Vertical Burn - Earl Emerson [107]
Diana turned the lights out and went into the living room where she climbed into his recliner and pulled a quilt over herself. She watched the running lights from a cruiser easing quietly past the window.
She listened to his answering machine take another call, this from a local country-western radio station brazenly asking Finney to drive to their studio tomorrow morning for a chatty interview during the commute hour, as if he was in any condition to talk, or to drive. Or to be chatty.
Sadler’s body had been recovered under a stainless-steel tub. Hiding under a tub of pig guts didn’t seem like a good way to die, but then there was no good way to die in a fire.
Diana was washing dishes in the kitchen sink, up to her elbows in the hot, sudsy water when Finney called from the other room. Although his bedroom was not particularly warm, he was sitting up in bed, sweating heavily. Avoiding the postage-stamp burn on his neck, she touched his bare shoulder reassuringly. “Something to drink?”
“I’ve been lying here trying to think it through. I’m confused.”
Diana sat on the edge of the bed. “You went to a fire on Engine Twenty-six, down off West Marginal Way. You and Gary went inside searching for victims. Gary never came out.”
“No, that’s Leary Way. I’m talking about last night.”
“That was last night, John.”
“But I brought Gary out.”
Last night nobody believed him, and now she didn’t know if she believed him either. She didn’t think he would lie, at least not deliberately, but even after coming out of the hyperbaric chamber he’d been about as confused as a man who wasn’t drunk or on drugs could get.
“Where did you take him when you brought him out?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Two firefighters came over, so I went back in.”
“Earlier you said a doorway. Which doorway?”
“I don’t know.”
“John, why didn’t you talk to somebody when you came out? They would have told you the search had been called off.”
“I’d just spoken to two firefighters who said they’d seen victims.”
“Okay, what if he went back in himself? Isn’t that possible? Could he have been looking for you?”
“I saw somebody inside later. It might have been Gary. Did you know he saved my life? That’s the second time this month somebody’s saved my life.”
“John . . .”
“I was hiding from them. I thought they were trying to kill me. I guess I was hiding from Gary.”
“They found your PASS device near Gary’s body. Do you know how it got there?”
“I’m sorry. I really can’t remember.”
“John, nobody’s going to blame you for not recalling details the day after a fire.”
“You gonna be here in the morning?”
“I was planning on it. If that’s all right.” She handed Finney a drinking glass half-filled with water, then leaned over and kissed his forehead. “Go to sleep.”
“I need to tell you something.”
“Not now.”
“No, I need to say this. It’s about Leary Way. I have to get it off my chest. Bill called me over to look at the wall. When I saw it was coming down, I ran like a scared kitten. I can still feel the panic when I talk about it.”
“You did your best. You—”
“No, I didn’t do my best. I didn’t try to save him. I just ran.”
“There are times when all you can do is run.”
“I don’t think that was one of them.”
“Okay. Say you hadn’t. Where would that have put you? Under those bricks with Bill. What good would that have done? You did the right thing. It’s the same reason the airlines tell us to put that oxygen mask on ourselves first. If you’d slowed to help Bill, you would have both been trapped.”
“But the only thing in my mind was getting out.”
“As it should have been. You’re saying you feel guilty for running