“I always knew you were a smart one.”
Jocelyn stood up and walked toward the door. She could take a hint.
“I got it from my mother.”
4
ONLY BEING HONEST
Chance and the rest of his shift at the firehouse were barely halfway through their dinner that he’d brought in from the pub when the alarms went off.
The large pan of grilled chicken breasts and mac and cheese would have to be warmed up later as they were racing to the pole, down it, and gearing up.
A fire in any complex was always cause for concern. Getting everyone out and containing it to the least amount of damage possible.
With any luck, it was a false alarm.
He hopped in the truck and they pulled out of the fire station racing the two miles to the building.
Residents were outside and standing around, then moving out of the way, his captain out and talking to a manager who had approached them.
They were standing back and not rushing into the building. He saw no smoke, but that meant nothing.
Captain James returned to them. “There is smoke reported on the eighth floor, but no flames that anyone can see. There aresecurity cameras all over the place and the sprinklers came on in a supply closet and main hall.”
“With chemicals?” he asked. Which could be even worse.
“Chemicals in the room triggered the alarms when the smoke was detected. Let’s go check it out,” Captain James said.
Chance and two others went into the building, going up the stairs. They passed some residents in the stairwell and told them to get out.
It drove him insane that people didn’t take alarms seriously and just strolled out of buildings like nothing was wrong.
They made their way to the supply closet, the halls wet where the sprinklers were still running. At least the building was well equipped.
The door was shut, so they turned the knob and found it unlocked.
After looking around, they found a garbage can with burned papers in it and the butt of a cigarette. Chance reached in and pulled them out. “Someone was trying to destroy something in here, or they carelessly tossed their cigarette butt in there and it caught fire,” he said.
The charred remains were a soggy mess, but at least it explained what happened. No clue why whoever did this couldn’t have done it in their own place.
Unless of course they didn’t want to be responsible for setting off the alarms and getting caught.
He picked up the can and brought it out of the supply closet with him, other firefighters checking the rest of the floor, but not seeing any issues.
One by one, the men were walking the floors while Chance went back out with the can and put it in front of the manager. His captain was by him.
“Looks as if someone started a fire here. Could be a cigarette catching the papers on fire, or someone burning papers and the butt was already there. Not sure if you can figure out who did it.”
“I’ll check the cameras when I get inside,” the manager said. “I should be able to see who accessed the room since it’s always locked.”
“Do you keep cameras on all the floors?” he asked. That would be too intrusive for him.
“Just the stairwells entering the floors and then by company-owned rooms. Some don’t have good access and it’d be my luck this is one of them.”
“The rest of my men are checking the building,” Captain James said. His radio went off on his jacket, each floor being called cleared.
It didn’t appear to be anything major so he stood around looking at the residents.
