Beneath Devil's Bridge(88)

Darren never made it out of the house.

“Why don’t you go home?” I ask the man. “Your family probably needs you with them right now.”

“I have to know that Maddy and the girls are going to be okay. I mean, really okay. I just . . . I must know.”

A doctor comes down the hall. We all freeze and stare at him. I try to read his face. I can’t breathe. Can’t think.

He zeroes in on me. “Are you Rachel Hart?”

“I . . . I’m Maddy’s mother, yes. I’m the grandmother. I—”

“They’re going to be fine. The children are both physically fine. A few bad cuts and abrasions. Some minor burns. Some issues from smoke inhalation, but they’re going to be okay.”

My knees collapse, and I stagger slightly, then right myself. “My daughter?”

He offers a kind smile. “She’s going to be fine, too. She took a bad knock to the head. She’s got a concussion from the blow, but we’ve stitched up the gash on her brow. And we’ve set an arm fracture—she’s in a cast. We’ll be keeping a careful eye on her for the next twenty-four hours, and over the next few days.” He pauses. His gaze flicks to Granger. “They’re very lucky. You can both come through and see them now.”

The neighbor has plopped down into a plastic bucket chair and has his face in his hands. He’s sobbing with relief.

“I’ll be right there,” I say.

I go over to the neighbor, sit in the chair beside him, put my arm around him. “Thank you. Thank you . . . I can never thank you enough.”

“Thank God. I . . .” His words die on a dry sob.

“You took such a risk going into a burning building. You put your life in danger. Your wife . . . your own child could have lost someone they loved if you’d been hurt.”

“Those beautiful little girls. Lily and Daisy. And Maddy, hurt while saving them . . . I . . . I couldn’t not go in . . . We just acted. Didn’t even think. I . . . just needed to hear the doctor say that they were all going to be okay. That I made a difference.”

“Do you want to come through and see them?” I ask.

“No . . . no, I’ll be fine. I need to get back to my wife and daughter.”

“Granger will take you—he’ll give you a ride,” I say.

Granger’s eyes flare to me. I inhale and meet his gaze properly for the first time since we sat inside my truck outside the Raven’s Roost.

“I need to see Maddy and the girls alone. I don’t want you in there with me.”

His features change, tighten with pain. His eyes begin to glisten.

“We all made mistakes, Rache. We all just wanted to protect our kids.”

“Is that what you’d say if Maddy and Lily and Daisy had burned to death along with Darren? What about Darren? My son-in-law? How many lives need to be sacrificed because of toxic action a quarter of a century ago?”

He stares at me. And in that moment, with the clinical smell of the hospital around us, the smell of smoke in our clothes, we both know one thing to be true. It’s over between us. It has to be. I will not be able to forgive him for what he did. I don’t know exactly what part I played—the extent of it—but the fact that I played one means I will probably not be able to forgive myself, either.

The nurse takes me through to see the girls first.

I enter the room and see two beds, two little faces. Scared eyes.

“They’ve been sedated slightly,” says the nurse. “Lily, Daisy, your grandmother’s here.”

“Gramma?” says Daisy. “Where’s Mommy? Where’s Daddy?”

My heart cracks, and tears flow. I sit on the bed, gather Daisy in my arms, hold Lily’s hand. Through my streaming tears, I say, “Mommy’s going to be fine. She’s going to be just fine.”



Dawn is creeping pale into the sky outside the hospital windows when Maddy’s eyes flutter and she slowly comes around. I’m sitting in a big chair beside her bed with the girls on my lap. They both finally fell asleep in my arms. My legs have gone numb, but I haven’t dared move for fear of disturbing them. I spent the hours breathing in the scent of smoke on their hair, and another that is the scent of my grandbabies.

The police came and told me during the night that Darren’s body was found in the locked living room in the front part of the house. It was clear that Johnny had indeed tried to break down the door but had not been able to get to his friend.

The police want to speak to Maddy when she wakes. They said evidence of arson was clear. There were signs that several fires had been started through the house with an accelerant, one after the other in close succession. It appears as though Maddy and the girls were locked into Maddy’s study, and Darren locked himself into the living room. There was a burned-out gas container with him. The police said it appears he might have doused himself in gasoline before starting the fire in the living room. The officers will be returning soon. I hope I can talk to Maddy before they do.

I stir and carefully extricate myself from under the sleeping kids. I place a blanket over them and go up to the bed. I take Maddy’s hand.

“Mads, honey?”

She blinks and slowly focuses on me, then suddenly tries to sit bolt upright.

“The girls!”