Authors: Simon Wood
R
ice had packed Hayden off to the hospital after Santiago called in with instructions to release him. Whatever Santiago had said sucked the remaining affability from Rice. Hayden asked him what happened, but Rice remained tight-lipped. Hayden let it go. He didn’t want to know. The stench of smoke clogged his head and turned his stomach.
The release didn’t extend to Hayden’s car, seeing as it was stuck in the middle of an active crime scene. Considering what had happened, it was hardly an inconvenience and he rode with the paramedics to the hospital.
The hospital let him go after a couple of hours. He’d suffered some minor burns, bruising, and a fresh concussion to add to the one Shane had given him. The doctor who checked him out suggested he not leave the house without a helmet. Doctor humor at no extra charge. A nurse cleaned him up and dressed his wounds. The headache the arsonist had given him was fading, but not the slightly left-of-center sensation that clouded his thoughts. His mental acuity had taken a mauling, too. He took a second or two longer answering questions or making decisions. It was like being intoxicated, just without the fun part. An orderly arrived and walked him in the direction of the waiting room.
“You can call for a cab or have a friend pick you up,” the orderly said.
Hayden searched for his cell phone and came up short. No doubt the phone was so much melted plastic back at MDE. An unfettered memory from the blaze turned his stomach. So many dead. He should have felt elated to have survived, but instead he imagined what it would feel like to burn alive. He felt the sensation of the fire coming at him in all directions at once, without cessation, vaporizing his skin, using him for fuel. He screwed his eyes shut against the images. He staggered and the orderly caught his arm.
“Still feeling it?” the orderly said, opening the waiting-room door. “Here we are.”
Rebecca jumped up from her seat. She tossed aside a magazine she’d been wringing in her hands and engulfed him in a crushing embrace.
“I’m so glad you’re OK. I’ve been worried sick. Santiago called me and told me to get down here.”
Hayden didn’t say anything—couldn’t say anything. He saw the concern in her eyes. She cared for him. This wasn’t all about Shane. He hadn’t realized she felt that way about him until now, but he welcomed it. He cared for her, too. She was strong and resilient, and he liked that. Despite the circumstances, he was glad he’d found her.
“Let’s get you out of here,” Rebecca said.
She got him to her car, then scorched the tarmac when she peeled out of the hospital parking lot.
“Take it easy,” he said to calm her. He wondered how long she’d been sitting in the waiting room worrying about him.
She eased her foot off the gas. “Sorry. I can’t believe how this day turned out.”
Hayden imagined a number of families were thinking the same thing. Today was supposed to be a day in a long series of days with nothing significant occurring. A dinner someplace nice. Taking in a Giants or A’s game. Picking the kids up from soccer practice. A whole laundry list of activities was lined up for a bunch of people who weren’t coming home to their families.
“I can’t believe all those people are dead,” Rebecca said. “They were just at Shane’s funeral.”
“What did Bellis say?”
She flashed him a confused look. “Bellis?”
“Yeah. Bellis wasn’t at MDE. Santiago was going to find him.”
“He’s dead. He started the fire at MDE and shot himself.”
Rebecca’s words slammed Hayden hard and left him dazed. The information was the wrong shape to enter his brain. No matter how many times he tried to process it, he couldn’t accept it. Bellis might have known something about what happened to Shane and Chaudhary. Hayden believed that. Bellis’s behavior had said he was hiding something. But a killer? No, it didn’t ring true.
“How? He couldn’t. It doesn’t make sense.”
“It doesn’t matter if it makes sense. He shot himself and left a note.”
“But why did he do it?”
“I’m sure Santiago will find out.”
Hayden withdrew into himself for the rest of the short journey back to the house, unable to take his mind off Bellis. Why would Bellis kill his staff, then himself? What possible motive did he have for doing it? Hayden’s thoughts brought him back to Shane’s and Chaudhary’s last words. They both blamed themselves for something terrible they’d done. Was Bellis guilty of the same thing? If so, killing himself made sense, but that didn’t explain why he would murder eleven people. Unless they were all guilty of the same terrible act Shane and Chaudhary had committed. It was hard to take in. What had these people done?
