by Joan Rylen
Vivian noted the dense foliage and the lean-to and wondered how many nights he’d spent out here wooing a woman. She figured this was where he took all of the ladies, trying to impress them with the boat, tales of fire-fueled tragedy and multiple…multiple Boy Scout badges. She felt a pang of jealousy but quickly dismissed it. It wasn’t like she was looking for a relationship. But he was H-O-T hot, and she couldn’t help wondering what an evening next to the embers, gazing under the stars, using body heat and friction to keep warm, would be like.
It’d be as blazing hot as lava!
She shook her head and snapped out of it. With the last man she’d “met” on vacation, things went awry big time, and with no warning. He was adorable, a good dancer, a good buttery nipple maker, and yet, the sex suckkkked. Do not make that mistake again, Vivian thought, looking Larson up and down. He wouldn’t suck, would he?
They put their stuff down around the camp. The lean-to was a free-standing, rectangular log structure with three walls and a pitched roof. The open side faced the lake and had a short bench at the base that could be used as a bed. Visitors had carved initials, dates and all manner of randomness into the bench. The steeply pitched roof covered the back almost to the ground, while a shorter, slanted roof provided shade to the front.
A mound of rocks formed a fire pit in front. Vivian could imagine spending a cool night in the spring or fall out there, but forget it in winter. No way, José. Not this Texan.
A trail wandered off to the right, and Kate looked in that direction. “Do they have bathrooms around here?”
“Sorry, not that sophisticated,” Larson replied.
“Little mama’s gotta go. Be right back.”
“I need to go, too,” Wendy said as she and Larson positioned the cooler by the fire pit. She took off after Kate.
Larson got to work picking up kindling around the area and building a fire with the cord of wood he’d brought. Vivian opened them both a beer. She then got the goodies out of the grocery bag and made a few crackers with cheese, then dipped into the cooler.
“These are the best strawberries ever. They’re so much sweeter than what I get at home.”
Larson held a match to some kindling and looked up. “Thanks, grew them myself.”
“I’m impressed. I would have been okay with Cheez Whiz, though. I’m an expert at decorating crackers with little swirls and flowers. My mad skills have made magazines, you know.”
“And what would you have put on mine?” Larson asked with a grin, giving up on the fire for the moment and walking toward her, his eyes locked on hers. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to him. Tight.
He smelled fantastic, a perfect blend of sweat and sweet. “Hmmm, let me think. Something flaming for sure, Mr. Fireman.” She pushed her hips into him, enjoying the hardness of his body. She let her fingers slowly drift from his neck to his shoulders to his arms. Oh my gosh, his arms. They were amazing.
He leaned down and kissed her, his hand reaching up and tickling underneath her breast.
“Mmmmm, yes,” she said, letting the kiss linger, then going from his mouth to his ear. “Or something a bit naughtier. Maybe lower.” For his cracker decoration, she was thinking an X, for X marks the spot.
Just then, Kate walked up. “Oh come on you two, I’m hungry. And without my husband.”
Wendy popped out from around a tree, oblivious to the heat radiating from the non-fire. “Guess what? The trail markers here are UT burnt orange. The two we saw looked about as beat up as the ones on Haystack Mountain.” She handed Vivian her phone, which showed a picture of an orange semicircle.
Vivian broke from Larson and looked at the picture, laughing. “I’ll leave the hiking to other people. We’ve uncovered more than our share already.”
“I’m with you,” Kate said and sat on the bench next to the cheese and crackers. She scarfed down three with double cheese before she looked up and offered to make the others one.
They enjoyed the appetizers while Larson prepared the fire for their main course. He’d made grass-fed beef tenderloin shish kebobs.
“You are earning a Boy Scout badge, aren’t you?” Vivian said, smacking him on the ass as he walked by with his ’bobs.
“I like to cook things over an open flame, what can I say?”
“I bet you do,” Vivian said, then bit into a grape.
Suddenly, a loud boom sounded in the distance. She couldn’t tell which direction it came from, but it couldn’t have been far away. “I don’t suppose that was some really big fireworks?”
