The Blackout

by K J Kalis

  When he clicked send, Connor hoped for a quick resolution. Something that could give him a glimmer of hope. Three days went by before anything happened. He came home from work that night, thinking about Bart when Janet met him at the door. “Hi! Did you have a good day?”

  “It was fine. I’m glad to be home.”

  Janet walked toward the kitchen. He could smell food cooking. “I’m glad you are here, too.” She pointed to a letter that was on the corner of the counter. “The mailman brought this to the door while you were at work. I had to sign for it.”

  Connor lifted it up. There were two green strips on the back of the envelope, separated by a blank space. Whoever had sent it requested a return delivery postcard. Certified mail. On the front was a printed label with his name on it. The return address was from someone he simply didn’t know. “Thanks. I’ll take a look at it after I eat.”

  Dinner was a torturous affair that night. He was distracted and had lost his appetite. Grace had come to the table ready to tell him all about the day she had at school and how they had learned to use penny whistles as part of her music classes. She scampered away from the table with the promise to play a song for him after she practiced some more.

  As soon as he could, he escaped to his office, the letter tucked into his notebook. He wondered if it was a response from Bart. As he shut the door, his stomach clenched. He didn’t want Janet to have any idea what was going on. She’d suffered too many disappointments because of him already.

  He stared at the envelope. It was white and made of heavy paper. Not the kind of envelope that you’d use to send a check to pay a bill. He stared at the return address. Pfeiffer was all it said with an address. There was a small round logo next to it. Connor couldn’t make out what it showed.

  After a few minutes of staring at the envelope, he put it down. He opened his email, hoping that he’d see something from Bart that said, “Good to hear from you. Yes, let’s get together and talk.” Or even something that said, “You’ll get a letter from my people. Let’s talk after that and see what we can work out.” There were no emails of the sort from Bart. No emails from him at all.

  Connor decided to open the letter. It was the next step on his journey whether or not he liked the answer. He unfolded the single page inside, made from the same thick paper that the envelope had been made from. “Dear Mr. Lewis... “ the letter started. Connor held the paper in his hands, his fingers pinching it, staring at the words. “I’m sorry to say that Mr. Walsh doesn’t have any recollection regarding the origination of the project that you mentioned. He wishes you luck in your future endeavors. Sincerely…” The letter ended after precisely five sentences.

  Connor folded the letter and replaced it in the envelope. A surge of fury drove up through his chest. He could barely breathe. The idea that he had was taken from him. Bart was going to act like Connor had no part in it. How could that be? Even the article he had sent to Bart said that Connor had started the project.

  The next morning, as soon as he could escape from yet another pointless meeting, Connor called the attorney again. He explained the letter he had gotten and read it to him over the phone. “As I said when we talked before, Connor, unless you have proof that it was your idea and Mr. Walsh took it, there’s little legal recourse.”

  “But I have my notebooks and the article...” Desperation was in Connor’s voice. He could hear it himself. He was sure the attorney could too.

  “I know this is frustrating. If you were going up against a small company, I’d say we might have a chance, but given Mr. Walsh’s connections, you have to understand that even if I went to court with what you have, they’d parade out ten attorneys to say that you fabricated your documents.”

  “Couldn’t you have the notebooks tested to show that I wrote them decades ago?”

  “We could, but your argument is lacking one key piece, which is a real problem.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You didn’t protect your concept.”

  The words hit Connor so hard he felt like he’d been punched in the gut. He didn’t know when he was in college that he would need to protect his ideas. What college kid knew that? He had been a fraternity guy, just trying to get through school. Maybe if he had come from a family with money and education, he would have.

  * * *

  Up ahead, Connor saw the last stop sign before his house. He slowed to a stop, hoping that the gas cans didn’t slosh all over the bed of the truck. He felt a burning inside of him. He knew that the anger was eating him alive, but he had already decided to use it to fuel him, to fuel his actions against Bart Walsh.

  Now he just had to wait for the right time.

