Fire in the Embers Ch. 06

The chronological order of my stories is now listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, language and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

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Part 25 - Fire and Heroism

Three apartment buildings were engulfed in flames. Firefighters were scrambling to put out the blazes, but they were fighting a losing battle; the fires were already fiercely out of control.

It was 10:45pm Saturday night, November 14th. And the middle building of the ones on fire contained the apartment that had once been rented by Jack Burke, where he'd made his sex tapes... and where the Intendent had hidden her evidence that implicated the Consultant of Crime.

I was standing with the Fire Chief, Patrick Quinlin, and a few firefighters that were equipped and prepared to rescue any people in the building. Captain Cindy Ross was next to me. Police had an extended cordon around the area blocked off, keeping everyone out, including most of the Press. KXTC, however, had managed to get a van and crew inside the cordon. I had Police keep them well back, but they were allowed to film the conflagration.

Most of the apartment occupants were accounted for, but the Fire Department had no way of knowing if everyone was out. The fire had grown too large, too fast, to allow knocking on doors and searches. We could only hope the fire alarm bells on each building going off was enough.

And then I saw it...

"Oh my God, there's a child in there!" I yelled. I started sprinting toward the middle building, but the run was only in my mind... I was quickly pulled back by firefighters and Cindy.

"Hold on, Commander!" one of them yelled. "That's our job!"

"There!" I yelled, pointing at a dim black shape. "Right there!"

"Let's go!" yelled a firefighter. I don't know if he saw it or not, but he was trusting what I said. Three other men followed him to the building.

"Okay, Team Two!" yelled Fire Chief Quinlin. "Get ready to go in after them if you need to!" I just watched, seeing the firefighters with their fireproof gear, their oxygen tanks and full face masks, hatchets and other tools ready.

They had radios, and did not notice me surreptitiously turn mine to their frequency so that I could listen in.

"I've got eyes on the kid!" I heard one yell, even as they were engulfed in the conflagration. "I'm going in!

"Roger that! We're right behind you!"

Suddenly we heard what sounded like a huge *CRACK!*... and the building began collapsing!

"Get back! Get back!" yelled the Fire Chief into his mike as he watched the horror... the apartment building was going down, right onto where the firemen and the child were!

I barely heard the screams and shouts of others as I watched the disaster unfolding in front of me. I felt helpless, and I need not say that Cindy was making damn sure I didn't try to run in there myself. I could feel the intensity of the tension as we watched for signs of movement.

"There!" I shouted. I could see three of the four firefighters emerging in front of the building. They were looking around for their remaining teammate.

"Easley! Come in Easley!" I heard on the radio.

"Over here!" I heard another voice on the radio. "They're over here!" The three firefighters ran back into the swirling cauldron of hell on earth. A moment later, they came out... carrying a fireman. His coat was bulging, and I knew before consciously realizing it that he had the child with him.

As they approached, two other firemen ran with a gurney towards them. The firefighter was placed on it, and then I saw what had happened... he had opened his coat to secure the child inside... and put his oxygen mask on the kid's face.

"Oh my God." I gasped. "Who is that?"

"Fireman Roy Easley." said Chief Quinlin. "Bronze Star in Afghanistan. Been with us two years now."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Two hours later, I went to University Hospital. As ever, Cindy Ross was with me. I saw several firefighters in a waiting room. With them was the Fire Chief, the Battalion Chief (equivalent to me in rank), and some of the firefighters on the injured man's crew. They seemed surprised to see us come in.

"How is he?" I asked quietly.

"Not good, Commander." said the Battalion Chief. "Damaged lungs. He inhaled hot gas when he put his mask on the kid's face."

"Ouch." said Cindy Ross, her face wincing. She'd had an injured lung when she was shot, and which still gave her physical problems if she physically overextended herself.

"How's the kid?" I asked.

"The kid is going to be okay, superficial burns. Easley saved him by putting him inside his coat, and giving the kid his oxygen mask. Easley took burns to the body as well as the lungs." said Chief Quinlin. "The doctor says if he makes it through the next 48 hours and doesn't 'dry-land drown', he'll have a good shot to live. As to how much lung capacity he'll have after that, we'll just have to see.