Larson ran toward the shore. He peered at the horizon, looking for any indication of trouble in the sky. “I’m afraid not.”
32
Larson ran to the fire pit and started stomping on the kindling that was lit. “There’s a cloud of smoke south of here. I’m probably the closest responder and have to go check it out. Wendy, call 911 and report an explosion on the lake, just south of Hopping Bear Point. It looks to be on the southern end of Moose Island, or possibly on Buck Island.”
Wendy got to dialing as Vivian threw the cold stuff into the cooler and Kate chunked stuff in the grocery bag. They were loaded on the boat within two minutes.
“Hold on!” Larson said as he pushed off the shore, then he landed behind the captain chair. He cranked the engine, pushed the throttle down and the bow of the boat rose out of the water, throwing the girls off balance, even though they were seated. He glanced over his shoulder. “You all right, Kate?”
She shouted, “Yeah,” but didn’t look at him, as she was looking at the dark cloud.
Vivian also had her head back, looking up. The cloud rose from the tree line, drifting east in the wind.
Larson steered south, following the coastline. The cloud loomed larger, and before long, the area where it had originated was visible.
“As I feared,” Larson said, angling the boat toward shore. “Wendy, call 911 back and tell them there’s a boat on fire at the Dillengers’ dock on Buck Island and to send help.”
The back of a 15-foot wooden boat was on fire, and it wouldn’t be long before it spread to the dock. Not far away, a three-slip boathouse, a near-perfect replica of the house, stood dangerously close to the inferno. Vivian could imagine the fire racing down the dock to the boathouse, then catching the trees on fire and spreading to the house. The entire property would be engulfed. They needed help now!
Wendy did as told and Larson pulled up along the shore, about a football field away from the burning boat.
A man and a woman ran out from the trees nearby. “Holy shit! It just blew! Did you see that?” the man yelled.
“Is anyone hurt?” Larson asked. “Is there anyone else on the vessel?”
“We’re fine. We weren’t on it when it blew,” the bottle blonde said. “It was just us, no one else.” She looked to be in her early 20s and needed to take care of her roots. She wore a gray hoodie sweatshirt with a T-shirt underneath sticking out in places. Her matching sweatpants said “Pink” down the leg, and her black, lace bra was in her hand.
“I just finished restoring that boat. Dammit!” The guy kicked at the dirt and kept on cursing. He’d missed a button on the fly of his grease-stained jeans, and his long-sleeved T-shirt was on inside out. His brown hair was three weeks overdue for a cut.
Vivian took in their disheveled appearance and figured they had more to hide than setting the Dillengers’ dock on fire.
“Is this your property?” Larson asked.
The guy turned around. “No, we just wanted to take a look around.”
Another explosion boomed, though not as big as the first. A flaming piece of something impaled itself in the boathouse roof, igniting the shingles in a flash. Flaming pieces of wood were suddenly floating on the surface of the lake and strewn across the lawn.
The guy put his hands on his head. “Oh shit!”
Larson threw a fire extinguisher to the guy and hopped out of the boat. “Put out the debris on the lawn and try to keep
the fire from spreading to the house.” He tied a line to a big tree root along the bank and ran around the side of the boathouse.
The guy worked his way across the yard squirting at the bigger pieces of burning boat and stomping on a few smaller ones. Vivian couldn’t see Larson, but soon a stream of water sprayed onto the roof.
“Is that lake water?” Wendy asked.
“They probably have a fire hose in the boathouse that pulls water from the lake,” Kate said. “All this wood and no fire department right down the street, they need something to help in case of fire.”
Bra Girl walked over to Larson’s boat. “I can’t believe this is happening. “Totally cray-cray, right?”
“Right,” Wendy said, then faced the girls and rolled her eyes.
The girl looked at Wendy’s water. “Do you have an extra bottle of water?”
Wendy reached into the cooler and handed her one. “What’s your name? I’m Wendy, this is Kate and Vivian.”
