Blaze (A Stone Mountain Mystery Book 2)

by Kristina Stanley

  The back of her neck was damp, and she used a scrunchy to group her auburn hair into a thick ponytail. She glanced at her home, jumped in her Jeep and reversed out of her driveway. She didn’t want to leave Chica behind, but Nora needed her. Nora Cummings was twenty, single and pregnant with her first child.

  She dialed Ben’s number.

  “Did you find Chica?” he asked.

  “No, I’m on my way to Nora’s.”

  “What for? You need to get on the highway. It could close any minute. Tell Nora to get out of there too.”

  “I can’t. Her water broke. She needs help.”

  “Okay, but be quick. We’ve got no one to send to you.”

  Kalin sped along the unpaved section of Black Bear Drive until she reached Nora’s and found her waiting at the end of her driveway. Nora got in the Jeep, and Kalin sped off.

  The tires slipped on loose gravel and shot rocks out to the sides. Nora, strapped into the front passenger seat, bounced each time the Jeep hit a rut.

  Kalin kept watch for Chica, willing her into her sight. She clutched the wheel and struggled to keep her eyes on the road and away from the orange glow shimmering over the area where Ben fought the fire. The air was thick and hard to breathe, and smoke stung her eyes to tears.

  “You okay?” Kalin asked.

  Nora stretched the top of her maternity yoga pants away from her belly. “Yes. No. Even the slightest pressure hurts right now.”

  Kalin reached the paved section of the road and picked up speed. The Jeep flew over a speed bump, and the rear tires thumped against the metal frame.

  Nora groaned and held her belly with both hands. “Slow down.”

  Kalin eased her foot off the gas pedal. The high-end ski chalets sat empty in the deserted resort, awaiting their fate. The house she lived in with Ben backed onto Crown land. Without a barrier to stop a forest fire from leveling them, the houses lining Black Bear Drive were at the mercy of the wind, and the wind was fickle.

  Powerful people—lawyers, doctors and developers—owned the chalets, but their power could do nothing to save their vacation homes.

  The previous January, Kalin and Ben hired a contractor to build a single-family home. The builder erected the frame two days before the fire started. Their lot was in the center of the blaze, and she didn’t know if the builder’s insurance covered damage by forest fire, especially if her place was the target of arson.

  Ashes and embers landed on the windshield, propelled from the trees and fire by the wind. A branch thudded off the Jeep’s hood and scraped over the roof, landing somewhere on the road behind them. Kalin swerved, a useless reaction after the branch hit them, and the Jeep scraped a tree on the side of the road. She checked Nora. Nora’s face paled, but she didn’t say anything.

  A wall of smoke hid the view of the valley. The highway to Holden disappeared behind the grey screen. Kalin stopped the Jeep and called Ben. “What do we do?”

  “The fire’s crossed the highway. If no trees have fallen you might make it, but it’s too risky. You have to turn around.”

  The urgency in Ben’s voice frightened her. “Turn around to where? Nora’s in labor. She needs to get to the hospital.”

  “Any idea how long she has?”

  “Not a clue.” Nora huffed and puffed beside her. Labor induced sweat poured off Nora’s forehead, and her normally out of control hair stuck to her scalp. She boosted the air conditioning. The bump protruding from Nora’s waif-like frame took up more space than the rest of her. Kalin had the dreadful thought small women had difficult births, and she knew nothing about delivering a baby.

  “Don’t panic. The helicopters are picking up water at Silver Lake. Head there,” Ben said.

  “But the hike from the end of the road to the lake takes an hour. It’ll take longer with the shape Nora’s in. Can’t you get a helicopter to land on the golf course?”

  “Hang on. Let me check.”

  Minutes later, Ben came back with bad news. “The wind’s too strong, and the fire’s burning along both sides of the course.”

  “Can you get here?” Kalin knew the answer before she finished the question, but she had to ask.

  “I can’t. I’m on the other side of the fire. Silver Lake is your best option. I’ll tell the heli-tanker crew you’re coming.”

