Chasing Fire Part 18

"Crazy doesn't have to make sense."

"You've got a point. But all that mess down there accomplishes is to cost time and money-and p.i.s.s everybody off. Not to mention cops knocking at your door, when you slid by that one last time."

"Vindictive doesn't have to make sense either."

Gull started to speak again, but Gibbons hailed Rowan. "Cops want to talk to you, Ro. To all of us," he added as the machines hummed into silence. "But you're up."

"I'm going to finish packing this chute. Five minutes," she estimated. "L.B.'s office. Lieutenant Quinniock."

"Five minutes."

"Cards, when you're finished there, you can go on over to the cookhouse. The other one, Detective Rubio'll talk to you there." Cards jerked his head in acknowledgment. "Looks like you got the short straw, Ro. At least I'll get some breakfast."

"Gull, Matt, Janis, when the cops give us the go-ahead, you'll be working with me on cleanup and inventory. You want chow, Marg's got a buffet set up. Fill your bellies because we're going to be at it awhile. f.u.c.king mess," he said in disgust as he walked out.

Cards signed his name, the time and date on the repacked chute.

"I'll walk down with you," Gull told Cards, and brushed a hand down Rowan's back as he walked by her.

She finished the job, choking down everything but the task at hand. When she was done, she labeled the pack. Chute by Swede. She shelved it, then gladly left the headachy din of manufacturing. But she detoured to the ready room.

She wanted to see it again. Maybe needed to.

Two police officers worked with a pair of civilians-forensics, Rowan concluded. She knew the woman currently taking photos of the painted message. Jamie Potts, Rowan thought. They'd been stuck in Mr. Brody's insanely boring world history cla.s.s together their junior year in high school.

She recognized one of the cops as well, as she'd dated him awhile about the same time as Mr. Brody.

She started to speak, then just backed out, realizing she didn't want conversation until she had no choice. Besides, looking at the torn and trampled, the strewn and defaced, only heated up her already simmering temper. She shoved her hands into the pockets of the hoodie she'd pulled on over her nightclothes.

Halfway to Operations, Gull cut across her path. He handed her a c.o.ke. "I thought you could use it." "Yeah, thanks. I thought you'd headed down for breakfast." "I'll get it. It's a b.u.mp, Ro." "What?"

"This." He gestured behind them, toward the ready room. "It's a b.u.mp, the kind that gives you a nasty jolt, but it doesn't stop you from getting where you're going. Whoever did that? They didn't accomplish a thing but make everybody on this base more determined to get where we're going."

"Gla.s.s half full?"

She honestly couldn't say why that grated on her nerves. "Right now my gla.s.s is not only mostly empty, it has a jagged, lip-tearing chip in it. I'm not ready to look at it in sunny terms. I might be once her vindictive bats.h.i.+t crazy a.s.s is sitting in a cell."

"They'll have to call in the rangers or the feds, I guess. U.S. Forest Service property that got messed with, so it's probably a felony. I don't know how it works."

That stopped her. She hadn't thought it through. "L.B. called the locals. The feds aren't going to waste their time with this."

"I don't know. But I'd think if somebody wanted to push it, that's where it would go. Destruction of federal property, that could land her a stiff stint in a cell. What she needs is a big dose of mandatory therapy."

The man, she concluded, was a piece of work. Good work at the core, and right now that core of good made her want to punch something. Possibly him. "You're telling me this because you're not sure if I want her to do time in Leavenworth, or wherever."

"Do you?"

"d.a.m.n it. Right now I wouldn't shed a tear over that, but at the bottom of it, I just want her out of our hair, once and for all." "n.o.body can argue with that.

Whoever did that to the ready room has some serious problems."

"Look, you've had a few weeks' exposure to Dolly. I've had a lifetime, and I'm finished having her problems become mine."

"n.o.body can argue with that, either." He cupped a hand at the back of her neck, catching her off-guard with the kiss. "Let's see if we can squeeze in a run later. I could use one."

"Will you stop trying to settle me down?"

"No, because you probably don't want to talk to a cop when you're p.i.s.sed off enough to bite out his throat if he happens to push the wrong b.u.t.ton."

He took her shoulders, got a good grip. And, she noted, his eyes weren't so calm, weren't so patient. "You're smart. Be smart. The ready room wasn't a personal attack on you; it was a sucker punch at all of us. Remember that."

"She's-"

"She's nothing. Make her nothing, and focus on what's important. Give the cop what he needs, go back to work on fixing the damage. After that, take a run with me."

He kissed her again, quick and hard, then walked away.

