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By Root 541 0

hanger. As he reached under the stairs to turn on the faucet, he heard a whoosh and then flames erupted in a pile of boxes that hadn’t been under there this morning. He aimed the high-powered nozzle directly into the smaller fire, dousing it immediately. He struggled to pull the taut hose around the dock. It wasn’t long enough, so he had to duck down to bring it under the smoky platform. As he crawled out the other side, he saw the old man disappear into the woods, his dog skittering after him. His heart sank as the first blast of water only seemed to feed the fire. Burning strips of siding curled away from the building. Moving closer, he aimed the water into the core of the blaze until there was only thick black smoke. Coughing, he sprayed the fiery siding, waving the hose back and forth between the loading dock and the building. Streams of black muck puddled around his feet. The blast of water was all he could hear. Someone jostled his arm. Startled, he jumped. He kept trying to hand the shouting fireman the hose until he realized they had their own. They wanted him out of their way.

The police had located Neil at the Dearborn Country Club. The cleats of his white golf shoes clicked on the asphalt as he ran to the back of the Market.

“It looks a lot worse than it is,” the fire lieutenant said. He continued writing his report as he talked to Neil. “You’re lucky your man here came back when he did.”

Gordon shrugged and tried to smile. Poor Neil, he could use some breaks.

“He called you?” Neil asked.

“He put it out,” the lieutenant said. “With the hose there. It must’ve just started.”

“How’d it start?” Neil asked.

“Probably set. All that cardboard there,” the lieutenant said, snapping shut the thin metal cover of his report. The fire marshal’s office would be investigating, he added, then told Neil they had to check inside now.

Why? What were they looking for? Neil wanted to know. Did they think someone might be in there?

No, they had to make sure the wiring was all right.

While Neil went through the building with the lieutenant and two other firemen, the rest of the crew waited by their trucks, drinking bottled water and arguing about some new player the Red Sox had just traded for. Gordon lingered by the Dumpster. He folded his arms, unfolded them, paced back and forth, then decided to look in the woods for the missing carts. The first one lay on its side in the dry streambed. Nearby was the second one, jammed into a snarl of brush. It was filled with empties and covered with a tattered brown blanket. Cootie’s stash, he realized, dragging them from the woods. With the ruckus of cans and bottles clinking in the rattling carts, the firemen stopped talking. They knew who he was. He took a deep breath. What if they thought he had set the fire?

Satisfied there had been no electrical or structural damage, the lieutenant was leaving.

“It’s those goddamn kids. I don’t know what more I can do,” Neil called through the closing door. He locked it. Gordon had been filling a trash bag with the cans and bottles. He and Neil watched the smaller truck pull into the street, where it held back traffic so the hook and ladder could turn out of the lot.

“Neil, it was the old man. Cootie, he’s the one who set the fire. I saw him.”

“You saw him? You saw him set it?”

“Well, no, not setting it. But he was right there. I was trying to get the hose around and I saw him. He was running into the woods.”

“Did you tell them that?”

“No. I thought I should tell you first.”

“Well, that’s good. That’s really fucking good,” Neil said with a deep sigh.

“It’s a mess out there, huh? But it shouldn’t take too long to clean up. I can get started first thing in the morning.”

Neil looked out at the street.

“At least you don’t have to shut down, that’s one good thing,” Gordon continued.

Neil turned, face twisted, his eyes red and wet. “Forget about Cootie. You didn’t see him. He wasn’t there. He had nothing to do with this, all right? You got that straight?”

Gordon nodded.

“You’re not as thick as you want me to think, are you, Gloomis?” That