Chapter 65: Fire

Author’s Note.

It’s been an interesting few weeks, having started a new job – which is severely cutting into my writing time. I’d like to thank all of you for sticking with me as you have. I will continue to try and write as much as I can given my new circumstances.

As always my thanks go to Dr Mark my stalwart editor, and TheSwiss for managing my Discord.

KR PM

We were prevented from approaching our house. There were two fire trucks there and several police cars. I even noticed that Alan and Anne, and our other neighbours, had been evacuated from their houses while fire fighters hosed them down to prevent the fire from leaping the gap. Everything was so hot. From the little I could see, the house was completely engulfed with flames shooting out of all the visible windows.

A police officer approached us.

“Is that your place?” he asked.

I nodded as my girls watched wide eyed as everything we had went up in smoke. For myself, there was nothing in there that I was particularly upset about losing. All my schoolwork was on the cloud and I’d memorised every book I had bought for my course.

“Can you think of anyone that might want to do this?” he asked.

I certainly had my suspicions, but this seemed way too extreme. There was a world of difference between a roughing up and this. They couldn’t have known that we weren’t inside when they did whatever they did. I doubted they knocked first.

Then I had a horrible thought. I knew that the others had gone out to a club, but had they come back early? Were they in there when it went up?

I pulled out my phone and dialled Josh.

“Hey Caleb,” he said. “You back so early?”

“Are you with Gracie and Dana?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “Why, what’s up?”

“Someone torched the house,” I said. “I just wanted to make sure you were all safe.”

“Someone what?” he asked, incredulity in his voice. “Are you guys ok?”

“We just got back and found it lit up,” I said. “The fire department is here trying to put it out now. Looks like everything went up.”

“We’re coming home,” he said. “We’ll be there in a half hour.”

The policeman was looking at me, irritation clear in his expression.

“Sorry,” I said. “I just wanted to make sure that my housemates were okay. They went out separately from us and I didn’t know if they’d gotten back yet.”

His face cleared. “Okay,” he said. “That’s something at least. So back to the question?”

“I honestly don’t know,” I told him. “We had a run in with some low-level thugs breaking into our house a couple of nights ago. We subdued them and they got arrested. We never found out who sent them, although I have my suspicions. But without indisputable proof, the person I’m thinking of is too rich and powerful to do anything about.

“If it is him, he’ll have several degrees of separation between him and whoever did this. Tracing it back to him will be difficult if not impossible.”

I went on to explain everything that had happened between us and the Greenwood family, from Trevor’s crashing his car and getting caught on a DUI, to Walter’s visit, and his attempt to get me arrested. I told him the full story of the three thugs, and that I’d not had any news if they had given up who had sent them, nor even if they were still in jail or had been let out.

“If they’re out,” I said, “then they’re probably the first people I’d be looking to talk to.”

While I’d been talking to the officer, all the girls had gathered around us, each holding onto others. Jules and Ness looked on sadly as the house burned. Melanie and Sarah were both openly crying. Surprisingly, Mary looked composed but Amanda looked furious.

Alan and Anne came over.

“Thank goodness you’re all right,” Anne said. “We didn’t know if any of you were still in there. We saw some of you go out earlier but there were still cars on the drive. Tom Pritchard raised the alarm and went and smashed the windows of the cars in the drive. We pushed them away from the house so they didn’t get caught up in it.”

It was only then that I noticed that Amanda’s and Gracie’s car were both parked badly on the other side of the road away from the house.

“I think Tom would have gone into the house to check, but he couldn’t get through that new front door he fitted.”

“I’m glad he didn’t,” I said. “The last thing I’d have wanted was for him to get stuck in there.” I indicated the furnace that was still blazing, albeit slightly less fiercely, where our house used to be.

I saw Melanie concentrating on the house, and the fire seemed to lessen. I could feel her pushing hard, and reaching the limits of her powers, so I went over to her.

“Enough,” I said. “Nobody was hurt and I don’t want you to hurt yourself. If you must do something, just try to keep the neighbor’s houses from catching. The firefighters are wetting them down but I can see them starting to steam. Keep them cool, but don’t overtax your power.”

Melanie nodded at me and turned toward the neighbors’ houses.

