Into the Inferno - Earl Emerson [104]
I stopped her before she could do anything else. “No, you don’t. That’s the end of it. It’s over.”
“Get out of my way. You don’t even know what this is about.”
“Sure I do. It’s about somebody going to jail.”
“Don’t even make me tell you how many martial arts I know,” Donovan warned, over my shoulder.
Donovan’s jaw was clenched, his blue eyes glued to Achara. Yet, strangely, he seemed afraid of her. In a physical altercation he could take Achara, together with me and probably Stephanie and Stiles, all of us at once. Because of the calluses on Donovan’s knuckles, I had no doubt his martial arts skills were impressive. Yet he hadn’t made a move to defend himself.
Stiles picked up his aid kit and marched across the street to his pickup truck. Stephanie took Achara by the arm and led her behind the Suburban. I gestured for Donovan to step over to the Lexus.
“What’s going on between you two?”
“You saw her. She caused that accident.”
“What were you arguing about in the truck?”
“It’s pretty simple. I’m in charge and she’s not. She was in school so long, she never learned to take orders.”
“You two better straighten this out.”
“She’d better straighten herself out.” Donovan looked off in the distance toward Snoqualmie Pass, where billows of black smoke from the state fire academy were rolling across the foothills. We’d all trained up there at Exit 38, everyone in the department, probably every firefighter in the state. “She just needs to stay on track. She gets out of the lab so infrequently, I don’t think she knows how to behave in public.”
“I have a feeling there’s more to it.”
“Hey, listen. She assaulted me.”
“You drive back with Stephanie. I’ll go with Achara.”
“Not necessary. We’ll be fine.”
“You sure?”
“It’s a lot of strain, you know?” Donovan’s eyes held mine. I figured him for a real Lothario, a heartthrob with the ladies, or maybe the guys, the ones who liked that type, big, thick, muscular, the boyish haircut, the baby-blues behind the wire-rimmed spectacles. “Trying to figure this out and get the work done before we lose you. And now we have that other firefighter, what’s her name?”
“Karrie.”
“I know this is a lot of pressure on Carpenter. I tried this once before in Tennessee and we weren’t successful, and you know what? It really bummed me out. I think the same thing’s happening to Achara. You know what I’m talking about. You do emergency work all the time. We don’t get out of the office. This is just a lot of strain.”
“Yeah. Well.”
Stephanie came around the vehicle and said, “I think she’ll be okay now. Why don’t we switch cars. You drive with Achara?”
Donovan said, “Forget it. We’ve got work to do. I’ll go with Achara.”
For a split second Achara looked at me, and I had the feeling she was afraid I might tell him about the numbers she’d given me. She stepped forward and put her talon of a hand out, and she and Donovan shook.
Moments later Donovan managed to extricate the Suburban from the ditch without the assistance of a wrecker. There was no telling what was going on between them, perhaps a tinge of professional envy, Donovan finding himself upstaged by the whiz kid from MIT, Achara rankling under the yoke of a boss she knew had lesser skills than she. Or maybe it was seeing Joel. Visiting him had shaken me up, too.
What bothered me even more than Achara’s sudden show of temper was the numbers she’d given me. I had no idea what they meant or why she’d offered them. Or why she didn’t want Donovan to know about them. I had the feeling they were part of a chemical formula, but what did I know? Sooner or later I’d get her alone and we would have an interesting conversation.
45. DON’T ASK ME WHAT I WAS DOING
IN A MOTEL ROOM WITH STEPHANIE RIGGS
Wracked with guilt for not being with my daughters, I thought about fleeing before she came out of the bathroom. I was stretched out on the bed, hands clasped behind my head, doing deep-breathing exercises, while the smartest, most attractive woman I’d ever met was taking her clothes off behind the bathroom door in a sleazy