One week. After all these years of preparation, that’s all the time that was left now. One week.
Jamie found it difficult to harness his excitement, but he knew he needed to remain calm. Not only to make sure he didn’t have any last minute mistakes, but also to contain his energy. He was going to need all of it to finish his plans.
Ever since he’d discovered his power as a child and learned that his family had done nothing to nurture or encourage it, and instead they’d done everything they could to keep him from it, he’d hated all of them and hated the city that they called home. He hated the families in his neighborhood, the idiotic children he’d been forced to play with, the moronic teachers he’d had to pretend to respect. As soon as he honed his power enough to dispose of his family he’d known that one day he would dispose of the whole city.
In all the years he’d studied and worked in Fairbanks he’d never once thought that perhaps he should go back on his goal and let the city continue to go on with business as usual around him. He had no personal grudge against most of the people in the city, but his quest was about much more than grudges. As soon as he’d learned of Vulcan, the ancient god of fire, he’d realized that Vulcan was the origin of the power that coursed through him. He knew he needed to go back to the ancient ways of honoring Vulcan in order to maintain the power of his magic and his fire. His own family hadn’t been respectful of the magic that made them special and different than everyone else. They’d thrown away their own history. He had no intention of making that mistake.
Once he conquered Fairbanks through Vulcanalia he had no doubt that Vulcan would shower him with even more power and privilege. He couldn’t wait to find out what that new power would be and where it would take him.
But first he needed to continue the plan he had started on decades earlier. He closed his eyes and envisioned the buildings he planned to burn to kick off the festival. Thanks to his practice over the summer he knew he would have no problem setting them on fire without even leaving his apartment.
At 12:01 on August twenty-third the feast of Vulcanalia would begin. And Jamie would set the first building ablaze.
****
Danny stood at the firing range and stared at the silhouette target in front of him, a figure of a man with a red X where his heart would be. He had already put on his headphones and safety goggles and he stood with his feet shoulder-width apart, his left foot a step in front of his right. He aimed the gun at the red X and caressed the trigger with his finger. He couldn't fire the gun.
Although Danny had his police issued nine-millimeter service pistol with him at all times, he had yet to fire it since coming to Fairbanks. It had been a long time since he'd actually fired a weapon. Sometimes it felt like a lifetime ago. Other times it seemed as if just seconds had passed.
Danny had last fired a gun when he'd killed his wife's murderer back in Chicago. He'd had the gun trained on his former partner as the man held a knife to Caroline's throat, but he hadn't been able to fire. He'd been frozen with fear and terrified that his former partner would slit his wife's throat the second Danny fired the pistol. As a result, Caroline was dead, murdered so close to Danny that her blood had soaked through his clothes to coat his skin in red. Danny had finally fired his gun at his partner and hit his target squarely in his heart. But not before the man had sliced his knife across Caroline's neck, severing her carotid artery and leaving Danny alone in a world he now hated.
For a time, Danny had been sure he'd never work as a cop again. He hadn't particularly cared if he worked, or lived, at all. But the practicalities of life had won out in the end and he'd taken up a gun and a badge here in his new home of Fairbanks. And now he knew he had to be ready to fire his gun again.
He closed his eyes and inhaled slowly, foolishly wishing that smoking was allowed at the range. When he opened his eyes, he zeroed in on his target and finally pulled the trigger. His shot barely found the outside edge of the silhouette's shoulder. He fired six times in quick succession, emptying the revolver's magazine, and never came close to his target.
Cursing himself and his memories, Danny reloaded the magazine and prepared for another round. He hoped he'd find a way to stop Jamie Dzubenko without shooting him, but he had a feeling that wouldn't be possible. And if he again found himself face to face with a murderer, he had no intention of hesitating this time.
Danny channeled the anger he felt over the politicians and police administrators handing the Dzubenko case over to the FBI onto the target and came much closer to the red X with his next round of bullets. He thought of the scene he'd witnessed on Chestnut Street as he'd driven to the range from the station. A huddle of frightened people clustered around the minister of Fairbanks Baptist Church praying for God to save them from the fires. Across the street, a man paced back and forth on the corner carrying a sign that said “Repent before you burn!” The savvy owner of the hardware store on Meyers Road had stocked up on fire extinguishers right after the baseball game fire and now sold them at four times their regular price.