  25

  Kat sat with Freddie Henderson in his office for a few more minutes telling him all she could remember about her conversation with Theresa. She glanced at her phone, realizing it had been hours since Mike had been taken to the hospital and even longer since Kat had reached out to her early in the morning. Her stomach clenched. She stood up, the anxiousness surging through her body. She hoped moving around would help.

  While Freddie was comparing the blue dots on the images that Kat had brought to him, Kat walked over to Freddie’s bookcase. It was full, and not of the types of books that she expected someone like Freddie to have with his casual, fun-loving nature. Kat stared at some of the titles: “Fire Protection Strategies for Wildfire Conservation,” “Techniques in Limiting Residential Exposures in Dry Climates,” and “Deployment Strategies for Expanse-Based Fires.” Kat glanced down further on the bookcase and saw a few knick-knacks — a signed baseball in a glass box, a picture of Freddie and a woman Kat guessed to be his mom and an old, beat-up baseball glove. Kat glanced up at the top shelf and saw a book on its side, “Wildfire Procedures and Policies.” The author’s last name was displayed on the spine: Henderson. She picked it up and flipped to the back of the book. Inside, there was a picture of someone that looked just like Freddie in a dress uniform. She held up the book, “Did you write this?”

  “That? Oh yeah.” Freddie looked back at the screen.

  Kat thumbed through the front of the book, reading some of the quotes, “This book is the bible of wildfires. The State of California has proudly adopted the policies and procedures recommended by Henderson as a way to save lives and property damage.” Kat scanned the rest of the page. There were comments from fire departments around the world, from places as far away as Australia.

  Freddie stood up from his desk. “Would you be up for a field trip? I’d like to show you something.”

  Kat raised her eyebrows. She had just met this arson investigator and now he wanted to take her somewhere? “Where are we going?”

  “I thought we should go take a look at those other two blue dots you found.”

  * * *

  The drive out to the next area where the blue dot had been marked on the screen only took about a half-hour. While they were driving, Kat sent a quick text to Van to let him know where she was and what was going on. “I’ll be home as soon as I can. Sitter is with Jack. She’ll wait until you get home.”

  “Have fun,” was the reply. Kat turned to look out the window, the landscape of dry shrubs and grasses passing by. One thing she really loved about Van was that he not only was happy to help with Jack, but he seemed to find real pleasure in seeing her investigate. Realistically, she knew that her work helped the paper and his job, but Kat had the feeling that even without the promotion, he would be more than happy to let her chase a story.

  She turned back toward Freddie, who was rolling the toothpick in his mouth, his brow furrowed. “You seem serious all of a sudden.”

  “Oh, that? Sorry, just thinking about where we are going.” He caught a quick look at the GPS that was mounted in the Cal Fire SUV. “Should be there in seven minutes, according to this readout.” He smiled, “Don’t know what we ever did without GPS. Super helpful in a smoky fire.”

  “Yeah, I’d imagine it can be hard to find your way.” Kat
thought back to the fire she had been at in Colorado. The smoke was so intense that no one could go in without an oxygen mask.

  “You have no idea. Out here, the smoke can get so thick that you might think you are going one direction and you end up going in the other. People can die that way. Not just people that live here, but firefighters too.” He patted the dashboard where the GPS display was housed. “I’m not a huge fan of all technology, but GPS gets my vote.” A smirk crawled across his face, “Don’t tell anyone, okay? Would ruin my reputation.”

  Kat laughed. “Of course not.” She decided to change the subject. “Can you tell me a little about the fire we are going to?”

  Freddie’s toothpick rolled to the other side of his mouth. “Sure enough. Wasn’t much of a fire. Burned up a couple of acres, the way I heard it told, and then burned out. That happens sometimes, especially if the people in the area have done a good job keeping their brush down. Though with these winds, I don’t think that will be happening much more.”

  “The Santa Ana winds?”

  “Yup. You aren’t originally from here, are you?”

