Page 104 of Little Ray of Pitch Black

Black

My brother, Elesio, stood next to me as he stared at the burned-down building he’d helped put the fire out in.

“What’s the guess?” I asked.

Elesio was the fire chief for Sawtooth, and the volunteer fire chief for Jesper County.

He also had twenty years of experience in firefighting—having served ten years in the Marines and then ten in Bozeman before his wife decided it was time to not work his ass off anymore and explore the world.

His new job as Sawtooth’s fire chief let him travel as much as his wife wanted, while also giving him the challenge that he seemed to need on a daily basis.

One of those challenges being working as a fire chief in a rural community that didn’t have anywhere near the same life-saving gear that his past jobs had.

In the years that he’d had this job, he’d advocated for the area and had gotten the two departments quite a bit of new gear as well as fire apparatus.

One of those apparatuses had put the fire out in record time.

Yet, it was still a total loss.

“As of right now, with the limited information that I have, I’d say the fire was started right there.” He pointed at where Milo’s house once stood. “Fire trail goes through the woods all the way to the bunkhouses. Fire suppression systems were dismantled. They show signs of tampering. Lucky as fuck that all those kids were out on that hike so early.”

“Almost like someone knew the scheduling,” Milo said, coming up behind us. “Someone who knew that there was a fire suppression system to dismantle. Knew where to walk to avoid any and all cameras.”

Just as he said that, a familiar vehicle pulled into Milo’s drive.

My lips twitched at the sight of her as she parked just a few feet from where we stood.

“Nice car.” Elesio chuckled.

I was getting her a new one that didn’t give me heart palpitations as soon as we were solid enough that she wouldn’t argue.

I walked toward the car just as Jessamy shut the engine off and pushed open her door.

I met her with a hand on the door and held my other out to her.

She took it with a smile, let it go, then reached into the car and pulled out paper sacks of what smelled like food.

“I didn’t know how many were here,” she said. “So I went to the store and bought them out of bread and lunch meat. Stuff for sandwiches.” She turned back around. “And four gallons of soup.”