The Mill River Recluse (35 page)

He was ready to show Claudia just how much he loved her.

Giddy with pride and an exuberant sense of anticipation, he felt like doing a dance under the big spruce tree. Grasping the loaded beer bottles, he almost bolted out of the thicket toward the bakery, but he remembered the supplies and other bottles strewn around his resting place. He would need to return them to his car so that no one would suspect him of starting the fire.

Somewhat grudgingly, Leroy set the Molotov cocktails in the snow and began to gather up his mess.

~~~

Doc Richardson’s rustic log home was set back off the highway. The department’s Jeep was parked in front with its lights and sirens turned off. Ron got out to meet Fitz and Kyle as they pulled up.

“It’s been dark and quiet since I got here,” Ron said. “No telling what’s going on inside, though.”

“It’s been at least fifteen minutes since the call came in,” Fitz said. “We’d better hurry. Ron, you go around the left side. We’ll go around the other way and meet you in back.”

The officers branched off, examining the windows and doors of the house for signs of forced entry. They reconverged in the dark backyard.

“I don’t see anything unusual,” Ron whispered.

“Me neither,” Fitz said, “but dispatch told me the phone lines were cut. I think we’d better announce ourselves and see what’s going on. Ron, you stay back here. Kyle and I will cover the front.”

Kyle and Fitz went back to the front porch and took up positions on each side of the door. They drew their service revolvers, and Fitz nodded and pounded on the door.

“This is the police! Open the door and come out with your hands in the air.”

A minute passed, and they heard footsteps inside the house. The porchlight flickered on.

Kyle and Fitz stepped backward, crouching with guns raised as the front door opened. An older man wearing thick glasses and pajamas stood in the entryway with his hands held up near each side of his head.

“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot! What’s going on? Fitz?”

“Doc, you all right? We got a report of a burglary in progress out here,” Fitz said. He lowered his weapon, and Kyle did the same. “Did you hear anyone break in?”

“What? No, no one’s here but me.”

“You’re sure about that?” Fitz said. “You didn’t call 911 about twenty minutes ago?”

“No, I’ve been asleep since around ten o’clock. I didn’t even hear you drive up.” The doctor looked drowsy and perplexed. “You can come in and look around, if you want.”

“Looks like a crank call, Chief,” Kyle said. He placed his service revolver back in his duty belt as Fitz sighed and shook his head.

“Goddamn punks. Ron, false alarm. Come on back around,” Fitz called. “Doc, I’m sorry to bother you. There’s gonna be hell to pay for this, I promise.”

“No, no problem,” Doc said. “I’m sorry you boys drove all the way out here for nothing, though. Would you like to come in for a bit? I could make some coffee.”

“That’s nice of you, but I think we’ll pass. I’ve got to get back to Ruthie, let her know everything’s okay, and then get hold of dispatch and see if we can’t find out who called us out here.” Fitz started back toward the Jeep. “But stop by the bakery if you’re in town tomorrow...er, today,” he said, over his shoulder. “You’ve got some coffee and pie on the house.”

“Will do.” Doc Richardson smiled and raised a hand in thanks before closing his door.

~~~

Leroy stood beneath the big spruce tree with the loaded beer bottles at his feet. He adjusted his ski mask and looked up at the windows of the apartments above the bakery. His heart was beating hard.

She’ll love me for this,
he thought as he forced himself to ignore a seed of indecision in his gut. Leroy flicked the cigarette lighter and smiled at the tiny, perfect flame.

Two things he knew for sure: he was meant to be with Claudia, and he wouldn’t get another opportunity like this one.

He held the lighter to the tip of the rag extending from the first Molotov cocktail. The rag ignited. Leroy dropped the lighter, picked up the bottle-bomb, and heaved it through the window in the bakery’s door.

The sound of the glass shattering made him flinch. For a moment, he stood without moving, transfixed at the sight of the puddles of fire on the floor of the bakery.

One more
, he thought, snapping himself back into action. Then he would run to his car, drive around the block and onto Main Street, and arrive at the bakery just in time to come to Claudia’s rescue.

