Embers and Echoes: excerpt from chapter one
The chalky tang of ash coated the back of Constable Ben Fields’s tongue the moment he stepped out of the four-wheel drive. Attending a fire was not how he’d planned on visiting the cemetery today.
He tried to work saliva into his mouth, but the taste spread. Red dust fell from the car door as he slammed it shut. The Sillitoe Tartan’s blue-and-white had become a dull purple and pinkish-white marred by black flecks. Keeping the thing clean out here was impossible. He slipped his cap over his head, bringing small respite from the heat that trapped him between the midday sun and the scorched earth. At least his aviators kept back the glare.
One small win.
The fire truck—a light tanker—they’d parked beside dwarfed them. As he and Leila walked over, Adrian jumped out of the cab to greet them.
‘Great timing as always guys,’ he laughed, ‘showing up when the danger has passed.’
‘Nice of you to put out the campfire,’ Leila said. ‘Hope you didn’t drown the sausages.’
Adrian’s easy smile vanished. ‘Does that look like a campfire to you?’
He turned away without waiting for a response. Ben scanned the blackened paddock. Nope, definitely not a campfire.
Smoke rose off what had once been grass south of the cemetery. In the distance, a second tanker was parked further up the road and firefighters encased in protective yellow checked over the sodden earth. One missed ember caught on the wind would wreak havoc elsewhere.
Man, he hated bushfire season.
At least the cemetery had been spared. The fire had crept close, sniping at some of the recent graves, but it had been halted before it could engulf it. The wind had been blowing gently south rather than north. A square two hundred metres of the paddock was now charred.
‘Adrian, who’s got the lead?’ he asked, Leila having now gotten him off-side.
He jerked his chin towards the firefighter heading towards them from the field. ‘Toby.’
His gut plunged faster than a diver at the springs. He closed his eyes, pulled off his sunglasses, and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Shit.
When he looked again, Toby-bloody-Grimshaw marched out of the plumes of remnant smoke like the devil rising from the brimstone pits of hell.
Grim by name, grim by nature.
One hand dragged the hose, the other lugged his helmet. Ash flecked his black curls. His coat hung open and heavy, his Echo Springs Fire Department t-shirt clinging damp to his body. He gave them a short, firm nod, his dark, hard eyes meeting Ben’s for a heartbeat before he turned to the truck to help Adrian secure the hose.
Ben swallowed hard. At least Leila didn’t give him a ribbing, probably because she knew what today meant.
They waited in silence and the tendons on the back of Ben’s neck tightened enough to strum. The sooner they discussed the crime, the sooner he could get away from Grim. Almost a whole summer had passed without him being snared in one of Toby’s disapproving, cold looks. Not that he’d tried to avoid him. In fact, Toby had been the one hiding, sticking to the fire station or at home looking after his dad.
The good fireman. The good son.
Ben massaged his neck. Better get this over and done with.
‘Was it deliberately lit?’ he asked, slipping his aviators into his vest pocket.
Toby’s shoulders stiffened then relaxed. ‘Accelerant has been poured in a straight line along the edge of the paddock. I’d say someone was trying to torch the cemetery.’
‘But the wind stopped them?’
He nodded. ‘Lucky for us.’
‘So, we’ve got an arsonist on our hands?’
‘Looks like. I’ll finish up the investigation here, then send the paperwork to you guys. Hopefully you can catch whoever did this before it escalates. They’ve got a taste for it now.’
‘No chance it was an accident?’ Ben’s stomach clenched and it had nothing to do with the taste of ash. He’d already been told the blaze was lit with intent, but being around Toby gave him a case of the stupids. At least Toby did him the favour of not rolling his eyes.
He shook his head. ‘This was deliberate.’
‘Can you show us where you think it started?’
Toby looked from him to Leila and back again. ‘Sure, why not?’
He led them to a definite dark line in the grass. Ben could even smell the remains of the fuel.
‘Footprints? Cast-off matches?’
‘We’ve been busy putting out the fire. I’m hopeful we’ll find something. I don’t think we’re dealing with someone who knew what he was doing. If he’d waited for a stronger wind, we’d have had a bigger problem.’
‘Thank god for stupidity, huh?’
Stop talking!
‘Yeah, it has its benefits,’ Toby said.
Ben’s heart jumped like a creek full of frogs on a full moon.
Toby didn’t say anything more, just looked at him, and for once Ben didn’t feel like he was under some malevolent examination. But whatever the look meant, Toby blinked and the moment passed. Ben’s heart was slower to quit fibrillating.
‘Look, I’d better get back to it. Go find yourself some witnesses. I’ll collect what evidence I can, and give you a call if I need any help.’
Unlikely. Toby never needed anyone’s help, least of all Ben’s. He’d been clear on that long ago, and the few opportunities since then reaffirmed it.
Leila gave him a strained smile. ‘We’ll have a look around here first. If that’s alright with you, Tobias?’
Toby’s eyes narrowed, and Ben wrestled a grin. Too many memories of that name being called out across the back field as Toby’s mother…
Time to get away.
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