Sarah looked up at me from her position beside Melanie.

“What are we going to do?” she asked tearfully.

“Nobody got hurt,” I said. “So, it’s just a matter of rebuilding and replacing what was lost. The insurance will cover most of it and we have enough money to make up any difference.

“Look on this as a chance to refresh your wardrobe. There was nothing irreplaceable in there ... was there?”

“Not really,” she said. “There were a couple of dolls that I’d had since I was a child but I only really kept them because mom said I should. For some reason I’ve never really been a hoarder. But I lost all my books, my work, and my laptop.”

“All your work is on the cloud,” I said, “Jules made sure of that, so you’ve lost nothing from that perspective. Books we can replace. Clothes and your laptop we can replace. The only thing we couldn’t replace would be any of us, and we were all out of the house, so that’s fine.”

I looked at Jules.

“Jules, I’m sorry. That game we got in Paris?” I asked.

“Is currently sitting in my locker at PSU,” she said. “I took it in to show a couple of the guys.”

“Small mercies,” I said. Ness grinned at me, although there were tears in her eyes.

“Looks like an excuse for a huge shopping trip,” she said, and I pulled her into a hug.

“Why would they do this, Caleb?” she asked in a small voice. “We could have been in there.”

“That is a question that I intend to get an answer to,” I told her holding her to me.

Two cars arrived almost simultaneously. The first a dark sedan with Red and Blue lights flashing through the window. The second was a cab. Dianna got out of the first, and Josh, Louise, Gracie, and Dana climbed out of the second. Dianna made it to us a few seconds before Josh and the girls.

“What happened?” asked Dianna.

I sent her my memories of everything I knew or suspected.

“Announcing yourself to Knight wasn’t a smart move,” she said. “That guy’s bad news. He represents some very bad people.”

“So you think it was him rather than Greenwood?” I asked. “Why would he bother?”

“Because you let him know that you knew who he was,” she said. “He’s letting you know that not only doesn’t he care, but that you’d better back off.”

“You think he knew there was nobody home?” I asked. She shrugged.

“I suspect,” she said, “he didn’t care.”

“He will,” I promised.

“Caleb,” she began but I put my hand up to forestall whatever it was she was going to say.

“No,” I said simply. “If Knight was responsible for this, then he’s going down. Hard.”

“And then what?” she asked. “If you do anything illegal it will destroy everything you’ve worked for and everything that you’ve achieved. It will put you in direct opposition to every power using family in the US, not to mention the law. You’re powerful Caleb, but you’re one man. You can’t take on everyone alone.”

“He won’t be alone,” growled Melanie, her power flaring as she faced up to Dianna.

Dianna closed her eyes wearily.

“Guys,” Mary said approaching, “as of right now, we have more pressing problems. It’s 1am and we are homeless. Let’s go find somewhere to sleep and then we can start to plan what to do next. The fire department is going to be here for some time, it seems. The fire is under control, but they’re going to be here for most of the night finishing off.

“Lou, do you have your keys?” she asked.

Louise nodded. “I can’t drive though – I’ve been drinking.”

“I’ll drive your car,” said Mary. “I’m sure Grandmother can get Gracie’s car recovered.”

“My keys were in the house,” said Gracie. “As were my creds and my weapon. The gun safe probably protected the weapon though.”

“I’ll get your car towed,” said Dianna. “Mary’s right. You guys go and find somewhere to stay tonight. I’m sure the local LEO’s will want to talk to you more but I’ll stall them until tomorrow. Let me know where you get settled.

I noticed Jules talking to someone on her phone. She finished her call and came over.

“Daddy says go to the Nines,” she said. “They are expecting us and have a suite and a couple of rooms ready. He said ask for Dragan.”

I looked at Dianna. “Looks like we’re going to the Nines,” I said.

+++++ The journey to the Nines only took fifteen minutes, it being less than eight blocks from the university. When we arrived, the valet took charge of all three of our vehicles.

“Would you like me to get the window repaired?” he asked, looking at Louise’s smashed window. “It won’t be tonight, but I can probably have it done by lunchtime tomorrow if you would like.”

“Thank you,” I said and we entered the building.

