by Deb Kastner
He was more worried about the structure of the old farmhouse itself and the way its loss would affect the family. The Salingers must be terrified and heartbroken as they watched their home burn to the ground. Ben sent up a quick prayer thanking God for the Salingers’ safety and asked Him to watch over them and comfort them in their time of need.
Vee was standing near the back of the fire truck just ahead of him, her right arm looped around a spit-shined silver handle made exactly for that purpose. Her face looked serious underneath the wide width of her helmet. Her brow was low and her jaw was set. As always, the woman meant business.
Ben gripped the steering wheel harder. He had the eeriest feeling that she was looking directly at him. That there was a question in her eyes that she was expecting him to answer.
And how unlikely was that? He was starting to imagine emotions where there weren’t any. Going mental, and all over a woman.
Sure, they both needed to confront their issues with each other, but now was definitely not the time to do so, and she knew it as well as he did. Thinking she was staring at him was all in his head.
He averted his gaze and concentrated on the road before him. Zach Bowden, sitting beside him, tapped a pencil against the clipboard he was holding and then tucked the writing utensil behind his ear. Usually his partner had something witty to say to lighten the mood. Often he’d describe humorous or entertainingly dramatic situations he’d encountered with his wife or his children.
Today he was unusually silent. He’d obviously been Ben’s partner long enough to realize something was amiss. He noticed Zach giving him several speculative sidelong glances.
Zach, however, wasn’t the type to stay silent for long. Somehow Ben knew that when Zach finally spoke, it wouldn’t be a tale about something his family had gone through recently.
“Are you okay, buddy?” Zach finally asked. “Did you ever get a photograph back from that—what’s her name? Veronica Jayne?”
Ben didn’t answer, choosing instead to keep his attention on driving.
“So that’s how it’s going to be, is it? I guess your silence is all I need to know to answer my own question. I can clearly see that your mind is elsewhere.”
“I’m fine,” Ben ground out, exasperated by his partner’s incessant prying. Guys weren’t supposed to have these kinds of conversations. Zach had been married too long.
His answer was probably fudging the truth a little bit. He really wasn’t fine. Ben knew that Zach wanted a real answer, not just the off-the-cuff reply he’d given him, but that was all Ben had to offer right now.
“And?” Zach prodded.
“No, I have not received an email from Veronica Jayne, not that being fine and receiving word from Veronica Jayne are in any way related. And the reason my mind is elsewhere is because I’m praying for the Salingers.”
“And not at all because Vee Bishop is currently in your direct line of vision?”
Ben was glad it was dark so that Zach couldn’t see him color. He knew that the warm flush to his face would have him cherry-red by now.
Zach chuckled as if he could see Ben’s discomfiture. “That’s what I thought. You and your lady problems. I knew you were a little off your game tonight. Delia and I went through some rough patches, too, but now look at us, happily married with two beautiful sons. It can’t get any better than that, partner.”
Ben didn’t bother trying to point out to Zach that a couple could only experience a rough patch if they were a couple to begin with.
Besides, he didn’t want to talk about Vee.
“Can we pray for the Salingers?” he suggested, not entirely for the right reasons but close enough. “Out loud?”
* * *
By the time the fire tanker pulled up to the burning house, the scene was absolute chaos. The police had been called to the scene, and they had their hands full trying to contain the crowd. Some folks were there for the sake of the family, and others strained for a decent view of the fire, one of the most exciting things to happen in months.
It was amazing how quickly word spread in Serendipity. Half the town must be there. There weren’t many true emergencies in town, and Vee knew folks in general tended to be oddly drawn to such tragedy and trauma.
Most, out of the goodness of their hearts, were there to try to help the Salingers however they could, but attempting to maintain crowd control when the fire department was trying to fight a fire only added to their responsibilities.
Vee caught her police-officer brother Eli’s eye and nodded a quick greeting before turning to her work. Every person on the detail had a specific job to do. Chief Jenkins shouted orders while some of the men hooked up the fire hose to the tanker and began blasting the low-level flames.
Vee’s job was a little less physical but equally as important as fighting the fire with water. She was the firefighter in charge of assessing the scene. First, she had to ascertain that all the people and animals who might have been in the building were safe and clear of the edifice. After that, she’d evaluate the fire itself, both in terms of the extent of the flames and the possible structural damages to the house.
Unfortunately, in Serendipity, where many folks still lived in primarily clapboard houses, structural damage was the rule and not the exception. Vee anticipated that the house would quickly be completely consumed in flames given the magnitude of this particular blaze.
She’d make a thorough tour of the fire site as soon as she was able, and then she’d make a report back to Chief Jenkins, but first she needed to find the Salingers and make sure they were all safe and unharmed. Ben and Zach were waiting at the site in case anyone needed any kind of medical assistance.
Between the dark of the moonless night and the amount of smoke pouring out of the building, it was difficult to see the nose in front of her face, much less figure out where the Salinger family was amid the enormous group of Serendipity locals.