  Ben was right. If they got trapped on the highway, smoke inhalation could kill them. She had to turn around. It was time she listened to him. She leaned over and checked out Nora’s footwear. Flip-flops. Not good. “Do you think you can hike from the end of the highway to Silver Lake?”

  CHAPTER TWO

  The water gushed faster than it could penetrate the soil, and the snowmaking sprinklers created a lake in front of the hotel closest to the Alpine Tracks ski run. Once Ben and Jason were sure the water would continue to flow, they took off toward the lower village.

  Ben’s arm muscles ached from lifting the heavy equipment, but he didn’t have time to stretch. Their full regalia made running hot. Both men wore Nomex coveralls over long sleeve shirts. Hiking boots, helmets with fireproof cloth to protect the neck and leather work gloves completed the forest fire fighting uniform. Smoke-filled air burned his lungs, but he didn’t slow down.

  They arrived at the lower village just as the firefighters lost the battle for the conference center. The firefighters retreated deeper into the village. Unbelievably, the building they planned to get married in was the first to burn. Some wedding.

  The fire chief brought extra structural uniforms to the site. With the team of men and women switching between fighting the forest fire and fighting structural fires, he was prepared with turnouts for both types.

  Ben and Jason donned mustard colored pants and jackets on top of their coveralls.

  A row of twenty-five condos, built in the sixties and not to modern fire code, lined the outer road. Each three-story block contained four units, and each block was separated by a mere three-meter gap. The flames spread across the park that connected the conference center to the lower village, jumping from one tree to the next. A child’s play structure collapsed with a thud. The acrid smell of burning plastic rose above the burning wood, but only for a moment.

  The fire trucks repositioned and sprayed the first row of condos. The draw on the fire hydrants overwhelmed the system, and the team struggled to get full pressure. Water, three inches deep, filled the roads, flooding basements of the houses located at a lower altitude, adding water damage to the fire damage.

  The flames moved forward and reached the first condo in the row. The low pressure from the hoses wasn’t enough, and the fire engulfed the condo. The wind pushed the flames in the direction of the next unit.

  In a nervous gesture, Ben rubbed the scar that ran underneath his chin. “Let’s check the inside of the second condo. Maybe we can get a hose through the adjoining wall and stop the flames from jumping sideways.”

  Before snapping his breathing apparatus over his mouth, he called Kalin and left her another voicemail. They’d been out of touch for too long.

  Using the over-the-head method, Ben settled an SCBA unit on his back and tightened the waist strap. He placed his face piece over his head harness. He lowered a fire resistant balaclava over his visor, making sure the cloth didn’t interfere with his vision. Once his helmet was in place and buckled, Jason did a buddy check, looking for exposed skin. When Jason was ready, Ben checked his equipment too.

  They both turned on their individual Sentinal Systems. The on-board computer was attached to a high-pressure line of the cylinder and gave readings for air pressure, ambient temperature and airtime remaining. The man-down alarm was set to trigger after twenty-seconds of no movement.

  Ben took a deep breath to activate the air.

  Jason followed Ben into the condo. Between them they carried a hose, an axe and a pike pole. The flames candled the outer wall, fluttering inches below the eavestrough. Ben thought about Jason following behind him. Although smart, Jason didn’t have any significa
nt hands-on firefighting experience and Ben was responsible for his safety. I won’t let him down.

  They needed to find the hidden attic space shown on the building plans and maybe get access to the next unit and to the flames that burned within.

  Ben ran up the stairs toward the third floor with Jason tight on his heels. He paid attention to what each step felt like underfoot, trying to determine if any were soft or spongy, testing for any indication the stairs had been compromised by fire underneath. He searched for smoke accumulating in the stairway or in the room above. Smoke contained toxic, explosive gases. Smoke could indicate a breach in the closest wall. Smoke made his adrenaline surge.

  “Keep alert. Anything that looks bad or unusual, tell me.” Ben spoke to Jason but was thinking about Kalin. He wanted to see her. She had to be safe. Sending her to Silver Lake better have been the right thing to do. He handed Jason the axe and pointed. “Cut a hole in the wall there and give us an access point for the hose.”