  Kat shook her head no.

  “Me neither. I tell you, those winds are really something. Some days it feels like someone has just opened an oven door with the driest air you’ve ever felt.”

  “How does that cause the fires?”

  “It’s just as simple as it looks. Dry air comes down over the mountains and bakes scrub and grasses. It’s like a giant tinderbox. One little spark and it goes up. Once it does, then the winds do the job of literally fanning the flames.” He shook his head. “Amazing how fast it can move once it gets going.”

  Freddie turned the wheel of the SUV as the GPS told him to take a right-hand turn. “Remember how I told you that fire doesn’t like to travel down?”

  Kat nodded.

  “I think that’s what we are going to see at this site. It might have been too high to get the fire going, or there might not have been enough brush.”

  Kat felt the SUV slow down. As she looked out, she saw a police car sitting at the top of a street, its lights flashing. “Are we here?”

  “Yup. I had the local police department come and sit on this until we could get here.”

  The SUV stopped and Kat got out, the dry air pushing her hair into her face. She pulled a ponytail holder off her wrist and tied it up, so she could clearly see what Freddie wanted to show her. Behind the police car was another fire department truck, but not from Cal Fire. Kat guessed he was local. Freddie called out to the firefighter who was coming down a short hill that had been marked with “Fire Line — Do Not Cross” red plastic tape. “Chuck, what’s going on?”

  “Another Freddie special, if you ask me.”

  Kat smiled. The banter between the firefighters reminded her of the time she had spent in Afghanistan as an embedded journalist. Even in the worst circumstances, people who served seemed to be able to keep up their sense of humor.

  “Chuck, I brought someone with me so you are going to have to behave. This is Kat. She’s a reporter.”

  “Oh…” Chuck’s eyes got big. “You got yourself in trouble again, Freddie?”

  “Hardly. Kat brought us some really interesting information.” Freddie made quick introductions.

  Kat reached out to shake Chuck’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Nice to meet you, too.”

  Freddie opened the back of the SUV and pulled out a shovel. “Whatcha got for us?”

  Chuck shook his head, “Man, it looks a lot like what we saw this morning.” Chuck scampered down an embankment on the side of the road and then started up the hill, Freddie following. Kat trailed both of them.

  The hike up the hill didn’t take more than about three minutes. Kat followed the two men as they dodged brush and fallen trees to a spot that overlooked the road below. “It’s over here,” Chuck pointed.

  Just ahead, Kat could smell the scent of something smoldering. It smelled like wood, but there was another scent as well. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was. They rounded a corner and in front of them there was a shattered utility pole. Freddie stopped just in front of her, shielding his eyes from the sun that was low in the sky at that time of day. “What in God’s green earth is going on? Stay here,” he motioned to Kat. “Chuck, can you get an extinguisher? I want to make sure this doesn’t restart.” Chuck nodded.

  Kat stood by herself for a moment as Chuck went back to the truck. Freddie went closer to the scene. There was a fine trail of smoke rising from the ground. Within a minute, Chuck was back. Kat looked at him. He had dark hair and a fair amount of stubble on his face. He had on a fire department t-shirt with his regulation pants and boots held up by wide, red suspenders. “We saw something like this earlier today,” Chuck said. “Transformer got such a charge it blew right off the pole. Can’t say for sure — that’s up to Freddie — but this one looks the same to me.”

  “How long have you known Freddie?” Kat asked, trying to get a little background on what was going on.

  “A year or two. Everyone knows Freddie, though. I used his book in the academy.”

  Kat stopped. “The academy?”

  “Yeah, the Fire Academy. He’s kind of a legend.”

  Kat grinned. The lanky, red-haired investigator was a lot more complex than she had originally thought. “Why is he a legend?”

  Chuck frowned, “He didn’t tell you?”

  Kat shook her head no.