Suddenly Vee heard someone scream, a fierce shriek that cut through the murky air like a knife, stabbing Vee right in the gut. She turned in the direction of the sound and began running, peering to the right and left of her to see if she could locate the source of the noise through the billowing smoke.
A distraught Emma Salinger forced her way through the crowd and ran into Vee’s arms, nearly plowing her over. She grasped Vee’s jacket and yanked hard on it, urging her toward the burning house.
“My baby, my baby, my baby, my baby,” she repeated over and over, shaking Vee with every syllable. Emma had a frenzied look in her eye.
“Emma,” Vee stated firmly, making sure she was loud enough to be heard over the din of the crowd, the trucks, Chief Jenkins barking out orders and the firemen shouting information to one another. “Look at me. Honey. Emma. Look. At. Me.”
The hysterical woman only cried louder. “My baby! My baby!”
Vee’s mind was spinning. Had the infant somehow been left inside the house when everyone had evacuated the premises?
“Where is Preston?” Vee asked.
Kent Salinger appeared at Vee’s elbow, his infant son tucked protectively into his shoulder.
“Here’s the baby,” he answered for his frantic wife. “Honey, Preston is right here. Everything is going to be all right.”
Vee gritted her teeth. How could he even say that? They were safe, but the Salingers had no place to call home anymore.
“No,” Emma insisted, ignoring her husband and gripping Vee’s jacket with renewed fervor. “No. Not Preston. It’s Crystal.”
Crystal, their three-year-old daughter.
“She’s not with you?” Kent asked, starting to sound as panic-stricken as his wife.
“She was,” Emma admitted and then crumbled to the ground. “She was with me. Dear God, save her.”
Vee followed the woman down, crouching before her. “Emm
a, where is your daughter?”
“She ran back in the house.” Emma choked on a sob. “Calliope was in there. I couldn’t stop her.”
“Who is Calliope?” Vee asked, confused.
“Crystal’s favorite doll,” Kent answered over his shoulder. The man had already slid Preston into Emma’s weak arms and was at a dead run for what was left of the front door of the house.
Vee’s pulse roared in her ears as her adrenaline burst through her veins. The entire house was engulfed in flames. Kent was crazy if he thought he could survive entering the dwelling with no protective clothing or training in dealing with fires. He’d never make it out alive, much less rescue his daughter.
Vee dashed forward and dived for Kent, hitting him behind the knees and knocking him squarely to the ground with a jolt so hard it knocked the wind out of her and probably out of him, too. Kent was already struggling underneath her, trying to get away.
“Let me go,” he screamed, thrashing his legs. “I’ve got to get Crystal.”
His heel met Vee on the chin and she was knocked flat on her back. Though she could see the gush of blood that poured down the front of her jacket, she could not feel the pain.
“Kent,” she screamed at him, grabbing at one leg. “You can’t do this. Let me. I’m trained for this. Trust me. I will get your daughter out safely.”
Or die trying.
Chief Jenkins appeared at her side and wrestled Kent to a standing position, keeping a firm hand around his upper arm. Ben rushed forward to grasp Kent’s other arm. Chief and Ben were both large men, and though Kent tried, he could not break the firefighters’ combined grip.
“You’re bleeding, Vee,” Ben said.
“It’s nothing but a superficial cut.” She wiped her chin with the back of her palm.
Vee knew this was her moment. She wasn’t wearing her SBCA gear, the tank and mask that would allow her to be able to breathe in the inferno. Her duties this evening, liaising with the family and the community and assessing structural issues, shouldn’t have required her to carry the heavy equipment around, so she’d elected not to gear up with them. It had never been an issue before, and she hadn’t thought twice about it.
She was thinking about it now.
She had a decision to make and no time to make it in. It was now or never. She had to save that little girl.
Taking one last glance back at the rest of the Salinger family, who were huddling together crying for their daughter and sister, she pressed her visor down over her face and dashed for the building.
She could hear Chief Jenkins yelling at her to come back, heard him issue her a direct order not to enter the building. The structure was caving in. It wasn’t safe for anyone to dare a rescue, especially without the proper breathing apparatus.
Vee knew that despite the odds, Chief Jenkins would have organized a team to try to save little Crystal, but by then it would be too late. The entire house was already engulfed in flames. She couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t at least try.
Chief would be furious when she returned, and she would no doubt be suspended from the force for her actions, and rightly so, but she would deal with those ramifications afterward, when Crystal Salinger was safe. Her mind was entirely focused on getting in and getting herself and that girl out of that house alive.
Just before she plunged through what was left of the front door, she heard Ben’s voice calling to her, a terrified bellow that was halfway between horror and rage.
“Vee! Vee-ee!” His deep, tinny voice echoed through her consciousness at what seemed to be an unimaginable distance, but she could not stop now. Not with a little girl’s life on the line.
As soon as she broke through the door, she immediately dropped to her hands and knees, crawling to avoid the worst of the smoke. Her lungs already burned, and she knew she wouldn’t survive long without her breathing apparatus. She tugged the top of her collar over her nose and gritted her teeth, trying not to breathe any more than was necessary.