'Dry-land drown' occurs when lungs get inflamed. The lungs try to soothe the inflammation with liquid, but if the irritation doesn't stop, liquid could fill the lungs and the person literally drown on dry land. This is how many soldiers that were gassed in World War One died...

"Commander Troy," said one of the firemen, "how did you see that kid? None of us could see him until we were right up there in it."

"I..." I started, then stopped, realizing it for the first time. "I don't know... I just... saw him. I... I have no answer for you... I just saw him there, and you guys went and got him."

Everyone nodded, amazed at what I'd just told them. I said "I'll be back in a few minutes." I went to another section of the Hospital, where the offices of the doctors on Staff were. One of them was a small office for my wife to use if she needed to. I went inside, finding her computer on the desk, and of course knowing the password to access it though she'd never told me.

"What are you doing?" Cindy asked, seeing me typing furiously. I had her come over and look.

"Make that last paragraph from both of us." Cindy said, having every right to do so.

I accessed email through the internet, fired off emails to the Sheriff, every member of the Council, and the Police and Fire Chiefs, with a copy to Cindy. I then printed a copy.

Walking back to the waiting room, I handed the pieces of paper to the Fire Chief, telling him of the email copies that had gone out. Cindy said her own emails would be following soon.

"Coming from you two, this is strong stuff." said Quinlin. "Thanks." With that, Cindy and I made our goodbyes and left for Police Headquarters.

"What is that, sir?" asked one of the firemen.

"This is Commander Troy's report of what he saw at the scene." Quinlin said. "And it contains a recommendation from those Medal of Valor recipients... that Easley join their club as a Medal of Valor recipient." There was a murmur of approval from the firefighters.

Part 26 - Aftermath And Ashes

Sunday morning, November 15th, just after dawn. As Cindy and I drove up to the remains of the three buildings, I saw a woman in black coveralls amongst several other similarly-clad Fire Department people. It was Fire Marshal Zoe Singer and her Arson Investigation team.

"Don!" she said as she saw me and Cindy come up. "How are you?" Somewhat to my surprise, she hugged me warmly.

"Okay, and yourself?" I asked, returning her hug.

"Hi, Cindy." Zoe said, giving my partner a warm hug, also. She then looked Cindy in the eye and quietly asked "How's Jenna?"

"She's... recovering." said Cindy, who'd spent the night at Jenna's side in the Hospital.

"She's a strong woman." Zoe said, reassuring. "She'll get through this, with you beside her." The women hugged again as I pretended to look over the heaps of ashes that once were apartment buildings.

"This thing burned to the ashes." I said, looking around.

"Yes, it did." said Zoe. "The wood was untreated, and the materials inside were just tinder for it. It's amazing no one was killed, but everyone got out. Speaking of that, do you know how Roy Easley is doing?"

"He's in ICU, still in danger." I said. "But just before I came here I talked with Dr. Morgan. He thinks Easley will recover if his burns don't get infected. Easley's lungs aren't filling with fluid, so it looks like the imminent threat isn't happening."

"That's good." Zoe said. "Well, you won't be totally shocked to hear that this is arson. Accelerants all over the place, in all three buildings. I'm having trouble getting the apartment manager to give me the occupancy lists, he's demanding a warrant, but some of the occupants told me enough to let me know which apartments weren't occupied. It appears that those empty apartments were just packed with accelerants and maybe devices to set off the fires. Once they got going, it was an inferno."

"Okay," I said, feeling exhausted, not even responsive to the sight of Zoe's lovely body in her clingy coveralls. "I look forward to reading your reports, if you'll be kind enough to email me a copy."

"Sure." said Zoe. "And Don... thank you for that report you gave to the Chief. The whole Department is talking about it. Do you think Easley will get an MOV?"

"That is what Crowbars are for, Commander Singer." I said. "And we have two of them against the will of the Council to downgrade medals. I suspect that the Council will find that 'resistance is futile'."

"Damn straight." Cindy said.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Cindy Ross entered Jenna Stiles's hospital room. Her heart warmed considerably when the redheaded woman looked up at her... and smiled.

"Hey, baby." Cindy said as she came up to the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Better." Jenna said. "The food here absolutely sucks. Don't you have any pull with your boss's wife?"