Leroy lit the second Molotov cocktail and lifted it into the air.

~~~

Startled awake, Claudia rolled over in Kyle’s bed.

She held her breath, listening for whatever it was that woke her. There was another loud
pop
, and then silence.

Fitz’s truck backfiring?
she wondered.
Maybe Kyle’s back.
She snuggled down beneath the blankets, listening for footsteps coming up the stairs to the apartment, but the building remained quiet.

Claudia had almost dozed off again when she smelled smoke. She sat up, sniffed to make sure, and scrambled out of bed. She jumped as an alarm begin to screech, two alarms, smoke detectors in Kyle’s apartment and the bakery downstairs. She grasped around for her clothes, a robe, something to put on, but the air inside the apartment was growing more and more uncomfortable to breathe. She threw open a window. Frozen air spilled inside, cutting through the fumes, and she took several deep breaths.

Kyle’s bathrobe was draped over a chair near the bed. She took one more breath and put on the robe before dropping to her hands and knees.

Stay low to the floor
, she thought as her lesson plan for fire safety ran through her head.
Crawl to the door and feel it to see whether it’s hot or cool.
She was crawling down the hallway now, heading toward the living room and front door. Once there, she pressed a hand against it.

The door was warm.

It’s not hot
, Claudia decided, and opened the door a crack. More smoke poured in through the opening, but she didn’t see any flames.
Go, go, go,
she told herself, and she crawled out of the apartment. The smoke was still thickening. She began to cough. Her eyes were burning and watering, but she could see the door to the apartment across the landing.

Ruth!

Claudia crawled to the Fitzgeralds’ door and began to knock. “Ruth, are you there?” Gasping for breath, she twisted the doorknob. It was locked, so she banged on the door again. “There’s a fire and we have to get out of here. Ruth?” Even kneeling in front of the door, she felt dizzy. The smoke was suffocating, pressing itself down her throat and into her eyes.

“Ruth,” she called, before she coughed again. She couldn’t catch her breath. Her field of vision darkened from gray to black as she collapsed against the door.

~~~

Following Ron in the department’s Jeep, Fitz and Kyle rounded the final curve in the highway as they came back into Mill River. Sirens blared in the distance.

“Wonder what’s going on,” Fitz muttered. They turned onto Main Street. Even several blocks away, they could see the flames shooting from the bakery.

“Oh, God, Ruthie,” Fitz said. The lights and sirens on the department’s Jeep came to life as it shot forward ahead of them. Fitz stomped on the accelerator.

“Claudia’s in my apartment,” Kyle said. He grabbed the CB radio in Fitz’s truck, but Ron’s voice came through the speakers before he could say anything more.

“Dispatch, this is Officer Wykowski in Mill River. We’ve got a building on fire at 130 Main Street. Requesting fire personnel and paramedics, over.”

“Officer Wykowski, this is Rutland County dispatch. We already have fire and medical enroute…”

“We can’t wait,” Kyle said as Fitz slammed on the brakes outside the bakery. A few people were beginning to gather on the street. Fitz and Kyle jumped from the truck and pushed them aside as they sprinted to the building’s entrance. Fitz unlocked and opened it, releasing a stream of smoke into the cold.

The stairwell to the apartments was fully walled off from the rest of the first floor, but it was still full of dense smoke. Grasping the handrail for guidance, Fitz and Kyle climbed toward the apartments with their gloved hands over their noses and mouths.

Kyle was about to turn toward the door to his own apartment when they nearly tripped over Claudia slumped against Fitz’s door.

“Ruthie!” the police chief yelled. He unlocked the apartment door as Kyle bent to lift Claudia. “Take her! I’ve got to get Ruthie!” Fitz rushed past him into the apartment.

Struggling to breathe, Kyle carried Claudia down the stairwell to the outside exit. Two fire trucks and an ambulance had just stopped in front of the bakery.

“I need help! Get some oxygen!” Kyle said, his voice raspy and hoarse. He coughed as two of the firefighters took Claudia from his arms. A third guided him closer to one of the trucks and put an oxygen mask up to his face. Several members of the fire and rescue unit began pulling out long lines of white hose while another group, wearing protective gear, raced past him up into the stairwell.

“Take deep breaths. Is there anyone else in the building?” the firefighter holding the mask asked.

Kyle nodded and pulled the mask from his face so that he could speak. “The police chief. And his wife. He went in after her. Second floor apartment, right side.” The firefighter radioed the information to the men inside the building. Kyle looked around, trying to see where the men had taken Claudia.

