Welcome to Harmony (37 page)

Nothing happened. She pulled so hard she was airborne, but her weight wouldn’t take the tank down. It was old and rusty and used only to irrigate the garden and water the trees around. But it was still stronger than she was.

Reagan looked down the lane to the road. The trees were all on fire, shooting flames into the sky that looked miles high. She could feel the heat of it blistering her face already. The black cloud on the ground that Noah had described was crawling toward her like hungry fingers. He’d said that from a distance, you couldn’t see the flames on grass, all you see is a black cloud smoking its way across the ground.

“NO!”
she screamed. “You can’t have my home! I’m not giving it up.”

Reagan pulled the rope once more, then swore. “Hopeless,” she mumbled just as she saw the dog, still sitting in the pickup as if he wanted out of this place. Reagan ran for Noah’s truck. She tied the end of the rope to the bumper and jumped in. When she gunned the engine and threw it into gear, the truck shot straight into the chicken coop, sending boards and chickens flying. It also tumbled the tank behind her.

The tank tilted in slow motion for a few seconds, and then a waterfall flowed down. Water hit the ground like a tidal wave, flooding everything.

Reagan lowered her head against the steering wheel. If the water didn’t work, she’d lost. She’d lost everything.

HANK HEARD THE ALARM SOUND A MOMENT BEFORE HE SAW a ball of fire shoot into the air from a couple of miles away.

They’d gone over what to do a dozen times, and he’d prepared every one of his men to respond quickly. The trucks were headed toward the fire before the siren stopped screaming, and he was dressed in his gear and running.

When Hank jumped in his truck to follow, Alex climbed in the other side.

He hit eighty before he glanced over and asked, “Why not your cruiser?”

“This thing can go more places faster and I’m going with you. The major will take care of setting up road-blocks, and we’ve already started calling in surrounding help if needed.”

“But—”

Before he could say more, she added, “Noah called in the alarm. He was screaming so loud I could have probably heard him if I’d opened the window of my office. I could also hear the fire. He hung up before I could tell him to get away.”

“He knows to get back. I drilled that in his head the first day he came to train.”

They didn’t say another word as they raced down Lone Oak Road. Smoke thickened like fog, and Hank slowed as he moved toward the bright lights of the fire trucks flashing like beacons.

When he pulled up beside the trucks, he saw that the old trees lining the lane to the Truman place were all ablaze. His men were everywhere, letting the trees burn, but putting out any sparks that flew off and threatened the grass on the other side of the road.

Alex saw only the little cart Truman always drove around his place and her brother standing beside it. She jumped from the truck and ran toward him.

Hugging him wildly, she heard him groan. “You’re killing me, Alex. I’m going to have bruises on top of bruises.”

She pulled away as Hank reached them. “What happened, Noah?”

“We caught Andy Daily dumping a truckload of old washers in the ditch along Truman’s lane. They must have been filled with gas or something, because when his truck turned over trying to get out of the ditch, flames shot up like fireworks.”

He looked at his sister. “The old man and I started toward Daily, but there was no way we could get to him. Jeremiah must have known we wouldn’t have time to turn the cart around. He raced through the smoke to the road. Those trees shot up like huge matches. I swear, there was nothing we could have done for Andy.”

Hank yelled over his shoulder as he moved toward his men. “Andy wasn’t tossing old junk, he was setting a fire. He’s our arsonist.”

Alex had figured that out, too. Early this morning Major Cummings had reported that several of the closest fire departments didn’t get the emergency signal until hours after the canyon fire started. Andy Daily had manned the phones that morning. He hadn’t made the calls, even though he’d told the other dispatcher he would.

Alex radioed the major, filling in details as she patted her little brother. When she clicked off, Alex looked at Noah.

“Where’s Truman?”

“He’s over there yelling that the men should forget about the trees and go in to get Rea. She’s at the house. Every fireman here has already told him it’s impossible.”

“Will the fire reach her?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. She’s got a plan. Truman even said he told her a story about how his grandmother survived a prairie fire once by climbing in the root cellar and putting wet blankets over her. I just hope the old guy remembered to show Rea where the root cellar is.”

Alex made Noah sit down, then checked in again with the major. In what seemed like minutes they heard other sirens coming in. This time the calls went in immediately. Clifton Creek and Bailee were already sending men with police escorts.

She walked beside Hank when he passed. He went to his truck to get extra gloves. She didn’t speak; she just watched him. She needed to be near him.

Then he looked up at her, and for one moment she knew he was remembering their time together. “When this is over . . .”

“I’ll be waiting,” she answered, and then he was gone to do what had to be done and she stepped back into the role of sheriff.

By the time the fire began to crawl from the trees to the grass, a hundred men and six fire trucks stood by to fight. In an hour, there was nothing but smoke and ashes.