"Take a run. I'll give you a run," she muttered. She veered off toward L.B.'s office, and realized Gull unsettled her nearly as much as Dolly's sudden bent for violence. Lieutenant Quinniock sat at L.B.'s overburdened desk with a mug of coffee and a notebook. Black-framed cheaters perched on the end of his long, bladed nose while eyes of faded-denim blue peered over them. A small scar rode high on his right cheek, a pale fishhook against the ruddiness. And like a scar, a shock of white, like a lightning bolt blurred at the edges, shot through his salt-and-pepper hair between the left temple and the crown.

She'd seen him before, Rowan realized-in a bar or a shop-somewhere. His wasn't a face easily overlooked.

He wore a dark, subtly pin-striped suit like an executive-pressed and tailored, with a perfectly knotted tie of flashy red. The suit didn't go with the face, she thought, and wondered if the contrast was deliberate.

He stood when she came into the room. "Ms. Tripp?" "Yeah. Rowan Tripp."

"I appreciate you taking a few minutes. I know it's a stressful day. Would you mind closing the door?" The voice, she decided, mild, polite, engaging, fit the suit.

"Have a seat," he told her. "I have a few questions." "Okay."

"I've met your father. I imagine most around these parts have at some time or other. You're following in big footprints, and I'm told you're doing a good job of filling them."

"Thanks."

"So ... you and a Miss Dolly Brakeman had an altercation a few days ago."

"You could call it that."

"What would you call it?"

She wanted to rage, to jab a finger in the middle of that flashy tie. Be smart, Gull had said-and d.a.m.n it, he was right. So she ordered herself to relax in the chair and speak coolly. "Let's see, I call it trespa.s.sing, vandalism, defacing private property and generally being a crazy b.i.t.c.h. But that's just me."

"Apparently not just you, as others I've spoken with share that point of view.

You discovered Miss Brakeman in your quarters here on base in the act of pouring animal blood on your bed. Is that correct?"

"It is. And that would be after she'd poured it, tossed it, splattered it over the walls, the floor, my clothes and other a.s.sorted items. After she wrote on my wall with it. 'Burn in h.e.l.l,' to be precise."

"Yes, I've got the photographs of the damage Mr. Little Bear took before the area was cleaned and repainted."

"Oh." That set her back a moment. She hadn't realized L.B. had doc.u.mented with photos. Should have figured he would, she thought now. That's why he was in charge.

"And what happened when you found her in your quarters?"

"What? Oh, I tried to kick her a.s.s, but several of my colleagues stopped me.

Which, given the current situation, is even more of a d.a.m.n shame." "You didn't notify the police."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Partially because I was too p.i.s.sed off, and partially because she got fired and kicked off the base. That seemed enough, considering." "Considering?"

"Considering, at that time, I figured she was just sublimely stupid, that her stupidity was aimed solely at me-and she's got a baby. Plus, within an hour we caught a fire, so she wasn't a top priority for me after that."

"You and your unit had a long, hard couple of days." "It's what we do." "What you do is appreciated." He sipped his coffee as he scanned his notes.

"The baby you mentioned is purported to have been fathered by James Brayner, a Missoula smoke jumper who died in an accident last August." "That's right."

"Miss Brakeman blames you."

It hurt still; she supposed it always would. "I was his jump partner. She blames the whole unit, and me in particular." "Just for my own edification, what does 'jump partner' mean?"

"We jump in two-man teams. One after the other once we get the go from the spotter. The first one out, that would've been me in this case, checks the location and status of the second man. You might want to make adjustments in direction, trajectory, give the second man a clear stream. If one of you has any problems, the other should be able to spot it. You look out for each other, as much as you can, in the air, on landing."

"And Brayner's accident was ruled, after investigation, as his error."

Her throat burned, making it impossible to keep the emotion out of her voice.

"He didn't steer away. We hit some bad air, but he just rode on it. He pulled the wrong toggle, steered toward instead of away. There was nothing I could do. His chute deployed; I gave him s.p.a.ce, but he didn't come around. He overshot the jump site, kept riding, and went down into the fire." "It's difficult to lose a partner."

"Yeah. Difficult."

"At that time Miss Brakeman was employed as a cook on base." "That's right."

"Did you and she have any problems prior to the accident?" "She cooked. I ate. That's pretty much it."

"I'm under the impression the two of you knew each other for quite some time.

That you went to school together."

"We didn't run in the same circle. We knew each other. For some reason she was always jealous of me. I know a lot of people. I know Jamie and Barry, down doing their cop thing in the ready room; went to school with them, too.

Neither one of them ever pulled a Carrie-at-the-prom on my quarters."

He watched her over that long, narrow nose. "Were you aware she was pregnant at the time of Brayner's death?"

