Page 74 of Stone
Reaching for the device on his bedside table, he came up short. Pushing up for a better look, he confirmed his phone wasn’t where he’d left it.
It chimed again.
He recognized that sound—his security system alerting him to a breach or an attempted breach.
He wasn’t that worried. That particular chime was from one of the cameras on the outer perimeter of his property. If someone was trying to get to his house, they weren’t close. He’d like to keep it that way, though.
Shifting to his side, he peered over the edge of the bed. He didn’t recall hitting the bedside table, but he’d been known to in the past. It was possible he’d knocked the device off.
His extra pillow lay on the floor. Pushing it aside, he spied his phone lying underneath. It chimed again.
Swiping the device up, he opened the security app and identified the location of the issue. His heart stopped when he brought up the cameras in the area.
Without hesitation, he tossed the blankets off as he dialed 911.
“911 dispatch, what’s the nature of your call?” a man said.
“Someone started a fire on the edge of my property,” he replied before providing an address while also pulling on his jeans. Juliana sat up in bed as he looked for his boots. “I have a small tender and am heading out,” he said to the dispatch. “But the sooner the fire department gets here the better. It’s nothing but dry woods out there.”
“They’re on their way already, sir. Please stay away from the scene.”
That wasn’t going to happen. Mystery Lake Fire Department was damn good—they had to be given where they lived—but it would still take them close to ten minutes to reach him.
He hung up without answering. “Stay here,” he said to Juliana when he realized she, too, was pulling on a pair of pants.
She ignored him and dragged on one of his sweatshirts while tucking her feet into a pair of flats. “If it’s the tender I think it is, I can drive and you can manage the hose,” she said.
He didn’t question how she knew what kind of water truck he owned. There weren’t that many designed for nonprofessionals and no doubt she’d done the research—fires were a big topic of conversation and concern where they lived.
“It will be more efficient,” she said, already walking out the door.
Sherman, having woken as they’d dressed and talked, stood in his crate, his head cocked. He wasn’t quite whining, but he was thinking about it. For a hot second, Stone debated whetherto bring the dog. Understandably, Sherman had attachment issues, and leaving him in the dead of night wouldn’t be good. But he also didn’t want to get in the habit of bringing him everywhere all the time.
“This is an unusual situation,” Juliana said, obviously thinking the same thing. “He’ll stay in the cab with me,” she added as she unlatched the door and let him out.
Stone didn’t bother to argue. Instead, he led them downstairs and out through the garage, resetting the alarm on the way. After checking the main fire suppression system, he directed them toward one of the outbuildings.
Juliana had snapped a leash on Sherman and, thankfully, the dog seemed happier to be with them than concerned about hopping out of bed in the middle of the night.
“I’ll drive there, then you can take over,” he said, climbing into the cab of the three-thousand-gallon tender he kept ready from spring until the first snowfall.
“Arson?” Juliana asked, lifting Sherman in before settling into the passenger seat.
He nodded as he pulled out of the large barn.
“I guess this means they figured out who you are,” she said, running a hand over her face. “I’m sorry, Simon.”
He reached over and grabbed her hand, the truck bouncing across the field as they headed to a narrow path that would lead them closer to the fire than using the driveway.
“Not your fault these guys are first-rate assholes. The good news is, they have no idea how many cameras I have all over the place. I have a clear picture of the man who set it.” That comment had him pulling his phone out. No other alarms had been triggered, but it couldn’t hurt to monitor them. “Here, keep an eye on the app,” he said, unlocking the phone and handing the device over.
Neither of them spoke about how bad a fire could get this time of year. Knowing who set it and holding them accountable was all well and good, but if it flared out of control, prosecuting the man responsible wouldn’t undo all the damage. Not something they needed to be thinking about right now, though. Right now, they needed to put everything they had into making sure it didn’t reach that point.
A dim, eerie glow of flames filtered through the brush ahead of them, casting shadows that flickered and danced, then disappeared. He wouldn’t be able to get the truck as close as he’d like, but he’d be able to hit the edges of the fire and hopefully keep it from growing until the professionals arrived.
Unless, of course, it took to the trees.
He glanced up. So far, the flames seemed to be finding enough fuel on the ground, but it would only be a matter of time before the trunks grew hot enough, dry enough, to catch fire.