One thing ruined Hayden’s perfect theory. Him. Bellis had left him to die in the fire. He wasn’t guilty of any crime. Maybe that was why he’d survived. Maybe he was supposed to be the witness and not the victim.
Another thing didn’t work for Hayden. Bellis couldn’t have been his assailant. He’d been trying to form an image of his attacker all day. The face was a blur in his memory, but he remembered the silhouette reflected in the glass doors. An athletic man who knew how to fight had attacked him. He’d put Hayden to sleep with a single blow and kick. Bellis was neither an athlete nor a fighter. No, the man who’d left him to die wasn’t Bellis.
Fatigue set in the moment he stepped from Rebecca’s VW. The mental and physical joined forces and got the better of him. He went to his room and was asleep in minutes.
A scream from someone burning inside MDE and the stench of people roasting in the inferno shook Hayden from his sleep. He sat up in bed and looked out the window. It wasn’t even dark outside. Despite the short amount of time he’d spent recuperating, he was feeling himself once more. He still felt his injuries every time he moved, but he no longer felt a separation between his body and brain.
He descended the stairs and found Rebecca watching the news in the living room. The fire at MDE was all over the screen. She heard him enter the room and switched the TV off.
“No, it’s OK. I need to see it. I only know part of the story.”
“You won’t be able to avoid it,” she said with a sad smile.
He could only imagine. It would take a pretty big story to knock it off the media map. He joined her on the sofa.
“Want to talk about what happened?”
“Not really.”
“I need to hear it though.”
So he told her. She didn’t interrupt. She just let him talk until he had nothing left to say.
“It’s horrific,” she said when he was finished, then leaned over and hugged him. Never had a simple embrace felt so right. In her arms, he felt safe, but not invincible.
He pulled away from her. “This doesn’t mean it’s over.”
She looked at him confused. “Where do we go from here?”
“We know Shane’s and Chaudhary’s deaths aren’t isolated incidents. Something happened at MDE to cause this. We’ve got a lot of questions to ask.”
“Who, Hayden? Who do we ask? Everyone’s dead.”
“Bellis’s wife. The families of the dead. Shane might not have left answers, but someone will know what these guys did.”
“No.” Rebecca’s response was emphatic, diamond hard. She wasn’t giving him an answer but an instruction. “Shane is dead. So are a lot of other people. You nearly died today. It ends now.”
“Don’t you want to know why Shane killed himself?”
“Yes, I do.” She inched closer to him. “I don’t just want to know, I need to know, but not at any cost. If I found out the truth behind Shane’s suicide today, but you had died, it wouldn’t have been worth it.”
“So what do you want to do?”
“With so many dead, someone knows something. Not everyone could have kept what they’d done a secret. But we don’t go looking for the answers. Let Santiago do it.”
“Santiago?”
“Yes. You have to see him tomorrow. Tell him everything. Tell him about Shane’s file and the plans you copied. Let him find out what happened and why Shane killed himself. We’ll get our answers through him. The moment we see him stop trying to find answers, we push and we don’t stop until he finds out. You OK with that?”
“Sure. Santiago gets full disclosure whether he likes it or not.”
“We need to celebrate,” Rebecca said.
“We do?”
“Yes. You lived.”
“I don’t think I’m up for that.”
“I wasn’t giving you an option.”
She smiled and kissed him.
The kiss was as big a surprise as a slap and it must have showed. She smiled and looked away. There was only one way to break the embarrassing silence building between them. He lifted her face and kissed her back.
Still in their embrace, they leaned back into the sofa, keeping their kiss going. Clothes were mauled by hands not belonging to the wearer.
The phone rang. They froze.
Rebecca answered it. After a brief exchange, she hung up.
“Wrong number,” she said.
It sure was, Hayden thought. The interruption had killed the moment. She laughed, grabbed him by the hand, and pulled him from the sofa.
They drove to a creek-side restaurant in Larkspur and ate dinner outside. It was still warm enough to do so without needing a jacket. In a month or so, it wouldn’t be. Either cold or rain would limit the number of evenings like this.
Celebrating in the shadow of death seemed wrong, and yet Hayden found that he enjoyed himself. The restaurant felt homey. The people at the neighboring tables were happy celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, or the fact it was a Saturday night. He could be depressed and angry about what had happened that day, but he had Rebecca to remind him that tomorrow he could celebrate life all over again.
