Outback Blaze (4 page)

‘Well, I'm glad my family could oblige,' Ruby snapped, feeling uncharacteristically grumpy.

‘Hey, keep your chin up.' Simone gestured behind her. ‘These people might be busybodies, but they'll pull together to make sure all this turns out all right in the end. Small towns are like one big family – the good and the bad – but they look out for each other. How are your parents coping?'

Ruby let out a deep sigh and rubbed the gooseflesh that had appeared on her arms despite the sweltering temperature. She glanced over at her mum and dad. ‘Don't know. It's early days. Guess it will depend on how much damage is done. Hard to tell right now.'

A loud shout from near the building interrupted whatever else she might have said. The women looked up to see the firefighters leap back a few steps. More shouts followed but the words weren't clear enough to hear over the roar and crackle of the fire and the whoosh of water overhead.

And then, more impressive than the annual sky-show for Australia Day, fire ripped through the middle of the building and shot through the roof. Incandescent debris scattered across the car park, not quite reaching the disbelieving crowd. The roof clattered inwards, the rush of air venting the fire.

Robert swore, his four-letter word ringing out over the stunned and silent crowd. Ruby rushed back to her parents and the three of them huddled together in a solemn embrace. ‘It's all right,' she whispered, needing to say something. ‘We'll get through this. At least we still have each other.'

Her parents had been her rock this past year, keeping her spirits up while she was in hospital and then welcoming her home afterwards. Now it was her turn to stand by them, to keep them positive when it looked like all was lost.

‘This is what insurance is for.'

Her father sighed. ‘It's one of those things you fork out for but hope you never need.'

Holding her parents close, Ruby looked over their shoulders to see Drew coming their way. Her stupid heart did a silly flip at the sight of him, his jeans now covered in soot and his safety jacket equally as grubby. His expression was as dark as the smudges on his face.

‘Good evening Mr and Mrs Jones, Ruby.' At the sound of Drew's voice the embrace broke. Ruby's parents turned to face him. He nodded his head slightly and she saw the flames of the fire reflected in his deep brown eyes. Despite the dire situation she couldn't help thinking he had the most amazing eyes ever.

He clapped a hand on her father's shoulder. ‘I'm sorry for your loss. The firefighters are doing an amazing job and although it might not look like it, they've got the fire under control. Ryan said he's confident they'll have it out in a couple of hours.'

‘And when can we go in?' asked Robert. ‘See what's left?'

Drew glanced towards the shop. ‘That's not for me to say. Once the guys have extinguished the flames, we'll need to inspect the building and if it looks suspicious, the arson squad will be called to investigate. My guess is that's a given. It's best if we leave the area as untouched as possible until then.'

Ruby's mum let out a gut-wrenching sob and Ruby and her dad hugged her again. A pained expression crossed Drew's face. ‘We'll be needing to interview you all tonight, but I'll give you some time to digest all this first.'

As he made to move away, Ruby let go of her mum and stepped after him. ‘Constable Noble, do you really think this is arson?'

‘Please, call me Drew.' He glanced over his shoulder at the fire. ‘It's anyone's guess at this stage, but yes, I'd put my money on this fire being deliberately lit.'

Ruby's hand rushed to her throat and she rocked a little on the spot.

Drew immediately reached out to steady her. ‘Are you okay?'

‘I'm…' She tried to catch her breath, work out what the hell she was feeling, find the words to explain. ‘I don't know.'

‘Here, maybe you should sit?' Strengthening his grip on her arm, Drew wrapped his other one around her body and led her over to one of the police cars. She found herself leaning into him, hoping some of his strength would transfer to her. He eased her down onto the bonnet and wrapped one hand around the back of her neck, applying gentle pressure. ‘Put your head between your legs and take deep breaths. It'll help.'

Although his order was a little gruff she didn't feel bossed about. She felt looked after and realised she hadn't flinched at his touch. Her heart raced and she couldn't tell whether it was due to this or the direness of the situation.

