Jamie Garrett - Riley Reid 02 - Fire and Lies (4 page)

Instead of going back to my apartment after the Metal Works, I stopped by Richard’s house. Knowing him, I figured he hadn’t cleaned up after the big Fourth of July barbeque.

When I pulled up to the house, there was an extra car in the driveway. It was a car I recognized. Pastor Pritchard drove the same exact make and model. Why was he here?

I stood at the front door with my keys in hand. On the other side, I could hear shouting and arguing. Even with my ear against the door, I couldn’t make out what was being said. All I knew was that it wasn’t anything pleasant.

Instead of entering, curiosity led me to a window where I could get a good look. Pastor Pritchard was there. I’d never seen him so angry before. Richard did not seem bothered; he was lying back in his recliner. The pastor paced back and forth, exchanging heated words with Richard.

I couldn’t make out what Pastor Pritchard and my father were saying to each other. The only way I would be able to get even a snippet of what was being said was to go in there, but I didn’t want to interrupt their conversation.

Around the back of the house, there was a screen door that led into the kitchen. Richard almost never locked it. He always claimed that no one would be stupid enough to break into a former cop’s home. It was horribly unsafe, and I told him as much every chance I got. But on that night, I was happy that he had left it open.

Before I could get to the back door, I had to wade through all the garbage. There were red plastic cups, beer bottles and cans, paper plates and used napkins strewn about the yard. Just as I predicted, Richard hadn’t done any cleaning.

I reached the screen door. From there, I could start to make out a little of what was being said.

“It’s too much!” yelled Pastor Pritchard.

“Relax already. We’re not done yet.”

“Well, I am! I’m out, Ritchie. I’m done with this, with all of it!” Pastor Pritchard headed towards the front door.

Richard got up and stopped him by grabbing the pastor’s arm. “What, you think you can wash your hands of this and walk off into the sunset!? No, you’re in this to the end, just like I am.” He let go of Pritchard’s arm. “A couple more days and all of this will be over. We can look at this like a bad dream.”

Pastor Pritchard stormed out of the front door. He slammed it behind him. Richard sat back down in his recliner. I took that as my cue to come inside.

“Hello?” I made sure to ask loud as I entered the house.

“Riley? I’m in here,” said Richard. I could hear the television being turned on.

Richard was in his chair. There was a bottle of amber-colored whiskey next to him. He hardly even acknowledged my presence.

“Was that Pastor Pritchard?” I asked, standing over him.

Richard didn’t answer.

“What’d he want?”

“Nothing.” Richard was lying.

“Really? ‘Cause I heard some yelling. But if you don’t want t talk about it…”

“I don’t. Can you move outta the way? I can’t see the TV.”

Richard had put up his defensive wall. There was no penetrating it. But there was definitely something strange about their conversation. I’d have to try again later when he was in a better mood. I moved on. I did have something else I wanted to talk to him about.

“I need to ask you something, Richard.” Just to make sure I got his attention I turned off the TV.

“What the hell Riley?”

I ignored his anger and annoyance. “I’ve been trying to remember my parents, my birth parents. Do you remember anything about them?”

Richard was silent for a minute. Then after pouring himself a glass of his whiskey, he started talking. “I didn’t know either of them that well. I had a class or two with Dana Reid in high school. She was from a wealthy family, the Beaumont’s. They lived over on Bainbridge, I think. Or at least they did, for a little while. Anyway, I didn’t know her all that well.”

I had asked the same question on numerous occasions before. On that night,, I had ulterior motives. “And my dad?”

“Troy Reid?” Richard quickly downed his whiskey then refilled the glass. “As an officer I saw a lot of Troy. He was always getting into some kind of trouble. There were countless calls for breaking and entering, shoplifting and assaults. Every other time, I’d arrive at the scene and there was your dad.

