White Picket Fences (34 page)

“No! I would never…” Her uncle seemed too aghast to finish his sentence.

“Hey, the important thing is you’re all safe. I’ve seen worse outcomes with a house fire. And your son is something of a hero, although I’m not saying it’s a good idea to go inside a burning house.”

“What?” Amanda gasped.

“He saved your niece. Neighbors who saw him drive up told him not to go in. But he went in anyway. Brave. And stupid.” The cop winked. The radio on his lapel squawked, and he turned to speak into it.

A firefighter emerged from the blackened front door and walked up to them. Soot marked his face. “You are Neil and Amanda Janvier?”

“Yes,” Neil said quickly.

“I’m Captain Andrew Porter. Your son Chase here told us there are no other occupants of the home. Right? The two of you and your daughter were at a sporting event?”

“Yes… yes, that’s right,” Neil stammered.

“Well, that’s something to be thankful for. It doesn’t always end this way.”

Amanda stifled a sob. “We are. So thankful.”

“The fire has been extinguished,” the captain continued. “And we’ve ascertained it began in the garage. Not sure how yet, but we can see that it started along the wall shared by the kitchen. It spread to the wood shavings and lumber and then intensified from there. We’ll be able to see better in the morning. The flames entered the house through an open kitchen door and damaged or destroyed pretty much all of the first level. Half of your second level is intact, but there’s major structural, water, and smoke damage. I think you’ll be looking at a total loss.”

“But we’re okay.” Amanda closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

“Look, we’ll be here for a while managing hot spots and making sure the fire doesn’t flare up again,” the captain said. “It’s too early to go in and salvage anything, so the only thing you can do at this point is get yourself a place to stay tonight and come back tomorrow, and we’ll see what can be removed from the house. The police will put tape around it for tonight.”

“Yes. Thank you,” Neil said.

The captain walked back toward the house, leaving the four of them in a small huddle.

For a moment no one said a word. Then Chase turned to his parents. “It wasn’t me,” he said.

A sob escaped from Amanda, and Neil opened his mouth to speak. Nothing came out at first, and then a low-toned squeak preceded his words. “You… We didn’t…” But Neil didn’t finish.

“No, I know you thought it was me. For a moment there you thought it was me.” Chase sounded calm and in control. “And I know why you did. But I didn’t start this fire. And I didn’t start the one that killed Alyssa Tagg either.”

Amanda reached out instinctively for someone to steady her. She grabbed Tally’s arm. “What?” she croaked.

Chase turned to his mother. “I didn’t start it. It was the other boy in the room with me. I touched the lighter before Keith lit his cigarette. He took it from me and sent me back to the master bedroom where Alyssa, Devin, and I were supposed to be napping. But Devin and I went back into Keith’s room after we saw him use the lighter. When Keith climbed down the balcony, Devin picked up the lighter and lit a cigarette on the bed. That’s what started the fire. It wasn’t anything I did or Keith did. It was Devin. He didn’t know what he was doing.”

“How long…have you known?” In the pearly streetlight, Tally could see tears shimmering in Neil’s eyes.

“How long have I known it wasn’t me? Or how long have I known there was a fire?”

“Chase…,” Amanda whispered.

“I finally remembered today that it wasn’t me who started it. I had to go to Alyssa’s gravesite to figure that out. And I’ve always known about the fire.”

Amanda leaned into Neil as she continued to cry and whisper Chase’s name.

“I…didn’t think you remembered,” Neil murmured. “I didn’t want you to remember. That day… that day was a nightmare. I’m sorry, Chase. I’m…”

Neil’s voice faded away, and he moved forward to embrace
his son as emotion overcame him. Her aunt leaned in over them and spread her arms. Tally wanted to give them privacy, but there was nowhere to go. She stood quietly with a blanket around her and waited.

“You went to Alyssa’s grave?” Amanda said.

“I couldn’t remember everything. And I needed to. I thought maybe I’d been the one… I had to know.”

“But you weren’t,” Amanda murmured.

“But I didn’t know. I thought it was me. And I know you thought it was me.”