The reception for the hotel was, strangely, on the eighth floor. I wondered what the concierge would think of our rag-tag bunch of people turning up at this time of night with no luggage. I needn’t have worried.

“Good evening,” said a young Asian looking lady as I approached the desk. “My name is Mei Mei. Are you checking in?”

“My name is Caleb Stott,” I said. “I was told to ask for Dragan?”

“Ah yes, Mr. Stott,” she said. “Mr. Andrejik is our general manager and is not onsite currently. He has given me full instructions on assisting you, however. I can ask him to come in if you require.”

“No,” I said. “There’s no need. As long as we have somewhere to sleep tonight, everything else can wait until the morning.”

“That’s fine,” she said with a beaming smile.

“I have two adjoining suites for you and two other rooms. Unfortunately, we didn’t have rooms all on the same floor, so the other rooms are on the twelfth while your suites are on fourteen. There are laundry bags in the rooms. If you would care to leave your clothes outside the rooms in the bags, I’ll make sure they’re laundered and ready for you in the morning. There are USB charging points in the rooms and we’ve supplied a number of cables so you should be able to charge your devices.

“Is there anything else I can do for you Mr. Stott?”

I looked at the gang around me. Everyone just looked dead beat.

“No, thank you,” I said. “I think we just need to get to bed.”

Mei Mei handed out keycards, Josh and Louise and Dana and Gracie took the rooms on the twelfth floor, while the rest of us took the two suites. I figured that I’d be in one with some of the girls, and Sarah and the other girls could share the other.

We headed up to bed.

When we got to the room, we took turns in the showers, all of us, even Sarah, paired up. Fortunately, there were toiletries for all, as well as toothbrushes and toothpaste. They’d even provided some generic sized sleepwear, as well as robes and slippers for all.

We placed all our clothes outside the doors in the laundry bags.

I climbed into bed in one of the suites. It was a big bed. Not quite as big as ours at home, but it would have been big enough for all of us to share.

Before I knew it, Mary, Amanda, Jules, Ness, and Melanie were all in bed with me. Sarah stood at the foot of the bed.

“Can I...” she said looking forlorn. I guessed that she didn’t want to be all alone. Jules scooted over some and made a space between her and Ness.

Sometimes waking up at four am every morning can be a pain in the ass.

I opened my eyes and slid out of bed. Having taken care of my bladder’s call to arms, I debated going back to bed. With everything that happened the night before, it had been past two before I’d gotten to bed. The girls were all still asleep and I knew that I would not be able to get back into the bed without disturbing them all. Quietly I slipped into the next room and climbed into the bed there.

“Fuck it,” I thought. “I need more sleep.”

When I woke up for the second time, I was once again surrounded by girls. Mary and Amanda were curled up on one side of me, with Melanie between them, while Jules and Ness were on the other. Sarah was actually curled up against my side, her hands wrapped around my arm, much as Melanie had done that first night.

I looked across at Melanie whose eyes were open.

“You sneaked off,” she said quietly, but with a little accusation.

“I didn’t want to wake you guys,” I said. “There was no way I was getting back into bed without waking you.”

“What time is it?” a tired voice came from beside me as Sarah opened sleepy eyes. She looked up at me and blushed realising that not only was she clutching my arm, but her leg was thrown over mine.

“I’m...” she said trying to retreat, but not able to since Jules was right up against her.

“It’s fine,” I said. “How are you feeling?”

“Better now,” she said. “Last night seemed like a bad dream.”

“It kind of was,” I said. “But nobody was hurt and we’re all here together, safe and whole. Stuff is just stuff. It’s replaceable.”

She nodded.

“You know,” she said. “If this had happened to me before I met you, I’d have been freaking out. Now it’s like – hey-ho, time to get some more stuff. I don’t know why, but being around you guys just makes me more ... chilled I think.”

“Its not just us,” I said. “It’s your power. Now you have power, you are far more in control of your destiny. Even if we’d been home last night, I would bet money that we’d have gotten out of there okay. With mine and Melanie’s powers we’d have been able to break through the wall if necessary. That’s assuming we didn’t see them coming; in which case, you, Mary, Amanda, Melanie, or I would have been able to stop it before it began.

