Outside the Fire

by Boyd Craven

  Steve made it out to the truck without looking cross-eyed at anybody, but when he silently started slinging materials into the bed, it was Amy who spoke up first.

  “What happened? You’re mad?”

  “Yeah, sorry. I am,” Steve admitted.

  “That guy in there didn’t think his boss was paying attention and tried to rip us off,” Amber said.

  “So, he’s like a bad man?” Amy asked.

  Steve was putting the last box of solar panels in the truck and hesitated. “I don’t think he’s a bad man. I just think he’s trying to make the best of a bad situation.”

  “Kind of like we are?”

  Steve put the solar panel down and picked up Amy and sat her on the tailgate of the truck. She squeaked at being manhandled, and he had to grin. She was getting older, but she was still his baby.

  “Yeah, kind of like that. The difference, is he was trying to do it in a dishonest way. I could be wrong, but he looked to me like he was taking advantage of the power outage to try to make some extra money off people.”

  “So he is kind of a bad guy,” Amy said matter of fact.

  Everyone looked at each other in an uncomfortable silence and then they finished loading the truck.

  “Is Sam coming to the community meeting tonight?” Amber asked suddenly.

  “Yes,” Steve said starting the truck, kicking the air on.

  They waited for it to blow cool air for a moment, and closed the doors when it was something less than ninety degrees.

  “Good, what about Deputy Lucy?” Amy asked shyly, and then giggled.

  “If Matthew Fitzpatrick is there, she’ll be there,” Angela said smiling.

  Steve met her gaze a second and they both grinned. As awkward as it had been meeting each other, Deputy Javier and Matthew hit it off after the disaster of the last community meeting when she’d prevented the big man from knocking Jeff out. It hadn’t been much of a secret, but the two of them hadn’t tried to advertise the fact they’d had a couple of dates now.

  “Good,” Amy said. “Mr. Fitz seems to like her.”

  They talked about the budding relationship while Amber tried to ignore the fact hers was on hold on the drive back to the subdivision. Steve hit the button on the garage door opener and turned the truck around before backing into the garage. The explosive heat was almost oppressive, but they managed to pull the cooler out when the lights on the garage flipped on.

  “Air!” Amber screamed, running inside.

  “Amber…Amy…dammit,” Angela muttered as the kids went running pell-mell into the house.

  “They just want to cool down,” Steve said.

  “Yeah, but we have to—”

  Her words were cut off with a kiss, and she hesitated a minute before returning it.

  “How about you go cool off in the shower? I’m going to unload what I need for the project and then I’ll join you.”

  “Don’t make promises you won’t keep,” Angela said with a grin.

  “I won’t. Let’s take advantage of the few hours of power while we have it. I hope it stays long enough for our meeting tonight.”

  “It will,” Angela said as she walked away, her hips swaying, “just don’t work out here too long.”

  In his best southern drawl, Steve told her, “Yes ma’am.”

  He dragged the large cooler, the ductwork and vent fan with him into the laundry room and put them up on the washer and dryer. Next, he went back out and unloaded the smaller solar panels he’d bought for this project and set the larger ones aside. He didn’t have a use for those yet, but if things continued to go downhill, he had an idea on how to keep his fridge going. He’d ordered a part from Amazon that was made by Johnson Controls. The way it worked was you plugged in the freezer into the back of a plug on the controller, then the controller into the wall. Then you put the copper thermocouple in the freezer portion. Poof, a highly efficient fridge could be made for cheap.

  He hadn’t done the math yet, but he knew that he didn’t have enough solar juice to run his freezer yet…but he was maybe halfway there.

  “What did you think of that?” Steve asked Sam as they walked out of the community center.”

  “Sadly, I’m sorta surprised the community voted to keep Jeff as the HOA president…but I wanted to let you know, I spoke with their lawyer earlier. They are going to drop their objections to you having a gate, if you drop the harassment suit,” Sam said.

