“Because of my sister, Torah. If I go sniffing around this story and she gets wind then there’ll be hell to pay that I didn’t tell her.”
“Oh. Uh…okay.” I sighed as I woke the laptop up. “Tell that to me again?”
“Sheesh, Ulysses.” Another dramatic sigh. “There’s not much to go on. Pretty fucking thin.”
“Still, give me as much detail as you can, and I’ll try to run it down.”
“Yeah, okay.” So then she recounted what she’d heard a rumor about.Just a rumor.
Yeah…except some of my best stories had come from rumors, tips, and just shoe leather detective work. “This shouldn’t be too hard to run down.”
“So you’ll let me know what you find?”
“Yeah. And we can share the byline if it proves to be true and we write a story. You’re certain the cops aren’t onto this?”
“Well, nothing’s for certain. But this person said if the cops had been sniffing around that the ring would’ve disbanded. Or something.”
“Like moving elsewhere or being put on hold.” I’d had more than one Vancouver story evaporate when the subjects decided they’d be safer elsewhere.
“I guess.”
“You don’t sound certain about any of this.”
“Because I’m not.” Another sigh. “This is friend of a friend of some dude…but it smells plausible.”
I trusted her nose for news. “Okay. Let me run it down tomorrow. Do you have a contact at the fire department?”
“I know Miriam. I did a feature on her when she joined the department as a full-time paid firefighter. Lots of bluster from people who said she couldn’t do the job.” Spring snorted in disgust. “Same sexist bullshit you’d expect.”
“Glad to see certain of the good folks around here didn’t miss out on their chance to be assholes.”
“Yep. Vast majority of people either supported or didn’t give a shit. I’ll say this for council—they stood by the hiring. Miriam’s also a super-sweet person who would be able to knock most of the men in this town on their asses.”
“Is she the only woman?” I asked.
“Nope. Iris joined a year later, and Dulcie came on earlier this year. And we’ve got a female volunteer as well. There’s a joke going around that at some point we might have an entire female shift.”
“Times have changed.”
“You’re notthatold, MacDonald.”
“Old enough to know better. So can you give Miriam a call?” I rubbed my forehead.
“And ask about the fires?”
“Yeah.”
“Why don’t you just ask Finn?” She sounded baffled.
“Not a viable option right now.”
“What does that even mean?” She chuckled. “You can charm the pants off him?”
“How do you know it’s not the other way around?”
“Oh-ho.” She snorted. “I figured two gay guys might be able to find a way to get together in this town.”
I stilled. “What—”
