Against the Fire (10 page)

Gabe sat up, rubbing a hand over his face. He got up and hit the head, wide awake now and thinking how much better the night had been with Mattie in his bed. He was on his way back to bed, hoping he could return to sleep, when his cell phone started ringing.

He picked it up off the nightstand, figuring the news had to be bad for someone to call him at four in the morning.

“Raines.”

“Mr. Raines, this is Battalion Fire Chief Alonzo Santori. There’s a fire in an office building under construction over on McKinney. Your company name and phone number are on the sign out front.”

A knot of dread formed in his stomach. “We’re the contractor on the project. The owner is Wildcat Oil.”

“We’ve already called them. It looks like the damage is going to be extensive. We’d appreciate if you could come down here.”

“On my way.” Gabe closed the phone, the knot going tighter. Two fires in less than two weeks. He’d thought the first was just some nut who happened to pick the Towers. But the odds of a fire on another of his sites being unrelated to the first were slim and none. There was a very good chance he was the target in both cases.

Son of a bitch.

Gabe dressed quickly and headed for McKinney Court, or what was left of it. The building was only half finished, which he hoped meant no one was inside. But until he got there, he couldn’t know for sure.

Gabe pressed a little harder on the gas pedal, propelling the pickup through the dark, empty streets. All the way there, his mind kept running over the possibilities of who might want to ruin him.

Orange and red tongues of fire shot more than four stories into the black night sky. Flames roared like Satan’s breath out through broken windows and soared up through holes in the half-finished roof. Gabe pulled his pickup over to the curb and turned off the engine. For several long moments, he just sat there, his gaze fixed on the structure engulfed in flames.

Two hook-and-ladder trucks and four other fire units surrounded the building. Hoses stretched from hydrants on the street into the blazing interior. Firemen in full turnout gear hurried efficiently to whatever task they were assigned.

As Gabe climbed out of the pickup, the deep rumble of engines reached his ears, along with the sound of breaking glass and the roar of the flames. Cinders rained down on the pavement and the smell of greasy smoke singed the air.

From the corner of his eyes, something snagged his attention and he looked away from the blaze to a man walking toward him. Gabe recognized the salt-and-pepper hair.

“Thanks for coming down,” Captain Daily said.

Gabe glanced back toward the flames. “I guess the first fire wasn’t random after all,” he said darkly.

“We haven’t determined for certain whether or not this was arson. Till we’re sure, we can’t know if the two fires are connected. Between you and me, however, it’s likely they are.” Daily pulled a notepad out of his pocket and flipped open the cover. “I need to know, Gabe, if you have any enemies. Anyone who would go to these lengths for some kind of payback?”

Gabe shook his head. “On the way down here, I tried to think of someone I might have pissed off to this extent. I’ve got to tell you, I haven’t got a clue.”

“Any woman problems? An irate husband, someone whose wife or girlfriend you’re involved with who might not want you in the picture?”

“I haven’t been seeing anyone in particular for nearly six months and I don’t go for married women.” A night with Mattie hardly counted as a relationship. Besides, he hadn’t met her till after the fire in the Towers.

“How about business acquaintances? Maybe a competitor, or a subcontractor, someone you had a beef with over a job?”

Gabe thought immediately of Vance Gleason. Gleason Construction was his main competitor for work in the area. The two of them fought over contracts like a couple of Rottweilers but it was strictly business as far as Gabe knew. He couldn’t imagine Gleason burning down a building because he lost a contract to Gabe.

“I can tell you’re thinking of someone,” Daily said. “Who is it?”

“My competition, Vance Gleason, but I don’t think he would carry our business rivalry this far.”

Daily wrote down the name. “You’d be surprised what people will do. Anyone else?”

Gabe started to shake his head, then remembered a contractor he had fired about a month ago. “Guy named Pete Dare. He was doing the cement work on the Towers. I fired him when I found out he was using a cheaper grade of cement than we had agreed on.”

Daily made a note of the name. “Who else can you think of?”

God, if only he knew. “No one offhand. I’ll think about it, though, see who else I can come up with.”

“Is this project insured?”

Gabe nodded. “American Insurance.” He frowned. “If you’re thinking I’ve got something to gain from the fires, you’re way off base. I lose money on the deductible, lose some of my equipment, but the real loser is Wildcat Oil. Same with the Towers. Time is money. Until the lobby is finished, the building can’t be run efficiently. Here, Wildcat Oil can’t move in, which costs them money.”

Daily nodded. He made a few more notes. “I gather you didn’t have security cameras on this project, either.”

“I’ve never installed them until the work was completed. That’s a mistake I won’t make again.”

Daily made another note and looked up. “I need to talk to the person who called 9-1-1. Sometimes whoever sets the fire has a thing about calling it in. They like to watch the flames build, see the trucks arrive, that kind of thing. Let me know if you think of anything else.”

“I will.”

Another man walked up as Daily departed, olive-skinned and with a leonine mane of silver hair. “I’m Battalion Chief Alonzo Santori. I take it you’re Raines?”

“That’s right.”

“I saw you talking to Captain Daily.”

“He had a few questions for me.”

“I’ve got a few for you, too. To begin with, do you have any other projects in Dallas?”

His chest squeezed. “Actually, I do. Two others in this area.”