She nodded. “What are you going to do?” she asked. “Dianna didn’t seem like she’d be happy for you to go after them yourself...”

“I’m going to find out who did it,” I said, “and then we’ll decide together what to do about it. I really don’t think that Trevor’s dad would have set that up though. The beating yes, I can see him doing that, putting the peon in his place, but attempted murder seems a bit of a stretch for him.

“My money is on the lawyer, Knight. Like Dianna said, I made a mistake announcing myself. I had no idea who he was or the kinds of people he deals with and I painted a massive target on my back. I’m sorry for that.”

“This wasn’t your fault,” said Ness. “They, whoever they are, did this, not you. It’s the doctrine of bullies and assholes everywhere to try and tell you that you are responsible for what THEY are doing.”

There was a knock on the other suite external door. I reached out with my mind to see who was there. Maggie.

“Maggie’s here,” I said and slipped out of bed, pulling a robe on, before padding through to the other suite and opening the door.

Maggie was standing there, with several hotel staff, pushing several trolleys full of breakfast. There was also a couple of staff holding all of our clothes, freshly laundered, and ready to wear.

The staff wheeled the trolleys in and set them up. The girls all came in, wrapped in robes, and grabbed plates of food, before settling down on chairs, the bed and the sofa, to eat. There wasn’t really enough seating for all the people we had in here.

They left a seat clear for Maggie though and I sat on the corner of the bed. Both of us had grabbed a plate of food and we began to eat.

There was another knock on the door, and Jules let Gracie, Dana, Josh, and Louise in.

“Dianna told me what you said last night,” Maggie said continuing the conversation, ignoring the interruption.

“I figured she might,” I replied. “I suppose you’ve come with words of dire warning?”

“I have,” she said. “Don’t. Get. Caught.”

I looked at her, surprised. “Are you saying...”

“Those fuckers,” she said, “whoever they are, need to be taken down. They could have killed all of you, not to mention the neighbours or any first responders that had entered the house trying to rescue you. It was fortunate that you put that high security door on, otherwise I’m certain that Mr. Pritchard would have gone in to check.”

“Really?” said Josh. “He seemed such a...”

“He’s an old man,” I said, “who was made bitter and twisted by circumstance. We caught the tail of it and responded accordingly.”

I looked at Mary. “I’m still not sorry for doing what I did,” I said. “He deserved it, perhaps even needed it, to make him realize that he was on the wrong path.”

“He stopped my car from getting burned up,” said Louise. “I know the insurance would have taken care of it, but I like that car.”

“The police will want to talk to you again today,” Maggie interrupted our tangent. “What are you going to tell them?”

“Pretty much what I told them last night,” I replied. “I told them that the only people I’d had a beef with recently was Trevor and his dad. I also told them about the three idiots that came after us with bats. I didn’t mention either of the lawyers.”

“Okay,” she said. “That’s a good line to take. They are going to want to know where you all were last night as well,” she said. “A good proportion of home arson cases are insurance jobs. I hope you all have good alibis.”

“We do,” I said. “At least we, do.” I indicated my girls and I. “Josh, Louise, Gracie, and Dana went out separately so they will have to provide their own alibi’s. When can we go back into the house?”

“There’s nothing to go back to,” she said.

“I want to see if my gun safe lived up to its fire rating,” I told her.

“I doubt it would,” she replied. “They threw devices in through every window, even removing some of the fence so they could get to the back. They were determined to completely destroy the place. I’m kind of thinking that they would have checked that there was nobody home, at least I hope so, but I’m not confident. The only part of the house that’s still standing, although it’s far from untouched, is the garage. The whole place needs tearing down and rebuilding.”

“We need to find someplace to stay in the meantime,” I replied. “This place is nice, but it’s way too expensive. I have no idea how long it would take to rebuild the house, but we’d be wasting money hand over fist staying here for that long.

“We need to come up with a plan. We have so much to do that it would be better for us to split up to get stuff done. We each need new tech, laptops, phone chargers ... that kind of thing.”

“I’ll get that,” Jules said. “I know what we all need.”

“We need complete wardrobes, at least a couple of week’s worth of clothes, shoes, trainers, everything.”