Her firefighter training kicked in full force, right along with her adrenaline, as she scrambled toward what she hoped was the little girl’s bedroom. She was working off of zero information. She didn’t know when the girl had entered the building, or where, or where she might have thought to have gone after she’d entered the house.
“Crystal! Crystal!” She tried calling the girl’s name, but with her collar muffling her voice and the fire roaring around her she knew the three-year-old would never be able to hear her. She couldn’t see her hands in front of her face because of the flames and the billowing smoke. The poor girl must be terrified, assuming she was still conscious. She might have passed out already. Vee wouldn’t even consider the alternative.
She moved as close to the sides of the room as she dared, feeling her way forward. She didn’t want the walls to cave in on her, but she needed the structure to guide her through the house. This was a shot in the dark, grasping forward and to her sides and hoping beyond hope that her gloved hand would meet the little girl’s body.
Vee prayed frantically as she methodically swept one room and then a second. She knew she didn’t have much time left to get out of the house before it came down around her. The girl had even less, having been exposed to the smoke for a longer period.
Just inside the third bedroom she thought she heard a small whimper.
Was she imagining it? Did she want to find little Crystal so badly that her ears were hearing sounds that did not exist?
No. She heard it again. Directly in front of her. A terrified little squeak, not much more than a murmur. How Vee even heard it over the roar of the fire was nothing short of a gift from God.
Vee scrambled forward, almost falling over the little girl, who was huddled in a small ball in the center of the room, her arms tucked over her head and a little rag doll with red yarn for hair poking out from between her knees.
Vee knew her firefighter’s uniform might frighten the already terrified little girl. Lifting her visor was risky, but she’d already gone about as far out on a limb as was possible, anyway. It would be far less difficult to get them both out alive if the child wasn’t fighting her every step of the way.
“Crystal,” Vee shouted, not wanting to scare the girl but needing for her to be able to hear. “My name is Vee. I know you’re scared, honey, but I’m here to get you and Calliope back to your mommy and daddy, okay?”
The little girl nodded and clutched her doll to her chest.
Vee wrapped Crystal’s arms around her neck and grasped her wrists with one hand.
“We’re going to take a little horsey ride, okay, honey? You just hold on tight and I’ll get you out of here.”
Crystal wasn’t heavy or awkward to carry. With all the adrenaline coursing through Vee, she could barely feel the girl’s weight at all. Vee crawled on her knees with her one free hand, heading straight back to the one opening she knew would be her best opportunity for breaking free of the house.
It seemed an eternity before she could make out the shape of the front door. A couple of times her grip slipped on the little girl’s wrists and she’d had to stop and readjust Crystal’s position on her shoulders. Her lungs burned from the smoke and from holding her breath. She could only imagine how the little girl felt.
Chief had evidently ordered a couple of the men to widen the doorway with their axes, so she didn’t have to worry about either one of them being snagged by any protruding pieces of wood.
They were almost there. Almost...there...
And then they’d made it. Two firefighters met her just inside the door to help her scramble the final few feet out of the entranceway.
The moment they were free of the door, Zach gently took Crystal from her and carried the child to the ambulance, where her family anxiously awaited.
Vee didn’t even realize she was still
crawling on her hands and knees until her gloved palms slipped out from underneath her on the wet grass. She sprawled to the earth, taking sweeping gasps of air, though it was still acrid with smoke. It was better, at least, than what she’d been facing in the building.
It was only through God’s grace that she and the child had made it out alive.
“Thank you, Jesus,” she said aloud as she groaned and rolled over onto her back. Even though she was lying flat on the ground, her vision blurred and her head spun in dizzy waves. Every muscle in her body ached as if she’d been pummeled in a boxing ring, especially her chin where Kent Salinger had kicked her. The adrenaline was fading, and she could feel the pain of it now.
She closed her eyes, trying to steady herself, searching for the willpower to roll to a sitting position. She was in enough trouble as it was, even without admitting she’d been hurt in the process. Chief would be furious.
But it wasn’t Chief who first appeared at her side. Large, muscular arms scooped her up under her neck and knees as if she weighed nothing. She was pulled into a close embrace, surrounded by strong biceps and a rock-hard chest.
Ben.
He was like a fortress around her, shielding her from further harm. She removed her helmet and pressed her cheek to his chest, able to hear his rapid heartbeat even through his paramedic’s jacket. She knew she should refuse his help, force herself to get down and walk on her own two feet, but she just couldn’t bring herself to put up any resistance. For what might have been the first time in her life, Vee Bishop didn’t fight her own need to be held.
Chapter Thirteen
Ben was quivering so much his teeth were chattering. Hopefully Vee couldn’t tell how shaken up he was feeling. She’d been through enough without her seeing how much her daring rescue had affected him.
The thought that he might have lost her before he’d had the opportunity to tell her how he felt about her made him sick to his stomach. That even he hadn’t known how he felt about her until she’d made the mad dash into the Salingers’ home after Crystal was beside the point.
