Burn Out

BURN OUT

by Traci Hohenstein

Burn Out

Traci Hohenstein

Published by Traci Hohenstein at
Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Traci
Hohenstein

This book is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the
author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is
entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved, including the
right to produce this, or portions thereof, in any form. No part of
this text should be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded,
decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any
information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any
means, whether electronic or mechanical without the written express
permission of the author. The scanning, uploading, and distribution
of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the
permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law.
Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not
participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted
materials.

Edited by: Lisa Hazard

Cover art: Jeroen ten Berge

Formatting and layout: Nicholas J.
Ambrose

Please visit author at

www.msthriller.wordpress.com

Smashwords Edition, License
Notes

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following
people who helped make this book possible. To all my first readers
for their invaluable insight and critiques of this novel: Carl
Hohenstein, Shirley Satterfield, Michelle Couch, Stephanie
Roessler, Lisa Abrams-Morris, Leann Thompson, and Sheila
Pennington. Thanks to Suzette Breland for your expert legal advice
and for graciously letting me use your name. Jeroen Ten Berge for
the brilliant cover art and Lisa Hazard for your awesome editing
skills.

Authors note: Santa Rosa Beach is a
real town. It is a place where I proudly live and play. We are home
to the world’s most beautiful beaches. However, the police and fire
department are fictionally named in this novel. Some places are
real, like the Donut Hole, and some are a figment of my
imagination.

To my husband,

Carl Hohenstein,

and all the
firefighters

at South Walton Fire
Department

Samantha Collin’s
story

Santa Rosa Beach, FL
Thursday 6:36 PM

Just breathe. Stay
focused.
I said the mantra over and over to
calm myself. This wasn’t my first fire, but my heart still beat a
thousand beats a minute as I made my way through flames so vivid I
thought I was in hell.

I crawled along the hallway gripping
the fire hose tightly. The smoke was so thick I couldn’t see past
my gloves. I led my crew towards the rear of the building where the
victim was last seen.

The angry, orange flames danced up the
walls and I could feel the intensity of the heat, even through my
protective gear. We should be getting really close. I thought back
to what little information dispatch had given us about the
fire.

When the call came into the station
fifteen minutes earlier, I thought it would be a small fire. Quick,
get in, get out. But this was a doozy. Campbell’s Farmers Market
was totally engulfed in flames when we arrived. According to
dispatch, the owner’s son was last seen in his office at the
warehouse.

I pictured the layout of the market in
my head. I’d been to Campbell’s many times to buy fresh fruits and
vegetables for my family. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine
I would be crawling on my hands and knees in the dark trying to
find my way around.

Moving through the dense smoke, I lead
the crew to the office which was supposed to be straight ahead. My
knees ached badly and I desperately wanted to stop and take a
break. But I knew every second counted when a person was
missing.

At last I found what I thought was the
door to the office. I stopped and felt the door before pushing it
open. The smoke was not as heavy in here as it was on the main
floor. I slowly made my way around the office and motioned to Kevin
and Mack, the guys on my crew, to look around the desk. I felt
around the floor and found something hard near the back of the
door. I called out to Mack and showed him the body. “Command.
Occupant located. We’re heading out. Conditions are worsening,” I
spoke into the radio.

Mack and Kevin carried him
out while I followed close behind holding the line. I heard a loud
noise and turned around to look. It was hard to see with all of the
heavy smoke, but in the distance I saw a sliver of light.
What the hell was that
?

When we got within a few
feet of the front door, I noticed something was out of place. At
first, I thought my eyes were deceiving me.
Was that someone standing in the distance
?

I needed to get closer to get a better
look. It was now or never. I checked to see if the crew and victim
were safely outside. When I turned back around, I saw a figure
heading towards the rear of the building. I knew it was against
protocol, but I made a split second decision to follow. I made my
way back through heavy smoke. The air tank suddenly beeped, sending
out a signal I was running low.

I could barely make out who it was,
but as I got closer I realized the person had firefighter gear on.
I quickened my pace, bumping into furniture and equipment trying to
catch up. I tripped over something and landed hard on my side.
Within a couple of minutes I heard the frantic call through my
radio.

“
Mayday!” Command called in
a desperate tone. “One firefighter unaccounted for.
Mayday!”

My last thought was of Bella and
Gracie, my sweet little girls, before the roof collapsed into a
fiery crash all around me.

Miami, FL Monday 8:30
AM

The office for Florida Omni Search was
located a block off the beach in Miami. Rachel Scott, the founder
of the company, had converted an old souvenir shop into their
office.

She walked through the door juggling
her briefcase with one hand, and three coffees and a bag of bagels
in the other. “Good morning, everyone,” Rachel said with a smile.
She dropped everything onto the reception desk.

