Fire Angel

by Susanne Matthews

  “Tomorrow works for me. Enjoy your video visit with your brother.”

  * * *

  Pounding on the bedroom door startled Alexis awake. For a moment she didn’t know where she was, but then reality asserted itself.

  “Who is it?” she called realizing how stupid the question was. She was in Jake’s home. It was either him or Minette.

  “It’s me,” he said. “Get dressed. He’s done it again, and it’s bad, really bad this time. Dress warmly, it’ll be cold out there. I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

  Jumping out of bed, she dressed as quickly as she could, putting on warm stockings, wishing she’d brought long johns with her. Slipping her shoulder harness on over her lavender sweater, she added her gun. In her line of work, she rarely saw the actual fire as it burned. How would that impact her ability? Would she sense him watching? My God, she might be able to recognize him and identify him. How would she get the police to believe her?

  She swallowed the bile rising in her throat at the thought of being in intimate contact with the killer and grabbed her notebook and cellphone. There was no point in bringing her purse or her kit. They would just be in the way. She brushed her hair and pulled it into a ponytail. How many times had she thought of cutting it short only to realize it was so much better this way?

  Leaving the room, she hurried into the hallway, pulled on her hat and coat, shoved her feet into her shoe boots, and opened the door to the inn.

  Jake stood there waiting for her, leaning on his quad cane, next to two police officers. Unlike the men she’d seen at the station, these two were in full uniform—black jackets with the gold and blue crests, open to reveal Kevlar vests, black shirts, and black pants, and on their heads, black peaked caps with blue bands. Each man wore the typical black belt that held flashlights, nightsticks, handcuffs, a Taser X26, and the standard issue SIG Sauer P226. The officers with her this morning might’ve been dressed this way, but if they were, everything had been hidden by their Hazmat suits.

  “Tom Rivers, Patrick Lihou, meet Alexis Michaels.”

  Alexis nodded. “Gentlemen. I wasn’t expecting a police escort,” she said, glancing at Jake.

  “Not an escort,” he answered, his face grim. “They’re driving. They’ve got the bells and whistles to get us there faster.”

  “Where’s the fire?” she asked.

  “Providence House on Grand. It’s a shelter, Alexis, a damn shelter.” His voice cracked on the emotions he fought to hide. “The firefighters are on the scene, but it’s bad—apparently there were twenty-six residents, five staff members, and an unknown number of visitors in the building. Some managed to get out—not all. I don’t know how many are trapped inside.”

  She nodded her stomach cramping at the thought of another shelter ablaze. Would she have to face all her nightmares at once?

  Without a word, she followed Jake and the officers out to the large Hummer emblazoned with the Paradise Police Department logo. The vehicle was running ensuring it was warmer in there than in the bitter cold outside. Jake held the back door open for her and she climbed into the backseat. He followed her inside, his jaw clenched.

  “This is what I should have been driving Sunday, not that silly little coupe I picked up at the airport. I could have driven right over Bullwinkle in this,” she said, hoping to ease the tension eating at her.

  The police officer getting in behind the wheel nodded.

  “Did you see a moose on the way here? They’ve been bad this year, but don’t kid yourself. Hitting anything that large at sixty miles an hour even in this can be disastrous. A tractor-trailer driver died in a collision with a moose calf just last month.”

  “A calf?” she squeaked.

  The other officer got in the car and spoke into the radio.

  “From her description, Tom, I would say hers was a full-grown bull,” Jake said once the man had finished speaking and reached for her hand and squeezed it.

  Who was he trying to reassure? He looked as upset as she felt.

  “She was very lucky,” the other officer said.

  Alexis appreciated the truth of that statement now. There’d been two monsters with her that night, and she’d escaped both of them. How long would her luck hold?

  She sat back content to leave her hand in Jake’s, knowing that she shouldn’t, but right now, she needed that human touch. After all, it was only a hand. It was going to be a long night, and she wasn’t looking forward to any of it, not knowing what she would feel, and wishing she had explained her talent to Jake when she’d had the chance.

