42

 

I shoved Carrie down and landed heavily on top of her. The rockets’ explosion sounded like it was right above us.

Carrie heaved me off and rose to her knees.

I stumbled to my feet. My ears rang, and I felt off balance, as though I was listing to port.

To our left, people were waving their arms and running behind the Bait ‘n Tackle. Judging by the rising glow, the old lobster traps stacked up for the Guy Fawkes bonfire were ablaze.

“Get the fire department!” I didn’t know if anyone heard me shouting.

I know Carrie wasn’t paying attention. Slack-jawed, she stared at Hunter Hall.

I turned.

While one rocket had ignited the Bait ‘n Tackle fire, the second had crashed just behind her house. Carrie’s compost pile was on fire.

She took off running; I followed as fast as my shorter legs would go.

We both knew Hum Harbour’s volunteer fire department was small. There was no way they could deal with the Bait ‘n Tackle’s fire, which potentially threatened downtown Hum Harbour, and Carrie’s, as well.

By the time I reached her yard, she’d already vaulted her retaining wall and sprinted across the lawn. She emerged from the darkness dragging her garden hose and a rake.

Carrie’s compost wasn’t as dry as old lobster traps, more smoke than flame, but the fire had already spread to nearby bushes. Hunter Hall was the last house on the street. It backed onto brush. If that caught, the whole hillside could go up.

The warbling siren confirmed the fire truck raced to the Bait ‘n Tackle, leaving us on our own.

While Carrie hosed down the bushes, I made an emergency call to Geoff on my cell. Then I grabbed the rake.

The compost smoke made it hard to work. My eyes burned as I shoveled and flipped the decaying garden weeds. I kept to the task, even after Geoff and Edouard appeared, grabbed an ax and shears from Carrie’s garden shed, and hacked the adjoining brush before it caught fire, too.

In time, I recognized Andrew’s voice, LeClerc, Josh and Sam. Even with one arm, Sam was stronger than most men with two. He dragged dead limbs out of the way.

We killed it. Every last smoldering bit of brush and garden debris, extinguished. As we stood, exultant, wet, black and exhausted, and surveyed the devastation of Carrie’s once beautiful garden, a giggle bubbled in my throat. Hysteria, no doubt, but I couldn’t quell it. It spread faster than the now-dead flames. In a moment, we were all laughing.

Carrie’s laughter didn’t last long.

She spotted Josh among our ranks and zeroed in.

None of us noticed her shovel.

“This is your fault!” Her voice was hoarse; we were all hoarse from breathing in the smoke.

“I didn’t mean to,” Josh choked on his words.

Standing beside him, Sam laid his one good hand on Josh. “I shoulda been paying closer attention, kid. I just never thought.”

“Well, you should have thought!”

The flashing lights from the other end of town, reflected in the smoke-filled sky, and Carrie’s garden throbbed with the alternating light and shadow. Against that strobing backdrop, her soot-covered body, even her hair bristled with pent up emotion.

“Look what you’ve done!” she accused.

Sam, by contrast, was a solid, immovable wall. “Now just a minute, here. It was an accident. The kid never meant for anything to catch fire.”

“The kid never meant? Is that what I’m supposed to tell Claude?”

“Claude?” I looked at her closely. Were her eyes even focusing? “What’s this got to do with Claude?”

She pointed a wavering finger at Josh. “I was going to let this kid off the hook for burgling my home because it was just a matter of time until police realized he’d killed my Claude.”

Josh’s mouth dropped open. “No, I never!”

“Just a matter of time until police found the candlestick he used to kill my husband.”

Josh dragged his arm across his face. “I never!”

“And buried it under my daylilies.”

He slipped out from under Sam’s hand, backing away from Carrie. “You’re lying! Andrew and that inspector know I had nothin’ to do with Claude dying.”

“And now you’ve tried to burn down Hunter Hall!” Carrie swung the shovel.

Metal connected with Josh’s skull—a resounding clunk. He lunged sideways and crumpled.

She raised the shovel again.

Being the closest person, I jumped on her back, wrapped my arms around her upper body, and hung on tight.

“Argh!” She sounded like the Hulk, when his eyes bugged out and his muscles bulged before he burst into that giant green monster.

I hung on to her as tight as a limpet to a stone. Digging my knees into her ribs, strengthening my grip around her arms, I screamed my loudest, “Geooooff!”

Carrie flipped me onto the ground. Her weight on top of me whooshed the air out of my lungs. Before the world went black, I managed to wrap my legs around her waist and wheeze one last, “Geoff.”