Birdie was coming up the hall and Arnold waved her down.
“Hey, Birdie. Have you seen Dub? The hydraulics are out on the forklift, and we just got in a new shipment of cubes that need to be moved.”
“He’s out back, I think. Want me to go get him?” Birdie asked.
“Just tell him the forklift is leaking fluid. I’m gonna go start moving the cubes by hand.”
Birdie eyed the stoop to Arnold’s shoulders and knew he was already depressed about his boys being in jail.
“Why don’t you just wait a bit, or get some of the guys to help you?” she said.
“I need to stay busy,” Arnold said, and then winked at her. “Keeps a man out of trouble when he stays busy, you know,” and then walked back into the storage end of the building.
Birdie smiled, thought nothing more of it, dropped off the paperwork Dub wanted, and went back to her office.
Arnold stood for a few minutes, eyeing the setup and trying to figure out what would be his best option, then walked all the way down to the far end of the building to see how much room they had there.
A couple of sacks had slid sideways off their stack, and he crawled up onto the pile to straighten them. When he did, a big rat leaped out, hitting him square in the chest before running off into the shadows.
Startled, Arnold lost his footing. He knew as he was falling backward that it wasn’t going to be a good landing because there was nothing back there but concrete. He hit the floor on the back of his head, then his body followed. His chin popped forward against his chest as his neck snapped. It was the last thing he heard.
The sacks started falling then, slowly sliding down from the pile onto Arnold’s body, and onto the frayed wiring that the rats had been chewing. One wire sparked, and then another, and then it flared. Sparks landed on the paper sacks and began to smolder.
It wasn’t until actual flames began rising that one of the employees smelled smoke and ran back inside.
“Fire! Fire!” he yelled, and grabbed his phone and called 911.
* * *
It was midafternoon, and Hunt was nailing down loose boards on the front porch when he heard a siren. He paused, then stood up and looked toward the sound.
All of a sudden, Ray was standing on the edge of the roof above him shouting and pointing.
“Something is on fire! It looks like it’s up by the feed store, and Birdie’s not answering her phone.”
That was not a good sign, and Hunt was worried.
“I’m going to see,” he said, and ran back into the house long enough to get his bike helmet and the keys to his Harley. Moments later, he shot out of the driveway and disappeared up the street.
Ray was still on the roof and hitting Redial on Birdie’s number over and over, but now it was going to voicemail.
Hunt wasn’t thinking past getting to the site of the fire. He wouldn’t let himself consider Birdie being in danger, but someone was or this wouldn’t be happening.
Police cars were speeding up Main Street as he turned at the light. He could see the smoke now, a boiling pillar of black rising high into the sky. People were running up the street, while others like him were coming out of side streets onto Main.
It wasn’t until he passed the hardware store that he saw the actual structure fire and knew it was, in fact, the place where Birdie worked. The fire appeared to be confined to the east end of the building where the loading dock and the feed and seed were stored, but he didn’t know where she was.
He wheeled in to the curb a short distance away, parked the bike, hung his helmet on the handle, and got off running.
A crowd was already gathering, and the police had formed a barricade to keep back the onlookers. He was frantically searching the faces of the people pouring out of every exit when he saw Birdie come staggering out of a side door and stumble to her knees.
He jumped past the barricade and ran toward her. She was coughing and choking from the smoke and trying to get up when Hunt reached her and pulled her back up to her feet.
She looked up. “Hunt?”
“I’ve got you, honey,” Hunt said. He picked her up in his arms and carried her away from the smoke and the flames.
Two ambulances were already on scene, treating people for smoke inhalation, and as soon as Hunt got her there, they began giving her oxygen and checking her vitals.
“Call Emma,” Birdie begged, and Hunt reached for his phone.
Emma answered abruptly, almost as if she’d been waiting for the call.
“Hello? Hunt?”
“Yes, it’s me. Truesdale’s is on fire. Birdie is out and safe, but she got a lot of smoke. They’re giving her oxygen on scene, and she wanted me to call you.”
“Oh my God! I heard the sirens. I saw the smoke. And she didn’t answer her phone. Tell her I’ll be right there.”
Hunt caught Birdie’s eye and gave her a thumbs-up, then settled down near her to wait.
Emma arrived minutes later, horrified by what was happening, and gave Birdie a quick hug, then sat down beside Hunt and stared at the fire.
“This is so awful. Is she okay?”
“Some smoke inhalation. The oxygen will help. She can’t get to her car and is in no shape to drive it anyway. And I’m not putting her on the Harley. When they let her go, will you take her home?”
“Of course,” Emma said.
Hunt watched the firemen in action, and within the hour, they had the main part of the fire knocked down.
Hunt and Emma were still waiting with Birdie when her boss, Dub Truesdale, approached.
“Hey, Birdie, I have everyone accounted for but Arnold. By any chance, did he go to lunch late or go home early?”
Birdie glanced toward the burned end of the building and then moaned.
“No. Arnold was moving that new shipment of cattle cubes. He said the forklift was leaking fluid, and he was going to do it by hand.”
Dub paled. “Oh hell. Are you serious? Why didn’t he let me know?”
Birdie’s eyes welled. “The last couple of days he’s been kind of down. He said his boys got arrested, and he and Donna were thinking of moving home to West Virginia. He said a man needed to stay busy to stay out of trouble.”
All of a sudden, there was a shout at the doorway near the loading dock, then a flurry of people began going inside the burned area. Dub took off running.
Hunt’s heart sank. He had a bad feeling about the missing man’s welfare. But before they could learn the outcome, Birdie was released with a caution to go to the ER if she experienced any trouble breathing.