Firebreak (Josie Gray Mysteries #4)(10)
After pleading with him one more time, she choked back tears as she turned from the old man and left. Ultimately, it was a person’s right to choose death.
FIVE
After checking the most vulnerable houses in the mudflats area, Josie and Dell drove south to Lonesome Road, where a group of roughly sixty firefighters were spread across a three-mile span, widening the firebreak. Josie drove two miles toward downtown Artemis, down the side road that ran perpendicular to the firebreak, and found Doug’s fire truck. Another group of firemen were using a water tank from a brush truck to fight the flames from the fire’s flank, basically squeezing it in from the sides and preventing it from spreading any wider.
They approached Doug who stood at the edge of the road, talking on his cell phone. Once he finished he walked toward them, shaking his head. “We’ve got every road between here and Mexico closed. I just hope everyone got out of the south central part of the county.”
“I hate to add this to your worries, but I couldn’t get Mike Beeman to budge.”
Doug shook his head, clearly angry. “He’ll put my firefighters in danger trying to save his sorry ass.” Doug ran his hands over his face as if trying to wipe away the thought. “I’ll do what I can.”
“What about the firebreak?” said Dell.
Doug held a hand in the air and tilted it. “The mudflats are in trouble up north, but this firebreak may save downtown. The guys have done a great job fighting this from the sides. Up north it was burning over eight miles wide. I just talked to the crew to the east of us. From where they’re stationed, I think the fire’s only burning about two miles wide. And it’s headed straight for the break. This might work.”
“What about west of town?” Dell asked.
Doug nodded, acknowledging that that was where their homes were located. “The fire across the river is contained. The wind direction up north is remaining constant. Anything west of the watchtower is currently out of the line of fire.”
“What more can we do to help?” Josie asked.
“Your next job starts tomorrow. Go home and get a couple hours’ sleep. As soon as we’ve deemed the homes and outbuildings safe enough to search we’ll give you a call. We’ll have a lot of ground to cover and you’ll have people fighting to get back to their homes.”
Josie nodded. “I already talked to Roy. Since the jail’s cleared from having to evacuate, he’s working with his officers to get barricades up on all the closed county roads. He’ll take care of keeping back the residents tomorrow, and we’ll help you check structures.” Josie paused, thinking about Vie and Smokey. “Any idea when we’ll be able to get in and check the mudflats?”
Doug frowned. “It’s not good, Josie. We’re doing what we can, but there’s little doubt we’ll lose some of those homes. Texas Forest Service is on their way with planes, but…” He looked away. “We’ll need daylight to start assessing damages, assuming we can stop this tonight. I’ll call you by seven tomorrow morning with an update.”
*
Josie knew that the western area of the county had been spared, but she felt immense relief as they topped the hill and her home came into view. Dell exhaled like he’d been holding his breath. The relief made her all the more aware of what her friends and neighbors would experience over the next few days as they discovered their homes and possessions burned to ash.
She drove Dell down to his house, but he didn’t get out. The inside of the car was dark, and they were both exhausted from the night. She wondered at the hesitation.
“You want to come in for a cold drink? Unwind before you try to get some sleep?”
She nodded and followed him inside. He was right. She was exhausted, but the intensity of the night would sit on her chest like a rock if she tried to go to bed without settling her thoughts.
He poured them both glasses of ice water and they sat out on the front porch in his old wooden rocking chairs.
“I can’t get old man Beeman out of my head,” Dell said. “I hate to say it, but that could be me in another ten years.”
Josie grinned. “You’re a pain in the ass like he is, but you’ve got more sense. Grit’s one thing, but self-preservation has to count for something.” Josie thought about the heart he had been whittling but didn’t bring it up to Dell. There was already too much sadness to contemplate. She didn’t want to imagine what might have happened to Beeman in the fire.
Dell drained his glass of water and set it down on the floor.
Josie felt the stress and emotion of the day pressing in on her chest, and her thoughts turned to Dillon. She wondered when she would be able to face a major event in her life and not think of him. He had been the calm voice of reason when her intensity needed a buffer. She turned to Dell, her best friend and occasional confidant. “I called Dillon yesterday to let him know about the fire. I left a message. I thought he might be worried, but he never called me back.”
“Maybe he already heard about it on the news.”
“I just thought he would have returned my call.”
Dell sighed and Josie closed her eyes in embarrassment. She imagined herself as too tough to agonize over a man who clearly wanted nothing to do with her, but there she was, dragging him up again.
“You get why he left you. Right?” Dell said.