Danny hadn't even been able to cross the bridge at Walnut Street because the traffic was too backed up with cars heading out of town. It reminded Danny of the scenes he'd watched on the television; news of cities faced with an impending hurricane. In those situations, everyone with the means to evacuate the area did. The rest were forced to hunker down and hope they made it through the crisis with their lives and their homes intact. This was what faced the residents of Fairbanks now as the madman's August 23 date loomed large on the calendar. The city was collapsing without a single fire being set.
After pulling his target back to him and replacing the battered silhouette on the line with a clean one, Danny once again reloaded the magazine of his gun. He got into his firing stance and set his sights on the new target. Before he knew it, the dark silhouette was replaced with the tall and imposing figure of Aleksei Nechayev. The head took on his blond hair and smug smile and his soulless blue eyes stared back at Danny from the end of the range.
Danny fired his gun and hit the red X on his first shot.
****
“Detective Fitzpatrick? This is Melissa Harris.”
Danny stared at the unfamiliar number on his phone and tried to remember if he'd ever met a Melissa Harris. Was this a woman he'd met in a bar? He hoped not. The voice sounded like that of a teenage girl. Surely he hadn't ever sunk that low.
“I'm sorry. Do I know you?” he asked.
“I talked to you at the baseball game. After the fire.”
Danny jogged his memory and finally placed the voice on the other end of the line. She sounded like a teenage girl because she was. And she had witnessed the death of Nick Torrance after she and her boyfriend had gone into the woods to make out during the baseball game.
“Of course, I remember you now, Melissa. What can I do for you?”
“You gave us your business card at the game. That's how I got your number.”
“I remember,” Danny said.
He could tell that whatever the girl was calling about made her very nervous. Not that he could blame her considering how she and Danny had met. He decided against ending the silence on the line and trying to push her to talk. She had made the call and would get to the reason in her own time.
“I hope it's okay that I'm calling you,” she said.
“It is.”
Finally, the silence appeared to be enough for her. “I wanted to talk to you about how Will and I heard that chanting when that man...” she paused again. “When that man was killed,” she finally said.
“What about it? Did you hear it again?”
“No. But you know the man who has been on the news a lot? Jamie Dzubenko?”
Danny sat up straight in his chair. “Yes. What about him?”
“When I heard him talking, I thought it was the same voice as the one we heard chanting.”
“Really? You think so?”
“Yeah. I listened to him a bunch of times now. I think it's the same voice. Will agrees with me.”
The sound of Danny's heart thumping in his chest drowned out all of the other noise in the police station.
“This is really helpful. Can you and Will talk to your parents about coming in and making a statement for us?”
“No, no, I can't,” Melissa said, alarm in her voice. “My mom doesn't even know I'm calling you. I don't want to tell her. She told me she didn't want me to talk to the police anymore after we talked to you at the park. She said she was scared to have me involved in the case and we had already helped you as much as we could.”
“This is very important, Melissa.”
“I know but I can't tell my parents. They're so freaked out by the fires and the fact that Will and I were there at the game. They’ll freak!”
“What about Will? How about if the two of you come in together with your parents. We can talk as a group.”
“Will’s not even here. He and his family went to Juneau last week. We’re all leaving Fairbanks until the fires stop. Everyone is!” Melissa paused and tried unsuccessfully to steady her voice. “Will can’t come in. And I can’t either. I never should have even called you!”
“Melissa, calm down,” Danny said. “We can figure something out here. I really need your help on this. People are in danger.”
“I know and I’m sorry but I can’t help. I thought if I just called you…”
“You’re a smart girl. You knew that wouldn’t be enough. I think you want to help but you don’t want to upset your parents. That’s understandable. But if I can just talk to you all together…”
“No! I already told you, you can’t. I shouldn’t have called. I’m sorry.”
“Melissa!”
Danny heard the line go dead and tossed his phone on his desk just as Tessa walked up behind him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“You remember those kids who were out in the woods when the fire started at the baseball game?”
“Sure. The ones who told us they heard chanting?”
“Exactly. The girl just called me up and said she recognized Jamie Dzubenko’s voice when she heard him on television. She’s certain it’s the same voice she heard chanting that night. The boy is too.”
