Ellen McKenzie 04-Murder Half-Baked (19 page)

“Maybe she’s getting Alzheimer’s.” Susannah was also pushing lumps around. She looked perplexed. “How do you get your potatoes so smooth? These look like they have white rocks in them.”

“Practice,” said Aunt Mary. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her, but it’s a good thing she has Gina.”

“Who’s Gina?” Neil had been following the conversation, head going back and forth, like someone watching a ping pong game.
He never got his answer. The phone rang.

“Who on earth could that be?” Aunt Mary pushed her chair back and picked up the phone that rested on the corner of the built-in hutch. She listened a minute. “Oh, my God.” The color drained
from
her face and her hand shook a little as she handed the phone to Dan.

“It’s for you.”

“Chief Dunham.” There was a pause. “Son of a
…
Okay. Right away.” His face didn’t look much better as he handed the phone back to Aunt Mary.

He threw his napkin on the table
,
oblivious to the fact that it landed squarely on his plate, where it immediately started to sop up gravy. His chair almost went over as he pushed it back. “Someone needs to take Ellen home. I’ll be awhile.”

“What’s happened?” I put down my own fork and started to push my chair back.

“Grace House is on fire.” He was already headed for the door, the information thrown over his shoulder as he went.

Aunt Mary was already gathering up napkins and picking up plates. “Is everyone out?”

“Everyone is out and accounted for, all except one.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Leona.” The door slammed, and he was gone.

W
e stood halfway down the block
—
Neil, Susannah, Aunt Mary, and I
—
watching the last few tongues of flames shoot into the sky before dying under the spray of water pouring on them. All that was left was charred, smoldering ruins where once had been a house. The metal screen door glowed with heat, the backyard swing, visible from where we stood through the ruins, hung from one rope. The other had burned through when the tree caught fire.

Dan had left immediately, but we stayed long enough to put away the food. “There will be hungry mouths to feed later,” Aunt Mary had said with a grim set to her mouth.

“They think it was arson.” Anne Kennedy walked out of the smoke to join us. She had on an old padded jacket over what looked like pajama bottoms, her sockless feet thrust into running shoes. Her eyes were red, I didn’t think totally from smoke. “I’ve been talking to the fire captain. Arson. How could anyone? Think what we’ve lost.”

“Think what you didn’t lose.” Aunt Mary put her arm around her and squeezed her tight. “Everyone got out alive.” She stopped suddenly and let her arm drop. “Didn’t they?”

“I don’t know.” Anne was ringing her hands, her eyes glued on the smoldering building. “Marilee and the baby are in that police car over there. So is Gina. Nathan is still talking to the police. I don’t know where Leona is. No one ha
s
seen her.”

“Marilee! Why isn’t she in the hospital?” Aunt Mary wheeled around to stare at Anne. “That child just gave birth this morning. She has no business being anywhere but in bed.”

“You’re right.” Anne looked on the verge of collapse. Not surprising. The last forty-eight hours would have felled Wonder Woman. “We decided, the doctor, Marilee, and me, that she
—
they
—
were safer here than at the hospital. Too many ways for Grady to sneak in if he wanted to, and he seemed determined to get to her. It didn’t turn out to be a very good decision.”

Grady. The fire was deliberate. Had he finally discovered she was staying at Grace House and set it on fire to
…
do what? Force her out?

Nathan joined us. His eyes were bloodshot, his face sooty. There was a burn mark on his cheek that looked raw and sore
,
and his eyebrows were gone. “We’ve
…
” He started to cough
—
a dry, raspy cough
—
and I could hear him wheeze as he tried to get it under control. That he’d been in the fire was obvious, but why?

“We’ve got to get Marilee and the baby out of this smoke. Someplace safe.”

He had a good point. The smoke filled my lungs
, too
, making it hard to breath
e
without coughing. It had turned the night sky a dull, filthy gray or bright red, depending on what the slowly circulating lights from the emergency vehicles illuminated.
 

“Nathan.” Anne clutched his arm, using it as much to hold herself up as to get his attention. “You were here? What happened? Look at it! It must have gone up like kindling wood.”

“It exploded.” I don’t think he even felt Anne hanging from him. His eyes went from the last gasping flames to the police car, where Marilee evidently sat, and back. “I came over to make sure she was all right. I was so worried
. W
hen you told me what happened in the hospital
,
I had to make sure
… She was lying on the sofa in the living room, holding the baby. Gina was going to get her some water from the kitchen. Only there was an explosion.” He stopped, shook his head as if to clear it. “Thank God the kitchen door was closed. If it had been open
…
anyway, I got her up, grabbed the baby and stuck him in the car seat. Marilee couldn’t move very fast, but we had to get out. I yelled at Gina to grab onto my belt, and I guess she did. I could feel the flames and the smoke
—
so thick I couldn’t see. I couldn’t find the door. I thought we weren’t going to
…
the next thing I knew, we were all on the lawn across the street and the fire engines and police were coming from every direction. Someone put Marilee in that car over there. But a doctor needs to look at her.”

“Explosion. Good God. Maybe it was that old gas stove.” Anne didn’t look as if she really believed that, but it was probably better than thinking someone had deliberately blown up the house.

