that didn’t change facts. If she’d been there, Kane would have had backup and he’d be alive. But she hadn’t
and he wasn’t and she couldn’t change that now. She could only do what he would have wanted her to do. Her damn job.

“Did you tell David you were all right?” he asked. “He’s going to hear an officer was killed. He’s going to wonder if it’s
you.”

Yes, he would, she realized. And he’d worry. “No, I didn’t think to tell him, but I doubt he’s heard about this yet. David
was already gone when I left. There was a big fire….” She stopped and looked up, frowning. “There was a big fire out in Woodview.
Didn’t you say something about Woodview at the meeting yesterday?”

“Yeah. That’s where Tomlinson bought a house for his mistress. It’s possible, isn’t it? That they could have set one fire
deliberately to divert attention from the evac?”

“It’s possible. It was a bad fire with an explosion. Let’s find out if Tomlinson’s house was the target.” She straightened
abruptly when the doors from the outside opened and Abbott entered, a small woman sobbing in his arms. “Jennie,” she murmured.

“Remember you did not cause this,” Noah said quietly. “She doesn’t need your guilt. She needs your strength.”

Olivia nodded unsteadily and took a few steps toward them. “Jennie.”

Kane’s wife stumbled into Olivia’s arms. She held Jennie, rocking her where they stood. “Kane saved a boy’s life tonight,”
Olivia said helplessly.

“I know,” Jennie cried. “Bruce told me. I can’t believe this.”

“I know,” Olivia whispered. “I’m sorry.” Jennie nodded against her and for a long, long moment they stood that way, until
Olivia sighed. “He’s in there. I can go with you.”

Jennie pulled away, still crying but standing on her own feet. “No. I need to be alone for a while.” She took Olivia’s hand,
patted it. “He thought the world of you.”

Olivia could only nod. No words would come. She stood, frozen, while Jennie walked around her, through the door to where Kane
lay. Abbott squeezed her shoulder.

“Go home, Olivia. We’ll get through the night. That’s all we have to do right now.”

She searched his face, saw he’d been crying. Abbott and Kane had known each other a lot longer than she had. “I need a ride
back to the school to get my car.”

“I’ll take her,” Noah said. “We’ll be in at oh-eight.”

Abbott’s nod was heavy. “And we’ll catch this bastard. I gave Jennie my word.”

“Come on, Liv,” Noah said, taking her arm. “Let’s go.” He led her to his car, put her in and got behind the wheel. “Where
to?” he asked.

“Back to the school.”

His brows lifted. “For your car?”

“After. First, I talk to Kenny.”

“What about an interpreter?”

“There will be somebody there who can interpret, but if not, I don’t care.” Her jaw clenched. “If I have to use a stone tablet
and a chisel, that boy’s gonna talk to me.”

“Okay.”

Olivia stared out the window as Noah drove, seeing nothing of the road that flashed by. She could only see Kane’s body lying
on the ground. “What am I going to do, Noah?” The whispered question was out before she knew it was coming.

“What Bruce said. You’re going to get through tonight. Then tomorrow. And you’re going to find the guy who shot your partner
and turn him into fucking hamburger.”

She turned to face her friend and saw his cheeks were wet. She reached out, grabbed his hand and hung on. He squeezed tightly
and then she understood he needed her, too. She’d pushed Noah away over the last seven months, along with the rest of her
friends. “I need to make some calls, tell folks I’m okay.”

Wednesday, September 22, 2:20 a.m.

David walked away from the wreckage, so tired he could barely move his feet. Rotating their manpower, his and the other firehouses
had gotten everyone out. They hoped. David hated to think of anyone still inside. The fire was largely knocked down, but in
some areas it continued to flare and would for several more hours.

Beyond the woman’s husband the paramedics had rushed to the hospital, they had four human fatalities—an elderly woman and
an asthmatic child who’d died of smoke inhalation in the apartment blaze and two people
known to have been in one of the houses when it exploded. He hadn’t heard anything about the other exploded house.