“Shawna,” she said, then took a few gulps.
They all watched as the fire seemed to grow.
“What were y’all doing out here?” Wendy asked.
“I got my shift covered and Dale didn’t have much going on at the shop, so we took his boat out.” She waved her bra in the air as she spoke. “He just finished working on it, and it sounded like a fun thing to do. He said it was totally safe! I didn’t know it was a lemon. I could have died!”
“Hope it was insured,” Kate mumbled, only loud enough for Vivian and Wendy to hear.
Vivian choked back a laugh. “You said you got your shift covered. Where do you work?”
“At the Lake Placid Brewery. Dale’s an auto mechanic.” Shawna watched her guy squirt a stream of white foam onto a flame. “Now I wish I’d been at work instead of coming out here with that loser. He’s a total jackass.”
“Hope he’s not your boyfriend,” Kate said.
She shrugged. “I see him some, helps fill the void since I can’t have the man I love.” She took a deep breath and tapped her finger to her lips. “Yet.”
Vivian was about to ask why not when two guys in a jon boat pulled up behind them. One, dressed all in black, jumped out and pulled the boat ashore. The other was head to toe in camouflage.
“What happened?” Camo asked, getting out of the boat with a fire extinguisher.
Vivian pointed toward distressed Dale, still shooting out mini-fires around the lawn. She explained what had happened.
“We’ll go help,” Black said and they ran off.
A pontoon boat with Sheriff in big, black letters on the side raced toward the island, siren wailing. As it pulled closer, a third explosion sounded from the demolished vessel, shooting debris sky-high. A few pieces narrowly missed the pontoon as they fell into the lake.
Wendy looked at Shawna. “What’s with all the explosions?”
“Maybe it’s the cans of varnish that were still on the boat? He said he wasn’t quite finished sprucing her up. Guess he doesn’t need to worry about that anymore.”
“How many cans were there?” Kate asked.
Shawna wrung her hands. “Just a couple. They were in my seat so I set them on the back bench.”
Vivian turned her attention to the sheriff’s boat. “Look who it is.”
A stoic Deputy Brad Young was at the wheel. Beside him, Deputy Cheri Stokola sat in the co-captain’s chair. She gave a quick nod to the girls as they pulled next to Larson’s boat. Young cut the engine and jumped out to tie up to an exposed tree root.
“What happened here?” Stokola asked as she got out of the pontoon.
The girls and Shawna briefed them while the two sheriffs took in the scene. Dale stood by the house, Larson’s fire extinguisher still in hand. Camo and Black from the jon boat were in the middle of the lawn, looking at a chunk of boat. All the debris on the lawn had been put out, but the boathouse fire roared. Though Larson was still spraying water on the roof, the flames were taking over.
The dock was ablaze, and flames were working their way toward the boathouse. The boat itself had sunk about halfway into the water. It wouldn’t be long before everything was a total loss.
Stokola talked into her walkie-talkie, and someone on the other end said, “Be there in five. Out.” Stokola turned to Young. “Let’s go check on Larson.”
They were halfway across the lawn when the boathouse roof cracked, then started to cave in. Embers flew in the air, and the spray of water onto the roof stopped. Larson ran toward the sheriffs, yelling at them to get farther away as a pine tree caught fire. Larson and Stokola ran for the boats but Young ran up to the house.
He grabbed Dale by the arm. “We need to get out of here until reinforcements arrive!” Dale dropped the fire extinguisher as Young led him to the pontoon boat and ushered him onboard. Larson motioned for Shawna to get onboard as well; she hesitated so Stokola guided her onto the boat. Larson and Stokola stayed onshore, next to their boats.
Another siren sounded and Vivian looked across the water to see a long, flat, white boat cruising in their direction. “Lake Placid Fire Department” shouted in big red letters on the side. One guy stood in the cockpit, earphones on, mic at his mouth. Another man sat on a bench seat in the back, black bag slung over his shoulder, and a third guy stood behind a red hydrant in the bow of the boat. They pulled in front of the boathouse, but at a reasonable distance, and water shot out of the hydrant onto the fire.