‘Wait there,' he ordered. Helpless to do anything but, she sat panting on the edge of the bonnet, her head turned away from the fire because she could no longer bear to look. He returned in a flash, offering a bottle of water. Realising she must have dropped the one Simone had given her, Ruby gulped down the water as if her life depended on it. She drank half the bottle but nothing seemed to quench her thirst. Sweat beaded on her forehead and she reached up to wipe it away, but Drew got there first. He pulled what looked to be a hanky out of his jeans' pocket and patted it against her brow.

‘It's going to be all right,' he told her, tenderness both in his voice and his touch. ‘It may seem like a mess now, but you're safe and that's all that matters. Nobody's been hurt.'

‘Yes,' she spoke with a sob. It was a fight not to cry in front of him but he was being so damn nice and in light of the situation she felt like anything would set her off. ‘
Stuff
doesn't matter but I've never seen anything so horrific.' She looked again at the barely recognisable building, thinking of how her father had only recently laboured over a new coat of paint. ‘I just can't believe it could be arson. Why would anyone want to do this to my parents?'

Drew shrugged his wide shoulders, then took the bottle from her, screwed on the lid and placed it on the ground. ‘Don't beat yourself up worrying about that tonight. Leave the questions to us and just try and calm yourself.'

From anyone else this advice might have seemed patronising, but Drew's voice worked like a balm on her nerves. ‘Thank you,' she whispered.

‘Hey, don't mention it.' He lifted his hand and brushed his thumb against the corner of her eye, wiping away a tear she didn't realise had escaped. For the briefest of moments she forgot what surrounded them, almost leant into his touch to beg for more, but she caught herself in the nick of time. This wasn't sexual. She had no reason to think he felt anything towards her at all. He was merely doing his job; looking after her just as he'd looked after Grace a few hours earlier. And now was not the time for her to be developing lustful feelings, no matter how long it had been.

Wiping her hands against her jeans, she straightened up and slid off the bonnet. ‘I should get back to my parents.' He'd taken her away to fall apart for a few moments, but they needed her now. It was time for her to be the adult, to comfort and look after them.

As if reading her mind Drew nodded. ‘I'm guessing your dad will want to stick around for a while, but your mum looks exhausted. Maybe you should try to get her to go home and get some rest. The next few days are going to be tough.'

Ruby sighed, knowing Drew spoke the truth. She didn't want to think about the sleepless nights that would follow this disaster or the hard work of clearing the rubble, dealing with insurance companies and comforting the employees who'd no doubt be out of work while they got the business up and running again.

‘Yes, you're right.' She started towards her mum and dad, but turned back briefly to look at Drew. ‘Some birthday, hey?'

His lips lifted in an almost smile. ‘Yeah, this won't go down as one of my top ten.'

‘Mine either.'

Drew watched Ruby's hips sway as she walked across to her parents and couldn't help but feel sorry for the woman. Still, even in the height of disaster, she carried herself well and those tight jeans accentuated her sexy butt with each step.

Hell, Drew!
Now was not the time to be lusting after a woman. Quite aside from the fact he'd sworn not to get entangled with anyone while he was here, he was on a job. He rubbed at his eyes, which stung with that all too familiar gritty feeling. The last thing he'd expected when relocating to a tiny country town was to find himself dealing with arson again. Intuition told him this fire was deliberately lit and that knowledge set all his instincts rolling. Folding his arms, he glanced between the fire and gathered crowd, scouring everyone's faces for clues. Typically arsonists stayed around to witness their crime, so it was highly likely one of these onlookers had intimate knowledge of how this fire began.

He ticked off the faces in his mind, making a mental register of everyone he recognised and for those he didn't, he jotted down notes in his pad. The obvious people to look at were the Jones family who, right now, looked both shocked and devastated. But Drew knew better than most that looks could be deceiving. Ruby had a dozen people to confirm her alibi – himself included – but he knew next to nothing about her parents. Then you had to consider disgruntled employees, ex or current lovers, competitors. The list of suspects could get ridiculous when it came to arson, which was usually a crime against people rather than property.