“Melanie and I can make a start on that,” said Amanda. “I’ve been wanting to update your wardrobe for a while.”

I grimaced as she smiled sweetly at me.

“Don’t forget toiletries and all that stuff,” I said. “I’m sure you guys won’t be happy sticking to the hotel freebies.”

“I don’t know,” said Amanda. “It’s actually not bad stuff.”

“I’ll go with Jules,” Ness said. “Then she’ll have transportation.”

“Mary and I will go back to the house and see if anything is salvageable, not that I think it would be, and then we need to make a start on finding a place for us to stay.

“Actually,” said Gracie, glancing at Dana, a little guiltily. I knew what she was going to say before she said it, and to be honest, I was neither surprised nor disappointed.

“Dana and I were talking,” she said. “We thought that this might be as good a time as any for us to get a place of our own.”

I looked at Dana, who wouldn’t catch my eye.

“I wondered how long it would be,” I said softly. “In all honesty, I expected you guys to do that some time ago. Ours is a madhouse and not really a place for people to start a life together, at least not people who are not, well, you know.”

Gracie nodded.

“It has been really great,” she said, “and we both owe you massively. I haven’t forgotten you saved my life, and Dana ... well you know.”

I nodded. “I know,” I said. “Just don’t be strangers, okay? I really don’t want to lose you guys as friends.”

“We won’t,” said Dana. “I hope you haven’t forgotten that you still have one duty to perform for me?”

It took a second but then I realized what she was talking about.

“I’ll be honored,” I said. “Whenever you’re ready. But don’t think that is the only reason we want to keep in touch.”

I turned to Josh and Louise. “What about you guys?” I asked.

“We’d like to stick with you,” said Louise, “if it’s alright. It’s not about the money. With the cash that Nana Babi gave me, we can afford to pay you more rent if you want, but we just both like being around you guys.”

“No,” I said, “the rent is fine. I, for one, am happy that you want to stick around. All others in favor?”

Instantly, six hands went up as Mary, Amanda, Jules, Ness, Melanie, and Sarah all voted.

“All against?” nothing.

“I guess you have your answer,” I said. Louise came and gave me a hug, as Josh was simultaneously receiving hugs from the girls.

Another knock, on the suite door, broke us up.

“That’ll be the police,” said Maggie. “They said they’d be here around now.”

“That might have been good to mention,” I said. “We could have gotten dressed.”

“You’ll be fine,” said Maggie, heading to answer the door. “It won’t take long.”

There were three people standing at the door when she answered it. There was a uniformed police officer and a man in another uniform with a Portland Fire Bureau patch on his sleeve. There was also a man in a suit. They filed in and looked down at us all lounging on various surfaces with the remains of breakfast still scattered around.

“Mr. Stott,” said the officer. “I’m Officer Herbert, this is Officer Burns from the Portland Fire Bureau arson investigation team. I raised my eyebrow, but managed to stop myself from sniggering. I heard from behind me that someone hadn’t.

“And this,” he continued, “is Mr. Franklyn, an insurance investigator.”

I nodded to them all.

“Gentlemen,” I said.

“Ideally,” said the arson investigator, “we’d like to talk to you individually if you don’t mind?”

“Not a problem,” I said. “We have two suites. Why don’t you guys go next door, and we’ll come through one at a time to talk to you. That way you’re not sitting in our mess and we can get showered and dressed in the meantime – or at least the girls can. I guess I’ll go first.”

The men looked at each other and then nodded. I showed them through the connecting door and followed them in. The girls and Maggie stayed in the other suite presumably making a start on getting showered and dressed. I was still in my robe.

The suite had a small couch, a coffee table and a chair. I took the chair, and the three investigators took the couch. The insurance investigator and the arson investigator both took out handheld recording devices and placed them on the table. The police officer took out a notebook.

I looked at the police officer. He looked at his notebook for a few moments and then began.

“Last night,” he said, “someone threw several incendiary devices through every external window of your house. Consequently the house was completely destroyed, along with everything inside. Do you have any idea who might have wanted to do that?”

“No,” I said.

“You told the officer last night that you had a suspect in mind?” he pressed.