  “Deal. Damn, that was easy,” Steve said, a little annoyed even after getting exactly what he was aiming for.

  “One more thing. They—and by ‘they,’ I mean Jeff—would like you to talk to Matthew about the pending investigation.”

  “I’ll talk, but the big man is on the council. I’m not sure he’s still over getting popped in the face.”

  “That one isn’t a deal breaker,” Sam said. “I have to run. Congratulations, by the way. Some people actually listened to your presentation. Don’t be surprised if a few ask more questions.”

  “Thanks, Sam,” Steve said and took his hand.

  “That was kind of fun,” Amy said, as the family started walking back towards their house.

  “It was,” Angela told her, reaching down to pull a string of hair out of her daughter’s face.

  “Do you think they are actually going to get ready?” Steve asked his family.

  “Not the level we’re at,” Amber whispered, “but a lot of people paid attention when you warned them that prices are going up on things, and they should stock up now.”

  “I hope they do. Things are…weird,” Angela finished for him.

  “They better,” Dwight said, startling Amy.

  “I thought you left already,” Amy said to him.

  “Naw, I talked to a couple of people. After the last meeting when things got ugly, a couple people stopped me by the back of their fences to chew the fat. I was just catching up with them.”

  “Want to stay for dinner tonight?” Angela asked Dwight.

  “Actually, that was another reason I was running behind, I was going to invite you all over to my place. I’m having Matthew and little Matt come out too, if you don’t mind.”

  “I don’t mind,” Amber said, and quickly looked away at her mother’s amused expression.

  “I haven’t been over there in a while. I want to see the baby pigs!” Amy said excitedly.

  “Sounds good to me. Need me to bring anything?” Steve asked his neighbor.

  “I think I got it all; maybe some beers?” Dwight asked.

  “Sure thing. Cutting through at our place?”

  “Yeah. Say, you still thinking about putting that handpump in?” Dwight asked suddenly.

  “Hand pump?” Angela asked.

  “I might, Dwight. Babe, it’s the pitcher pump I got from Home Depot. I was going to drive a sand point for some backup water.”

  “You mean, we don’t have to wait for the well pump to work if we have that?” Amy asked, squinting at her dad.

  “Yeah, Dad, we don’t have to wait for a shower if we have one of those? We could just…crank the handle instead of dying in the heat?” Amber piped up.

  “You’re not dying,” Steve insisted.

  “You’ve had this and you didn’t tell me?” Angela asked, stopping and putting one hand on her hip.

  “Well, yeah, as a just-in-case,” Steve said, and turned to Dwight. “Looks like I am. Why?” he asked, trying not to grin.

  All three ladies were giving him the stink eye and it was all he could do not to make matters worse by laughing.

  “Good, I am gonna need a hand getting some more posts in for a fencing project, and while I have the auger on, I can get you down six feet or so.”

  “Oh man, that’ll make it easy to start!”

  “Yeah. I think if you open your gate up, I can get the auger in a couple feet off to the side. That way it won’t be in the way.”

  “That sounds like a plan,” Steve said as they approached the house.

  Wit
h the power rationing and the well not running constantly, the automatic sprinklers were almost never used, and the lawn had started looking brown. That’s why they immediately noticed drops of red in the grass. It was Amy who first called the alert.

  “Mom, somebody dropped paint on the lawn.”

  “Baby, it’s…oh. Steve? Dwight?” she asked, putting a hand out, stopping the younger girls from going further.

  “That’s blood,” Steve said. “I almost didn’t even see that. Good eyes, kid.”

  Dwight kneeled down and touched a small red fleck. He rubbed it between his fingers and then stood up, wiping it on his pant leg.

  “Should I call—”

  “Call Lucy, and go ahead and call 911,” Steve said. “Dwight, I’m going inside the house to check things out. Can you sit with my ladies a minute?”

  “Absolutely,” Dwight said.

