Fire Born (Firehouse 343) (26 page)

“Martie?
Are you alright?”

Blinking, she looked up at Ronnie. “I… I’m sorry. That name is just very familiar to me,”
she
said haltingly. “I work with a man named Victor
Stillman
.”

“That’s it!” Ronnie exclaimed. “Kenny
Stillman
was his name. But surely it’s a coincidence. I don’t think you have anything to worry about—
Stillman’s
got to be a fairly common name.
”

Martie chuckled even though she did not truly feel the humor she forced into the sound.
“Of course.
I’m sorry—surely you’re right. It’s just I’ve had a weird morning and that
kinda
threw me another curve ball.”

“No problem. So tell me why you wanted to know about Jessica’s father?” Ronnie said.

Taking a breath to settle her nerves, Martie asked her, “First, would you classify Kenny as violent or vengeful?”

Ronnie frowned. “He was always very pleasant, at least in the beginning. It wasn’t until I refused to have an abortion that he ever showed he could be
mean
.” She paused and looked toward the window across the room. “When I told him I was keeping the baby, he yelled.
A lot.
Screamed about how he wasn’t going to let me ruin him with a brat he didn’t want
, because he already had all the kids he cared to have
. I said it was okay, because
I
wanted the baby. I didn’t need him. Of course he believed I did, because he had helped me get the apartment, and because he gave me money and gifts… But even though I struggled from time to time before I met him, I was supporting myself. And I’d say I’ve done a damn fine job of caring for Jessica on my own since leaving.”

She sighed then. “Kenny never laid a hand to me in violence, but yeah, I’d say he could be vengeful. Remember, he got me fired from the hotel by saying I’d been sleeping with guests in empty rooms. He took what money and jewelry and other things he’d given me as punishment for defying him. But even that
’s nothing, really. So
I guess I’d classify him as petty rather than vengeful. Why are you asking about him?”

“I apologize if it seems I’m beating around the bush,” Martie said. “It’s just that I’m trying to get a sense of his character. Based on the evidence I gathered, it… Well, it appears that you or Jessica
were
the intended victim in the fire.”

Ronnie visibly paled. She raised a hand to her mouth, covering it as she glanced toward the back of the apartment. “Me or Jessica?” sh
e asked as she lowered it
. “What makes you say that? I thought the fire started in another apartment?”

Martie waited until Ronnie looked back at her. “The fire actually started in several apartments—a trail of acetone, a highly flammable chemical, was poured and lit in every apartment that wasn’t occupied at that time of day. That suggests the person who did this had watch
ed the building for some time
to figure out who wouldn’t be home.”

“But that doesn’t mean me or
Jessy
were… How do you know it was supposed to be one of us?”

“Ronnie, nobody else who lived in that building was visited by an electrician recently. And the ceiling beam in Je
ssica’s room—
the one that
fell and killed Calvin Maynard—
it wasn’t just weakened by the fire. I have evidence proving the so-called electrician took a saw to that beam, all but guaranteeing it would be weak enough to break,” Martie explained.
“Whoever that man w
as, he wanted that beam to fall.
”

“I didn’t hear any sawing, but then it could be because Jess had the TV on in the living room kind of loud,” Ronnie told her. “Y
ou think Kenny might have done this?”

Shrugging, Martie said,
“I am not accusing him of anything at this point, but right now he’s our most likely suspect—unless you can thank of anyone else who might want to
cause
you or your daughter harm
?”

“No, nobody,” her hostess replied, shaking her head. “I swear
,
the only person I ever really pissed off in my life was Kenny. But God, I didn’t think he’d come after me or Jessica, not after all this time. I haven’t seen or heard from the man since I left!”

Ronnie pushed to her feet then and paced away. “If that man that came to the apartment the other day wasn’t a real electrician, that means Kenny—or someone else—hired him. He was there to spy on me and Jessica…”

She whirled back. “Oh my God, he knows where we are!”

Martie rose and walked to her. “Ro
nnie, please calm down. Kenny
can’t possibly know where you are right now
—he may know you’re in Gracechurch, but not where this apartment is
. I nearly had a fight with the nurses about getting the address
,
and I’m a cop.”

Ronnie blinked. “They didn’t want to give it to you?” she asked.

“No, they didn’t. Hospital pol
icy is strict about divulging
patient information,” Martie explained. “They’re not allowed to release your address to anyone but the police or your next of kin.”

Both women were startled then by the sound of someone knocking on the door. “I’ll get it for you. Why don’t you take a moment to calm yourself,
hmm?”

Ronnie nodded again and turned away from the door as Martie turned towar
d it. She looked through the peephole
to see a man holding one of those insulated bags pizza delivery men used to keep the pies warm. “It’s just your pizza,” she said over her shoulder and reached for the handle.

Upon her opening
the door
, the man on the other side muttered “Shit” and dropped the bag in his hand, raising a pistol and striking Martie across the forehead before she had time to react. Pain exploded from the point of impact and she stumbled backward, eliciting a gasp from Ronnie.

“Larry, what the hell are yo
u doing?!” was the last thing Martie
heard before she was hit again, causing her to black out.

“Captain, can we talk?”

Chris looked up from the papers before him, another personnel file from a firefighter hoping for a position at the new firehouse. This one he was strongly leaning toward offering one of the openings to—even though Jack
Galiotti
would be coming all the way from New York. His experience as a technical rescue firefighter could prove invaluable to the city.