Nathan turned to look at her. “The stove?” He shook his head, his lips pursed with what looked like anger. “Maybe. The fire department will find out what caused it. Right now we need to do something about Marilee and the baby.”

“And Gina,” Aunt Mary said softly. “Didn’t you say Gina was
also
over there in that car?”

“Oh. Yes. Look, there’s a paramedic. Finally.” Nathan took off almost at a run. A couple of paramedics were kneeling beside the police car. They were on the opposite side from us
.
I couldn’t see but could hear a baby cry. That was a good sign. Or was it? He must be gulping in tons of smoke. The crying stopped. Maybe they were giving him oxygen. I hoped so. I could use a little myself.

“Are they going to take them to the hospital?” Susannah’s voice sounded small and scared. I’d forgotten she was there, standing behind me. I turned now to look at her, but she was fine, safely encased in Neil’s arms.

Dan appeared beside her, face smudged with soot, eyes bloodshot from smoke, but his eyebrows were still intact. “They aren’t going to the hospital. Medics say there’s nothing wrong with any of them that a bath and a good bed won’t cure.”

“Oh.” Anne suddenly
emerged from
her shock
-
induced trance. “Oh my God. Yes, we’ll need someplace
…
but it’s got to be safe
…
I can’t have this
…
they have to be safe. The Good Night Motor Inn? No. That’s way out on the freeway. How about the Heritage Inn here in town? I’ll call them
. W
here’s my cell phone?”

“They’re coming to our house.”

That was it. Just a flat statement that riveted all eyes on Dan. Especially mine. What did he mean
,
our house? All of them? Marilee and the baby? Gina? Leona? But where was Leona? Did anyone know? And what if Grady somehow found out Marilee was at my house? I wondered wildly if my insurance covered arson.

“Grady Wilcox was spotted cruising this area earlier this evening.”

“Oh, Dan. Do you think he did this?” I wouldn’t have believed Anne’s face could get any whiter, but she paled another three shades. I was afraid she was going to pass out.

“He was around here; we know that. Nice of him to drive such a flamboyant truck. Makes it easier to keep track of him.” Dan stooped down and took a better look at Anne. “Are you all right? You look—”

“I’m fine.” Her voice rang with impatience, or maybe it was impending hysteria. “At any rate, as fine as I can be. Grace House is gone
. M
y
girls have nothing, except for one very new baby, and now you think the father of that baby tried to kill him and his mother by setting the house on fire. I’m responsible for these girls. I’m supposed to be keeping them safe. How can I do that
…
”

A bald, portly man I’d never seen before appeared out of the smoke and slid his arm around Anne
,
who had started to shake.

“Oh, Howard,” she said as she leaned against him. “I’m so glad you
’re
here. That damned
C
ity
C
oun
ci
l meeting
… N
o one would put me through, and these girls
… L
ook at that!” She gestured
wildly
toward the house, tears
spilling from her eyes
.

“Hush, now. They’re going to be fine, and so are you.” He pulled her close while he looked around the group. His eyes stopped traveling when they got to Dan.

“Evening, Dan. This is just about the worst fire I’ve seen. You’ve got everyone out of those other houses?”

Dan nodded. “Evening, Mr. Major. The first thing my people did.”

“They’re doing their usual fine job.” He paused a moment, watching the last tongues of flame die down under the onslaught of water. “You think this Grady person might be responsible for
…
that?”
He waved his free hand toward the slowly smoldering house.

“Don’t know. But he’s been tearing the town apart looking for his wife. Made a huge scene at the hospital yesterday, punched out a nurse, but then, I’m sure Anne told you all that. I can’t rule him out, so to be on the safe side, I think we’ll take these girls home with us.” Dan glanced over at me. “There’s only two of them and they have to go somewhere.”

Howard slowly nodded. He turned Anne so that she faced him. “That all right with you?”

“Two? Where’s Leona? Where did she go? ” It was as if Leona
’s
absence
had just sunk in. “She did go someplace, didn’t she? She couldn’t have been in
..
.” The possibility of where she might be, or might have been, was just beginning to sink in
for
the rest of us.

We all looked at
one an
other.

“Nathan.”
Aunt Mary sounded breathless and a little sick. “If she’d been in the house, surely he would have seen her.”

“Not if she was in her room.”
Anne didn’t sound any better than Aunt Mary.

“Do the firemen know someone is missing?” I had never seen Dan look so grim.
W
ith
good reason
. The thought of poor Leona, trapped in her room, not realizing that the house was on fire until it was too late, calling out for help with no one to hear, was almost more than I could bear.
Behind me,
Susannah suck
ed
in a mouthful of air. I didn’t hear her release it.

“You all stay here. I’d better check with the fire chief.” Dan disappeared into the smoke once more.

“She couldn’t have been in there. Could she?” I didn’t know if Susannah was addressing me, Neil, or the world in general. No one had an answer. All we could do was wait for Dan to come back and hope for news. Good news. In the meantime
,
I wasn’t sure what to do. It seemed we were going to have Gina
,
Marilee
,
and her new baby as houseguests. Should I try to round them up? Get my car? Where was I going to put them? Were the towels in the bathroom clean?