“They are?” Tessa asked, unable to keep the excitement from her voice. “So we’ve finally got something on him?”
“Not so fast. The boy and his family left town last week so he’s not around for us to talk to. And the girl’s parents don’t want her to have anything more to do with the case or with us. They’re terrified and so is she. She said she just thought she could help by calling me. She says she can’t let her parents know she called and can’t talk to us again.”
“Well, she can and she will. These are murders we’re talking about!”
“You think I don’t know that? But what the hell are we supposed to do? We can’t seize a kid and bring her down here to the station.”
“No, but we can go out to the house. We can meet with her and her parents together and make them understand that lives are at stake here and we need Melissa to make a statement.”
Danny nodded. “True enough. Let’s go pay the Harris family a visit.” He stood up from his desk and pointed towards Jack Meyer’s office. “Should we let the boss know what we’re up to?”
“We’ll call him from the house after we talk to the family. With luck we’ll be able to share the best news any of us have heard all summer.”
****
Danny pounded on the door of the two-story Victorian style house that Melissa Harris and her family called home. Tessa had already rung the doorbell six times, with no response. It had taken the detectives nearly two hours to drive from the station to the Harris’ upscale neighborhood on the outskirts of Fairbanks due to a deadly accident that was complicating the already heavy traffic brought on by residents leaving the city. Danny was already irritated before he and Tessa even walked onto the family’s front porch. He had tried to call Melissa several times on the way over to the home but had not been surprised when her phone had gone directly to voicemail. But he hadn’t expected to receive no answer when he’d called the Harris’ landline. He was now totally out of any patience he had for the Harris family and whatever game they were playing by refusing to come to their door or answer their phone.
“Fairbanks police!” he yelled. “We need to speak with you now. Open the door!”
“You sure this is the right address?” Tessa asked as Danny’s pounding was also met with silence.
“Yes it’s the right address for Christ’s sake. How dumb do you think I am?”
“Just asking.”
“What the hell are they doing? Are these parents seriously hiding in their house?”
He pounded on the door again and shouted once more for the Harris family to please open their door.
“You’re not going to get any answer there. You might want to stop pounding that door before you break your hand.”
Danny and Tessa jumped simultaneously and turned to face a small elderly woman who had come up behind them on the Harris’ front steps.
“Who are you?” Danny asked.
“I’m Marian Holmes and I live next door,” the woman said, gesturing towards the neighboring house. “I couldn’t help hear you yelling out here.”
“What did you mean saying we don’t get an answer?” Tessa asked.
“Seems obvious to me. The family isn’t home.”
“Do you know that for sure or are you just saying that because they’re ignoring us?”
“I know it for sure. They left for Coldfoot about an hour ago.”
Danny took an involuntary step back at the mention of Aleksei Nechayev’s former home town and nearly fell into the Harris’ front door.
“Coldfoot?” he asked, recovering his balance. “Why the hell did they go to Coldfoot?”
“Only place within driving distance where they could get a reservation. The hotel up there had a cancellation from an out of state tourist who doesn’t want to come to Alaska now. Otherwise they wouldn’t even have been able to get that.”
“But why did they leave?” Tessa asked.
“Because of the fires. Everyone’s leaving if they can.”
Danny thought back to his conversation with Melissa. She had said “We all are!” when talking about Will and his family leaving the city but he hadn’t questioned her on it. He’d been so focused on getting her to come in and give a statement he hadn’t even paid attention to it. He’d certainly never imagined she meant her family was leaving this very afternoon.
“When did they make these reservations?” he asked the neighbor.
“I couldn’t tell you. I just saw them packing up their car and they looked like they were in an awful hurry so I asked if they were okay. They assured me they were but they wanted to get out of Fairbanks.” Marian shrugged. “I wasn’t surprised. Like I said, everyone’s leaving.”
“What about you?” Tessa asked. “You’re staying?”
“I’m too old to go running out of town. I’d just as soon stay in my own home and hope for the best.”
Tessa reached out her hand and patted Marian’s shoulder. “We’re all hoping for that. Thank you for your help.”
“My pleasure.”
Danny tried his best to smile at the neighbor as he followed Tessa down the porch steps and back to the waiting car. He couldn’t manage it.
****