“Have you considered hiring security?”

Gabe raked a hand through his hair. The buildings were locked up at night. The equipment not being used inside was surrounded by a chain-link fence, the gate locked each evening. He’d been worried about theft. He had never considered anything like this. “Not until now. I’ll get on it first thing in the morning.” Which was only a few hours away.

“Be a wise move.”

Considering what had happened, crucial was a better word. “Will you let me know what the investigators find out?”

“We’ll keep you abreast of things as much as we can.”

“Thank you.” He figured Captain Daily had been exceptionally candid because of the favor Gabe had done his father. If the second fire was arson—and he was fairly sure it was—he wanted to know how both fires were started. He wanted to know if it was done by a professional torch or an amateur. From the looks of the flames licking into the sky, whoever set the second blaze had done a very thorough job.

As he watched the firemen gripping their heavy hoses, sweeping the building with dense sprays of water, he unclipped his cell phone and called Sam with the bad news.

“You ready to go to work?” Gabe asked as Sam’s sleepy voice came on the line.

“Actually, I’d planned on another hour of sleep. What’s up?”

“McKinney Court is turning into ashes as we speak.”

“What?”

“I’m there now. The fire has completely destroyed the building. We won’t be needing the crew today, at least not here.”

Sam sighed into the phone. “I’ll take care of it. I’ll call the guys and tell them what’s going on. Dammit, I can’t believe this.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.”

Gabe hung up the phone. He stayed until the fire was brought under control, which took well into the morning. By then, the news cameras were rolling. He kept mostly out of their way, checked to see if there was anything else the fire department needed from him, then headed over to the Greenwood Apartments site.

He needed to talk to Becky, tell her what had happened and arrange for around-the-clock security.

He thought of his projects, the theater in Deep Ellum, the Greenwood Apartments, and the warehouse he owned he hadn’t started remodeling yet. Unlike the first two fires, he owned those pieces of property himself. They were insured, but he would still lose a bundle of money. And there was always the chance of someone being hurt or even killed.

And he hated the thought of the beautiful old Egyptian being destroyed after all of the years it had managed to survive. To say nothing of the work everyone had done to restore it.

Gabe sighed as he turned off his engine, climbed out of the truck and headed for his office in the construction trailer.

Ten

Mattie sat at her kitchen table, sipping a cup of strong coffee, Tigger winding his way back and forth through her legs. She reached down and lifted the big cat into her lap, stroked his back and felt the soft rumble of a purr.

“Such a pretty kitty,” she cooed, nuzzling her nose in his deep yellow fur. “Mama’s sweet baby boy.” She hoped no one ever heard her talking to him the way she did. They would probably think she was crazy. But she loved animals and Tigger was her dearest companion. A playful rap-tap-tap sounded at the door and Tigger jumped out of her lap. Recognizing Tracy’s familiar knock, Mattie pulled her terry-cloth robe a little tighter around her and answered the door.

Tracy breezed past her. In a narrow brown skirt and turquoise silk blouse, her feet in a pair of expensive low-heeled pumps, typical business attire for Tracy, she waved a hand as she walked into the living room.

“I know it’s Saturday but I figured you’d be up. I wasn’t sure if you’d be home instead of at work, or over at the center.”

“It’s the weekend, remember?”

“Since when has that mattered?”

Touché, Mattie thought. “I worked late last night. I figured I’d give myself a break, though I am going over to the center this afternoon. What’s up?”

Tracy sailed toward the kitchen, went over to the coffeemaker and poured herself a cup.

“There’s half-and-half in the fridge,” Mattie said.

“Great. Thanks.”

“So what are you doing here? I thought you had a showing this morning.”

“I’ve always got an appointment. I just thought I’d drop by.” As she leaned into the fridge, grabbed the cream and poured it into her cup, she tossed back her straight blond hair. “I haven’t talked to you since Club Rio. I saw that hunk you left with. His friend said his name was Gabriel Raines. I’m dying to know what happened. Was he as yummy as he looked?”

Mattie returned to her chair at the kitchen table. Propping her elbows on the top, she cradled her coffee mug in her hands. “I don’t suppose I could convince you nothing happened.”

Tracy just smiled. “You could try, I guess. If you really don’t want to talk about it—”

“I don’t.”

“So something did happen! I knew it!” Mug in hand, Tracy hurried over to the table and sat down across from her. “Come on, tell me.”

“Let’s just say it was amazing and leave it at that.”

“Oh my God! I can’t believe it. You are sooo not into men. I want all the gory details.”

Mattie shook her head. “No way. You know me better than that.” She took a long sip of coffee and changed the subject. “So what about you? Anything exciting happen to you that night?”

Tracy stared into the creamy liquid in her cup. “Actually, yes and no.”

Mattie cocked an eyebrow. “Yes and no? That sounds interesting.”

“The friend your hunk sent over to tell me the two of you were leaving? His name is Sam McBride, and he’s, well, he’s pretty hunky himself.”

“Really? So I guess you took him home with you.” It was Tracy’s modus operandi. It wasn’t an every night occurrence, but if she liked a guy, she didn’t hesitate to have sex with him.

“I invited him over for a drink. I was attracted to him. I figured what the heck?”

“And…?”