When the meal was over and they walked out to her car, she stopped him in the parking lot and kissed him again. The kiss had been so fast he hadn’t known what hit him until it was over. He couldn’t say he didn’t like it.
“What was that for?”
“Consider it a thank-you for being here.”
“You’re strange.”
“Is that a problem?”
“No. Just the opposite.”
The next morning, Rebecca drove Hayden to Santiago’s office. She dropped him off in front of the visitor’s entrance and drove off in search of parking. He rode the elevator to the second floor.
Hayden smiled as the elevator climbed skyward. Last night with Rebecca had left him feeling buoyed. He couldn’t deny his growing feelings for her, but he couldn’t take the next step with her until the deaths at MDE were behind them. Coming clean with Santiago was the first big step.
He hadn’t informed Santiago that Rebecca would be joining him, but he doubted the detective would mind. He entered the reception area and told the duty officer he had an appointment with Santiago. He signed in and waited for the detective to come for him.
After five minutes, he realized Rebecca should have caught up with him.
The duty officer’s phone rang and he answered it. “Detective Santiago said he’d be with you in a minute,” he said after hanging up.
Hayden nodded and looked through the glass doors for Rebecca. She wasn’t in sight.
Rice appeared through a door marked “private” and approached. Hayden stood to meet him.
His cell rang. Rebecca’s name appeared in the display. “Hey, where are you?”
Rice stood before him.
“Don’t tell Santiago about Shane’s file,” she said.
“What?”
“Don’t tell him anything. Everything’s changed. I’ll wait for you outside.”
He didn’t want to show Rice that something was wrong. He contorted his face into a smile that hurt and mouthed an apology for being on the phone. Rice smiled back and told him to take his time.
“Are you sure about this?” Hayden wanted to say to Rebecca. “Are you OK?” But he couldn’t with Rice in front of him. She sounded agitated, but not frightened. Something significant had happened to change her mind.
“Yes. I was wrong. Don’t tell Santiago anything. Not until we’ve talked.”
Rebecca hung up.
What the hell had just happened? He couldn’t talk now. Santiago would have to wait. He turned to leave, but Rice called his name. He searched his mind for an excuse that wouldn’t raise suspicions and came up short. Rice held the door to the Investigations Department open for him.
Hayden followed Rice to the cramped interview room he’d been in the night of Shane’s death. Santiago was already waiting for him and Hayden guessed the ceiling-mounted camera was recording him.
The detective put out his hand to Hayden. “How are you doing today?”
Santiago’s concern sounded genuine. Maybe this was a turning point for everyone. “I’m good under the circumstances. Thanks.”
Hayden sat and the three of them crowded around the small desk pressed up against one wall. Santiago quizzed him on the events leading up to the fire. Hayden kept his answers short and concise. Santiago asked and re-asked the same questions for clarification. The detective was fishing, but not in an attempt to catch Hayden out. He seemed to be hoping Hayden could provide him with some cast-iron facts that centered on Bellis. After thirty minutes of churning over the same ground, Santiago surrendered.
“Is there a problem?” Hayden asked, wondering if it was linked to Rebecca’s change of heart.
Santiago switched from frustrated cop to suspicious cop. “What makes you say that?”
If Santiago could fish, so could he. “You. You’re chasing me for an answer I don’t have. Bellis is dead. You have your killer.”
“That may not be the case,” Rice said.
Santiago cut the younger detective a sharp glance that halted any further elaboration.
“Things aren’t as clear-cut as yesterday,” Santiago expanded.
“You don’t think Bellis started the fire,” Hayden said. “Neither do I. I’ve been thinking it over. Bellis didn’t put me down. The guy who hit me and started the fire was bigger and knew how to fight.”
“I’m not going to share details of an ongoing investigation,” Santiago said.
Hayden wanted to push for clarification, but he didn’t need to. He had his answer. The investigation at MDE was far from drawing to a close, and when he thought about it, how could it be? Santiago had a third suicide, eleven murders, a new street drug, an arsonist, and more importantly, a horrible event no one at MDE was willing to admit to. With everyone dead at MDE, Santiago was out of leads. Santiago still had a mess to clear up, and Hayden had Rebecca waiting outside with a burning problem.