“Let me give you some background,” I told him, “and then you’ll understand why I say no.”

I told him about Sarah moving in with us, and that her boyfriend Trevor had come over for dinner. I told him about him drinking and my advising Sarah not to get in his car. I also told him about Gracie informing the local PD that someone intoxicated would be leaving the house. I explained about the failing to stop, the crash, the DUI, and the subsequent vandalism.

I went on to talk about the incident with Trevor’s father and the three men attacking with baseball bats.

“I don’t know,” I finished, “what happened to those three guys, but what they were going to do was on a whole different level than the fire. I can’t believe that even someone as entitled as Walter Greenwood would escalate to that extreme over such a small matter.”

“If not them,” said the officer, “then who?”

“I have no idea,” I said. “I’ve been involved in a couple of operations with the FBI. I helped in a white supremacist camp takedown in Montana and I assisted at a bank robbery not far from here. As far as I’m aware nobody involved in that even knew who I was, let alone where I lived.”

“You also have to remember,” I continued, “that Gracie is an active FBI Agent. It could have easily been directed at her rather than us. I’m sure her list of suspects is as long, if not longer, than mine.”

“Can you tell us where you were last night between eleven p.m. and twelve a.m.?” he asked.

“Mary, Amanda, Jules, Ness, Melanie, Sarah, and I were at an eighteenth birthday party.” I said. “Arnie Jarrett, who is the son of my flight instructor, had his party and we were there from about seven thirty, to just after midnight.”

“Did any of your group leave the party at any time?” asked the officer.

“Sarah went off with Arnie for a while,” I said grinning at him. “But I’m fairly certain they were just in the garage getting to know each other.”

“What about the other occupants of the house?” he asked.

“Before we left for the party,” I said, “they said they were going to a club. When I called Josh after we saw the house on fire, he said they were still at the club. More than that, I can’t help you with. You’ll have to speak to them about it.”

The officer looked at Officer Burns.

“Mr. Stott,” he said, “did you keep anything flammable in the house normally?”

“No,” I said. “Aside from three handguns, a small blowtorch for cooking, and a small gas can in the garage for the lawnmower. That is about it.”

“Where are the weapons now?” asked the officer.

“Still in the gun safes,” I said. “Two are mine, one is Gracie’s. It’s her FBI service weapon. She had a gun safe in her room, and I had one in our room.”

“Sadly,” said Officer Burns, “I doubt they will have survived, given the heat of the fire.”

I sighed. I wasn’t at all concerned about the Glock, but the CQB had been a present from Dean. I would be sorry to have lost that.

Both the police officer and the arson investigator looked at the insurance investigator.

“I’m sorry to ask,” he said, “but are there any problems at home? Relationships, arguments?”

“Not at all,” I said. “I won’t say that we never have a cross word, but nothing more than little niggles, and those are almost non-existent.”

“Niggles about what?” asked the investigator.

“We had a row with our neighbor,” I said. “Mary wasn’t particularly happy with the way I dealt with it. I took out a restraining order against him. She felt I’d gone too far.”

“This is Mr. Pritchard?” asked the police officer.

I nodded.

“You think he might have...” he began but I shook my head.

“No,” I said. “Not a chance. We had been getting on much better recently, in fact he fixed my door after the thugs broke in. There’s no way he did this.”

“And how about your financial situation?” asked the insurance agent. “Any difficulties there? I understand that you’d taken on the tuition for both your Sisters. That can’t be easy?”

“I’m rich,” I said. “I don’t know to the penny, but I have over five million dollars invested, and probably over one hundred thousand in my checking account. My de-facto father-in-law is Dean Steadman, of Steadman Dairies. I don’t know how rich he is, but I do know that if I needed money, almost any amount, he’d give it to me no questions asked. I am a consultant for the FBI, for which they pay me three thousand dollars per month, and I have a hypnotherapy business that is making me somewhere around nine thousand a month. If I actually do any work for the FBI I get a per-diem payment too. I’m guessing that in the last year I’ve made somewhere around the one hundred thousand mark.

“I don’t have any money worries.” I concluded.

He looked at me wide eyed.

“Dean Steadman?” he asked.

“That’s what you took from that?” I asked. “You know him?”