  “I don’t know how they stand the noise,” Jake said, referring to the sirens. “I would go crazy if I had to listen to that every day.”

  Surprised by the anxiety in his voice, Alexis looked at him. He was pale with beads of sweat dotting his forehead.

  “Are you alright?” she whispered, unable to hide her concern.

  He chuckled, but she sensed his tension. “Am I sick? No, but you have a problem with the dark,” he said in the same low tone, “ while I have issues with loud noises. You should see the way I come apart at firework displays.”

  She reached into the front seat and tapped the officer on the shoulder. “Is there any way we can dispense with the light and sound show? It’s been a long day.”

  “Sure. We’re off the highway now.”

  The siren stopped and the flashing red, white and blue lights moved to a steady glow.

  “Thanks,” Jake said, squeezing the fingers he hadn’t released. “I owe you one.”

  She nodded. “Don’t worry. I’ll collect sooner or later.”

  Far sooner than she expected, the Hummer rolled to a stop just outside the barrier erected to hold back the crowds. Alexis counted four fire engines: two pump and ladder trucks, a turntable ladder apparatus, and an older model hook and ladder truck.

  “Those fancy ones belong to North Bay,” Jake said. “Our guys could never handle something this size alone. They’ve needed help with every one of that bastard’s infernos.”

  Alexis stared at the blaze. The fire was clearly in its second stage, and it would be a miracle if anyone were found alive in the structure now. It would continue to consume any oxygen it could find until there was none left, and then it would smolder until it either reignited or died completely.

  The aerial ladder was deployed against one of the second-floor windows while the firefighters waited for the go-ahead from the guys on the roof before breaking it to enter the second floor of the building. Until the roof was opened, any sudden and improper ventilation could result in either a flashover or a backdraft, both of which were deadly.

  It didn’t take long for Alexis to recognize the building for what it was. She’d gone to school there. If memory served, there were two floors of what had been classrooms—six on each level plus four student washrooms, two per floor. At the east end of the building an addition had housed the school offices, the teachers’ lounge, and the gymnasium.

  She turned to Jake as Tom radioed their location to the dispatcher.

  “How long has this place been a shelter?”

  “About a dozen years ago, they built a combined high school-elementary school on the other side of town and turned this into a boot camp for juveniles. Look at the windows—some of them are still barred. That probably isn’t helping those who are trapped inside, although those should be communal areas, not bedrooms or dorms. When the government shut down the program, the building sat vacant for a while. Three years ago, the local Christian Council took over. Now, it’s a shelter for runaways and victims of domestic abuse. It also serves as a soup kitchen for those down on their luck. What could he possibly have against anyone here? It doesn’t fit the other fires. Could we have a copycat on our hands?”

  “I sure hope not,” she said. That possibility was too horrible to imagine. “But we did say he might have a partner. Maybe this one’s for him.”

  She sat there mesmerized, hearing the ghosts from the past screaming at her.
She’d gotten that bastard. She would get this one.

  Following Jake out of the vehicle, still holding his hand amid the sea of people running back and forth, Alexis marveled at the dexterity with which he navigated around the hoses and other paraphernalia littering the street. His limp seemed a bit better, maybe because of the adrenaline fueling his need and hers to know how many were still inside the building.

  Morbid curiosity had brought at least a hundred people out to brave the chill, with more arriving every minute. Fire Angel wouldn’t be able to resist watching this one burn.

  An urge too strong to deny forced her to turn away from the fire. The yearning clawed at her stomach like an animal demanding satisfaction. Unable to do anything but comply, as if her will was no longer her own, she turned. On the horizon, the full moon called to her as it climbed slowly into the sky. She froze in place, the need to gaze at it unlike anything she’d ever experienced. As she stared at it, her vision blurred, and the orb appeared to grow larger, reaching out to her, offering power and strength beyond her wildest dreams.

