Burn Out Read Online Free Page A

grade school. Her husband and I are also
good friends. I was best man at their wedding.” Mack let out a deep
breath. “I keep going through my head what happened that night and
nothing makes sense.”
    “ What did happen that
night?” Rachel asked. “I read a little bit in the paper, but it
doesn’t tell me much.”
    “ Well, all day long Sam
seemed a little distracted. She had gotten a phone call around
dinner time that upset her. She didn’t want to talk about it when I
asked if she was okay. There isn’t a lot of privacy at the fire
station. I just figured it was Ken. His trial was scheduled to
start this week and she was going to testify.”
    Rachel chewed absently on her
thumbnail. It was a bad habit she picked up recently when she was
deep in thought. “Do you think Ken’s involvement with marijuana had
anything to do with her disappearance?”
    “ I hope not. It does seem a
coincidence Sam disappeared right around the time his trial was
supposed to start. I have thought about it.”
    “ Did you get a chance to
talk with her again?”
    “ No, we got the call about
the warehouse fire just a few minutes later.”
    “ How many were on your
shift?”
    “ Five, including me. Sam is
the lieutenant and we had Charlie Bryne, the district chief and two
other firefighters on duty that night.”
    Rachel pointed down to the newspaper
she was reading. “The paper doesn’t tell me much. Maybe you can you
walk me through what happened. Give me a better understanding on
how she disappeared?”
    “ Ok. Well, we arrived on
scene in less than five minutes. The owner was there waiting for
us. He was the one that called it in. Apparently, his son was late
for the family dinner they had every Sunday. His dad went back to
the market when his son didn’t answer his calls. The son is
diabetic and he got worried something happened to him. By the time
he got to the market, the smoke was too thick for him to attempt to
enter the building. Our crew went in to help find his son while the
rest of the guys started pulling hoses to put out the fire.” Mack
paused to take a few sips of his coffee.
    While Mack was drinking, Rachel took
the time to admire his athletic build. He was a good looking guy.
She could easily imagine him posing for one of those firefighter
calendars which featured bare-chested men with nothing on but
bunker gear pants and suspenders.
    Mack continued. “Sam went in first and
Kevin and I were right behind her. We made our way to where the
office was located. After we found the son and pulled him out, I
turned around to talk to Sam and she wasn’t there. I tried calling
on the radio, but she didn’t answer. I alerted the chief to the
situation, but by the time we called out a ‘mayday’, the roof
started collapsing. I didn’t think she had made it.” Mack rubbed
his face with his hands.
    Rachel could tell he was devastated.
Tears were welling up in his eyes.
    “ It was like losing my best
friend.”
    She thought about it for a minute and
took a sip of her coffee. Her breakfast went untouched. Mack’s
story was mesmerizing. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. “Do
you know how the fire started?”
    “ No, I
don’t know. I’m sure Jeff Stanton can tell you more.
I can tell
you the fire burned fast and hot, which is typical of an arson
fire. Some kind of accelerant was probably used. ” Mack hesitated
for a second. “We’ve had our share of arson related fires over the
last couple of months, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it was ruled
as arson.”
    “ Do they know who started
the arson fires?”
    “ No. It’s still under
investigation. Again, I think Jeff can give you more insight than I
can.”
    Rachel looked down at her watch. “I
have a meeting with him in about fifteen minutes so I should get
going. Do you mind if I call you later?”
    Mack wrote down his number on a piece
of paper. “Good luck with your meeting.” He handed her the paper.
“I hope you find Sam. She is special to a