Chapter 7 - FIRE
Rocco drove like the road had personally offended him.
Maeve sat in the passenger seat.
Nora was behind them gripping the seat with both hands.
“Slow down.”
“No.”
“Rocco—”
“Call 911.”
Maeve already had.
The dispatcher was still talking when they turned onto Main Street.
Smoke was rising above the rooftops.
“No,” Nora whispered.
Then they saw the flames.
The rear of the bakery was burning.
Maeve ripped off her seat belt before the truck fully stopped.
Rocco grabbed her arm.
“Stay here.”
“My box is inside.”
“It’s a building.”
“It’s my father!”
She tried to pull away.
Rocco locked the doors.
“Are you insane?”
“Probably.”
Fire engines turned the corner, sirens screaming.
Maeve slammed her palm against the dashboard.
“Let me out!”
Rocco looked through the windshield.
Smoke poured from the kitchen windows.
Then something moved inside.
A shape.
Someone was still in there.
Rocco swore.
He unlocked the doors.
“Stay with your mother.”
Before Maeve could answer, he ran.
“Rocco!”
He disappeared around the side of the bakery.
Firefighters jumped from the engine.
Nora ran toward them.
“My friend went inside!”
One firefighter shouted, “Nobody goes inside!”
But Rocco already had.
Maeve stood in the street, shaking.
Thirty seconds.
Forty.
A minute.
Then glass shattered.
Rocco stumbled through the front doorway.
He was carrying someone.
Officer Cole.
Maeve froze.
Firefighters rushed them.
Cole coughed violently.
His left sleeve was burned.
Rocco lowered him onto the sidewalk.
“What was he doing inside?” Nora demanded.
Cole couldn’t answer.
Rocco looked at him.
“That’s a good question.”
A firefighter dragged Rocco back as part of the ceiling collapsed.
Maeve looked through the doorway.
“The recipe box.”
Rocco coughed.
“I got it.”
He pulled a blackened wooden box from beneath his shirt.
Maeve grabbed it.
The edge was burned.
The lid was cracked.
But it was intact.
Nora began crying.
Officer Cole sat up.
“You shouldn’t have gone in.”
Rocco laughed without humor.
“You first.”
Cole stared at him.
Rocco crouched.
“What were you doing inside a burning bakery?”
“I saw smoke.”
“You entered through the back.”
Cole’s eyes hardened.
“I was trying to help.”
“At midnight?”
“I patrol this area.”
Rocco leaned closer.
“Then why didn’t dispatch know you were here?”
Cole said nothing.
Maeve opened the recipe box.
Most cards were there.
Recipes.
Photos.
Old letters.
No files.
Nothing.
Her heart sank.
Then she noticed a false bottom.
Her father had once built secret compartments into her toy chest.
She pushed the side panel.
Click.
The bottom lifted.
Inside sat a small brass key.
And a note.
Maeve unfolded it.
Patrick’s handwriting.
Nora leaned close.
“What does it say?”
Maeve read aloud.
“Locker 214. Bellmere Union Station.”
Rocco looked at Cole.
Cole’s face had gone completely white.
Maeve noticed.
“So you do know something.”
Cole stood too fast.
“Give me that key.”
Rocco stepped between them.
“Why?”
May you like
Cole looked at Maeve.
“Because your father didn’t die in an accident.”
