by Anne Hagan
It was coming from somewhere down the hall, as near as she could tell. She got out of bed and trundled over to the door, her legs heavy. When she opened it, she quickly realized that her bad night had just gotten a whole lot worse – for her and for every other guest in the hotel.
A haze of smoke hung over the hallway. The loud buzzing was the fire alarm going off non-stop. Other people started filing into the hall too, trying to figure out what all the racket was.
She realized she needed to get out of the building quickly but she couldn’t leave her service weapon, badge and the like behind. Retreating back into her room, she pulled sweat pants on over her shorts, pushed her arms through the shoulder holster she preferred to use over a waistband one, slipped on a windbreaker and grabbed her wallet, car keys and what clothes she could quickly snatch up. She was back in the hall in less than two minutes.
By the time she’d moved halfway down the hallway to the stairs, people were yelling and an overnight maintenance worker for the hotel was standing at the stairway door pleading for both speed and calm.
As she reached him he commanded her to hustle up.
“What’s happened?” she asked.
“Probably somebody smoking started it. Everyone has to get out.”
Janet thought about Bridget and Harold. She pointed back toward their room. “There’s a little old couple staying four or five doors down. They don’t hear very well. Have you seen them?”
“I don’t know lady. Let’s go. The night manager says we all got to evacuate. The smoke is getting thicker and my old lungs just can’t take it.”
She turned, intending to go and make sure her newest friends had gotten out. The maintenance guy grabbed her arm and tried to stop her.
“Just what do you think you’re doing? I said you have to leave.”
Janet took out her badge. “I’m a cop and I’m going to make sure those people got out safely. You do what you need to do.” With that, she put the badge away, pulled the material of her jacket up over her nose and mouth and jogged thirty yards back the way she’d come, stopping at room 3-127.
She banged on the door hard. There was no response. She banged again and then yelled as loud as she could, “Bridget! Harold!” Her lungs filled with smoke and she coughed but she wasn’t about to be stopped if they were in there.
The hotel doors were plenty solid but, she figured by throwing her weight against it a few times, she’d make plenty of noise and produce more than a little vibration to boot. If they were inside, surely they’d hear that.
She backed up and rammed the door with her left shoulder, turned and repeated it with her right. She raised her leg and kicked at the door with the heel of her Nike as hard as she could. The soft shoe meeting a hard door didn’t yield much noise but sent shockwaves of vibration up her leg.
After several kicks with no response, thinking they must have gotten out after all, Janet was about to give up when the door swung open. Bridget stood there barefoot in a flannel nightgown. As she fumbled to put her hearing aid in, she said, loudly, over the sound of the alarm, I tried to tell Harold someone was out here.”
“There’s a fire. We have to go.”
Hours later, the fire was finally contained. The hotel was half gone. The Fire Marshall condemned it on sight and refused to allow anyone into the third of it that was still standing to retrieve any belongings, deeming it unsafe.
It didn’t matter to Janet. The end of the building where her room was, was nothing but a burned out shell; a total loss. She had what she’d been able to tote out of the building, which wasn’t much after all because she had helped the elderly couple rescue their meds and the expensive machine that allowed Harold to breath at night.
After getting them settled into the last room available at a nearby hotel, she went instead to one of the all night supercenters that dotted the suburbs of the city. She knew she had clothes in storage but rooting through boxes was the last thing she wanted to do at dawn, with little sleep.
She purchased basic toiletries, some clothes that she hoped would fit and a few other necessities and headed for work. A shower in the locker room to wash away the smell of smoke would be the first order of the morning.
Janet was alone at her desk when Mel passed through the squad bay just after 7:00. Shane Harding, her only hope at a buffer between her and the boss, wasn’t due in until after 10:00 AM. She hoped Mel hadn’t heard anything about the fire but there was no such luck.
The first thing out of her mouth was, “Weren’t you staying at the hotel that burned last night?”
Janet nodded.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine; just a little tired. Long night.”
“I bet.”
“How’s, uh, Mr. Wysocki?”
“Tom is doing fine. I think he’s feeling a little guilty about what he put his family through last night. Hopefully he walks the straight and narrow now.”
She changed the subject right back. “So, where are you staying? Did you find another hotel? Do you need some time to go and look for an apartment today?”
“With a friend and I’m fine, really Sheriff.” She picked up a couple of file folders and stood. “If you’ll pardon me, the records room should be open now and I need to have a chat with Netta.” She walked out before Mel could say another word.
As she found time throughout the day, she called every half decent hotel in a 50-mile radius. The only things available went for far more than she was willing to pay for a place to shower and lay her head.
She gave up after twenty some calls. The job took precedence and she had work to do. She’d just have to bust her butt to clear her case load over the weekend and hope that she could put in a full day apartment or rental house hunting on her day off on Monday.
By evening she was exhausted. With nowhere else to go, she headed back to the supercenter. She ate a sub in the sandwich shop at the front of the store then shopped for a couple of full changes of clothes, sweats, a good pillow, a blanket and a clean towel. She changed into the sweats in the store restroom after she checked out then went outside to her car and moved it off to a far corner of the lot as far out of reach of overhead lighting as she could manage.