Cindy smiled. "Don says it must be a law that hospital food be really bad. I was lucky they fed me intravenously when I was in here. You'll be out soon, but I'll sneak in a cheeseburger for you."

"Good." Jenna said, then got serious as she looked into Cindy's eyes. "Cindy, I'm sorry I acted like I did yesterday. I... I'm sorry I pushed you away. I know how much you care--"

"Stop right there." Cindy said, putting her finger on Jenna's lips. "You've been through hell. I understand. It's okay."

Jenna took Cindy's hand in hers. "I love you, Cindy." Cindy's vision blurred; it is possible that she was starting to cry.

"I love you too!" she said. She leaned over and kissed Jenna, then hugged her, trying hard to not break down crying...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Okay, Priya," said Katherine Woodburn, "what is KSTD doing about the Police interdictions of your vans?"

"Nothing, ma'am." said Priya. They were in Katherine's office inside her home. "The owners came down on us pretty hard, said we already looked bad trying to follow the Police on the way to rescue an A.D.A. being held hostage. The word I got is that the Sheriff was going to forbid KSTD from coming to any press conferences in any Town & County government buildings... and he has the power to order that and enforce it, we found out."

"That's too bad." said Katherine.

"I do appreciate you getting me that exclusive interview with Gor-don last evening." Priya said. "We'll be running that a number of times before KXTC can talk to him."

"Don't worry about that." said Katherine. "This is off the record, of course, but KXTC will have to find Gor-don to interview him... and they'll have to be better than the Iron Crowbar himself to find Gor-don now."

Katherine thought back to the night before. After Priya had finished her interview with Gor-don and she and her team had gone home, Katherine had taken Gor-don to bed, where she had given him hours of sex, taking his long cock deep inside her burning hot pussy until her fires of lust were finally quenched. The only scary part to Katherine... is that she was thinking of Don Troy, the Iron Crowbar, several times as Gor-don fucked her, fantasizing that Don's other 'iron crowbar' was pumping in and out of her.

The thought of copulating with Commander Troy should've been sickening to her, Katherine thought. But she could not get the images out of her mind...

Finally, she took Gor-don to a parking lot near Ronald Reagan Park, an area she knew was not covered by any video surveillance. She gave Gor-don a box, which she said had a burner phone inside that had never been turned on, much less used, and that he should not use it until he was far away from this County. Gor-don got into the old car that was sitting in the parking lot and being provided for his escape, and Katherine watched as he drove off, going west and over the State Line... and just in time.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I was at the Mountain Nest, taking the afternoon off, playing with the kids in the den, something I did entirely too little of, and of which I cherished every moment. Laura was on her computer, doing 'Company' business.

Bowser barked, and that was followed by the ringing of the front doorbell. I went to answer, seeing Cindy outside, wearing civilian clothes. I let her in.

"CIN-DEE!" Carole yelled loudly when Cindy walked into the den. Cindy picked my daughter up and gave her a hug, then sat down with her. Bowser jumped up on the sofa with them.

"Okay, Bowser," I said, picking him up and setting him on the floor, "off the furniture." Cindy bent over and petted Bowser.

"Bowser is a good dog." Carole said, in the form of a quotation.

"Yes he is." Cindy said. "And you're Bowser's good friend, aren't you?" Carole agreed.

"So," I said, picking up little Jim and sitting next to Cindy and Carole, "you phoned that you wanted to talk to me."

"Let me spend a few moments with my little cousins first." Cindy said. She reached over and tickled little Jim, who grinned. "By the way, Jenna is doing a lot better, and we had a good talk this morning. Things between us are a lot better now."

"That's good." I said.

After a few moments, I looked over and saw that a yellow-haired dog was by the back door. "Someone needs to go outside." I astutely observed. "Laura, can you watch the kids while Cindy and I take Bowser out?" Laura agreed, knowing Bowser was facilitating the private conversation Cindy wanted to have with me.

"Bowser has to go out." said Carole. Cindy agreed with Carole.

Once outside, as Bowser went to do his business, Cindy and I sat down in the patio chairs. "Don, I may be the Junior Michaux around here, but I'm still a Michaux. I want your permission to do something." she said.