“The kid was no good, and he got even worse as he got older. By the time I was a detective, he had graduated to more serious crimes. I put him in Greensville Prison for stealing cars. I’ve told you all of this before.” Richard took a couple of sips instead of taking down the rest of his whiskey in one big gulp. “Why the sudden interest in your birth parents again?”

“I started the search again.”

“Again? Why put yourself through that, Riley?” What Richard was referring to were the numerous times I had tried to track down my parents before with very little success. The first time, I had  still technically been a teenager. I had just graduated from Jefferson High School. All I wanted for a graduation present was enough money to hire a private investigator.

The private investigator I hired failed to find anything. And I was devastated. But I did discover what I wanted to do for a vocation. It seemed like a cool job. You’d get to do all the fun things a real detective did, without any of the paperwork or time as a beat cop.

“I think I’ve found a new way to find them.”

Richard looked apprehensive. “How?”

“By finding out what happened to his car. He had a Trans Am. I remember it because of the gold firebird on the hood. I’ll never forget that damn car. So, if I can find a way to track the car, I figure I’ll eventually find him. Or at least there is a chance I could.”

Richard sighed. “Well, I know some people at the DMV. Maybe if I asked they could at tell me if his car ever got registered again. It would be a good place to start.”

I hugged my surrogate father. “Thank you! You have no idea how much this means to me.”

“Just … promise me you’ll be careful. And I don’t mean physically. Don’t get your hopes up too much.”

I gave Richard a smile. His concern was genuine. Anyone could see that. “I won’t. Now, get some sleep.” There was a blanket on the couch. After retrieving it, I draped it over him, and then let myself out.

The next day, there was a long conversation between me and Lisa about going to the Fresh Horizons Rehab Center. I was convinced that the building was the next to be burned. It was pretty obvious.

First, Sister Mary’s church was burnt down. Addicts and the desperate often went to Sister Mary’s and Pastor Pritchard for help. He didn’t know about Fresh Horizon’s shady operations. Otherwise, he’d never have sent them there.

Next to be set on fire was the abandoned marina. I knew from what I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears that it played a central role in the drug ring. So the arsonists made it their second target.

In order to clean up their tracks, Fresh Horizons had to be taken care of. Even though it had already been raided and searched from top to bottom, I knew for a fact that the cabinets full of patient files were still in the building. When I had asked Sam about them, he explained that there was simply nowhere to put all of them, outside of the Norfolk Police storage lockup. And they weren’t scheduled to move them for three more days, on July 9.

Rather than let the bureaucracy of police operations bumble finding what could be a major lead, I wanted to break in and find it myself. And I wanted Lisa to come with me, but she was hesitant.

“I don’t know, Riley. It sounds pretty dangerous, not to mention illegal.” I couldn’t blame her for having reservations about going. It wasn’t that long ago that she was in the hospital because of the drug ring. She still had to take painkillers sometimes just to stand up straight.

“Don’t worry about that.” I got up from the table in the second floor of my office that we were sitting at.

“Don’t worry about it? How can I not worry about it? More importantly, how can you not? It just isn’t worth it, honey.”

“To me, it is. I need to end this, Lisa. Plus, we’re going to have some help.”

Lisa got up and leaned against one of the walls. She sighed. “Who, Sam?”

“No, he doesn’t know I’m planning on going. If he did, he’d probably try to talk me out of it, or worse, want to come.”

“Then, who?”

“Amy.”

“Amy Paxton? How in the hell did you manage to convince her to go along with this?”

We both heard a car horn from outside.

“Speak of the devil.” I walked over to the window and saw her police cruiser outside.

“And she shall appear.” Lisa walked over to the window, looking over my shoulder and down to the street.

I left the window and went towards the stairs. After descending one step, I turned to Lisa who was still looking out the window. “You coming?”

Lisa took a moment to think it over. Or maybe she just wanted to make me doubt. Then she gave me a pretty grin and answered, “Don’t I always?”

We went out front and met Amy, who was fully uniformed in her car. Both Lisa and I got inside.