“There,” the firefighter said, pointing behind him. Kyle turned to see Claudia lying on a stretcher with a mask strapped to her face. She’d come to and was nodding slightly in response to questions from one of the paramedics.

Thank God
, Kyle thought, but then he worried again about Fitz and Ruth. He watched the fire crews working, the jets of water dousing the bakery. Most of the flames appeared to be extinguished, but the fire department wasn’t taking any chances.

There was another flurry of activity as the group of firefighters that had entered the building came back out. Fitz was between two of the men with his arms around their shoulders, while Ruth was supported by two others. Both were coughing and gasping for breath.

“She was standing by the open window,” Fitz wheezed to Kyle as a firefighter prepared to fasten an oxygen mask around his face. “She said the door was warm and she was afraid to open it, so she sealed it up with wet towels. Said she knew we’d come for her.”

“I never heard Claudia,” Ruth said. “Is she all right?”

Kyle lowered his oxygen mask. “I think she will be. I’ll be right back.” He walked over to Claudia and took one of her hands.

“Kyle,” she said, her voice barely audible. “Ruth—”

“They’re all right. I just spoke to them. Everybody got out okay.” He saw one of the paramedics coming back toward them. “You breathed a lot of smoke. They’ll probably want to take you to Rutland to make sure you’re okay, but I’ll see you there in a little while, all right?”

Claudia closed her eyes and nodded. Kyle squeezed her hand and walked back toward Fitz.

“Hey, we’ve got one more!” The last firefighter had exited the building with a bundle of beige fur in his arms. “We need to get him to a vet, though.” Sham the Siamese yowled and panted as the firefighter placed him in a portable cage.

Everybody got out
. The relief began to sink in as Kyle leaned against the shiny red fender of the fire truck.

“Hey, Kyle! Chief! Are you guys okay?” Ron made his way through the center of activity.

“We’re good,” Kyle said. Fitz removed his oxygen mask and nodded.

“You’ll never believe what we found on the other side of the building.” He motioned for Kyle and the police chief to follow him.

They approached a second ambulance where another stretcher was being readied for transport. Ron pointed at the man on the stretcher. “Guess who we have here?”

Kyle and Fitz stepped closer to the stretcher. The unconscious man had severe burns to the right side of his face, and part of his right hand was gone.

“I’ve got a hunch it’s someone we all know,” Kyle said, frowning. He leaned in to get a good look at the victim, then shook his head in disgust.

“Son of a bitch,” Fitz said.

“He was stretched out in the snow wearing a black ski mask when we found him,” Ron said. “Obviously up to no good. I guess ol’ Daisy was for real.”

“About the man in black, you mean?” Kyle said.

“Yep. She called the station a few hours ago and said she saw the same guy who burned her trailer hanging out behind the bakery,” Ron said. “I didn’t have time to check it out, though, because the fake burglary call came in right after hers.”

“What do you want to bet he made that bogus call?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me.” Ron looked at the bakery and sighed. “I hope you got plenty of fire insurance, Chief. And you, too,” he said to Kyle. Kyle nodded as Fitz grimaced and squinted up at his blackened building.

“We all got out okay. That’s all I care about,” Fitz said in a gruff voice. “But what the hell do you think Leroy was doing here?”

“Maybe some sort of revenge,” Ron said. “We found him in back of the building in an area with a lot of shattered brown glass. He might’ve been messing with bottle-bombs to set the bakery on fire, but the idiot didn’t get it right. There’s no neck on a beer bottle, not like a wine bottle, anyway. If he filled it with gas and lit it, he wouldn’t have had enough time to throw it before it exploded. I’m going to take a better look back there to see if he left anything else.” Kyle and Fitz nodded at Ron before turning their attention back to Leroy.

“He must’ve still been after Claudia,” Kyle said finally. “But something this dangerous, I never thought, I mean, even Leroy--”

“—holds a grudge longer than anybody I know,” Fitz said. “He might’ve been real sore about you dating Claudia. He was hot onto her for a while. Maybe he was trying to get rid of you. We’ll get warrants to search his car and his house, see if we can find out what he was trying to do. And then I’m going to make sure he gets what he deserves, even more than he already has.”