Chapter 32

THIRTY-TWO

J ulio felt when Samantha drifted off, and given what she'd been through, sleeping was the best thing for her now. Who knew what Walter had given her, or done to her, the things he'd put her through—even just mentally terrifying her.

The sick feeling sat like nausea in his gut.

Now that he had her back, all his emotions rushed in. Where he'd been pushing them aside and working the problem, now that she was safe in his arms, he could shake the fear he'd lost her for good.

Thank You. You kept her safe, and You will bind up her wounds. Help her to trust in You, more and more. Draw her close to You.

Julio rubbed his nose, which hurt his shoulder, but the pain was better than if they'd been too late to get her back. All he had was a dislocated shoulder that had been set to heal. She had a trail of cigarette burns on her arm, bumps and bruises all over. A mark on her cheek that looked like she'd been punched.

But she was okay. She would heal.

Julio's phone rang. He winced and tugged it from his pants pocket. No way to do it without it hurting, so he tried to keep as still and quiet as he could.

Samantha stirred anyway. She didn't need to go anywhere, though. Unless she wanted to.

He slid his thumb across the screen. Chief Greyson Frayer was calling. "Coda."

"We've got a problem."

"What's that?"

In the front seat, Romeo glanced in the rearview.

Greyson replied, "Reports of fire and small explosions all over the police department and at least three other buildings on the street."

"FD Headquarters?" Their building wasn't far from the police department, and city hall. What else had been targeted?

"Not yet. We're doing a room-by-room search."

"Those shoe boxes Walter was leaving all over the PD?" Julio's stomach knotted.

Romeo hit the gas and sped up, already on the highway that led back into Benson. Meanwhile, a huge crowd of officers were still up the hill, clearing the scene and collecting evidence that would nail Walter Barnes to the wall for what he'd done.

That meant, like the incident at the school, there weren't as many cops back at the house as there would be otherwise.

Samantha pushed off his leg and sat up. "Put it on speaker."

Her voice made him wince. She'd screamed herself hoarse. But he did as she requested. "Chief, what's going on?"

"Chief McCauley and his guys did a room-by-room search of the places Walter went," Greyson reported. "They counted four devices he left around the building. Things that would ignite on a timer and burn the box, then whatever it was around. Books. Files. A curtain. Each one was left up close and personal to a flammable material."

"But they removed them," Julio said.

"Apparently not enough of them." Greyson paused, and someone spoke in the background. "Get back here, Captain. We need everyone working now. Cops. Fire. EMS. Everyone. We're calling the Bureau of Land Management for the local wildland firefighters. This is big."

"Look." Romeo pointed out the front windshield, toward downtown Benson in the distance.

Samantha drew in a sharp breath.

"We have six buildings ablaze," Greyson said, "including the police department and fire department headquarters, and city hall."

Samantha covered her hand with her mouth.

Julio touched her knee. "Everyone is responding?"

"And we need all the help we can get. We missed devices. All of them…most of them."

Romeo said, "Walter needs to tell us who he is."

Greyson's response was, "Just as soon as we get these fires put out, you can ask him whatever questions you want. Probably in the park, because that'll be the only building still standing."

Just as soon as he said that, a clatter came across the phone line.

A matching boom in the distance made them all flinch. Seconds later, a new plume of smoke rose into the sky.

"Chief?!"

"I'm good." Greyson gasped. "But Benson won't be if we don't get these fires put out. There are just too many of them. We don't have the personnel." He paused. "He had to have placed devices all over without us knowing."

"Then they weren't all placed by Walter," Julio said.

Romeo squeezed the steering wheel. "Maybe the arsonist got guys other than Walter in, wearing disguises. People who wanted to get back at the PD, or whoever else, with an axe to grind against them. Doing his dirty work so he could do this."

"We'll be there soon." Julio hung up the phone. "Drive faster, Rome."

Romeo flipped on his lights and sirens and hit the gas. He got them to Benson as fast as he could safely go, while the freeway going the other direction got steadily more crowded with people fleeing the city.

Julio prayed for all the first responders coming together to help people and try to save buildings. Everyone there would be occupied. A thought which gave him the ability to turn his mental attention to the arsonist who had done this.

Julio didn't want to wait until the police questioned Walter into giving up the name of the arsonist who paid him to deposit those shoe boxes. He didn't want to wait for them to find another person their suspect had paid to leave devices in another building.

The basic profile of a pyromaniac said he would be at the scene, watching things unfold. The need to see their handiwork was part of what drove them. That's why FD had long ago started recording the crowd at scenes. Firefighters were focused on their duties, trying to save lives and contain a blaze so there would be as little property damage as possible. They didn't spend time looking around at the crowd to see who was loitering.

If everyone today was focused on the fires—and the situation was overwhelming given the smoke rising from the street with all those buildings on it—no one would be looking around.

Julio was going to search for the guy.

If he could end it, here and now, that's what he was going to do.

"Get us as close as you can," Julio instructed.

Romeo turned onto the street and right into an ocean of people. Vehicles. Twilight was setting in, giving the whole place an orange glow. Firefighters raced around, water sprayed from multiple ladder trucks. He spotted a wildland truck, their hose all hooked up.

"There aren't going to be enough hydrants for this." Julio pushed open the door, overwhelmed by the scene on the street in front of him. The street blocked by vehicles, total chaos. Every ambulance in the county here or pulling onto the street.

People all over. Someone screaming across the street on the other side.

It was worse than the day a limo had exploded.

He scanned the roofs of buildings, looking for someone watching. Another high-rise, maybe a street over. Or behind him. Or at the far end, maybe.

There were a thousand places this guy could hide.

Flames licked out of open windows in the upper floors of the police department. Down the street, at city hall, black smoke chugged up into the sky from what had to be a hole in the roof.

Another building down from that, someone jumped off a roof. He raced to the sidewalk and caught a flash of air bags on the street. They'd cushioned the woman's fall with inflated mats. It had to be bad if the situation had reached that stage.

He turned back to the car, where Samantha still sat. He didn't like leaving her. They should've driven her somewhere nearby where she could wait safely, and maybe get some medical attention.

This situation…

He could hardly process the volume of fire on the street. Just one of these blazes would require multiple trucks to extinguish it.

This was a five alarm.

Maybe even worse than that. It would take everything they had to put it out.

Julio set his good hand on the roof of the car and leaned down to the open door. Before he could say anything, Samantha signed, Go.

He signed back, Love you. Still warm from when she'd signed that to him before, in the car. The way she had years ago. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten it.

Romeo had already run off.

Julio dug a radio out of the duffel on the front seat and handed her his phone.

She gave him a soft look, but she really did look exhausted.

The woman needed to stay put. And he could tell she wanted to fall asleep, so that worked.

Julio twisted the dial on the radio and let the chatter wash over him, quick snatches of conversation. He switched between channels and heard another firehouse doing the same. Someone had divided the response into sections, organizing it.

He went to a channel the bosses used. "This is Captain Coda. I'm going to look for the arsonist."