Burn Out (3 page)

“
Where are we going?” Ken
asked, puzzled since they past the visitor’s room.

The guard kept walking in
silence.

“
I thought I had a
visitor,” Ken mumbled as they kept walking, going through two
security doors. They stopped in front of the warden’s
office.

What the hell, Ken
thought. This could be really good or really bad. The warden wasn’t
known for having social visits.

The guard rapped on the
door and opened up. “Ken Collins,” the guard announced as he opened
the door.

“
Thank you. You can
leave,” the warden said to the guard. “Ken, please, have a seat.”
The warden gestured to a chair across from his desk.

Buster Radcliffe, the
nameplate read on the putty-colored metal desk.

“
Ken, I know you are
wondering what you are doing here,” Buster began.

Ken nodded his
head.

“
Well, you do have
visitors, but before you see them I wanted to talk to you first.”
Buster straightened up in his chair. He was six-foot- five and even
though he was on the skinny side, he was solid muscle. With thick
red hair and a smattering of freckles across his face, he looked a
lot younger than his fifty-four years. Ken thought he looked like
Howdy Doody.

Buster and Ken had a long
friendship which started when Ken was promoted to Captain at the
police department. Ken sent many men to this same jail. They had
appeared in court together. They were both members of the local
Kiwanis and Rotary club. They ran in the same social circles. Yet
Buster treated Ken like any other prisoner. He acted like he never
existed outside the prison walls.

“
Ok,” Ken said. He was a
man of few words.

“
There is no easy way to
say it. Your wife has disappeared.”

Ken came out of his chair.
“What?”

“
There was a fire last
night over at the farmer’s market and Sam and her crew responded.
They were inside the warehouse trying to find the owner’s son.
After they pulled him out, Sam went back in.” Buster paused. “There
was an explosion.”

Ken’s face drained of
color. “But I thought you said she disappeared?” He had trouble
getting the words out. “Is she hurt?”

“
I don’t know. They found
her helmet outside the back door of the warehouse. The state fire
marshal’s office is still investigating. They searched the
warehouse, she wasn’t found. Police Chief Gladstone is here to see
you and he can tell you more about what happened. Your lawyer is
present, as well. I wanted to let you know what was going on before
you met with them.”

Ken slowly sat back down
in his chair. “Thank you.” He didn’t know why he said that. His
beautiful wife was missing and he was in jail and couldn’t do a
damn thing about it.

A million thoughts went
through his head. Sam left him, was his first thought. She couldn’t
take the strain of his trial, all the mounting bills and pressure
of the investigation. So she just got up and left. That was the
best-case scenario because it meant she was alive. Or, someone was
out for revenge and Samantha was hurt, or worse.

“
Sorry to be the bearer of
bad news.” Buster got up from his chair and walked over to the
door. He gave Ken a hardy pat on the back. “Good luck,
son.”

Ken followed the same
guard back down the same hallway they had just walked from ten
minutes ago. This time the guard stopped at the visitor’s room. It
was a large, surprisingly clean and bright room with many tables
and chairs. A large box of toys sat in the corner, along with a
small bookcase which held children’s books and magazines. Ken never
wanted his children to see him in a place like this. He asked Sam
and her mother not to bring them here. He would rather they
remember him as a good dad. Not a common criminal.

He recognized his former
boss sitting next to his attorney.

“
Ken, I’m sorry about
Samantha,” Chief Gladstone said.

Suzette Breland, his
attorney, nodded in agreement. “We are all shocked by the news. I
take it the warden gave you the story?”

“
Yes, he just did. Some of
it. What happened?” Ken felt a numbness come over him as he sat
down at the table. .

Chief Gladstone went
through the events the night of fire. “No one knows why Samantha
went back into the fire. We did a search last night and again at
daybreak around the area of the warehouse. Nothing was found,
except Sam’s helmet. But we are still investigating. Your mother-
in- law came to the scene this morning. She is obviously very
upset. She said she was going to call Florida Omni Search to assist
with the search.”

The chief took a long look
at Ken. He wore the standard issue gray prison uniform with a white
t-shirt underneath. His hair was brown with gray streaked
throughout – kept clean and short, military style. His face was
graced with wrinkles and his eyes were the color of iced tea. Light
brown with golden hues. He was obviously visibly shaken.

“
When was the last time
you spoke to Sam?” Chief Gladstone asked.

“
Tuesday. She came for
visitation with her.” He pointed his thumb toward his lawyer,
Suzette.

“
We went over her
testimony for the trial,” Suzette said, picking at her nails. She
had painted them a bright pink color which matched the bright pink
highlight piece in her hair. She dressed a little promiscuous, but
she had the reputation of a bulldog in the courtroom. She didn’t
take no for an answer and fought like hell for all her
clients.

“
How did she sound to
you?” Chief Gladstone asked.

“
Like always. She was a
little stressed about the trial and about money. But she seemed to
be holding up pretty good.” Ken sighed.

“
She didn’t mention
wanting to leave the area or get away from it all?”

“
No, absolutely not. She
wouldn’t leave the kids,” Ken said. “What are you getting at? That
she was planning on leaving us?”

“
I’m just trying to cover
all the bases, Ken. You know how this works.”

“
Well, I’m telling you she
wouldn’t leave. Sam doesn’t run away from her problems.”

“
How about threats? Anyone
been threatening her?”

Ken shook his head. “You
mean the local drug cartel?”

“
Anyone at
all.”

“
No. I don’t know she
would tell me if she felt threatened by anyone. Sam tries to be the
tough one. And she wouldn’t want me to worry about anything while
I’m in here, anyway.”

“
How about you? Have you
gotten any threats while in here?”

