“Protocol, protocol, it’s all bullshit!” A woman yelled from across the room, her voice shrill and angry. “Clearly, none of you are qualified to deal with this!”
“Yeah,” someone added, closer to where we were seated. “If you knew what you were doing, it would all be over by now!”
“Talk, talk, talk, that’s all you do! We’ve had enough meetings, we needaction!You don’t even know who’s doing this!”
I noticed the muscles in Calder’s jaw tighten as the accusations started flying in from everywhere in the room. The crowd was now basically entirely out of control, and it seemed impossible to reel people back in. Calder looked like he was willing to wait it out, but people really were upset. I wondered how long they could go on like this before they’d give him another chance to talk.
I felt Ash shifting uncomfortably in the seat next to me. I was sure that he and Beck were both just as frustrated with the whole situation as Calder was. They’d been doing everything in their power to fight back against this arsonist, but it seemed like for the people, that wasn’t enough.
A part of me felt guilty, too. Perhaps they had been making mistakes because of me. Maybe I was too much of a distraction. They were dealing with something huge, after all, and they couldn’t really afford to lose any focus. The thought that I might be making things worse was enough to make me squirm in my seat. I would have to talk to them about it, but I had a feeling that they’d all deny it and refuse to leave me, even if it was just until all of this was over.
I noticed the sheriff whispering in the fire chief’s ear, and the chief moving to one side so that the sheriff could approach the podium. Calder was still silent, taking the public hammering without flinching.
The sheriff tapped at the microphone, which caused the noise levels in the room to dim somewhat, just enough for people to hear him when he spoke.
“I would like to announce that we do, in fact, have a suspect, and an arrest in the case is imminent,” he said with firm, flat confidence, and the room instantly went silent.
28
~
Rhea
The sheriff hadn’t mentioned any names during the meeting, but his statements did help to calm people down. In the end, Calder had been slightly shaken, but as usual, he didn’t show much of it externally. He’d answered a few more questions when people had calmed down, and the meeting ended shortly after that.
When we left, I’d heard speculations about who the arsonist could be, but none of the guys would confirm any names with me. I understood that; even if we were in a relationship, they couldn’t just blab confidential information to me.
Calder had dropped me off at home and the three of them had left in silence, all frustrated with the situation. Ash was particularly angry with the public, mentioning that things would have been much worse if it hadn’t been for the firefighters actually doing their job.
In the days following, I heard snippets of conversation in the neighborhood, blaming random people for the fires.
“You know Aaron has been getting into trouble at school, and his parents are never home. Teenagers do all kinds of dangerous things.”
“Janice has been cheating, her husband is a firefighter. Maybe she wanted to keep him busy so she’d have more time to spend on her affair.”
“Maybe it’s one of the Petersons, they’ve never fit in. Weird family.”
I didn’t really know most of the people that the rumors were swirling around, but there were some neighbors that looked at me with suspicion, too. Once or twice, I caught glances thrown my way, and whispers that stopped as I passed by. I could understand that some of the suspicion would fall on me, given that I often spent time with the men from the station and that I’d just moved in. They were connections that I couldn’t ignore, and that others could take the wrong way.
But I kept my head down and didn’t gossip with everyone else, even the one or two times that Jackie stopped by to check in on me.
I didn’t want to add to the rumors and make things worse for the guys. They were already under a ton of public pressure and despite the fact that they were dealing with it nobly, I knew that they had to be frustrated with the whole situation. They didn’t speak about it much, at least not to me, but I could see it in their faces.
It had been a tough few days, but the festival was coming up, and I hoped that it would distract people from the whole situation.
It was distracting me, at the very least. While I was standing by my bay window, contemplating everything, I heard my phone’s notification tone from the kitchen. When I checked, it was a message from my mom.
So excited to see you tomorrow! Will let you know when we’re on the way.
I blinked a few times. I’d completely forgotten that I was supposed to get ready for my parents to stay over for the festival. My head had been somewhere else entirely for days.
Luckily, there wasn’t that much to do. The house was clean enough, and with the guys’ help, I’d gotten all of my furniture and bits and bobs in place. But I did have to get the guest room ready, and make sure that my mom’s awful shell lamp was somewhere visible.
“Suppose I could put it on the nightstand in there,” I muttered to myself as I headed for the closet where I’d stuffed it deep behind everything else to keep it out of sight. I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized my rough treatment hadn’t broken it, and carried it to the guest bedroom to set it up.
The lamp didn’t really match with the rest of the room’s decor, but I didn’t think that mattered too much. Ididhave a set of sheets that had at least some light blue and peach tones in them that could balance it out a little bit. Either way, at least it was there, and my mom wouldn’t have her feelings hurt. If I’d forgotten the lamp, I knew that I wouldn’t have heard the end of it.
I got the sheets out of the linen closet and started setting them up, humming a tune I’d heard on the radio earlier in the day.