The fireman operating the hydrant sprayed water back and forth across the boathouse and on the dock. He didn’t waste effort on the boat as it was now three-quarters of the way sunk. The spray of the hydrant had plenty of reach and could douse the nearby trees to prevent them from catching. The water wouldn’t make it to the house from where they floated, but the velocity from the hose was fierce and Vivian had no doubt they could get closer and save the house if needed.
Kate sat back and crossed her ankles. “I like watching firemen work.”
Wendy pointed to their boat. “The guy in the back’s not doing anything.”
“But he looks muscular and he’s prepared, look at his black bag. He’s ready to jump into action and save someone.”
Stokola overheard their conversation and smiled. She turned her attention to Dale and Shawna, who sat across from each other in the pontoon. Neither looked happy. “Start at the beginning,” she said to Dale. “How did the fire start?”
He looked up at her. “I just finished restoring that boat. Nothing was wrong with it. I just had her out a few days ago, ran her all over this lake with no problems.”
“What were you doing here?” Stokola looked to Shawna.
“We just stopped here on the island to get out, walk a little. We didn’t mean to burn anything to the ground.”
Stokola looked from one to the other. Vivian thought maybe Stokola didn’t buy it, but why would he blow up his own boat?
Dale slapped his knee. “There was nothing wrong with that engine. I’m a mechanic, for god’s sake.”
The two guys from the jon boat walked up. “There’s something you need to see over here,” Camo said.
Stokola followed them, along with Larson, to the middle of the lawn. Camo pointed at a piece of debris and made scissor motions with his fingers. Larson bent down and took pictures with his phone, then looked at Stokola and shrugged. They chatted for a while, examining the item from all angles before returning to the boats.
Stokola called Dale over to shore. He hopped off the Aqua Holic with ease, leaving the girls rocking in the water.
“This is a big mess we’ve got here,” Stokola said, looking at him sternly. “Anybody hate you so much they’d want to kill you, Dale?”
33
W-w-what the hell do you mean?” Dale stammered at Stokola’s words. “Nobody’s got it in for me. I pay my debts and keep my nose clean. I’m not doing another stint in county. I learned my lesson after that first round of bullshit.”
Stokola looked unmoved. Larson showed Dale the pictures he had
taken with his phone of the blown-off boat part. “The fuel line was cut, look at the sliced line. It’s too clean to have happened during the explosion.”
Dale handed Larson back his phone. “I don’t know who would have done this. My customers leave happy and I haven’t pissed anyone else off — lately.”
“Maybe you’re not as good a mechanic as you think you are?” Larson said.
“Fuck you, hose boy. I’m not an idiot. There’s no way I would have missed a slice like this. I rebuilt this engine and replaced everything, that hose included.” He looked at Shawna.
She averted his gaze and focused on the fireboat. “I don’t know anybody who’d try to kill him,” she muttered.
Larson stuck his phone in his pocket. “I’ll get these pictures to the arson investigator, but let’s just be thankful you two weren’t on the boat when it blew. With the fuel line cut and the vapors mixing with the heat of the engine, this could have taken two minutes or two hours. Miraculous. You two are very lucky.”
Dale stared at the spot where his boat once floated. Vivian couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.
The boathouse fire was almost out, and the dock was reduced to pilings. A few pieces of boat still burned on the water, casting a brownish orange glow as the sun set across the lake. That combined with the fall leaves reflecting in the water created an almost magical scene. Vivian imagined tiny fairies flitting around, waving their wands, turning everything a brilliant shade of orange and red.
“I could use a real restroom,” Kate said to Larson. “Any chance we’ll be leaving soon?”
“We’ve got this under control,” Young said.
Vivian ran her hands up and down her arms. “It’s a bit chilly, I need one of Tracy’s hot toddies! Plus, Brandon promised us s’mores tonight.”
Shawna snapped her head up and met Vivian’s gaze. It was only a moment, but anger flashed behind her eyes. She turned and got off the boat.