“Why are you in your uniform?” I asked. It was a little strange. She had told me she was off duty that night.

“Just in case anyone decides to start some shit with us, this might make them think twice,” she explained as she drove down Main Street.

“It’s not exactly inconspicuous,” I added.

“I think that’s the point, Riley. And for the record, I’m happy she’s wearing that and driving this.” Lisa piped up from the back seat. I turned around and gave her a dirty look.

When we arrived at Fresh Horizons, I almost didn’t recognize it. The well-manicured lawns and bushes were overgrown. Its parking lot was empty. Yellow police tape barred every entrance. And that was just what we saw from the car.

Upon exiting and getting a closer look, the full extent of the facility’s downfall was visible. The path to the front door was covered in broken glass. Food wrappers, beer cans and cigarette butts littered the area in front of the shattered main door.

“What happened here?” asked Lisa as she stepped gingerly around the refuse.

“Squatters and maybe some high school kids looking for a place to party,” said Amy as she took out her flashlight. Then she went through the broken main doors, careful not to cut herself. Lisa and I followed.

“Funny, I was just here a couple of months ago. So much has changed,” I commented as we went through the main lobby. Two of the chairs that had been there on my previous visit were missing. The two that remained were overturned and had their padding ripped open.

I looked at the front desk and in the shadows could picture the young woman who greeted me when I first had come. The scene was a bit sad. Even though it was a front and an essential cog in a drug ring that ruined countless lives, seeing it so ruined was a shame. It could have been used for other things. Hell, it could have even become a real rehab center.

“Where’s the records room, Riley?” asked Amy. She shined her flashlight at me. For a brief moment it blinded me, so I shielded my eyes with my left hand.

With my right hand I pointed down the hallway. “Just down there. I’ll show you.”

Amy and Lisa followed me down the hall. Officer Paxton’s light gave it an eerie glow. I half expected ghosts to appear right in front of us. My imagination produced spectral sounds of children playing and phantom footsteps.

“How much further is…” Amy started to ask me where the records room was but her question was interrupted by an explosion.

Just thirty yards in front of us, the door to the records room blew off. It flew out and hit the opposite wall. Bright flames of red, magenta, orange and yellow followed. Burning scraps of paper floated out, carried by superheated air. The warmth was more intense than anything I’d ever felt before.  It almost seared my skin, even from our distance.

Lisa, Amy and I all hit the floor. I think it was instinct. There’s an explosion, you get low. When we all got over our surprise and fear, we started moving. What we saw upon rising was an already raging fire spilling out of the records room.

“Don’t get too close!” yelled Lisa as I approached the flaming entrance. Or at least that was what I thought I heard her say. It was hard to tell. My ears were still ringing from the earlier blast.

Lisa had no reason to worry. I had no intention of getting too close. Even if I wanted to, the heat was too much for me to take. When I took a quick glimpse, I saw the metal file cabinets glow orange and start to melt.

“Whoever did this must’ve mixed thermite with some kind of explosive,” I said as I backed away.

“What makes you say that?” asked Amy as she repeatedly opened and closed her mouth. The pressure change must’ve popped her ear drums.

“The thermite is everywhere in there. By itself, it ignites but doesn’t really explode. At least not like that. It’s a smart move. That stuff burns through anything. We’re not going to be able salvage anything.”

Amy ran away. Lisa asked, “Where are you going?”

“To find a fire extinguisher!” answered Amy, mid stride.

“Don’t bother. You can’t extinguish this stuff. We just have to let it burn out,” I informed Amy. She stopped.

“Let it burn out? This whole place will burn down.” Amy took the radio off her belt. “Dispatch this is county 11 copy, do you come in, dispatch?’

I heard a voice on the other side of the the radio. “County 11, this is dispatch. You’re coming in loud and clear.”

“10-70 at the Fresh Horizons Rehab Center. I need assistance, copy.”

