Chasing Fire Part 34

"Okay, fine. We need men up on that ridge digging line before she rides this wind and s.h.i.+fts this way for fresh eats and builds again." "All right."

"Take Dobie, Matt, Libby and Stovic."

NIGHT, HE THOUGHT-or morning, probably-when he dragged himself to the creek. The fire trembled in its death throes, coughing and sputtering.

Overhead, stars winked hopefully through thinning smoke.

He pulled off his boots, his socks, and stuck his abused feet in the gorgeously cool water. The postfire chatter ran behind him in voices raw with smoke and adrenaline. Jokes, insults, rewinds of the long fight. And the expected what-the-f.u.c.k? question about what he and Dobie had found. More work waited, but would keep until daybreak. The fire hadn't lain down to rest.

She'd lain down to die.

Rowan sat down beside him, dropped an MRE in his lap, pushed a drink into his hand. "They dropped a nice load down for camp, so I made you dinner."

"A woman's work is never done."

"More in the mood to be reasonable, I see." "I needed to burn it off."

"I know." She touched a hand to his briefly, then picked up the fork to shovel in beef stew. "I put some of Dobie's famous Tabasco in this. Nice kick."

"I was taking his picture. Him standing there in the black, and behind him the fire, and the sky. Surreal. I'd just taken his picture when we found it. It didn't get to me, really, until we started up to meet you, and it just got bigger and bigger in me. Christ, I wasn't even thinking about some guy burned to bone after taking a shot in the head."

"Shot?"

Gull nodded. "Yeah, but I wasn't thinking about him. All I could think about was this, and us. All the loss and waste, the risks, the sweat and blood. And for what, Ro? Since I couldn't beat the h.e.l.l out of whoever caused it, I had to beat the h.e.l.l out of the fire." "Matt got hung up on the jump. He let down okay, but it could've gone bad. A widowmaker as thick as my arm nearly hit Elf when we had to retreat, and Yangtree's got a Pulaski gash on his calf to go with his swollen knee. One of the Idaho crew took a bad fall, broke his leg. You were right to be mad."

For a while, they ate in silence. "They want you back in the morning, you and Dobie, so DiCicco and Quinniock can talk to you. I can pack out with you."

He glanced over, grateful-grateful enough not to mention she was taking care of him. "That'd be good." "I figured you're pretty tired, so I can save you the time popping your tent. You can share mine."

"That'd be even better. I love this job," he said after a moment, thinking of Dobie. "I don't know why exactly but what this b.a.s.t.a.r.d's done makes me love it even more. The cops have to find him, catch him, stop him. But we're the ones cleaning up his G.o.dd.a.m.n mess. We're the ones doing whatever it takes to keep it from being worse. The wild doesn't mean anything to him, what lives in it, lives off it. It means something to us."

He looked at her then, slowly leaned in to take her lips in a kiss of surprising gentleness. "I found you in the wild, Rowan. That's a h.e.l.l of a thing." She smiled, a little uncertainly. "I wasn't lost."

"Neither was I. But I'm found, too, just the same."

When they walked the short distance to the tents, they crossed paths with Libby. "How you doing, Gull?"

"Okay. Better since I hear I get to skate out of mop-up. Have you seen Dobie?" "Yeah, he just turned in. He was feeling ... I guess you know. Matt and I sat up with him awhile after the rest bunked down. He's doing okay."

"You did good work today, Barbie," Rowan told her. "Never plan to do any other kind. Good night."

Rowan yawned her way into the tent and, with her mind and body already shutting down, worked off her boots. "Don't wake me unless there's a bear attack. In fact, even then."

She stripped down to her tank and panties. As she rolled toward the sleeping bag, Gull considered.

"You know, thirty seconds ago I figure I was too tired to scratch my own a.s.s.

And now, strangely, I'm filled with this renewed energy." She opened one eye, shut it again. "Do what you gotta do. Just don't wake me up doing it."

He climbed in beside her, smiling, drew her already limp-with-sleep body to his. When he closed his eyes he thought of her, of nothing but her, and slid quietly into the dark.