  Steve pulled the pistol and held it at the low/ready position and opened the gate that led into the backyard. The blood was just a fleck here and there, but it was noticeable now that he was looking for it. He followed and saw that it led towards the back gate. He ignored that for now and headed for the back door. He switched gun hands to fish out the keys and unlock it and then switched back as he walked in. Had somebody broken in, got hurt and then fled? The lock on the back door was a deadbolt, so they didn’t flee that way if they did break into the house somewhere.

  He searched the downstairs, checking every closet and the pantry before opening the door to the garage. He headed inside, leaving the doors open so he could hear. Outside, he could just hear the muffled feminine voices and the deeper voice of Dwight. The truck was where he left it and for a second he felt foolish, but he still lowered himself to make sure there wasn’t anybody under the Jeep or the Ford. Satisfied, he checked the lock to the mechanical room where he hid his preps and found it locked. Satisfied, he left the garage and headed back inside, closing the door behind him. He was halfway up the stairs when he heard a voice.

  “Steve, Deputy Lucy Javier here.”

  “I’m on the staircase,” Steve called back.

  Her shout had startled him and he moved the gun to his left hand to wipe the sweat off before holding it again.

  “Hold up,” she called and he heard her walking across the tiled floor in his direction. “Hey, you don’t do this. This is my job,” she told him, an indignant look on her face.

  “You clear houses much?” he asked her, moving to the side so she could go ahead of him.

  “About as much as you,” she snarked. “Put your gun up so I don’t have to worry about you hitting me.”

  “What if—”

  “I’m wearing my vest,” Lucy said. “Just got out of work and was heading to Matthews when I got the call.”

  “Ok then.”

  “The blood, it looks like it goes out the back fence,” Amy said for the third time.

  Dwight just gritted his teeth. His friend had put him in charge of their safety but it was killing him to wait outside while Lucy and Steve were checking everything out. The front door opening and closing had everyone spinning to see. Steve walked out after Lucy and locked the door behind him.

  “Nobody was inside as far as we can tell,” Lucy said. “In a couple minutes I’ll have a backup here.”

  “Well, I ain’t waiting for no backup. If somebody’s hurt, maybe they’re on my property and need help?” Dwight asked her.

  Lucy looked at him and then shook her head.

  “Come on Dwight,” Steve said. “Maybe it was somebody hunting on your land and they took a shortcut out my gate?”

  That stopped the old farmer and he tipped his ball cap back and rocked on his heels a minute before nodding to her. They didn’t have long to wait. Her partner, Ron, pulled in with his personal car a moment later, and then a local police department car showed up. The neighbors on all sides of the cul-de-sac were stopping what they were doing and staring. Steve wanted to flip them all the bird, but most of that was because ousting Jeff had failed rather badly. People had given him a second chance, and as he was so close to making a juvenile example of his feelings he remembered that. Instead he waited and let Lucy explain things.

  The locals seemed a little more agitated than the Sheriff’s deputies about it and led the way. Steve kissed Angela and followed as Dwight started following the blood trail.

  “You be safe,” Angela said.

  “I will be. The safest place to be: with four cops,” Steve told her as he turned to follow.

  Amy caught his gaze, and she gave him a wave with Amber following suit. He gave them a little wave back and started walking. They left the gate open behind them and Lucy started taking pictures with an iPhone. There was more blood near the back gate, more so than had dripped on the grass between the gates. Almost like something was put down….

  “Looks like they left through his gates. Bet you we find a gut pile somewhere back there,” one of the local cops said.

  “That’s my guess as well,” Dwight told them.

  It took them ten minutes to follow the blood trail and it didn’t end in a gut pile as they expected, instead it led into livestock barn. Dwight cursed when he saw that and pushed open the big side door. A few chickens decided to inspect what the bipeds were doing and came running along like drunken velociraptors in a Hootie and the Blowfish concert. They started picking at the more frequent blood droplets on the straw.

  “Smells,” Don told Lucy.

  “It’s a barn,” Lucy hissed and walked in.