‘With any luck,’ she thought, ‘only employees would park out that far and they’d think nothing of someone napping out in their car, on their break.’ She felt like she’d pushed her luck as far as she could with Mel and with Barb. She figured she’d just sleep in her car and clean up at the station until she could get a new place.
###
Sunday Evening, May 17th
Janet walked out of the sub shop, the bag with her sandwich and chips dangling from one hand while she lifted her cup with the other and took a long pull from the straw.
She smiled when she saw that the apartment guides box was full with a new issue. She grabbed a copy of the advertising booklet out of the box and took a fresh ‘Homes’ guide too for good measure.
Back in her car, she paged through the guide to houses for sale first as she ate, figuring, she might as well look for a house to buy or rent, rather than an apartment. She dog-eared the pages of a couple that were in areas she wanted to be with a little property and vowed to try and get a hold of the realtors in the morning.
Excited to be thinking about houses and all of the possibilities of finally having some room to roam around, she left the apartment guide on the passenger seat, crawled into the backseat and went to sleep.
Wednesday Morning, May 20th
Muskingum County Sheriff’s Department
As she walked out of the locker room at the station, Janet combed her fingers through the still damp strands of her hair. She’d toweled it dry as best she could but, since her hair dryer was still in storage, she’d been showing up at the station early and making due without one.
She’d had a rough night in the car. A semi pulled in lengthwise in the row behind her. The truck idled all night. She tried to stick it out rather than find another place to park
and sleep but rest didn’t befall her until it was nearly dawn. She’d slept then until the sun streaming through a window dragged her from the depths of a restless slumber.
Her habit had been to hit the work out room for half an hour early, to ease both the kinks out of her back and the questions about her situation and then to be out of the locker room and hard at work at her desk or on the street before Mel showed up between 6:30 and 7:00. She was thwarted in her attempt at subterfuge this day as the boss, with Dana in tow, met up with her in the lower floor hallway before she got to the squad bay.
“Hey Janet, how’s it going?” Dana called out when they were still 10 yards or so apart.
Janet nodded her way but avoided the question. “What brings you by so early on a Wednesday morning?”
“Early? It’s almost eight!” Dana smiled. “I’m making Mel switch me vehicles,” she said as they finally got close enough to stop and talk face to face. “Mama picked up a decorating job, as if she doesn’t have enough to do, and she needs a pickup to haul some stuff. She’s outside waiting, but I have a minute.” She changed the subject back to Janet. “So, where ya been? I haven’t seen you around. Have you found an apartment yet?”
“Actually, I’ve been working with a realtor on a house that’s for sale.”
“Really?” Dana gave her an odd look but then turned her gaze to Mel who was shifting impatiently from foot to foot to her left.
“I don’t mean to be rude,” Mel said, “but we need to get out there so I can grab my stuff. I have a meeting in 10 minutes.”
“Right. Okay. Nice talking to you Janet. Don’t be a stranger.”
Janet nodded and sketched a small wave as the other two women stepped around her and continued down the hallway toward the exit to the staff parking area.
Dana waited till she and her mother were in the cab of Mel’s pickup and she was on her way back inside before she said anything to her mother.
“The oddest thing happened in there.”
Chloe Rossi was all ears. “Spill it, child.”
“Mama, I think Janet’s living there.”
“What? No, she couldn’t be. I thought she was staying at a hotel until she found a place?”
“She was. The one that burned. When Mel told me about the fire, I asked her then about Janet and she said she told her she was staying with friends. Now I’m not so sure. She says she’s working on getting a house but it was obvious to me she’d just showered and she was carrying a bag full of stuff, like an overnight bag.”
Dana eased the pickup out of the slot and turned to the left to head toward the exit gate. “Look;” she pointed, “there’s her car.” She slowed the truck, stopped in front of it and hopped out to go over and peer into the sedan. Shaking her head, she walked back to the pickup.
“There’s a pillow and a couple of blankets folded up on the backseat.”
Chloe winced. “Ouch! I couldn’t imagine sleeping in that little thing. Why on earth would she be doing that? She could certainly stay with any of us.”
Dana shrugged. “Pride, maybe? Who knows.”
“Wait; you said a house? I thought she was just going to get an apartment for a while where her and Barb…you know…worked things out?”
“They, er, had a bit of a falling out the night Barb’s dad had his little episode. I don’t know that they’ve talked since.”
“Such a shame. We need to do something about that.”
“I know just the thing.”
Chapter 10
Wednesday Afternoon, May 20th
The Boar’s Head
The two women pulled up outside the bar and grill and nodded at each other before they got out of the truck.
When they walked in they had the good fortune to find Barb, the target of their plan, standing behind the bar, facing the front door. Chloe moved to the closest empty table among the lunch crowd of farmers and oil men and collapsed into a chair, letting out a ‘whew!’ in the process.