‘Oi, Noble, what are you doing standing around gazing at the flames? Make yourself useful and go and find those delinquents of yours.'

Drew turned towards O'Leary's gruff voice but it took a moment for him to realise who his sergeant was referring to. ‘Jaxon and Brad?'

‘Nah. Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men.' O'Leary shook his head. ‘Of course Jaxon and Brad. Those little thugs have gone one step too far this time. That's why you'd better haul 'em in because if I do the honours I'll throw them both into the burning building and watch them turn to cinder.'

Drew raised one eyebrow and bit down on the response that such actions would require strenuous effort on O'Leary's part, of which he didn't think the older man capable. ‘You can't just arrest them. Where's your evidence?'

O'Leary made a scoffing noise with his teeth. ‘The evidence is burning to smithereens behind us, but it doesn't take a Rhodes Scholar to put two and two together and come up with those two. Stop wasting my time and go bring them in.'

‘Let me go in and take a look,' Drew demanded, striding towards the fire truck. He'd get the additional protective gear he should have demanded when he first arrived and go inside to take a proper look. Something told him the boys weren't responsible for this – he hadn't seen them in the crowds, in fact, the thought hadn't even crossed his mind until now and he could generally rely on his instinct.

‘What the hell do you think you're doing?' O'Leary roared over the top of the background noise. ‘Don't you take one step into that building! Quite aside from the fact it's not safe, we've got trained investigators to do that. The big guns of the arson squad will have my guts for garters if I let you go blazing in there and destroy vital evidence.'

Drew froze in his tracks, tension burning up his ribcage. By the time the arson squad made their way up from Perth tomorrow, any clues would likely be gone. They could look at the burn patterns and maybe work out a point of origin but the chances of saving anything for prints would be dog shit.

But O'Leary had no idea Drew knew about all this stuff. As far at the sergeant understood Drew was nothing but a constable from the UK, who'd migrated for a new life in Australia, and happened to act a little too big for his boots. The older officer had hated him from the moment Drew had made his first arrest and Mrs O'Neil had baked him a big batch of cookies and brought them into the station to say thanks for catching the hoon who'd been speeding down her street. He'd seen O'Leary's scowl that day and guessed the older man might be suspicious about why the police commissioner had thrust Drew onto him, but it didn't stop him doing his best to protect the community.

He couldn't just stand by and let the lazy old sergeant pin the crime on the boys because it was the easy option. Those young boys had their whole lives ahead of them and getting done for something like this could ruin them. Short of gathering evidence from among the rubble, the next best thing he could do was to find Jaxon and Ben and question them himself. He felt certain they were innocent of this crime, but one look into their eyes would tell him for sure. And if they had done it, they deserved whatever the courts and the town would throw at them.

His shoulders slumping, Drew turned around and met O'Leary's aggressive gaze. ‘Yes, Sergeant. If you don't need me here I'll go bring in the boys.'

‘The
suspects
, Noble. The suspects,' O'Leary growled.

‘Mum, do you think you should go home and get some rest?' Ruby touched her mum's elbow, noticing she was shaking.

‘No.' Lyn shook her head, and wrapped her arms around herself, hugging her torso. Her face looked ragged, tears and dust mingling on her cheeks, and her hair was messier than she'd normally be seen in public with. ‘I need to stay for your father.'

And there was no chance of dragging him away. Nodding, Ruby pulled her mum close to her again and together they watched as the firefighters continued to battle the flames. Despite feeling like death warmed up – very warmed up – she couldn't bear to leave yet either. It didn't seem right to abandon all these people working hard to save what they could of her family's business.

Leaning against her mum and not sure who was supporting whom, Ruby watched in silence as water rained down at the building from all angles, in the hope of stopping it from spreading further. The volunteers were so fit and strong but how long could they go on like this?

She needed to do something – standing and watching was going to send her insane.

‘Mum, if you're okay, I'm going to go and see if I can help Frankie and Simone with the food. These men are going to be starving when this is over.'