  In the heat of summer, the air was more rank than Steve remembered, but he was expecting it. After a moment, his nose adjusted about the same moment his eyes adjusted to the gloom. The pigs were making agitated noises. Dwight approached the indoor, outdoor paddock and looked inside. Blood covered the handle on the barn side. He hesitated and instead got on his toes and looked over.

  “Somebody got themselves bit,” he said after a moment.

  “What do you mean?” Steve asked as he leaned over to look.

  “Blood’s too high up for it to have been a pig. I have to go outside and see, but I’m worried I’m going to be one feeder hog shy.”

  “What? How can you…oh, those aren’t that big,” Lucy said as a pink pig poked his nose in the corral.

  “Yeah, they’re weaned and in a different pen than their momma. Come on.”

  They followed him, now more curious than nervous. He opened a side door, and when they went out, they found a bloody handprint on the outside of the barn. Lucy was quick to take a picture. They followed Dwight, who led them in a pathway between two sets of electric fencing. On the left, a boar hog sat in a mud hole, staring at the humans with a hungry intensity. Following the curving pathway to the right, they came to another mud wallow a good hundred feet back from the barn, part of it shaded by large poplar trees. Dwight started counting out loud and then cursed.

  “That’s what it was,” Dwight said, pointing, “somebody took off with a feeder and got bit.”

  “Great, so now all we have to do is find somebody who’s got what…an eighty-pound pig roaming around the neighborhood?” Lucy asked.

  “You should go talk to the Wilsons,” Steve told them. “I know they were at the meeting, but maybe they saw somebody coming and going before.”

  “Good idea, they’re always spying on you guys,” Dwight said, snapping his fingers.

  “Isn’t that the couple whose kid smacked you with the metal can?” one of the local cops asked.

  “Yeah, my neighbors. Good news: they quit screaming obscenities whenever I’m outside.”

  A radio crackled and one of the local cops started talking into it as Dwight and Steve stepped off to the side.

  “Would they have killed the pig first?” Steve asked him.

  “No. They could have, but I don’t think they did. Let’s head inside the pen and see where the blood trail leads to.”

  “I bet you it leads into the barn,” Steve said, “probably tried to boost a pig over the
fence and got bit for his troubles.”

  Dwight nodded and both of them started walking back, not paying attention to the deputies and cops behind them.

  “So they try to pick it up, one of them gets bit….”

  “These pigs are so tame he could have walked it on a leash,” Dwight said.

  “So somebody who’s bleeding, walking a pig somewhere….”

  “Somebody had to see something,” Dwight finished.

  “Hey guys, I’ll come back around later on for a statement,” Lucy said walking up to them quickly, “We’ve got a call and all hands on deck. I’ll be back around to finish later on today or when the situation resolves itself.”

  “What’s going on?” Dwight asked, his curiosity piqued.

  “Large riot,” one of the local cops said.

  “Are you going to talk to the Wilsons?” Steve asked as they were starting to leave.

  “No time,” They said starting to jog towards them and the barn in general, “Things are heating up. Damn, I wish I would have parked closer.”

  “We’ll be in touch,” Deputy Ron said as he went jogging by.

  “I wonder what’s going on?” Dwight asked.

  “I dunno. I’m going to head home though and hose the blood off. Now that we’re pretty sure it’s human, I don’t want to leave it….”

  “I’ll be out in a day or two with the tractor for your hand pump. You take it easy,” Dwight said and gave a little wave.

  Steve watched the old farmer leave. He wasn’t sure why he wasn’t more upset, but he had a feeling he was heading inside to listen to the radio or turn on the news. Maybe, Steve thought, he wasn’t as worried or upset about the loss of a piglet as Steve thought he should be. Or…

  “I wonder if he got the camera setup we were talking about,” Steve mumbled to himself and headed back out the way he came in, the police and deputies leaving him alone as he slowly walked back to his house.”

  CHAPTER 16