Chapter 63

“Poor Phyllis,” said Jennalee. “I wonder what started it.”

“I don’t think they smoke,” offered Harley.

The fire engine took little care as it raced around to the back of the grounds. When it came charging down the winding path, it had the effect of unwinding it because such a large and urgent vehicle couldn’t be contained by a meandering roadway. Thus it crushed various shrubs and native plants, took out a couple lounge chairs, and careened through a bunch of inflated pool toys that had been gathered to dry out.

The crowd was pushed back by firemen who sprang from the truck while their brethren pulled hose from the back. Jennalee noted how neatly it unfolded but wondered where the water would come from. She mentioned this to Harley, who said the truck was a tanker and they’d use that, then run hose back to a pipe a couple buildings away if needed.

“Where’s that?” Jennalee asked.

“I don’t know. In the middle somewhere. It’s just this connection about a foot off the ground, a country kind of fireplug.”

“How do you know that?”

“Eight or nine years ago a brush fire got started at the base of the bluff and the same fire engine came out, hooked up, and put it out.”

“Wow,” offered Jennalee.

Wesley’s crew had now been pushed aside, their hoses turned off while the big boys set to work. A fireman’s ax made short work of the first Sutherland door, and two men wearing oxygen gear raced inside. Jennalee wondered how they could see in all that smoke. Just then a cop car screeched to a halt behind the crowd, and after it came an ambulance.

The only noise was that made by the fire and the firemen. Onlookers had gone silent, even Phyllis Sutherland, though she shook with silent sobs. Harley took Jennalee’s hand and held tight until a fireman rushed out with Noel Sutherland over his shoulder. He dropped the stricken man on the ground, where medical personnel set to work.

“My boy is in there!” screamed Phyllis, so the firemen rushed back in, leaving her to attempt to follow. Jane and Marian held her in a double embrace as minutes passed. Flames were nearly quelled, but hoses still sprayed water into the room. A fireman with an ax was on the roof now, chopping a hole. Dad will shit, thought Jennalee.

While the fireman was inside looking for the boy, others broke down the doors to the second and third rooms, and the man who’d chopped the first hole in the roof began on another. As they chopped away, the fireman who’d gone back inside came out empty-handed. Seeing him, Phyllis screamed and collapsed and Jane and Marian lowered her to the ground. They sat beside her, holding her hands

“There was nobody else in there,” the fireman said when he removed his mask. “Are you sure the boy was inside?”

“We were going to the pool, the boys and me, and Daniel said he wanted to ask Daddy to join us, so we went on and he went back. Then the fire came. Where else could he be?”

Medics now had Noel on a stretcher, oxygen mask over his face. “How’s my husband?” Phyllis asked.

“Appears to be no burns, just smoke inhalation, but that can be serious, so he’ll be transported. He was in the bathtub and that spared him the flames. We got here just in time.”

“But where’s my son?” Phyllis demanded.

“I suggest you look for him, ma’am. Where would he go?”

Hearing this, Harley stepped up. “We’ll look for him,” he said. “We’ll find him.”

“Oh, thank you, Harley.”

Harley grabbed Jennalee’s hand. “C’mon.”

As they started from the scene, Kendall Sutherland met them. “Let me help,” he said. “I know Daniel pretty well.”

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Harley asked him.

“Yeah.”

“What?” asked Jennalee.

“That Daniel set the fire.”

“Jeez,” she said.

“Let’s split up,” suggested Harley. “We’ll check the grounds, you check inside, all the public places. Meet back at the pool.”

“Deal,” said Kendall and he ran off.

Harley and Jennalee ran toward the manzanita grove at Jennalee’s suggestion, but once there, they found it unoccupied. “You think Daniel tried to kill his father?” she asked Harley.

“I do. It sounds like he made an excuse to go back, which may mean planning.”

“How about the bluff?” Jennalee said and Harley agreed. They hurried up but nobody was there either, nor in any other place they looked. At one point they heard motorcycles.

“Mom and Dad,” said Harley. “Wait till they see what’s happened.”

Once they’d scoured every outdoor nook and cranny they could find, they headed to the pool, where Kendall waited. “I found him,” said Kendall. “He’s in the storage closet in the Oak Room. He won’t come out.”

“Let’s go talk to him,” Harley said.