  Jason swung the axe hard and removed the outer layer of the wall. Instead of breaking through with the next swing, the edge of the axe buried into a wooden partition. He struggled to free the blade, yanking the handle several times before the metal unstuck. Unlucky for them, the partition was not a firebreak but probably part of some early renovation to the building. The thick partition kept Ben and Jason from getting water to the fire.

  Jason raised the axe and swung again. Five swings later, they had their hole.

  Ben put his hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Hang on. I hear something.” He listened for a moment and heard the noise a second time. He pointed behind a couch. “There.”

  He crouched and found a white kitten tucked close to the wall. The furry bundle made him think of Chica. He couldn’t worry about her now. He needed to focus. He lifted the kitten and stood to face Jason.

  “What are you going to do with it?”

  Ben radioed they needed someone to get the kitten, then with care tucked the tiny creature into his outer pocket.

  They shoved the hose through the hole, but the water didn’t reach the fire.

  “We need a better angle,” Ben said.

  With panic in his eyes, Jason backed away from Ben and stopped at the top of the staircase. “The floor feels wrong.”

  Ben stepped toward Jason just as the floor between them disappeared. A four-by-four post crashed beside Ben. It stuck between the floor he’d been standing on and the top of the staircase, creating a platform. He toppled and grabbed onto the post. He hung from his arms. His legs swung into empty air above the three-story drop.

  Jason pressed the button on his air horn, and three long blasts screamed for help. He flattened on his stomach and reached for Ben. “Try not to swing.”

  With gloves on, it was difficult to maintain his grip. Ben couldn’t settle the swinging without using his hands. He glanced between his dangling feet at the burning debris below and wished he hadn’t.

  Jason stretched toward Ben. “Can you work your way to me?”

  Ben’s breath came in quick bursts. His helmet forced his head away from the four-by-four, pinning his neck against his shoulder. He tried to shift toward Jason but couldn’t make his arms move. They were locked.

  Twenty-seconds passed, triggering Jason’s man-down alarm. “Come on, Ben. You can do this. I’m right here.”

  The heat rushing from the ground floor reached Ben. He heard Jason’s voice but couldn’t do as he asked.

  Jason wiggled onto the post, far enough to reach Ben. He grabbed Ben’s nearest arm and forced him to slide his hand along the wood. He did the same with the other arm.

  The pressure on the inner side of Ben’s elbow was almost unbearable, tempting him to let go.

  Jason slid backward and repeated the process.

  The kitten meowed.

  Ben stared at the floor below.

  “Don’t look down. Look at me,” Jason said.

  * * *

  Kalin parked at the entrance to the Silver Lake trail, and the empty lot told her they were alone. She stepped out of the Jeep, glad the dense smoke and heat from the fire hadn’t reached them. She hoisted her backpack from the backseat and shoved in bottles of water and energy bars. In case the baby arrived before they reached the hospital, Kalin looped Chica’s blanket through the pack’s straps. The first-aid kit, air horn and bear spray were already in the pack.

  Nora waddled to the back of the Jeep with her belly announcing itself first when she rounded the rear fender. Her flip-flops slapped against her heels.

  “We have to do something about your shoes,” Kalin said.

  “My feet are swollen. I can’t wear anything else.”

  Kalin removed a pair of Ben’s old hiking boots from the floor of the back seat and passed them to Nora.

  Nora took the boots and examined them. “I’m a size six. These won’t fit.”

  “I don’t have any socks for you, but the boots will be better than what you’re wearing. They’re a men’s eight.” Kalin caught the look of surprise in Nora’s green eyes. “He has small feet.” She led Nora to a log and helped her put on the boots.

  “We’ll be okay.” Kalin was unsure whether she was trying to reassure herself or Nora. She tried to call Ben, but her cell wouldn’t connect. She squashed her need to hear his voice, to know he was safe. Ben would put himself in danger before others, and that scared her.