"You want to investigate Gor-don's role in Jenna's abduction." I said. Cindy about broke her neck whirling to look at me. I just looked back at her.

"I realized it it while I was in the hospital with her today." Cindy said. "Jenna won't believe it of him, but I can just see Gor-don being part of it. It fits too well with the bad guys knowing where she was, getting into her car..."

"Jabberwocky Joyful Jehosephat." I said, a cryptic reference that my partner immediately understood... the trigger words from the 'Reichenbach' case, which we believed were telephonically said to me by... Gor-don.

"Exactly." Cindy said. "I want to look at video footage of the abduction from the Courthouse parking lot, as well as other video of them if we can find it. I want to get Gor-don's phone records for day and the previous couple of days, as well. Obviously I'll be asking for Myron and Mary's help on this."

"What would you say," I suggested, "to me assigning Tanya Perlman to that?"

"You still think I'm too close, or that I'll fly off the handle?" Cindy replied, bitterness in her voice. "I can handle it, Don. I'm a professional."

"Of course you are, and I'm not implying otherwise." I said. "I suggested Tanya for two reasons: you really are still too close to this situation, and so am I for that matter. And the second reason... is that while you were at the Hospital with Jenna this morning, I was already assigning Tanya to do exactly what you just asked me."

Cindy rolled her eyes, then looked over at Bowser and began chuckling. "I should've known you were already on it." Bowser came up to her and stopped. She reached over and picked him up, and as he sat in her lap she reached over and gave him a good petting. "Bowser, nothing gets by this man..." she said as she rubbed him under his chin.

If Bowser could talk, he would be agreeing with Cindy.

Part 27 - Punk On The Run

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" yelled the lovely redheaded reporterette at precisely 7:00am, Monday November 16th. "Channel Two News has learned that the fire that destroyed three buildings of an apartment complex south of Downtown has been confirmed to be arson. Fire Marshal Zoe Singer has turned over her findings to the Town & County Police Department, and Commander Donald Troy has issued a statement that the crime is under investigation."

"In other news, Assistant District Attorney Jenna Stiles is recovering after being abducted Friday night. In a daring raid by the TCPD SWAT Team, ADA Stiles and her assistant were rescued from the basement of the Fillmore Pharmacy. The Coroner's Office issued a statement that the criminals who died at the scene committed suicide by taking cyanide rather than be captured by the Police."

As Bettina called in Chuck Pringle for the Sports report, Sr. Sergeant Hugh Hewitt came into MCD, and was welcomed with warm greetings and a cup of coffee.

"You know what was strange about both the Beanstalk Gang raid and the Fillmore Pharmacy raid?" he said to all of us. "Those guys... they fought like hell. They fought like combat troops, like death-before-dishonor, no-silver-medal, go-all-out type of warfare."

"Are you seeing that more and more often?" Martin Nash asked. "Criminal gangs acting like militarized units, trained for combat?"

"Sometimes." said Hugh. "To be politically incorrect, I'll say it this way: the black drug gangs, we don't see it so much. The MS-13 types, we see it some. But it's these mostly-white gangs, like the Beanstalkers... now they're showing an organizational quality and cohesiveness that is pretty rare, especially in small-team combat tactics."

"Sandra says the FBI is also seeing a lot of that nationwide." said Martin Nash. "Which is why I asked."

"And here I was, thinking you'd made a brilliant observation, Mr. Nash." I said. "Keep that up, and someone might start thinking you're more than you want us to think you are." Hugh chuckled, but I noticed the slightest bit of disquiet behind Martin's eyes.

"I'm still learning from you, Commander." Nash said adroitly.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I was in my office during the 8:00am KSTD broadcast. Priya showed some of her interview with Gor-don, who described the abduction and the cell, but not the details of what had been done to Jenna. After it was over, I called in my Angels for the morning meeting.

"Okay, ladies," I said, "We've had enough excitement this last weekend to last for a month and a half. Can we please get through Christmas without anything else major happening?"

"What, are you leaving for a month and a half?" Cindy replied sarcastically. A red crowbar was waved in her general direction. Still, I chuckled along with Teresa and Tanya.

"I would just love to sit here and twiddle my thumbs for a while." I said. "Okay, Teresa, what's happening in Vice?"