Hank loaded Alex, Noah, and Jeremiah into his truck and drove past the orchard, still standing. He crossed onto his land and stopped long enough to cut fence before he pulled around the apple trees and headed down the path toward Jeremiah’s house. No one said anything, but they all let out a long breath when they made out the shadow of the house in the distance.

“Better fix that fence before fall,” Jeremiah grumbled. “I don’t want your cattle crossing onto my land and eating apples.”

“I’ll do that,” Hank promised as he bumped his way over a plowed row and splattered mud for twenty feet when he pulled into the yard.

“Looks like it flooded,” Noah said. “Where’d all this water come from?”

“She downed the tank.” Jeremiah grinned. “That niece of mine is a smart girl.”

Reagan stepped out of the house just as they reached the steps, and she was smothered in hugs.

Everyone talked at once. No one was listening, but Hank didn’t think it mattered. He could feel a weight rising off his shoulders. It was over.

Jeremiah invited them in for supper, a slightly burned pot roast, but Hank and Alex begged off, knowing they still had a great deal of work to do.

As he circled Noah’s truck, half buried in what looked like the remains of a chicken coop, Hank saw the boy lean down to hold Reagan, and he noticed her pull away. A strange reaction from a friend, he thought, but they were just kids; they’d have years to figure it out. Hell, he was still working on it.

Alex must have noticed it, too, because she slid across the seat until their bodies touched from knee to shoulder. “I’m not an easy person to get along with,” she whispered,

“and I suspect I won’t be easy to love.”

“You’re not telling me a thing I don’t already know. I’ve loved you for years and I can testify it’s not easy.”

She kissed his neck, almost making him drive off the path. “My place when this is over?” she whispered.

“It may be late, but I’ll be there. And this time, baby, we’re not rushing anything. I’m taking all the time I need to show you how I feel about you.”

The fire this woman was starting in him was a slow burn that would take days to put out . . . maybe even a lifetime.

He didn’t touch her when they got out on Lone Oak Road. He didn’t dare. He wasn’t sure he could let her walk away if he did.

WHEN ALEX GOT BACK TO HER OFFICE, THE MAJOR WAS packing up. “We got him,” Alex said.

“The fire got him,” the major corrected. “I’d been watching him for two days. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something wasn’t right. I even ran a background check and only came up with one fact: He was bankrupt. But that wasn’t enough.”

“Why do you think he did it?” Alex asked.

“We’ll probably never know. I had my eye on Brad Rister first, thinking with the divorce and getting kicked off the fire department team, he had nothing to lose.” She shrugged, silently admitting her first hunch was wrong. “Hank called in to say Brad was out with the others fighting tonight, and from the looks of it he was sober. Willie Davis loved the excitement too much and went a little crazy during the fires, so I watched him, too. Once I met his uncle, Trooper Davis, I figured crazy ran in his family.”

Alex smiled. “You read people so well, you should move to Harmony.”

“I’ve got my twenty years in, I just might. But to be honest, I’m not a great judge of people when they’re not suspects at the scene. I can’t seem to tell the good ones from the bad ones when it comes to me. All my life I keep finding a prince that turns into a toad when I kiss him. Several years ago I gave up and decided to just do my job. Know of any knights in shining armor?”

“Nope, but I’ll keep my eyes open.” Alex liked the major. She helped Katherine load all her computers into her rental car. “Where next?”

“I have to go to Washington for hearings, and no one knows how long those will take. I’d far rather be out in the field working than talking about it. Maybe I’ll take some time off when I get back to Texas.”

“Good idea.” Alex hugged her, hoping that if the arson specialist were ever again to come to town it would be for a different reason.

After the major left, Alex looked over at the fire station and noticed that the trucks were still out. Which meant Hank was still at the site, probably waiting for everything to cool down so they could retrieve Andy’s body or what was left of it.

She remembered something Andy had said one night as he manned the emergency calls. He’d said, “Life without thrills and danger isn’t worth living. It’s oxygen in my blood. I have to have it or I’ll die.”

Alex wished he’d found another way to get those thrills. In the end, he probably didn’t want to hurt anyone. He was just after the buzz.

She stretched, realizing it was Saturday night and all she wanted to do was go home. The air was still tonight, and she thought she could smell rain in the wind.

Climbing into her Jeep, she took the long way home, wanting to avoid the mess on Lone Oak Road. She drove slowly, watching big white clouds roll across the evening sky. The country was so beautiful, it took her breath away sometimes. The openness of it. The way you felt everything around you was untouched.

A half hour later, she was in the shower when she heard someone call her name. Grabbing a towel, she stepped out, and there was Hank standing in her doorway making no attempt not to look.

MONDAY MORNING NOAH, STILL PATCHED AND BRUISED, came back to school.

Reagan tried to act like she hadn’t missed him terribly. Everyone wanted to talk to him. They wanted to relive his accident at the rodeo and hear all about how he saved the old Truman place from fire.