Marlon entered the room. He helped himself to a huge serving of lasagna and then, inexplicably, took off. Or maybe explicably.
“How about him? Was he involved today? You all sort of look the same in your turnout gear.” Ulysses was adjusting his proverbial reporter’s cap.
“He was there, yeah.” Miriam’s jaw set.
Well, fuck.
“Oh, what was his role?” Ulysses just not wanting to quit.
Giancarlo caught my gaze. He cleared his throat. “He was helping coordinate with the police.”
Ulysses wrinkled his nose as if he caught the undertones. “Is that normal? You all looked pretty busy—”
“Things vary.”Shovel the bullshit as best you can. “All good.”Nothing to see here. Move along.
“Well, I’d really like to talk to him.”
“Talk to who?” Chief McInerny sauntered into the room. “Good job, everyone.”
“I’d love to talk to the fireman who was coordinating with the RCMP officers.” Ulysses grinned. “I’m trying to get a sense of how the team operates and—”
“Who the hell are you?” Chief glared.
“Ulysses MacDonald. I’m a reporter for the Mission City Gazette.”
“You shouldn’t be in here. Who let you in?” He turned his attention to me. “This your doing, O’Sullivan?”
“I, uh—”
“My doing.” Miriam shrugged. “He wants to do a piece on the department. I figure it would be good for us. And we can slip in some important things like fire safety, wearing seatbelts, not drinking and driving. Right?”
“That’s for the city liaison officer to deal with. Your job is to fight fires.” He stared at Ulysses. “You can just move along, son.”
Ulysses offered a broad smile. “I had permission to be here, and I don’t want to get anyone in trouble. I’m not doing a fluff piece—I saw the teamwork involved today. I think that should be highlighted. You’ve been busy fighting an awful lot of fires recently. Most people inMission City probably don’t even know about the other heroic things your people do. They are your people, right?” Sweet…but not syrupy.
“This is Chief McInerny.” I had to try to get this back on the rails. “Why don’t I give you the official tour when we’re done eating? Any official information can come from the media person.”
Ulysses cocked his head.
Work with me here. Please don’t make things worse than they already are.I’d thought this was a terrible idea for an entirely different reason—my bad for not thinking aboutallthe ramifications.
“That’s a good idea, O’Sullivan. Quick tour and then we can send our…visitor…on his way.” The chief eyed Ulysses. “Stay away from my people.” He took off, leaving in his wake clear confusion as well as distress.
Ulysses was confused.
I was distressed.
“So that was the chief?”
I nodded.
“And the other guy was…his son? Nephew?”
“Son.” Miriam sighed.
“Ah. I see.” He dug into his lasagna. “This really is great pasta.”
With a small smile, Miriam nodded. “Thanks.”
