Неизвестный - 2. Beyond The Breakwater

At that moment, Nelson Parker jogged across the street to join them. “What have we got?”

“Structural blaze,” Reese informed him. “As far as we know, unoccupied.”

“Looks like it’s gonna be a loss,” Nelson remarked as he watched flames lick their way through the cedar-shingled roof and pulse like living beings through the shattered windows into the smoke clouded air.

“Yeah,” Peterson agreed. “A wood building like that, there’s no way to stop it. This is a containment exercise, nothing more.”

“We’ll need the fire marshal’s report,” Reese pointed out.

“It’ll take until tomorrow for the heat to die down enough to comb through the place and probably a couple of days to analyze the forensics, but I’ll send along whatever we find as soon as we get it.”

“Good enough,” Reese said. Turning to Nelson, she continued, “We’ll need to keep someone from the night shift overtime for a few hours to handle traffic around this place. I’ll give Smith a call.”

“He’s back there on Six A. Go ahead and tell him.”

“Roger.”

“Oh, and Reese?”

“Chief?”

“The new kid is waiting back at the station.”

She studied his face but couldn’t read a thing in it. “I’ll head back as soon as I talk to Smith, then.”

“Good.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Within an hour, the fire was out, and all that remained was the cleanup. Reese headed back to the office. When she walked in, the newest member of the department was leaning against the corner of her desk. Reese pushed through the wooden gate and extended her hand to the young cadet in the pristine uniform.

“Officer Parker, welcome aboard.”

“Thank you, Sheriff.” Bri grinned fleetingly and then straightened. “I would have notified you when I got here, but you were already out on a call.”

“No problem. Come on, let’s take a ride through town, and we’ll talk about the game plan.”

When they settled into the car, Reese turned to Bri. “Have you seen your dad?”

“Just for a minute. He told me that my training officer would be along shortly.”

“You know, he needs to distance himself a little bit from your training so that there won’t be any question of prejudice in your evaluations.”

“I know that,” Bri said steadily, keeping her eyes forward. Plus he didn’t seem too keen for me to be here. I guess he still thinks I made a mistake leaving…New York.

She couldn’t think about the fact that she hadn’t talked to Carre in weeks. Once she’d finally gotten over some of her anger and embarrassment over storming out, and worked up the nerve to call her, all she ever got was the answering machine. Eventually, she’d just left a message reminding Carre of the party this coming Friday and left directions… just in case. Yeah, sure. You know she’s not coming.

Reese pulled the patrol car to the side of the road across from the smoldering ruins of the Moorings restaurant.

“Whoa,” Bri exclaimed.

“So,” Reese said as the two of them crossed the street to the rubble-littered parking lot. “Tell me what you want to know about this.”

Bri looked around for a second and then began confidently to ask questions. Reese nodded in satisfaction as Bri succinctly elicited the vital information regarding time, circumstances of the call reporting the fire, initial impressions of the fire captain, nature of reported injuries, and other basic data from her.

“Good. You can write all that up when we get back to the station.” They slowly circled the perimeter, each of them silently studying the scene. Eventually, Reese asked, “How would you approach the investigation?”

Bri took her time, and when she spoke, she sounded thoughtful but steady. “First, we’ll need the fire marshal’s report.”

“What do you think the fire marshal is going to tell us?”

“This place has been closed since last summer. As I recall, one of the big resort consortiums has been trying to buy it to build a timeshare here. The land is worth a lot, but the restaurant has seen better days.”

“Uh-huh.” Reese realized what a benefit it was for officers to have a history with the community that they policed. She was still a relative newcomer, but after three years, she knew a great deal about the inner workings of the tiny town and its inhabitants. Bri, though, had an advantage that Reese would never be able to match. She had spent all of her life in the midst of these people, and her history was their history.

“Since the restaurant hasn’t been functioning in months, it’s doubtful that any of the power was on, which lets out electrical origins. Same for the gas.” Bri stopped walking and put her hands in her pockets, a gesture that unconsciously mimicked Reese’s stance. “No storms lately, so it wasn’t lightning. I’d say this is going to be ruled incendiary in nature.”

“The fire was manmade, you think?”

“Yes.” She didn’t waver in her response.

“But it’s not necessarily arson.” At Bri’s questioning look, Reese continued, “An abandoned building like this would be a good place for vagrants to camp, and an untended fire could certainly have started this. Incendiary and accidental.”

“Right,” Bri said enthusiastically. “So we need to ask around town and find out if anybody has any info on vagrants—especially where they might be congregating. Could be kids, too.” At Reese’s raised eyebrow, she blushed. “Uh, when I was…uh…younger, you know…we’d get together in abandoned buildings to…get together.”

“Okay, good thought.” Reese clapped Bri on the shoulder approvingly while she sighed inwardly. She still had so much to learn about that period of life which she seemed to have skipped over. Then it suddenly occurred to her that in not too many years, it could be her child partying in firetraps like this. Her stomach flipped.“Christ.”

“Ma’am?”

“Nothing, Reese said briskly. “We’ve got several lines of questioning to pursue while we wait for the fire marshal. Let’s get started, Officer.”

Tory followed the scent of barbecue up the driveway toward the rear of her home. She was surprised to hear the soft murmur of voices and tried to recall if they had made plans with anyone for dinner. She hoped not, because she was beat. But her spirits lifted as she mounted the stairs and saw their visitor.

“Bri!” she cried in surprise. Reese and Bri were both in jeans and Tshirts, and a more attractive pair Tory didn’t think she had ever seen. Both of them grinned at her as she joined them. She paused to kiss Reese before giving Bri a hug. “What are you doing here?”

“I forgot to tell you that Bri was starting her field training today,” Reese said with contrite a shrug.

“That’s terrific.” Tory smiled and tried to hide her weariness. “I’m going inside to change. I’ll be right back.”

“She looks great,” Bri commented as she popped open a beer.

“Yeah,” Reese said absently as she followed her lover with her eyes. And she looks worn out. This new guy can’t start too soon for me.

When Tory returned a few moments later, Reese and Bri set the outside table and piled chicken from the grill onto paper plates. Tory grabbed a club soda and sat down with a grateful sigh.

“God, this looks good.” After helping herself to salad and chicken, she turned to Bri. “So where are you staying? With Nelson?”

Bri blushed. “Uh, I’m not sure yet.”

“Where are you staying now?”

“Well, most of my stuff is still in Barnstable. I moved out of the apartment I was sharing this morning and stowed my gear at school. I was going to go up this Friday after work and move it down Saturday.” She glanced at Reese. “If I can take the morning off? I know it’s Memorial Day weekend, but classes just finished and I didn’t have ti—”