Page 18 of Big Daddy Firemen

To the folks in Big Cedar, though, he was one of the town’s most involved citizens and an all-around nice guy.

And to the petite Grace, he was the best Daddy ever.

They were quite a pair, a study in opposites. While Theo was huge, Grace outright tiny when beside him. She had short, blond hair, mesmerizing blue eyes, and a constantly chipper attitude.

“Man,” Theo said. “This just sucks.”

“Sort of how we feel, too,” Quinn said.

“I just brought Little Grace in for some breakfast over at the café,” Theo said, jerking his head behind him, toward the direction of Marsha’s eatery just down the way.

Marsha—a woman of 61 years—stood on the porch, watching the commotion. She was too far away for anyone at the scene ofthe fire to read the look on her face, but by her posture, it was pretty clear she felt just like everyone else did: saddened by such a historic loss.

Theo kept talking. “But when we saw what was going on, I redirected. Y’all sure you don’t need a hand?”

“Not much to do now,” Cane said. “But thank you. It was easy to get under control. Thankfully.”

“We’ll sift through the rubble once it cools down and do a little investigating,” Walker added.

“You think this was intentional?” Quinn asked, the lawman tensing at the implication of a possible crime.

“Not sure. I doubt it,” Walker said. “But power hasn’t been on in this place for decades. So we can rule out faulty wiring pretty easily. And…” He made a show of looking up at the sky. “Bright and sunny. No lightning. Something started this blaze, and I want to know what it was.”

“Oh man,” Quinn sighed. “I’ll put up some crime-scene tape and section this thing off.”

“Much obliged,” Walker said.

Nearby, still working the hose, Austin had heard it all. Walker was pretty quick to dismiss the notion that the fire was intentionally set, and he understood why. It was Big Cedar. Smalltown, Oklahoma. Folks didn’t just go around setting fires around there. It was all about helping your neighbors, mom’s apple pie, and that sort of stuff. They got tourists through there, but hardly any of them caused trouble.

Though the town had experienced some trouble some months prior, back when Quinn’s now-wife arrived on the scene. Alyssa had been running from some folks in Arkansas.

Some bad, mean folks who were probably as vindictive as they were shady.

Could they be back, stirring up trouble?

Or was it someone else?

Of course, there was a chance the fire had not been intentional at all. Old buildings burned sometimes. True, there had to be a first spark caused by something, but with all that rotting wood, they were tinderboxes, and it didn’t take much to light ‘em up.

It could have been an unhoused individual who drifted through there and had been taking shelter. There were no signs of anyone inside—thank God—so they could’ve moved on before the fire grew out of hand. But it wasn’t uncommon for people to seek a roof over their head and start a small fire to keep warm—especially on cold nights.

Or it might have been a complete accident. Someone drove by and tossed out a cigarette that rolled up against the building and conditions were just right.

Perhaps no one was involved at all. Who knew what had been stored in that old place, just sitting there waiting for combustion.

Hopefully, an investigation would tell.

Austin’s gut, though, was already saying this was no accident. Something deep down told him that fire had been intentionally set.

As he finished dousing the last portions with more water, just to be on the safe side, that suspicion grew until it was clawing at his insides, gnawing away at him.

He just hoped he was wrong. But he’d been in the firefighting game for some time. He’d honed his instincts.

Unfortunately for this case, those instincts were rarely wrong.

He said a silent prayer, hoping more trouble hadn’t come to Big Cedar.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

---