"No. As far as I know n.o.body was aware except, from what she said when she came back, Jim. She took off right after the accident-I don't know where, and don't care. As far as I can tell she came back with the baby, got religion and came here looking for work, armed with her mother, her minister and pictures of her chubby-cheeked baby. L.B. hired her."

To give herself a moment, she took a long drink from her c.o.ke. "I had one conversation with her, figuring we should clear the air, and during which she made it crystal she hated every linear inch of my guts, wished me to h.e.l.l. She dumped blood all over my room. L.B. fired her. And that brings us up to date." She s.h.i.+fted in her chair, tired of sitting, tired of answering questions she suspected he already had the answers to. Focus on what's important, she remembered. "Look, I know you've got ground to cover, but I don't see why my past history with Dolly applies. She broke into the ready room and damaged equipment. Essential equipment. It's a lot more than inconvenient and messy.

If we're not ready when we're called, people can die. Wildlife and the forests they live in are destroyed."

"Understood. We'll be talking to Miss Brakeman. At this time, the only possible link between her and the vandalism in your ready room is her confirmed vandalism of your quarters."

"She said she wanted us all to die. All of us to burn. Just like she wrote on the wall. I guess she couldn't get her hands on any more pig's blood, so she used spray paint this time."

"Without equipment, you can't jump. If you can't jump, you're not in harm's way." "Logical. But then logic isn't Dolly's strong suit."

"If it turns out she's responsible for this situation, I'd have to agree. Thanks for your time, and your frankness."

"No problem." She pushed to her feet, stopped on her way to the door. "I don't see how there's any 'if.' People around here understand what we do. We're part of the fabric. Everybody on base is a thread in the fabric, and we do what we do because we want to. We depend on each other. Dolly's the only odd man out."

"There are three men who got their a.s.ses kicked last month outside Get a Rope who might enjoy fraying those threads."

She turned fully back into the room. "Do you really think those a.s.sholes came back to Missoula, snuck on base, found the ready room and did that c.r.a.p?" Quinniock removed his cheaters, folded them neatly on the desk. "It's another 'if.' It's my job to consider all the 'ifs.'"

The interview left Rowan more annoyed than satisfied. Though her appet.i.te barely stirred, she hit the buffet, built herself a breakfast sandwich. She ate on the way back to manufacturing.

n.o.body complained. Not about the extra work or the tedium of doing it. While she'd been with Quinniock, Janis set up her MP3 with speakers so R&B, country, rock, hip-hop softened the clamor of the machines. She watched Dobie do a little boot-scoot across the floor to Shania Twain with a load of Smitty bags in his arms.

Could be worse, she thought. It could always be worse, so the smart thing to do was to make the best out of the bad. When Gull hauled in chutes for repair, she figured the cops had cleared the ready room.

She left her machine to go to the counter and help him spread the silks. "How bad is it?" she asked him.

"Probably not as bad as it looked. Everything's tossed around, but there's not as much actual damage as we thought. Or I thought, anyway. A lot just needs to be sorted and repacked."

"Silver lining." She marked tears and cuts.

"With a rainbow. Maintenance is setting up tables outside. Rumor is Marg is putting a barbecue together, and she's got a truckload of ribs." Rowan marked another tear. Men who hadn't bothered to shave or shower that morning were singing along with Taylor Swift. It was just a little surreal.

"When the going gets tough," she decided, "the tough eat ribs. We've got nearly all the chutes that were in for rigging and repair done, and nearly all of those packed. Coming along on PG bags, Smitties, ponchos and packs." She paused, met his eyes. "If it keeps moving, maybe we'll fit in that run."

"Ready when you are."

"I hate being wrong."

"Anybody who doesn't probably has low self-esteem. Low self-esteem can lead to a lot of problems, many of them s.e.xual."

She knew when she was being ribbed, so nodded solemnly. "I'm lucky I have exceptionally high self-esteem. Anyway, I hate being wrong about thinking this was a shot at me. I'd rather she'd taken a shot at me. I'd rather be p.i.s.sed off about a personal vendetta than this."

"It sucks, but there's something to be said about listening to Southern and Trigger singing a duet of 'Wanted Dead or Alive.'" "They weren't bad. No Bon Jovi, but not bad."

"If your gla.s.s is half empty and has a chip in it, you might as well belly up to the bar and order a fresh one. I've gotta get back."

Bright side, she thought. Silver lining. Maybe it took her longer to find them- or want to-but what the h.e.l.l. She might as well toss away her c.r.a.ppy gla.s.s.

She examined every inch of the chute before turning it over to repair, then started on the next. She was so focused on what she thought of as an a.s.sembly line of life and death, she didn't hear L.B. walk up beside her.