Neil grimaced and looked away. Her uncle’s eyes were on the broken glass at his feet. He seemed unable to look away from the sparkling shards. “I thought I was protecting you, Chase.”

“We’re so sorry, Chase.” Amanda’s voice disappeared into a fresh sob. “Please forgive us! Please. Let us make it up to you. Please. Give us another chance, please?”

“Another chance,” Chase echoed softly.

“Please!”

He reached into his back pocket. “I’ve made some mistakes of my own. I took this money from the laundry room today, from your secret place, Mom. I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry.”

Amanda gasped at the folded money in Chase’s hand and then at her son. Tally saw her aunt’s face blanch, and she seemed to falter for a second, as if she might faint.

“I was going to put it back in the tin above the washer when I got home tonight,” Chase continued, his eyes never leaving his mother’s. “But the laundry room is gone. It’s all gone. It’s all ashes now.”

Amanda nodded slowly, her eyes still wide with fear and
astonishment. Tally looked at Chase, and he said nothing. Not even with his eyes. Her aunt surely thought she was having a silent conversation with only one person—Chase. And it was to stay that way.

“It doesn’t matter,” Neil was mumbling. “It doesn’t matter now.”

Chase extended the money toward his mother. But she shook her head. “I don’t want it back. I don’t.” She pushed the money back toward Chase. “I don’t want it back.” Her body seemed to relax as she moved the bills away from her, even as Chase’s seemed to tense.

She believed her secret was safe. Safe with her son, safe in the ashes. Chase’s shoulders seemed to sag just a bit at the whispering weight of it.

Tally stepped away from the three of them, sensing their need for privacy. As she moved, a sepia-tone photo fell from the pile she held in her hands. She bent to pick it up.

In the spill of streetlight, she saw in the photograph two women in woolen capes and nurses’ hats standing on the steps of a brick building. One was her great-grandmother. Tally recognized the face; it was the same as the woman in the wedding picture Amanda had shown her. The other woman in the photo had fair hair; Tally didn’t recognize her. The fair-haired girl had something affixed to her cape.

Tally peered closer.

It almost looked like a butterfly pin.

forty-two

A
manda stood at the base of the climbing structure in her classroom, her Sherwood Forest, and ran her hand along a smooth, latticed side. The reading tree was one of the first things Neil had made in the woodshop.

The tree was the only thing he’d made in the woodshop now left in her possession. The pie safe in the kitchen had been destroyed. Her sewing table. The coffee table in the living room was damaged beyond repair.

Everything else he’d made, he’d given away.

Neil hadn’t mentioned the woodshop, neither its loss nor the part it played in reshaping every moment of their lives since Saturday evening.

“The kids will miss it,” a voice said.

She turned.

Gary.

Amanda had been able to avoid being alone with Gary in the classroom all day. But the last student had left. An empty stillness permeated the room.

“I’m not taking it with me.” She turned back to the tree and gave it a loving stroke.

“I really didn’t think you’d come in today.”

Amanda leaned toward the tree. “I needed to see my students. I had to tell them myself that I was okay.”

“Are you?”

She turned from the tree and slowly walked back to her desk. “I’m getting there. The two-week break will help.”

“So you’re coming back.” He didn’t phrase it like a question.

Amanda looked up at him. Today he wore a Scooby Doo tie. Not one of her favorite cartoon characters. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Gary took a step toward her, and Amanda felt her muscles tense. “I’m asking for a transfer, Amanda. You can come back here if you want.”

“What did you say?”

“It makes the most sense. You have kids in this district. I don’t. And I don’t want to do to your marriage what I let my ex-wife do to mine. If I stay, I’d
want
to come between you and Neil. And I don’t want to want it.”

“I am really sorry—,” Amanda began, but Gary cut her off.

“Look, I let you get close. I wanted you to. I knew the risks far better than you did. It’s my fault.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Anyway, I am sorry about what happened Friday night. It’s not going to happen again.” Gary picked up his briefcase and coffee cup. It was like he couldn’t wait to be free of her.

“Wait. Where will you go?”

He shrugged. “There are plenty of schools that need long-term subs. I’m not worried.”

“I wish I knew what to say.”

He shook his head. “I don’t want you to say anything.”