“
Coffee. You’re my savior,”
said Janine.

“
Good morning, Ms. Scott,”
Red Cooper said as he reached into the white bakery bag and pulled
out a bagel.

“
I forgot to pick up a new
coffee maker this weekend. I was too busy doing nothing,” Rachel
said.

“
I don’t blame you. After
the hellish month we’ve had, you deserved a break,” Janine
said.

Janine Jensen was the co-founder of
Florida Omni Search and Rachel’s closest friend. She was a few
years older than Rachel and wore her wavy hair shoulder-length. She
had a hippie look and favored long skirts with flip-flops year
‘round.

Rachel had been travelling the last
month on two back-to-back difficult searches for missing people. It
kept her mind busy and her karma bank account full.

“
Anything come in over the
weekend?” Rachel inquired. She took a sip of her caramel flavored
latte, savoring the sweet taste and the hit of caffeine.

Florida Omni Search was a search and
rescue company which specialized in finding missing people. It was
a non-profit organization that was manned twenty-four hours a day,
seven days a week. The toll- free hotline was run by volunteers.
They took calls from law enforcement agencies and family members
requesting assistance in finding missing persons.

“
We only had a couple of
calls. One was for a runaway teen from Orlando, but she was found
safe and sound with her boyfriend. They were found at a hotel about
an hour away from home. The other call you may want to look at. A
firefighter was reported missing from Santa Rosa Beach,” Red said
while looking at the call log.

Red Cooper was her top investigator at
Florida Omni Search. His real name was Winston, but he earned the
nickname Red during his childhood because of his thick, curly red
hair. These days Red was short, beefy and bald. He was also an
ex-cop from Miami PD, divorced three times, no kids, and an avid
collector of Harley Davidson motorcycles. He ran Cooper
Investigations out of the Florida Omni Search offices and in
exchange for free rent, worked on all of Rachel’s cases when she
needed assistance. He was a jack of all trades – background checks,
surveillance, and sometimes, body guard. Rachel had known Red for a
long time and trusted him with her life.

“
Santa Rosa Beach is up in
the North Florida Panhandle right? Near Panama City
Beach?”

“
Yes. It’s about a twelve
hour drive from here.”

“
Who called it in?” Rachel
asked while flipping through the call log. Most calls were routine.
Runaway teenagers usually topped the list, followed by adults who
were thought to be missing, but turned up a couple days later. Some
calls were from law enforcement agencies. It wasn’t uncommon for
the FBI or other agencies to request assistance. She worked with
some pretty high profile cases and had sophisticated equipment most
agencies didn’t have the budget for.

“
This came in from the
missing firefighter’s mother. According to her, the daughter was on
duty when a call came in for a warehouse fire. She went into the
building with her crew to search for a victim and during the
rescue, she disappeared. The roof collapsed and she was presumed
dead,” Red told her. “But here is the kicker. Her body was never
found.”

“
When did this
happen?”

“
The fire was Thursday
evening. The firefighter’s mom, Nora, called us on Sunday. There is
a little more to the story and I think you should hear it from
her,” Red said as he handed her the number.

“
Here’s to a busy morning!”
Janine said, raising her coffee cup.

“
Enjoy. I’ll be in my
office,” Rachel said.

Rachel’s office was covered with
artwork and letters from children of family members she helped
find. She found artwork motivated her more than any other
motivational poster – like the ones she had in her former real
estate office.

She had come a long way from the days
when she was a Miami socialite and real estate mogul. Back then,
her days were filled with multi-million dollar business deals,
nightly parties and shopping. She was always dressed to the nines
in outfits such as Dolce and Gabbana, Tori Burch, and Gucci. She
had weekly manicures and facials, and visits to the hair salon. It
had cost thousands of dollars a month to maintain her
lifestyle.

It took the disappearance of her
three-year-old daughter Mallory to change all that. The day she
vanished was the day Rachel’s life changed forever.

Rachel replayed the morning Mallory
disappeared. Just like she did every day. That day was hectic. The
nanny who normally cared for Mallory called in sick. Rachel was
trying to close a big real estate deal which involved a commercial
piece of property. If it closed successfully she would net a ninety
thousand dollar commission. Her husband Rick owned several luxury
car dealerships throughout Florida and was on his way out of
town.

After breakfast, she quickly got
Mallory dressed. Mallory insisted on wearing her princess costume
complete with tiara and little high- heeled shoes. Everyone always
told Rachel that Mallory looked like a miniature Little Mermaid
with her long curly red hair and bigger-than-life emerald green
eyes. It was a beautiful day so she took Mallory outside to play.
While Mallory was playing with her dolls on the front lawn, Rachel
sat on the porch crunching numbers, trying to find a way to save
the deal.