They’d seen dozens of injuries. Jeff had been the worst firefighter injury. David still hadn’t heard anything about his partner’s
condition. He was trying hard not to worry.

Trying harder to contain his rage. Sonsofbitches. Why? What could they possibly hope to gain? How many lives had been devastated
tonight?
And for what?

“You okay, Dave?”

Their shift engineer was shaking a bottle of water, an empty packet of electrolyte mix in his other hand. He held it out and
it was all David could do to lift his arm to grab it. He guzzled it down and held the bottle out for more.

“Just tired. Any news on Zell?”

“Not yet. Red Cross is set up over there. Go take a rest.”

He nodded and pushed away from the truck to trudge toward the Red Cross area. Thoughts of Olivia fluttered through his mind
and he let himself steep there, pushing away all the rage, the devastation all around him. He let himself imagine her warm
and soft in his bed, hoping he’d be able to get back to her before she left for work. He needed her, needed to hold her after
a night like this.

The sex… He drew a breath. Had been unforgettable.
You could have been having sex like that for the last two and a half years if you hadn’t been such an idiot
. He let out the breath in a sigh. He could have had much more than sex. He could have had her. In his arms. In his house.
Someone to come home to.
Someone just for me
.

His feet stopped moving when he saw Barlow and Captain Casey standing off to the side, deep in conversation.
Even from twenty feet away he could sense tension. And pain. Barlow looked like he’d taken a blow.

The two looked up, saw him and exchanged a glance. David got a queasy feeling in his gut. “What’s happened?” David asked.
“I need to know. How’s Zell?”

Casey looked old. “I don’t know. I’m waiting to hear. David, there was a shooting tonight. At that residential school.”

The queasiness turned to ice.
Oh God. Please. Not her
. “Who?”

“Kane,” Barlow said quietly. “He’s dead.”

David felt his knees go weak. “Oh no. How?”

“You know that hearing aid you found in the condo debris? Olivia and Kane were trying to track its owner, looking for an eyewitness
at the deaf school. They found a kid who knew something. Somebody tried to snatch the kid tonight.”

“The bomb scare was a fake?”

Barlow nodded. “They did a full sweep and didn’t find anything, but it got the kids evacuated. Kane got there as the kid was
being shoved into a van. He saved the kid, but there was a struggle and…” He trailed off. “Poor Liv.”

David fought back panic. “Was she there?”

“No. She got there about ten minutes later. Kane was already gone.”

Sadness settled on his shoulders, even as his body shuddered in relief that she hadn’t been nearby, in danger. Kane had been
more than Olivia’s partner. He’d been her friend and, if David’s instincts were right, a father figure as well. “Where is
she?”

“I don’t know,” Barlow said. “I’d heard there was an officer down. I didn’t know it was Kane until a little while
ago. She might still be at the hospital with Kane’s family, but knowing Liv, she’s gone back to the scene.”

Doing her job. As will I.
He wanted to ask Casey for a few hours to go see Olivia, to see Jeff, but there was still hours of work to be done here.
And then I’m on shift for the next twenty-four.
“I’ll call her.” But what could he say?

“I heard about your partner, Zell,” Barlow said. “I’m sorry.”

Fear, worry, and guilt rushed his mind, and he quickly turned it back. He couldn’t let himself think about Zell now. He shouldn’t
let himself think about Olivia either, but that was impossible. She was there, in his mind. She was hurting, and he hurt,
too.

“Thanks.” David surveyed the wreckage. “Which house was the arson target?”

“Second from the left,” Barlow said. “No glass ball that we’ve been able to find.”

“Was the gas tank targeted?”

“Doesn’t appear to have been. Folks are just turning on their heat at night. They probably had a leak and didn’t know it.
The fire spread from one house to another and… boom.” The last word was said very wearily. “We know two people were home in
one of the houses, but the other house was for sale. Neighbors say it was unoccupied.”