1
Ryleigh’s future was going up in smoke. Literally. Right before her eyes.
She cupped a mask over her mouth and plunged into the smoke and blowing sparks. Roaring, intense flames consumed the sawmill down the hill. Building by building. Sparks jumping. Walls burning. Flames higher than the nearby tree canopy eagerly waiting to catch fire. One building nothing but sticks of charred wood.
Smoke. Dark. Swirling like fire-filled dust devils. The sky yellowy-orange. Ominous.
Armageddon.
What on earth had caused this?
She’d never expected this sight. Not ever. She’d simply driven to Shadow Lake this morning to perform a surprise evaluation on the Steele Guardians’ guard working at Shadow Lake Logging.
Ward. Their guard.
Ward Byler, a veteran deputy and now one of their finest workers, was on duty. Had he been caught in the flames? And the millworkers? What happened to them?
Her vantage point didn’t allow a clear enough view to assess. She had to move closer. To see. To help. To find Ward.
She adjusted the N-95 mask she kept in her SUV and hurried ahead. The heat grew in intensity on the already warm July day. Neither deputies nor fire department had arrived on scene.
She scanned ahead. Couldn’t see anyone. Early afternoon on a Friday and the workers should still be milling lumber. Flatbed trucks lined the side of the road, their beds empty and waiting for freshly sawn Oregon logs. Cars filled the large parking lot, all signs pointing at a crew working this location.
Her throat tightened. Had all the workers perished?
Maybe Tobias Hogan, the owner of Shadow Lake Logging, knew. Or was he here? Inside? He was usually at the company office or explosives’ depot located only minutes down the road. Surely he knew about the fire and would be here checking on his employees.
She reached the mouth of the driveway, sparks jumping on the heated air down a slight incline, the nearby trees charred black. The fire raged through the front buildings, the rear structure already consumed. Took everything in its path and burned out. Mostly smoke in the back of the complex now. Some flames sizzled at the top of trees. Other trees stood like blackened sentries guarding the mill.
A door on a truck parked ahead opened, grabbing her attention. Ward, dressed in a Steele Guardians’ uniform, dived out as if in a race for his life and bolted her way. He settled a mask over his soot-splotched face and square jaw.
“I’m glad you’re here. It was a bomb.” His words tumbled out like a gymnast at the Olympics. “No threat this time. Just an explosion.”
No threat? Odd.
The company had received several bomb threats. The reason they’d hired Steele Guardians to stand watch over the people who worked at the sawmill and the loggers clearing land nearby. But the threats stopped after they’d put a guard on duty twenty-four/seven and added security cameras around the main office area.
Now this. An actual bomb.Unbelievable!
What should she do? As a former FBI agent, she was the closest thing to a first responder and had to do something. But what?
She stared at the fire devouring the stacks of wood in the distance. The rear building looked like a pile of burned toothpicks dumped in every direction—the explosion.
She looked at Ward. “I assume you called 911 and the fire crew is on the way.”
“Called right after the bomb went off, but they’re a volunteer department so it takes time.”
“Anyone hurt?”
“Don’t think so. Today is a maintenance day and all the workers are on a trip with the boss.”
“Say what?”
“Mr. Hogan takes one day a month to maintain his equipment. While that’s happening, he rents one of those fancy Greyhound-type buses and takes all the workers out for lunch, and then they do something fun. They’re going bowling today. Says the perk helps retain workers.”
Explained why Tobias wasn’t on site yet. “What about the maintenance crew?”
“They meet up with the others for a long lunch, then come back to work while the others go out for some fun. The night shift joins them too. So only one guy was on site when the bomb exploded.”