  Jake tugged on her arm, urging her to continue, but she couldn’t move, transfixed by the white globe slowly ascending, moving higher by the second. It beckoned her...

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, shaking her shoulders, breaking the spell.

  “Look.” She indicated the moon now above the tops of the buildings, a church spire slicing its face in two. What had just happened to her?

  “Damn.”

  “Jake, over here,” Ev yelled, his voice barely audible over the roar of the fire.

  “Looks like you were right about that, too,” he said, pulling her along, forcing her to set aside the strange sensation still hovering on the edge of her mind and focus on the raging inferno.

  He stopped next to a police car parked beside the fire marshal’s yellow Ford. Over on the left, inside the perimeter were three hospital ambulances, the coroner’s wagon, the North Bay Fire and Rescue truck, and a couple of pickup trucks serving as seating for the injured awaiting triage. Some paramedics loaded blanket-wrapped people into the ambulances while others administered oxygen and first aid to those sitting on the tailgates.

  With the eerie connection broken, Alexis scanned the crowd of spectators. He had to be here, but where? Using her cellphone’s camera feature, she zoomed in on the faces watching the blaze, searching for him, for a Blue Jay’s cap, the brim arched the way she’d seen it in her vision. Scanning the crowd, she could see the closest faces, expressions a mixture of horror and sorrow. If there was fascination there as well, it shared the space with revulsion.

  She took half a dozen photos, disappointed to see tuques and woolen hats rather than ball caps. Jake was talking to Ev and the firefighter beside him. Turning back to the fire, she watched intently, aware that people were dead because she’d failed to identify the Fire Angel.

  Was it right to blame herself for not accomplishing in two days what Jake and the others had been unable to do in four months or more? Would telling him everything she’d discovered have led him to the culprit? Guilt ate at her. She’d failed these people just as she’d failed those who’d tried to help her eighteen years earlier. What good was her gift, her talent, if she couldn’t get answers when she needed them?

  She staggered, the strange sensation she’d had earlier filling her once more as she watched the fire. Oh my God! While she’d only connected with him through his behavior and residual energy at the fire scenes, there was something unmistakable about the consciousness she felt now. Sensing his satisfaction, his pleasure, almost sexual in nature, she leaned against a squad car for support. This was her chance. Closing her eyes, knowing she had to take control of the connection, she turned back to the flaming building, forcing her sixth sense to follow the tenuous link between them.

  “Where are you?” she whispered. “Did you start this fire? Why these people? Why tonight?”

  As she concentrated, the impression of being one with him grew stronger until she blinked, realizing she was looking down on the crowd, across at the fire, her lungs filled with smoke from the joint he held. Her mind was inside his, but he wasn’t conscious of it, maybe because of the drug but most likely because he was so focused on admiring his handy work, proud of how well he’d done.

  She sensed his gloating, his delight, and her own distaste rose, the emotion too strong to suppress. How long before he sensed it and realized he wasn’t alone?

  Surprise followed by sudden fear and anger replaced his elation. He’d discovered her presence but didn’t understand what was happening. Confusion gave way to panic before he managed to sever the connection. He was gone. Trying with everything in her, she searched for him, but there was no one there. She’d lost him, but she knew where he’d been. Now, all she had to do was follow up on that.

  She jumped when Jake touched her arm to get her attention.

  “Hey, are you okay?” he asked, his face filled with concern as he pulled her off the cruiser. “I thought you’d passed out.”

  “No, I’m fine,” she answered, regaining control of her body and standing on her own once more. “I’ve never worked a fire in progress. The perceptions are a little overwhelming.”

  She tried to reach out to the Fire Angel’s mind, but there was nothing there but the fire’s angry roar.

  “Perceptions?” He frowned.

  Shrugging, she fought for composure. She needed to tell him what she knew, but the crowd jostled them, surging closer, no longer contained by the barriers.

