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Chapter 26
Nico’s words jolted her awake. Panicking, Julia stumbled out of bed. Looked around wildly. She smelled smoke, but didn’t see any fire.
“Put some clothes on,” Nico ordered. “Quickly. And grab your computer. We’ll go out the front door. I already called 911. The fire department should be here shortly.”
Nico rushed to the front door and opened it. Even from her room, Julia could smell the smoke. She threw on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. Jammed her feet into sneakers. Ran into her office to grab her computer. Her whole life was on that computer -- her banking, passwords, business accounts.
Before she could take anything else, Nico was back. He snatched the computer, tucked it beneath his arm, then took her hand and tugged her toward the front door. Throwing open the screen door, he flew down the steps, keeping her upright when she stumbled.
With the distant wail of the fire engines as a background, he led her to the curb. “Stay here,” he said, handing her the computer. “When the fire department gets here, tell them the rear of the house is on fire. I’m going to turn the hose on it.”
She nodded, but he was already sprinting down the driveway. Moments later, three or four sirens cut out as they turned down her street. A fire truck and fire engine, plus an ambulance and a police car.
The vehicles rumbled to a stop in front of her house. Men and women in yellow turnout gear piled out. Standing off to the side, Julia called, “Back yard. My… my boyfriend’s spraying water on the house.” Saying ‘boyfriend’, when it wasn’t true, caused a sharp pang.
As two firefighters uncoiled hoses from the truck, two others dropped them on the driveway and kicked them toward the back yard. They trotted down the driveway after them as two more firefighters attached the hoses to the hydrant.
All the firefighters knew their assignments. They worked like a finely tuned machine, everyone doing a specific task.
One of the men walked over to her, his helmet pushed high on his head. “Can you tell me what happened, ma’am?”
Julia drew a deep breath, trying to slow her thundering heart. “We got home late from work. After midnight. We both took showers and fell asleep. The next thing I knew, my…” She swallowed. “My friend woke me up.” She couldn’t say ‘boyfriend’ again. Saying it out loud, when it was exactly what she wanted but couldn’t have, would be too painful. But ‘bodyguard’ would be too difficult to explain. “Said the back of the house was on fire. We both threw on clothes and ran outside. He told me to stay here and he went to the back yard to find the garden hose. That’s when you arrived.”
“Okay. Don’t get any closer to the house. I’m gonna take a look back there.”
He trotted down her driveway, pulling his hat back into place. A few other firefighters followed him, and one rushed inside the house. Julia sank onto the cool, damp grass as she watched them scatter and disappear.
The murmur of voices drifted toward her, but she couldn’t make out the words. She pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes. How much of her house had been destroyed? The cedar-sided ranch would have been a tinderbox once a fire started. She was lucky Nico had noticed and woken her.
Flashlights flickered inside her house, visible through the closed blinds in the living room and the spare bedroom. A few minutes later, Nico appeared from the back of the house, walking with the captain she’d spoken to earlier.
His gaze found her. Locked on to hers. He said something to the captain, then hurried toward her.
“Jules,” he said, grabbing her hands. “The fire’s out. The back porch will have to be replaced, and the siding back there, as well. But the fire department got here fast. There’s minimal structural damage. They’re checking the walls now for hot spots.”
“How did you know there was a fire, Nico?” she asked, clinging to his hands like lifelines.
“I heard the whoosh of the fire starting.” He glanced at the captain, and the older man nodded. “That fire wasn’t an accident, Julia. Someone started it. He or she unscrewed the propane hose from the grill and turned on the propane. Waited until a lot of it had leaked out, then threw something, probably a lighted piece of wood, at the end of the hose. The police are searching the neighborhood, but whoever started the fire is probably long gone.”
“And you’re sure it wasn’t an accident?” Julia asked the captain.
“That was no accident,” the fire captain said. “If your friend here hadn’t been so quick to get you out of the house and douse that fire, the evidence would have vanished. But the propane hose is mostly intact, and it’s clearly been unscrewed from the tank. There’s both a match and a piece of wood that weren’t completely incinerated. If Elliott hadn’t soaked that whole area with water, we wouldn’t have found either of them.” He shook his head. “You’re damn lucky.”
Julia glanced at Nico. He gave her a tiny shake of his head -- don’t tell him about the other stuff that’s happened.
She hadn’t intended to say anything. Once again, it was as if she and Nico could read each other’s minds.
“You’re going to need to move out of the house until we can do a complete inspection. Make sure it’s habitable. Which won’t be until the porch is replaced. The siding is burned, but it doesn’t look as if the structure is badly damaged. Only know once they get that siding off.
“But the back porch? If there were another emergency and the front door was blocked, you might not be able to get out the back door. The door opened fine when my men went in. But with the water damage, it’s going to swell. Make it hard to open. Plus, it’s a good six feet from your kitchen down to the yard. A dangerous height.” He sighed. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but you should probably move to a hotel or a short-term rental for the time being.”
Julia swallowed. “Does… does insurance cover that?”
“It should, if we declare the house uninhabitable. Which our arson inspector will probably do, what with the porch being destroyed.”
Nico touched her arm. “Let’s gather what we need. We’ll find a hotel for tonight. Tomorrow we’ll look for something longer term.”
“Okay,” Julia said, staring at the charred siding and the badly burned back porch. She swallowed and turned to the fire captain. “You’ll let us know what the arson inspector finds?”