IT WAS HER KNEE pressing firmly into his crotch that woke him. His eyes crossed before they opened. Easing back relieved the worst of the pressure on his now throbbing b.a.l.l.s.

Had she aimed, he wondered, or had it just been blind luck? Either way, perfect shot.

She didn't budge when he rolled out to pull on his pants, fresh socks, boots.

He left the pants and boots unfastened and crawled out into soft morning light. Nothing and no one stirred. Then again, as far as he knew the other tents held occupants of one-with no one to jab a knee into their b.a.l.l.s. Should they have them.

He stood, adjusted himself-carefully-then chose a direction out of camp to empty his bladder. Coffee, and filling his belly, would be next on the list, he decided. Being the first awake meant he had first dibs on the breakfast MREs.

He'd sit outside, maybe down by the creek, give Rowan the tent for more sleep and enjoy a quiet, solitary if c.r.a.ppy meal until ...

He stopped and looked. Looked over a meadow brilliant with wild lupines, regally purple. The faintest ground mist s.h.i.+mmered through them, giving them the illusion of floating on a thin, white river while dozens of deep blue b.u.t.terflies danced over those bold lances.

Untouched, he thought. The fire hadn't touched this. They'd stopped it, and now the wildflowers bloomed, the b.u.t.terflies danced in the misty morning light.

It was, he thought, as beautiful, as vivid as the finest work of art. Maybe more.

And he'd had a part in saving it, and the trees beyond it, and whatever lay beyond the beyond.

He'd fought in the smoke and the blistering red air, walked through the black that stank with death. And to here, where life lived, where it thrived in quiet and simple grace.

To here, which held all the answers to why.

HE BROUGHT HER THERE, dragging her away from camp before they packed out. "We've got to get going," she protested. "If we haul our a.s.ses down to the visitors' center, they can van us back to base. Clean bodies, clean clothes.

And, G.o.d, I want a c.o.ke."

"This is better than a c.o.ke."

"Nothing's better than a c.o.ke first thing in the morning. You coffee hounds have it all wrong." "Just look." He gestured. "That's better than anything."

She'd seen meadows before, seen the wild lupine and the b.u.t.terflies it seduced. She started to say so, grumpy with caffeine withdrawal, but he looked so ... struck.

And she got it. Of course she got it. Who better?

Still, she had to give him a dig, one with the elbow in the side, the other verbal. "There's that mushy romantic streak again." "Stand right there. I'm going to get a picture."

"h.e.l.l you are. Jesus, Gull, look at me." "One of my favorite occupations."

"If you want a shot of a woman in front of a meadow of flowers, get one with clean, s.h.i.+ny hair and a flowy white dress."

"Don't be stupid, you look exactly right. Because you're part of why it's here.

This is like a bookend to the one I took of Dobie in the black. It shows how and why and who go into everything between those two points."

"Romantic slob," she repeated. But it moved her, the truth of it, the knowing they shared.

So she hooked her thumbs in her front pockets, c.o.c.ked her hip and sent him and his camera a big, bold grin. He took the shot, lowered the camera slowly and just stared at her as he had at the meadow. Struck.

"Here, switch off. I'll take one of you." "No. It's you. It's Dobie in the black, the fire raging behind him, telling me how much he loves this job, what he's found in it. And it's you, Rowan, in the sunlight with preserved beauty at your back. You're the end of the G.o.dd.a.m.n rainbow."

"Come on." Mildly embarra.s.sed, she shrugged it off, started toward him. "You must be punchy." "You're the answer before I even asked the question."

"Gull, it weirds me out when you start talking like that."

"I think you're going to have to get used to it. I've fallen pretty deep in ... care with you. We'll go with that for now, because I think it's more, and that's a lot to figure out."

A touch of panic speared through embarra.s.sment. "Gull, getting wound up in .

. . care for people like us-for people like me-it's a sucker bet." "I don't think so. I like the odds."

"Because you're crazy."

"You have to be crazy to do this job."

She couldn't argue with that. "We've got to get going." "Just one more thing."