  “You know—impressions, sounds, sights, the emotions—it’s all a little overpowering. What did you want?”

  “Someone wants to meet you.”

  “Okay,” she answered, still slightly dizzy from the experience. He was here, but who was he?

  Holding her hand once more, Jake shoved his way over to Ev and the man wearing firefighting gear standing beside him, as officers pushed back the mass of bodies.

  “Alexis, I’d like you to meet Lincoln Howard, this region’s fire marshal. He’s based in North Bay, but thanks to our Fire Angel, he’s spent a lot of time here lately.”

  “Hello,” she said, extending her hand. “Pleased to meet you, although I wish it were under different circumstances. I’d hoped to help you catch this guy before he struck again. I’m sorry.”

  Lincoln reached out to shake her hand. The man, with a headful of snow-white hair and a flushed complexion, reminded her of her own boss. He had a friendly smile, but the anguish that these unsolved crimes were creating for him was evident. She’d seen Peters with the same strained look on his face when they’d had to deal with multiple fatalities.

  “I read your profile, young lady, and that article. Fire Psychic. I sure as hell hope you can make that mojo work for us.”

  “I’ll do my best,” she promised, looking around to see who might’ve picked up on the name, grateful he hadn’t asked for specifics.

  “If anyone can catch him, it’s Alexis,” Jake said. “We’ve learned more from her in two days than we’ve known for months.”

  “Thanks.” She wanted to bask in the heat of his compliment, but would he feel the same way when he knew it all? “I’m going to learn a lot more about him from this. There won’t be a fifth fire.”

  “Good,” Lincoln and Ev spoke as one.

  Knowing they had confidence in her boosted her ego. She just hoped she wouldn’t let them down. Her talent had never failed her before, but this was different and she didn’t understand why.

  “What do we know about how the fire started?” she asked since she wouldn’t be able to answer that herself until it was out, and she could get inside the building.

  “Do you see that boy over there leaning against the tree?” Ev asked, rubbing his face, looking far older tonight than he was. “That’s Willy, one of my confidential informants. When the fires started, thinking this whole thing could be some kind of gang initiation, I had him keep his eyes and ears open for me. He called just after you left the station tod
ay. The Cobras, the local biker gang, decided to have a meeting here tonight. I called Maxine, warned her there might be trouble, but I never expected this.”

  “Who’s Maxine?” she whispered to Jake. The woman obviously meant something to Ev.

  “She’s his sister-in-law. Do you remember Cyndi and Tawny who work for me at the inn?”

  She nodded.

  “She’s also their mother.”

  “Oh my God!” Alexis covered her mouth. “You said Cyndi worked with her. Were they in there?”

  He shook his head, his face glum. “Because of the conference, Cyndi worked at the inn tonight, but I don’t know about her mother.”

  “There are at least a dozen people we know who have to have been in there and who are unaccounted for, but in addition to the bikers, there was a seminar tonight,” Ev said, his countenance getting glummer by the moment. “Those who got out think there might’ve been a dozen in that room, too. Of the twenty-nine who escaped, six are critical and seven others are in serious but stable condition. The ambulances are ready to take another load to the hospital in North Bay. We’ve called in the hearse to help transport the living until it’s time to move the dead. A couple have gone by cruiser since they could sit up. The guys who saved several people are over there.”

  He pointed to three young men sitting on the tailgate of a pickup. The paramedic was working on one of the boys, bandaging his arm. He shook his head.

  “Thank God neither Max nor Cyndi was working tonight. I don’t know what I would’ve done ... Tawny and Cyndi were both at the inn and Max went home early, sick as a dog. I’ve never been more grateful for a disease that flares up at will. She wanted to come down here, but I said no.”

  “If she hadn’t gotten sick, would she have been in there when the fire started?” Alexis asked, flashbacks from another fire mixing with the current images.

  He nodded. “Probably. She has a guest speaker in town. My wife was all set to come over until Max called. They would’ve stayed until the presentation was over.”