“Okay. You’re standing at the door waiting for your husband to tell you when to come out?”
“Yeah. I think he told me to jump out the window, but we had the fire ladder under Mattie’s bed. When we practiced, we all met in Mattie’s room and then climbed out her window, so I thought maybe the fire wasn’t too bad yet, he was going to get everything ready, then take Mattie down and come back for me. I couldn’t see any fire, just the smoke, so I didn’t know what it was like out there.”
“Did you see flames before your husband closed the door? Out in the hall, I mean?”
“I saw a reflection of light in the dresser mirror, right before I stood up. I was still in bed and barely awake. I couldn’t tell if the reflection was the fire or if Jacob had turned on the hall light or something. He yelled at me to call 9-1-1 and I tried to find my glasses and couldn’t, so I punched in the numbers from memory. I must have got it wrong the first time because I had to try again.”
“But you looked at the clock?”
“Yeah. It was one something, but I didn’t have my glasses on, so I thought the first two numerals were a ‘seven,’ which is why I thought it might be morning. That’s another thing that makes it confusing when I wake up, because my eyesight is really bad without my glasses. I can barely even recognize myself in the mirror without them.”
“How long did you wait at the bedroom door?”
“Maybe two more minutes, then I heard something crackling and I guess something downstairs fell over, because there was a loud bang and that’s when I first started getting really worried. I was wide awake by then.”
“We believe the fire started downstairs,” Davidson said. “The sliding glass door was open, and a couple of the kitchen windows. The fire was able to get a good rolling start with a cross-draft like that. It probably had eaten up half the downstairs before the smoke got thick enough to set off the fire detectors upstairs. Tell me, was it usual for you folks to leave the sliding glass door open?”
“That’s Jacob again. He’s restless, he sometimes gets up in the middle of the night and works downstairs. He makes a snack and gets on the computer and sometimes he might be gone half the night. I hardly notice, because I’m a heavy sleeper. But he likes fresh air, and this is a safe neighborhood.”
Renee paused, reminded by Davidson’s stare that she and Jacob and Mattie no longer lived in the house on Elk Avenue. She looked around at the pale walls of her new lifeless life.
“Are you sure Jacob woke you up? Was he in the bed when you first heard the alarm?”
“Yeah. That’s what he told me. And I can see it plain as day, him sitting up with his back to me, the streetlight coming through the curtains just a little, and then he ran and threw on his robe and went out the door, and I was just starting to get out of bed. And I could hear the alarm, I remember that, and then I reached on the bedside table for my glasses but they must have fallen to the floor.”
“So you found them, because I remember you had them on when we arrived.”
“No, that was my extra pair. People with normal vision don’t know what it’s like, but I could hardly find my way out the door. Then when I finally heard Jacob yell at me, and yell Mattie’s name, I opened the door and all I could see was a blur of yellow and red flames and black smoke and the house looked like it was caving in and Jacob told me to run, he’d get Mattie and meet me outside. All I could think of was to get down the stairs, fast, but I should have jumped out the window because the downstairs was one big fire and the smoke was hurting me and I was dizzy, but I was lucky I went when I did because I just made it out the sliding glass door when it sounded like the floor collapsed.”
“Was the sliding glass door open when you went downstairs, or did you have to open it?”
Renee appraised the squat, red-headed woman. What right did she have to act suspicious, play macho, barge in and dance on Mattie’s grave? Davidson had probably watched too many forensic crime shows on television, and now an accident could never be just an accident. Somebody always had to have something to hide.
“It was open,” Renee said. “You already said that.”
Davidson nodded again, the stub of head dipping, the facial features as inflexible as a rubber fright mask. “That’s right. I forgot. I’d better write all this down.”
The fire chief leaned forward and pulled a small composition pad from her back pocket. A tiny scrap of paper fell from the wire rings of the pad. Renee stared at the scrap, which fluttered to a rest beside Davidson’s left foot. She almost leaned over and picked it up, but didn’t want to come near the fire chief’s leg.
“So you’re down the stairs and outside,” Davidson said, marking in the pad. “Then what?”
“I ran into the yard and looked up at Mattie’s window. I couldn’t see anything, and by then the fire was too hot for me to go back inside. I ran to the car—”
“There were two cars in the driveway. Was yours the SUV or the Subaru sedan?”
“Subaru. I grabbed my purse—”
“Your purse. You leave your purse in an unlocked car?”
“It’s a safe neighborhood, like I told you. And I hardly ever carry much money. But I figured I needed my glasses or I’d be useless, I wouldn’t be able to help Jacob and Mattie when they came out through the window. I carry an extra pair in my purse.”
“Did you see anything unusual?”
“Besides the house on fire?”
Davidson’s lips pressed together like those of a meditating toad. “Please, Mrs. Wells. I know this is difficult, but I’m only doing my job. Did you see anyone around?”
“No. Some of the lights came on in the houses down the street and I believe some dogs were barking. But all I can remember is the sound of the fire, the wood snapping and the walls creaking and the glass breaking. Then I started screaming and the scream turned into a siren and you guys showed up and I was scared because Jacob should have been out by then. The roof caved in a little and the firemen were beating on the front door with axes and I think I went crazy because all I could do was scream and Jacob and Mattie still didn’t come out and they still didn’t come out and they’re still in there.”
Renee realized she’d forgotten Davidson and found herself staring at the wall as if a film of the event had been projected there.
Davidson stood up, folded her pad and tucked it away. “I’m sorry, ma’am. This is the hardest part of the job, believe me. I’ll let you know if we need anything else.”
Renee glanced at the scrap of paper and followed the fire chief to the door. Davidson stood on the porch a moment, looking out over the mountain ridges. “She’s home with the Lord, Mrs. Wells. It was a hard way to get there, but the getting there is the main thing.”
Renee nodded, eyes bleary, wanting the awkward moment to end. Catholicism had failed her when she needed faith the most. She’d viewed Mattie’s death through the lenses of a dozen philosophies and religions, yet all of them blurred into the same dead end. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, go toward the light, ride the karmic wheel, take the stairway to heaven. None of them made sense. And none of them lessened the pain.
She closed the door and went to retrieve the tiny scrap of paper from the floor, putting what she had of a home into perfect order.
CHAPTER FOUR
Littlejohn Hospital lay on the edge of town, the shining bridge between Kingsboro’s urban future and its rural past. A shopping center and cluster of medical complexes were islands in the sea of asphalt leading up to the front entrance, while a cow pasture sprawled to the rear, waiting for the right developer to come along. In the street three stories below Jacob’s room, Memorial Day traffic hissed in pointless conflict. Someone in the hall spat a tubercular laugh full of fatalistic cheer.