He’d been about to pick up the phone and see if he could reach the man when Logan po
pped around the door
. “Sure, Airborne, what’s up?” he asked.

Logan stepped fully into the office, followed by Football, Terry, Rick, and
Tim Roberts, the volunteer who’d become their regular fill-in. Chris had a feeling he’d be offered a permanent place on B Shift once he and the others transferred to Firehouse 343.

“Consider this an intervention,” Football said.

Instantly, Chris felt annoyed that the first good mood he’d had in days was suddenly shot to hell. Frowning, he barked, “What the fuck makes you think I need one?”

“Because you’ve been an ass ever since Cal’s funeral,” Terry said bluntly.

“Big time,” Logan seconded, and Chris felt his frown drop into a scowl.

“I’m not in the mood for games,
fellas
,” he said, his tone sharp. “Either get to the point of this pathetic exercise or get out. I have
work
to do.”

“Dude, whatever happened between you and Martie, you
gotta
fix it,” Logan declared.

Anger shot through him and he fought to keep from lashing out. “Why should I fix it?” he retorted. “I didn’t break it.”

“What did she do that pissed you off so bad, Boss?” asked Tim.

Chris paused, and the others looked at one another
. “Boss” was what they’d all called Calvin. Tim was the first to address him
with that moniker.

Clearing his throat, he replied, “To put it plainly, something she shouldn’t have. Something that was completely unnecessary.”

Football shook his head. “If I’ve learned anything from being married, it’s that you
gotta
learn to forgive and forget, man.”

“Martie and I aren’t married, Football.”

“Doesn’t matter—where a woman is concerned, the advice is the same,” his friend replied. “Look, even I could see you really liked that girl. First time in a long time I seen you fall that fast—which surprised me, I’m not afraid to say, given the reason why you met in the first
place. But love is love, Chris, and being apart is killing you. You
gotta
work this out.
”

“I’m not—”
I’m not in love with her
, he’d been about to say. But even he knew that wasn’t true. He
was
in love with Martie, and probably had been from day one.

Which was why it had hurt so damn much when he found out she’d gone and run
that background check on him—why it felt like a
Halligan’s
pick had been
jammed through his heart
listen
ing to her accuse
him of attempting to commit murder whe
n he’d started the fire that
had
sent him to a j
uvenile detention center
for two years
. He had fallen for completely the wrong person
…again.
S
omeone who couldn’t be bothered to just ask him
about it.

Then again, Martie would never have known about the lowest point of his life if she hadn’t somehow convinced a judge to unseal his juvenile records. Not unless he’d volunteered the information, which he knew he’d have done at some point. It wasn’t like he’d been trying to hide it from her.

Before he could reformulate his response, the overhead speakers blared out a call.

“
Dispatch to City Fire—Engine 14.
Vehicle fire at 1095 Liberty Park Drive.
Respond Code 2
.”

“Fuck!” Chris shouted as he jumped out of his chair. “That’s where Kara used to live!”

He was through the door and in the locker room almost before the others could catch him. As Rick and Tim were hurrying into th
eir bunker pants at
their own
lockers
, Football reached over and put a firm hand on his shoulder. “Maybe you should sit this one out, Chris.”

Chris threw his hand off and jerked up his trousers. “No
fuckin
’ way. Kara’s family, and if she’s at the apartment with Ronnie and Jessica, I’m going.”

He’d told them all when he came on shift about
Karalyn’s
offer to let Ronnie and Jessica Thompson live in her apartment, now that she was back living in her childhood home. Each of the men had expressed pride in her generosity.

“That’s precisely why you should stay here at the station,” Foo
tball told him. “Because Kara’s
family.”

Chris reached for his jacket and helmet. “Only way you’re
gonna
stop me is to knock me out—and right now, taking a swing at me isn’t a very bright idea.”

Jamming his new white helmet on his head, he pushed past Football as he shrugged into his turnout coat and hurried out to the engine, Rick and Tim following close behind.
Rick beat him to the driver’s side, knowing that as the officer, his place was in the passenger seat coordinating with dispatch on the radio. The mike was in Chris’s hand as
soon as his ass was on the leather
, checking to make sure the police had evacuated the immediate area as Rick was pulling out of the station.

Witnesses, the dispatcher relayed, had reported that from what they c
ould see, nobody was in the car. It was also not parked right next to the building,
news that served to s
et him at ease a small fraction
.
However, someone
had
seen a suspect pour a liquid onto the car and throw a match, then jump into a white panel van
that took off at high speed. Chris interpreted that to mean that there was more than one person involved, else how had the van sped away so quickly?

He urged Rick to hurry. The Liberty Park apartment complex was in New Town. He knew that Kara had moved most of her belongings to the house over the last week, leaving her furniture and some dishes behind, which had come in handy when she decided to offer the apartment to Ronnie. 1095 was the building Kara had lived in, and Ronnie and Jessica were there now. More than likely (or so he hoped) the car fire had
nothing whatsoever to do with them. His gut, however, told him it could hardly be a coincidence that a car had been lit up on the very day the Thompsons moved in. He already knew
,
based on what Martie had told him about the evidence they’d gathered, that there was a strong possibility that Ronnie or Jessica—or both—were the intended targets in the
Breckon
Apartments fire. So was this a warning that the arsonist wasn’t finished with them yet?