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THREE IN THE MORNING, a fire truck made a terrible racket outside. When the fire truck didn’t move on, Vic stumbled to the window. Not wanting to be shot by newly hired assassins, she peeked through a narrow slot in the closed curtains.
The fire truck was in front of their home.
“Bloody Hell!”
She hurried to Xavier, still asleep.
“Xavier, wake up! Claire has evidently decided to burn our house down.”
“Not even possible,” he grumbled.
“Well, the firemen think otherwise.”
Just then she heard glass breaking.
“Xavier, get up and save our house from being destroyed by overzealous firemen! They look to have a metal battering ram aimed at our door!”
Once her words sunk in, Xavier grabbed his pants and a shirt then ran downstairs. In less than a minute, he was yelling at them not to even attempt to break his door.
From Vic’s view from the upstairs window, they were evidently going to ignore him.
Fortunately, Xavier opened the door and stood in the frame. “What the bloody hell are you doing? Do you have any idea how much this door cost?”
“An angry fireman stormed up the steps. Sir, you need to get all the people out of this house at once! Your house is on fire!”
By this time Gregory was dressed for the day and had woken all the men up. He assigned Tubs and Jacko to check the outside perimeter. He then ordered the rest of the men to check the roof and inside of the house.
Xavier demanded for Vic to lock the door behind him as he stepped outside to discuss the matter further with the fire chief. “First of all, this house is fireproof. Secondly, it’s three in the morning, and finally, If Claire did set a fire, it would —”
“Found it,” David declared from the roof. I’ve put it out.”
Naturally, the fire chief was angry. “Were you cooking on your roof?”
“No, I was sleeping. However, there is a lunatic woman named Claire who is prone to setting fires. But honestly, I have no idea how she climbed the side of our home. He then walked over to the side wall and cursed loudly. “Bloody Hell!”
He stormed back inside. “Vic, why didn’t you remove the rope that Claire used to climb off the roof last night?”
“I was so exhausted that I didn’t even think about it.”
Xavier refocused on the fire chief. The crazed woman I mentioned before is trying to kill us. She got into our house yesterday. She locked herself into our bathing room, climbed out our sky-window, and then escaped with a makeshift rope that she made from our bedsheets.
“So why didn’t you remove the rope at once?” The fire chief demanded.
“It’s been an exhausting month. To be honest, no one has been getting much sleep.”
“Due to this woman?”
“Yes!”
“Then you’ll be glad to know we had her arrested.”
Xavier groaned. “Actually, Vic wanted her taken to an asylum, somewhere far away.”
“So, you know this woman?”
“Sadly, yes.”
“Well, you can find her in lockup at Scotland Yard. But be aware, there will probably be a fine, since you know her.”
Xavier snorted. “She’s not my relative. But I seriously doubt she’ll be in lock up anymore. She’s dangerously clever. However, since you spoiled her fun, you might want to have someone keep an eye on your station house because this woman loves to burn things.”
With that warning, the fire chief rounded up his men and returned to the fire station, which, not surprisingly, Claire had attempted to set on fire. Only the man left in charge had watered her down with a fire hose, forcing her to leave.