Dana went to the bar. “Hey woman, how are you?”
“Okay…good. What brings you two out today? How’d your mama tear herself away from the store?”
“Oh dad’s minding it. Wednesday’s aren’t busy and Mama had a little decorating job to do so we’ve been out hauling some furniture around. We’re tired, hungry and thirsty, so we stopped.”
“What can I get you to drink then, for starters?”
“How about a pitcher of sweet tea? That way you don’t have to run back and forth re-filling glasses.” Dana glanced around. “It’s busier than I thought it would be in here.”
“These boys will all be back out on the job in the next 15 to 20 minutes, you watch. It’ll be dead in here then until the after work crowd hits.”
As good as her word, by the time they’d polished off half their sandwiches, Barb’s bar was empty of other customers. She joined them with a sandwich of her own.
“Why don’t you have one of your managers handle the lunch shift on Wednesdays?” Chloe asked her.
“It wouldn’t be fair. One takes Monday and one takes Tuesday so I take Wednesday. They’re all low traffic, low tip days after lunch time, until the evening. It’s the day I put my beer order in for the weekend anyway.”
“How’s your dad?” Dana asked.
Barb gave a slight shrug and spread her hands. “Better than the other night but he still has his good days and his bad days. If we could get him to stick to the proper diet for his condition all of the time and to take his pills on time, I think he’d be doing better but he’s so stubborn and set in his ways.”
“It’s men that age, hon,” Chloe put in. “They’re all like that; my Marco…”
Dana interrupted as she nodded, “Mel’s dad too.” She made a show of wriggling around in her chair like she was uncomfortable and then fished the keys for Mel’s truck out of a pocket. “That’s better,” she sighed.
“Pants a little too tight?” Barb teased.
“No! It’s just that Mel carries so many keys. We had to go down to the station and get her truck from her and she was in a rush so I ended up with this jumble.” She held the key ring up.
“We ran into Janet when we were down there,” Chloe added. “That poor thing; what with losing her mother and now the mess she’s in.”
Barb took the bait. “What mess?”
Chloe played coy. “I probably shouldn’t say anything…”
“If there’s something happening to her that I should know about, I really want you to tell me.”
“You know,” Chloe shook her head, “If I’m wrong, I’ll feel so bad for even bringing it up…”
“What?” Barb demanded. “Tell me.”
Dana leaned toward the other woman. “You know she was staying in an extended stay hotel right?”
Barb shook her head no. “I thought she was looking for a house?”
“She was…she is but she hasn’t found anything yet.”
Chloe told her, “That hotel burnt down sweetie and now…well, we think she’s living out of her car.”
“What?” Barb sounded shocked. “That can’t be. Are you sure?”
Dana nodded. “Pretty sure.”
“But why wouldn’t she just get another hotel or take an apartment month to month until she found something? She’s…she’s got a good job and the money from the sale, after all.”
“Who knows why anyone does anything,” Chloe said as she swatted a hand through the air dismissively. “I’m sure she has her reasons but it has to be hard on her back and her sleep.”
###
Barb breathed in deeply and let it out slowly as she watched Janet walk into the bar. She felt nervous but the action did little to calm her.
“Hey,” Janet said when she reached the service well area that Barb was standing behind. ‘What’s going on?”
“I don’t know; you tell me.”
Janet feigned looking puzzled but Barb wasn’t buying it. “Where are you staying right now?”
“I’m okay.”
“That’s not what I asked you.”
“Damn them…I should have known.”
“Dana and Chloe? They’re just concerned about you and, now that I think about it, I think I’ve been played in the mix.” She shook her head ruefully.
“You? What did they think you would do?”
“You know the answer to that. Look, I have a huge house, way too big for just me and still large even with my folks staying with me temporarily. There’s plenty of room for one more. I’m offering you a place to stay for as long as you want; no strings. You’d have your own room and bathroom.”
“You don’t have to do that. I’ve pretty much resigned myself to taking an apartment for now. I actually made a few calls this morning and I went out and looked at a couple of places.”
Barb’s face fell. “And?”
Janet hemmed and hawed for a minute but then admitted, “One wasn’t really acceptable and the other – the model, anyway - was very nice but they have a waiting list. There’s a unit they think is going to be empty in the next month or two.”
“I see. So, that means you still need a place to stay, at least for a while? I mean, I know the hotel selection around here is pretty limited.”
Janet was silent, her face unreadable.
“I know what you must be thinking,” Barb said, “but it isn’t like that. I do have feelings for you. I admit it. I was annoyed the past week, yes, but that was more at myself than at you. None of it was really about you at all.”
Barb tilted her head and smiled sadly. “This is going to sound so cliché but I’m going to say it anyway because I mean it. Whether anything ever works out between us or not, I want to at least be friends with you. I need to be friends with you. I want you in my life in any way that we can manage. But, please understand that with my dad’s health, it’s just such bad timing for me to try and focus on…on anything else right now. I just want to see him well again, first.”