Page 268 of Her Reluctant Hero
This was hell. The ground before them was gray ash, and Peyton kicked at it every few steps, looking for anything beneath that might catch fire. She’d seen Gabe do the same on the way down the mountain, trying to keep them out of another dangerous situation.
God, would she ever escape him, even a thousand miles away? Was she certain she wanted to?
She’d tied a bandana around her mouth and nose to keep the wind-whipped ash from her lungs, but it still burned her eyes so they teared constantly. She used another bandana to wipe the sweat from her face.
Though the threat of fire was minimal on the burned-out area, she and Kim wore full fire gear as a precaution. Gabe had trained them both to err on the side of caution. It was a hot, miserable hike to a place she wasn’t sure she could find.
“Did I tell you I’d like to be an arson investigator?” Kim asked conversationally.
“Really?” Peyton perked up, an idea for another story brewing. Both sides of the fire. Not exactly life threatening, but interesting. And, an idea for a story meant another day as a reporter. Another step toward commitment. “How would you go about doing something like that?”
“Well, I’m thinking about applying this winter. I have a degree in Fire Behavior, and I should have enough experience. I could still work for the Forest Service, and just consult with the FBI on suspected arson cases.”
“Seems tedious.”
Kim shot her a grin. “Like being a ground pounder isn’t?”
Peyton shuddered as she recalled the fire that chased them out of the scout camp. “Not in my experience.”
“It looks like the fire started here,” Kim said, traipsing through the ash on the mountain.
Peyton could see what she meant—the black spread in a fan up the mountain. The weird thing was that this area was so isolated, so remote, on Forest Service land. Who would come out here to start it? Maybe it had been a smokejumper.
“The FBI has already been here, right?” she asked.
Kim glanced over her shoulder. “They got the can, didn’t they?”
“I just don’t want to be messing up a crime scene.” Peyton watched Kim drag her feet through the ash. She hadn’t seen Kim walk that way before. “What are you doing? Making sure the fire is out?” She indicated Kim’s feet.
Kim’s face reddened a bit. “Yeah. You never know. And the FBI may have missed something.”
Peyton doubted it. She’d seen photos of arson crime scenes where the investigators had been on their hands and knees sifting through the ash. Had they done the same here? Or had they found the can and figured they had what they needed.
She stumbled over a burned clump of grass, and an object popped loose. Peyton crouched to lift a scrap of something manmade that had been blackened and bunched up against the roots.
A glove, asbestos, partially burned. And way too small for Doug Sheridan.