“
I haven’t exactly been
making friends,” Ken said smugly.

“
Ok. If you think of
anything else, let me know.”Chief Gladstone looked Ken over for a
few seconds. “I’m really sorry about this, Ken. I know how much you
care for your family.”

Ken nodded his head.
“Thanks.”

“
I’m going to talk to the
judge today to see if we can get a postponement,” Suzette said. She
pushed her chair back and stood up. Today she was wearing a tight
blouse with a short, dark skirt which showed off all her assets in
all the right places. Ken wondered how she got away with dressing
like that in the courtroom. It just suited her perfectly, though.
“In light of everything that has happened, I don’t think it will be
a problem.” She told him goodbye and left the room.

“
Ok. If we are done here…”
Ken said.

“
I’ll be in touch, son.”
Chief Gladstone said as he got up to leave.

Santa Rosa Beach, FL Tuesday
6:00 AM

After a long, twelve hour drive from
Miami to Santa Rosa Beach, Rachel had a hard time getting up and
ready for her meeting. Michelle set her up with a nice beach house
overlooking the beautiful sugar sand beaches and crystal clear
waters of the Gulf of Mexico. She wanted to stay in bed listening
to the waves crashing and the calls of the seagulls.

Santa Rosa Beach was a small coastal
town which was home to about ten thousand people year around.
During the summer tourist season, the population soared to about
fifty thousand, give or take a few people. Most people who lived
here were either retired or serviced the tourist industry –
fishermen, hotel workers, restaurant employees, real estate agents,
and kitschy clothing and gift boutique shops owners.

She drove over to a popular local
diner called the Donut Hole to grab a cup of coffee before her
meeting with the fire investigator. The waitress took her order of
French toast and bacon and she settled in to read the paper. The
Walton Sun had run a full length feature about Samantha and the
warehouse fire. Rachel read the highlights of the article
again.

“
Hi. Excuse me, but are you
Rachel Scott?”

Rachel looked up from the newspaper.
She studied the man standing before her. He was tall, good looking
with thick, dark hair and kind eyes. She put him to be around mid
to late thirties.

“
Yes. And you
are?”

“
I thought I recognized you
from the news shows about missing people. Samantha’s mom said you
might be coming up here to help us.” He held out his hand to her.
“Mack Dixon.”

She instantly recognized his name from
the article she just read. “Ah, Samantha’s partner from the fire
department.” Rachel shook his hand. “I was reading about the case
in the paper. Please have a seat.” Rachel motioned to the chair
across from her.

“
Sorry to disturb your
breakfast, but I just wanted to say hello and see if there was
anything I could do to help.” Mack sat down. “Sam is not only a
co-worker but a good friend of mine.”

“
Sorry to hear what
happened.” Rachel paused while the waitress sat down her food and
offered Mack some coffee. “I’m meeting with Jeff Stanton this
morning to go over the particulars of the case. Anything you can
tell me about Sam would help.”

“
Sam and I are close. We’ve
known each other since grade school. Her husband and I are also
good friends. I was best man at their wedding.” Mack let out a deep
breath. “I keep going through my head what happened that night and
nothing makes sense.”

“
What did happen that
night?” Rachel asked. “I read a little bit in the paper, but it
doesn’t tell me much.”

“
Well, all day long Sam
seemed a little distracted. She had gotten a phone call around
dinner time that upset her. She didn’t want to talk about it when I
asked if she was okay. There isn’t a lot of privacy at the fire
station. I just figured it was Ken. His trial was scheduled to
start this week and she was going to testify.”

Rachel chewed absently on her
thumbnail. It was a bad habit she picked up recently when she was
deep in thought. “Do you think Ken’s involvement with marijuana had
anything to do with her disappearance?”

“
I hope not. It does seem a
coincidence Sam disappeared right around the time his trial was
supposed to start. I have thought about it.”

“
Did you get a chance to
talk with her again?”

“
No, we got the call about
the warehouse fire just a few minutes later.”

“
How many were on your
shift?”

“
Five, including me. Sam is
the lieutenant and we had Charlie Bryne, the district chief and two
other firefighters on duty that night.”

Rachel pointed down to the newspaper
she was reading. “The paper doesn’t tell me much. Maybe you can you
walk me through what happened. Give me a better understanding on
how she disappeared?”

“
Ok. Well, we arrived on
scene in less than five minutes. The owner was there waiting for
us. He was the one that called it in. Apparently, his son was late
for the family dinner they had every Sunday. His dad went back to
the market when his son didn’t answer his calls. The son is
diabetic and he got worried something happened to him. By the time
he got to the market, the smoke was too thick for him to attempt to
enter the building. Our crew went in to help find his son while the
rest of the guys started pulling hoses to put out the fire.” Mack
paused to take a few sips of his coffee.

While Mack was drinking, Rachel took
the time to admire his athletic build. He was a good looking guy.
She could easily imagine him posing for one of those firefighter
calendars which featured bare-chested men with nothing on but
bunker gear pants and suspenders.

Mack continued. “Sam went in first and
Kevin and I were right behind her. We made our way to where the
office was located. After we found the son and pulled him out, I
turned around to talk to Sam and she wasn’t there. I tried calling
on the radio, but she didn’t answer. I alerted the chief to the
situation, but by the time we called out a ‘mayday’, the roof
started collapsing. I didn’t think she had made it.” Mack rubbed
his face with his hands.

Rachel could tell he was devastated.
Tears were welling up in his eyes.

“
It was like losing my best
friend.”

She thought about it for a minute and
took a sip of her coffee. Her breakfast went untouched. Mack’s
story was mesmerizing. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. “Do
you know how the fire started?”