Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun (Finlay Donovan, #3)(93)

“Then I ain’t tellin’.”

Nick laughed to himself, satisfied. “Fine, but don’t go anywhere. I am going to need a statement about everything else. Want me to call down for a first aid kit?” he asked, gesturing to the blood on Wade’s forearms.

“Just a couple of scrapes.” Wade hitched a thumb toward Joey. “The snitch might need a few stitches though.”

Joey touched the crown of his head as he scowled at Vero.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she warned him. “Wade gave me permission to shoot you.”

Nick pulled Joey aside before a fight could break out. Vero and I hovered close, listening to their conversation. “What the hell are you doing here?” Nick said. “You’re supposed to be in the hospital.”

“Cam must have hacked the hospital computers. He found me and called my room. He said it wasn’t safe to talk, but he was monitoring the blackmailer’s email address and something was going down on the fire tower at three. He said Feliks’s blackmailer would be here.”

“You should have called me,” Nick said. “I would have handled it.”

“I would have, but I wasn’t exactly sure what I was walking into. Or who.” Joey and Nick exchanged a long look.

A long sigh billowed from Nick as he leaned back against the half wall. “You thought you’d find Charlie up here. And you were afraid I might choke and let him off the hook.”

Joey leaned on the wall beside him. “It was a bad hunch. I’m glad I was wrong. Gotta admit, I never even considered Stu for a suspect.” He turned to me and Vero. “When did you two figure it out?”

“Around the same time you did,” I said ruefully. “Let’s just say we had a few bad hunches along the way as well. Sorry about that.”

Joey rubbed the back of his head. “Me, too.”

A light bulb hummed to life over the fire escape. An indicator panel flashed on the side of the pump house, glowing green in the dark. Sidewalk lights and security spotlights flickered on across the campus in sections as the power came back to life. “It’s about time,” Vero said, rubbing her hands together. “I could really use a hot shower.”

Joey drew an exaggerated breath through his nose. Nick did, too. “You smell that?” he asked Joey, pulling a face.

“That’s not funny,” Vero snapped.

I started to laugh, but then I smelled it, too.

The sulfurous reek of propane was thick in the air. That was all the warning we had before the green light on the indicator panel turned red and smoke began to pour over the roof.





CHAPTER 36


Nick checked the indicator lights on the side of the pump house, squinting against the smoke. He waved it from his face as he moved quickly to the roof ledge, frowning down at the tiny outbuilding below. He pulled out his phone and thumbed in a number.

“What’s happening?” I asked, coughing into my sleeve.

“This building is used to train firefighters,” Nick said, as he waited for someone to answer. “The whole tower is one giant simulator. It’s designed to withstand an actual blaze. It’s all run by computers from a control room in that outbuilding down there. The power surge must have triggered the training simulators when the electricity came back on.”

My eyes watered as I swatted at a band of smoke. “Why isn’t anyone shutting them off?”

“It’s four in the morning. The whole campus is asleep.” Nick tried another number as black clouds billowed from the windows below us.

Wade rushed up the fire escape, his clothes and face stained with soot. “The fourth floor is already engulfed. Stairs are too hot,” he called out to us.

Joey paced the ledge, looking for another exit. “Unless somebody’s got rappelling gear, that fire escape is the only way down.”

“Roddy and Ty aren’t answering their phones.” Nick hurried to the pump house and tried the door but it wouldn’t budge. He checked the glowing numbers on the indicator panel. “The fifth floor is already at six hundred degrees,” he called to Wade. “Help me get this door open and turn on the pumps.”

Wade knelt and rolled up his jeans, unstrapping a disturbingly large knife from a sheath around his calf. He wedged it under the doorknob of the pump house and began prying at the lock.

“Finlay, call your sister,” Nick called out to me. “Joey, call Sam. I’ll try Charlie. Someone has to pick up.”

The urgency in Nick’s voice was making me nervous. Nothing about this felt like a simulation anymore. I dialed my sister’s cell phone. It rang straight to voice mail.

“Finn, look!” Vero dragged me to the ledge and pointed across the drill field to the dormitory. A light was on in one of the third-floor windows. “I think that’s Mrs. Haggerty’s room.”

I pulled up my contacts list and dialed Mrs. Haggerty’s cell phone. “It’s ringing,” I said, blinking at her window through the smoke. I nearly cried out with relief when she picked up on the third ring. “Mrs. Haggerty?”

“If this is about my car’s extended warranty, I’m hanging up.”

“Don’t hang up! It’s Finlay Donovan. Thank god, you’re awake!”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m on a new medication for my cholesterol and it makes it hard to—”