I heard another explosion. It wasn’t seen but from the shaking, I knew it was close by. Against any survival instinct, I started to run down the hall towards the loud boom. Amy and Lisa followed.

I tracked the explosion to what was once a gymnasium. The wood floor was ablaze, and near the exit on the far side of the gym was a man in a white plastic rabbit mask.

When the man in the familiar mask saw me, he fired several shots. None of them were even close. It was almost like he was trying to miss me. They ended up hitting the wall above and behind me. Maybe they were a warning. But it was one I would not heed.

Amy and Lisa caught up with me. The man fled upon seeing them. We went after him. There was no way of knowing whether or not he was planning on blowing up any more thermite bombs.

Navigating the length of the gymnasium was hard. The fire was spreading fast, and it was hotter then hell. I would be lying if I said I didn’t consider turning back hallway through. But I was committed and angry.

Amy was the first to reach the other side of the gymnasium. She disappeared behind the same set of double doors as the bomber. I would have been right behind her, but I had to help Lisa.

Somewhere along the way, Lisa got surrounded by fire. The floor in front of her, in back, to the left and to the right was impassable. To make matters worse, the longer we stayed in the gym, the toxic smoke that was being produced from the chemical coating on the wood was starting to take effect. I was getting a little lightheaded and could only assume my best friend was, too.

“You’re going to have to jump!” I yelled as the flames around us grew.

“I can’t!” Lisa yelled back. I knew she was just afraid. Not only did she have to jump in order not to burn to death, but Lisa was a track and field star in high school. Those long legs were perfectly capable of vaulting her body out of danger. Her nerves held her back.

“Yes, you can! You don’t have a choice!”

I’m not sure if Lisa could hear me over the fire. It was getting loud in the echoic room. That didn’t really matter, because Lisa gathered her nerves and leaped. Watching her jump over the fire, she appeared to go in slow motion. We embraced each other as she landed next to me in relative safety.

Lisa and I made our way out of the gymnasium and into the courtyard behind it. Amy and the bomber were nowhere to be seen. Then I heard a third explosion. That time, I could see the windows blow out on the second floor, followed by smoke and more flame. It was a clear indicator of where the bomb went off.

I couldn’t immediately see how to get from the courtyard to where we’d seen the bomb explode. It cost us a minute or two, which ended up being important. When we arrived at the site of the third bombing, we found Amy slumped against a wall.

During her pursuit of the bomber, Amy had been shot in the arm. It shattered the bone in her forearm and she was bleeding out. Chasing the bomber no longer mattered. We needed to get her out and get help. I was extremely frustrated, especially when I heard the fourth and final bomb go off.

Lisa and I helped Amy down to the first floor and out one of the doors. When we got outside, there were police and firemen arriving. Sam was there, and as soon as he saw us he came over to help.

“What the hell happened here?” asked Sam as he took Amy off our hands and guided her towards and ambulance.

“We…uh,” I didn’t have a good explanation or lie. Lisa bailed me out.

“We were here to check some records that Riley said were here. And soon after getting here, boom!” Lisa mimicked an explosion with her hands. “Then we started chasing the bomber down and got separated.”

“Then Amy got shot,” I added.

Sam gave us both a disapproving look. “That was incredibly stupid. You guys know that, right?”

“We’re sorry, Sam. But there’s a chance that the guy who did this is still around. We have to go look for him,” I wanted to catch that guy so bad it hurt.

“I’ll stay here with her,” offered Lisa, referring to Amy. “You guys go and get that son-of-a-bitch.”

I led Sam to the back of Fresh Horizons, which was now almost engulfed. It was a huge bonfire that lit up the rural area where it was located. Smoke filled the night sky and blocked out the moon.

When we got to the back of the facility, we found nothing but tire tracks. Sam reckoned that they were made by a truck, probably a pick-up. That was all we found.

For all of the risk we took that night, we got nothing. We were no closer to finding the arsonist. We were no closer to finding out who was behind the drug ring. All we got was an injured friend.