He took her shoulders, drawing her in. His fingers glided up to her face as he guided them into a kiss made for meadows and summer s.h.i.+ne, the flutter of b.u.t.terflies and music of birdsong.

Unable to find a foothold, she tumbled into it, lost herself in the sweetness, the promise she told herself she didn't want. Her heart trembled in her chest, ached there.

And, for the first time in her life, yearned there. Unsteady, she stepped away.

"That's just heat."

"Keep telling yourself that." He hooked an arm around her shoulders in a lightning switch to friendly. The man, she thought, could make her dizzy.

DICICCO AND QUINNIOCK stepped out of Operations even as the vans pulled up to base.

"It'd be nice if they let us clean up first," Gull commented, then he got off the van, nodded to the cop and the fed. "Where do you want to do this?" "L.B.'s office is available for us," Quinniock told him.

"Look, there are tables outside the cookhouse. I wouldn't mind airing out some and getting some food while we're at it. I expect Dobie feels the same."

"You got that right, son. Did you figure out who's dead?" "We'll talk about it,"

DiCicco told him.

"We'll take care of your gear." Rowan gestured to Matt, Janis. "Don't worry about it." "Appreciate it." Gull gave her a quick look.

"Are we suspects?" Dobie wanted to know as they walked toward the cookhouse. "We haven't made any determinations, Mr. Karstain."

"Loosen up, Kim," Quinniock suggested. "We have no reason to suspect you in this matter. You can tell us where you were the night before you jumped the fire, between eleven P.M. and three A.M., if you'd like." "Me? I was playing cards with Libby and Yangtree and Trigger till about midnight. Trig and me had a last beer after. I guess we bunked down about one."

"I was with Rowan," Gull said, and left it at that.

"We'd like to go over the statements you gave the rangers on scene." DiCicco sat at the picnic table, pulled out her notebook, her mini recorder. "I'd like to record this."

"Dobie, why don't you go ahead? I'll go see what Marg can put together for us.

Do you two want anything?" Gull asked. "I wouldn't mind a cold drink,"

Quinniock told him, and, remembering the lemonade, DiCicco nodded.

"That'd be good. Now, Mr. Karstain-"

"Can you leave off calling me mister? Just Dobie." "Dobie."

He went over what happened. What he'd seen, done, what he'd already told the rangers.

"You know, the black looks like a horror show anyhow, then you add that. Gull said it must be connected to Dolly." "Did he?" DiCicco said.

"Makes sense, doesn't it?" Dobie looked from one to the other. "Is it?" "Dobie, how was it only you and Mr. Curry were in that area?"

Dobie shrugged at DiCicco just as Gull came out, two steps in front of Lynn.

Both carried trays.

"We needed most everybody up at the head, digging line toward it, but somebody still needed to scout spots along the flank. So I volunteered me and Gull."

"You suggested that you and Mr. Curry take that route?"

"She's big on the misters," he said to Gull. "Yeah. It's a longer hike, but I like killing spots. Me and Gull, we work good together. Thanks." He gave Lynn a smile when she set a loaded plate in front of him. "It sure looks good."

"Marg said to save room for cherry pie. You just let me know if you need anything else."

"Let's save some time." Gull took his seat. "We took that route because we were scouting spots. You see a spot, you put it out, and you move on. We had that duty while making our way east to join the rest of the crew. The fire'd been moving east, but the winds kept changing, so the flanks s.h.i.+fted. We found the remains because we cut across the burnout, heading to the far flank in case any spots broke out and took hold. If they did, and we didn't, it could've put the visitor center in the line. n.o.body wanted that. Clear?"

"That's the way it is." Dobie took his bottle of Tabasco out of his pocket, lifted the top of his Kaiser roll and dumped some on the horseradish Marg had piled on his roast beef.

Gull shook his head when Dobie offered the bottle. "Mine's fine as it is. And, yeah, I speculated this body was related to Dolly. It could be we've got a serial killerarsonist picking victims at random, but I like the odds on connection a lot better."

"Shot this one," Dobie said with his mouth full. "Couldn't miss the bullet hole."