“But you’ve been such a good…”

“Please. Don’t. Don’t say anything else.”

She closed her mouth. Gary slung the strap of his briefcase over his shoulder and switched off his computer monitor. He came around to her desk. “Chase is okay?”

“He and Neil have been talking. They went out for coffee last night and didn’t come back for two hours. I feel like maybe we’re becoming a family again.”

Again he slowly nodded. “And you’re going to rebuild?”

“We are. We’ll have to start over, from the foundation up. But the builder Neil has talked to said he can make it just the way it was. Better, even. There will be a smaller woodshop—much smaller—next to the garage from the backyard side.”

“A woodshop.”

“It’s not what you think, Gary. Anything can become what the old woodshop was to Neil. And we’re going in for marriage counseling, just like you told me we should.”

Gary stood silent for several seconds. Then he put out his hand. “Take care, Amanda. It was a pleasure to work with you. I really mean that.”

She hesitated, then took the hand offered to her and shook it.

Gary took a step toward the classroom door, and as he swung it open, one of the third-grade teachers stepped inside.

“Oh, hey, Gary,” the woman said, and then she spun around to face Amanda. “Amanda, I just got back from being out of town and heard what happened to your house! I’m so glad you are all okay! Do you need anything? Clothes? Shoes? Anything?”

“Thanks, Martha. I’m doing okay, but thanks.” Amanda looked up at Gary as he inched toward the now-open door.

“How did it happen? I heard someone say it was caused by lightning.”

“No. Not lightning. A mouse or rat chewed through the wiring on some electrical equipment, and it sparked on a pile of wood shavings. Neil is…was…had a woodshop in our garage. So there was a lot for the fire to feed on.”

“How scary. So you have a place to stay?”

“We’re in a hotel for a couple more days, and then we’ll be renting a condo a couple of miles from here. It’s furnished and really lovely. The kids are settling in okay, and we’ve got insurance money to buy new clothes. Delcey’s loving that. And Tally actually seems like she’s enjoying having new things.”

Martha cocked her head. “Tally?”

“My niece. She’s staying with us while my brother’s in… in Europe.”

“Oh. I didn’t even know you had a brother. Did you, Gary?” But Martha didn’t wait for him to answer. “What a crazy time to have a houseguest, huh?”

“You could say that.”

“So your whole house is gone? You lost everything?”

Gary tipped his chin toward her and began to walk away. He did not look back.

“Not everything,” she said.

forty-three

October 7

Pima County Human Services

Tucson, Arizona

Dear Mrs. Janvier,

Here is the second letter I phoned you about. Again, I appreciate your allowing me to open and read it. We are watching the Kolander house for your brother’s return, and I will contact you the moment he arrives. I did not read the other letter even though it is unsealed, since it is the letter your father wrote and has nothing to do with this situation. I just wanted you to know that.

Thanks for all your help with this. I know this all came at a difficult time with the loss of your house. Hope all is going well.

Nancy Fuentes

October 1

Hey, Tally-ho!

Guess what? You and I are spending Thanksgiving in Warsaw! I’m coming for you in a week or so, Tal, and we’ll get you all packed up and ready to go. Tried calling you a bunch of times, but your grandma must’ve changed her number and not told me. Or maybe she needs a little help with the bill. I’ll take care of that when I get there.

Now, I know I promised you a red Corvette and all, but we may have to wait on that. I haven’t found that box of jewelry and money that belonged to Grandpa. The first time I looked for it, I kind of got chased away by neighbors, who called the police. I came back a second time after I met Anya—she’s great. You’ll love her. And she told me to just go up to the owners and tell them what I wanted to do. So I did. Turns out they’re decent people who lost family in the war just like we did. They helped me look. We dug right where Grandpa said it would be. And we dug a few feet away from that place—in every direction. No dice. Sorry, Tal. But hey, I haven’t given up. These people, their name is Grocholski, have invited us—you and me—to come stay for a few weeks. The husband speaks very good English. The wife and Anya can sort of understand each other. Anya is from Ukraine. She went to school in London, though, so she sounds like the queen of England. She runs a ranch for orphaned and abandoned street children.