  Nora’s baby was about to increase the world’s population by one, and there was still the question of who the father was, but a little DNA testing would solve that mystery. Possibility one was dead. Possibility two didn’t want to be a father. Not good choices. Kalin had promised Nora she would be there when the baby was born. They’d planned for Kalin to pick Nora up and take her to the hospital when the time came. They hadn’t planned on a fire.

  “Let’s go,” she said.

  They entered the trail, and wind howled through the trees, sounding like fast rain on a tin roof, except they weren’t getting the rain they needed. Lodge-pole pines swayed, keeping time with the wind. The pine beetle had killed over half the trees in the area, making them ripe for ignition, and small branches and twigs clattered to the ground around them.

  The intense odor of smoke, reminiscent of a large campfire, covered any other smells the forest produced. Kalin didn’t think the fire was close enough to be a threat, even if the wind changed direction, but she couldn’t stop an icicle of fear from dripping down her spine.

  It was June, and Silver Lake would be cold enough to cause hypothermia after only minutes in the water. The empty shoreline offered nothing in the way of shelter, and they couldn’t take refuge in the glacial fed lake if the fire trapped them.

  Kalin stopped without warning and stifled a scream. Nora bumped into her back.

  In the middle of the path, stood a grizzly bear.

  “What are you doing?” Nora asked.

  Kalin stood tall in front of Nora. At five-foot-ten, she towered over Nora’s five-foot-one frame and could hide her from the bear. “There’s a grizzly.”

  The wildlife, instinctively getting away from the fire, traveled in the same direction as Kalin and Nora.

  Nora gasped and doubled over. Her knees buckled, and she dropped to the ground. Kalin held her position between Nora and the bear. She avoided looking in the bear’s eyes. “It’s okay,” she said in a calm voice. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” She knew what she was supposed to do. She wanted the bear to hear her voice and know she wasn’t prey. She wanted not to be there. She wanted Nora to stop having a contraction.

  Nora screamed from the pain. Shushed by Kalin, she bit her lip, and a drop of blood bubbled on her skin.

  “You need to make yourself look big.”

  Nora patted her stomach and surprised Kalin with a laugh. “How can I possibly look any bigger?”

  Kalin stretched her arms over her head, holding them high to increase her size. The bear edged forward and grunted. Would she have the courage to hold still if the bear charged? The griz
zly yawned, pawed the ground and lumbered its head from side to side.

  “Go away,” Kalin said.

  The bear’s ears twitched.

  “Go away,” she repeated.

  The bear slowly turned its back to them and headed out of sight.

  “Now what?” Nora’s eyes followed the direction the grizzly had taken along the path to Silver Lake, the same path they needed to follow.

  “We have to keep going. Can you stand?” Kalin reached for Nora’s shaking hands and pulled her to her feet.

  Nora leaned her head on Kalin’s shoulder, and her sweat dampened Kalin’s T-shirt. “I don’t want to follow the bear.”

  “I know, but we have no choice. We’ll be fine.”

  Tears ran down Nora’s cheeks. “I’m sorry. If it wasn’t for me, you’d be off the mountain.”

  “It’s not your fault. I was already too late. I went looking for Chica. At least we’re together. I couldn’t stand being out here alone.”

  They walked single file along the trail, and Nora tucked her fingers inside the back of Kalin’s belt, using Kalin to help with her balance, while Kalin watched for the bear.

  “Do you think it’ll come back?”

  Kalin had no idea, but said, “No,” with more confidence than she felt. She wanted to call Ben and find out if there would be a helicopter waiting for them, but they were still out of cell range. Some wedding day this turned out to be. The fire started two days before the wedding, and her parents had postponed their flights, waiting for the go ahead from her. She’d tried to get her estranged brother to make an appearance, but he’d refused.

  Kalin’s stress level rose with each slow step. She didn’t have the heart to force Nora to walk faster.

  “We’ll make it,” she said, and Nora clenched Kalin’s belt tighter, causing the leather edge to cut into her stomach.

  Halfway to the lake, Nora sat. “I have to rest. I’m sorry.”