  “Just like him. He was injured in a fire. Couldn’t go back to work for a while. The Chief called him in to help out with the arson paperwork that was piling up. That’s when he found his real calling. Started doing all sorts of research on how fires get started and how we can fight them with the least amount of risk.” Chuck looked right at her. “When he got hurt, he and two other guys had a floor collapse under them. I think that’s why he’s so interested in making sure people don’t get hurt.”

  Kat rolled her wrist. She knew what it was like to hold on to memories that fueled your choices. They were silent for a minute. Kat realized that she hadn’t responded to Chuck. “I’m sorry, got distracted there for a moment.”

  “By your wrist?” Chuck squinted at her.

  “You guys notice everything, don’t you?”

  Chuck smiled. “Our lives kinda depend on it. Your wrist okay?”

  Kat shrugged and stuck her hand in her pocket. “Yeah, old injury.” Just as Kat was trying to figure out what to say next, Freddie called to them. “Chuck?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Think you are talented enough to get Kat over here in one piece?”

  “Yeah, gimme a sec. We’re coming.” Chuck looked at Kat. “I guess he’s got something he’d like you to see. Up for a little climbing?”

  “Sure.” Kat’s stomach fluttered. She knew she was in good shape, but she didn’t know if she could get to where Freddie was. It was a tangle of smoldering ground, rocks, fallen trees and scrub.

  Chuck led the way, stopping every few seconds to tell Kat where the surest footing was. Kat hadn’t anticipated how sandy the dirt was. Her boots slid a few times, but Chuck stuck his hand out to keep her steady.

  They found Freddie just below where what was left of the utility pole, hands on his hips. “You were right, Chuck. This looks a lot like what we saw this morning.” He turned to Kat. “So, this is the second of the three blue dots you showed me. We accidentally investigated one of them this morning.” He pointed to the landscape. “Kat, take note of a few things. First, you have the existing utility pole. The top has been shattered. That’s not normal. Down over there, you can see the transformer. Let’s walk that way.”

  Chuck helped Kat get down another embankment and then up a short incline to get to the equipment. “Don’t worry, the power’s off,” Chuck said, reaching his hand out to help her over a dead tree.

  “I’ve got it.”

  Chuck smiled. “I know you do, but if you fall, Freddie will have my hide.”

&nb
sp; “Firefighter chivalry?” Kat smiled, stepping over a pile of broken branches.

  “You could say that.”

  “Okay, you two, stop the chatter or I’m gonna have to separate you.” Freddie smiled, waiting for them.

  The transformer was bigger than Kat imagined. Probably at least four feet long and a couple of feet in diameter. There were coils and wires and connections attached to it. What they were for, she didn’t know. She stepped closer to take a better look. The equipment itself was sprawled on the ground, the bolts still attached to a piece of the pole. The power lines were about ten feet away on each side of the transformer. “How far do you think we are from the pole?” Kat asked.

  Freddie grimaced, “Probably twenty feet. Normally, a transformer that blows doesn’t come off the pole. If it did, it certainly wouldn’t fly twenty feet away from the pole even if we were in a hurricane. It’s just too heavy.”

  Kat chewed her lip, “What do you think happened to the lines?”

  Freddie sighed, “I don’t know. None of this is normal. Based on what I’m seeing, I’d guess something blew the transformer off the pole and took the lines with it. They likely snapped off during the initial incident. It would be like a bomb going off.”

  “You’ve never seen anything like this before?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why didn’t the fire catch?”

  Freddie stared at the ground for a moment. “It looks like the fire got started but didn’t have enough time to get going before it hit the decline. If it had a bit more time, it would have taken out the entire area. There’s a lot of dead trees up there that would have fueled it. Looks like we got lucky.”

  They stayed at the site for another couple of minutes. Kat took some pictures to show Van when she got home. Freddie had already taken his. Chuck sprayed down the remainder of the smoldering area with his extinguisher. The men helped Kat get back to the road, where the police car and the two fire department vehicles were still parked. Freddie opened the back of the SUV and replaced the shovel. “Chuck, can you do me a favor?”