Red Rain

67

Lea turned her eyes from the big black police captain. He had finally stopped writhing and moaning. At the end, he had flung his arms in the air, flung them up again and again, as if he wanted to take off and fly away from the burning pain.

Now he lay on his stomach in a lake of dark blood. The FBI agents were down on their knees beside him, shaking their heads.

Lea saw the twins-her twins-edge back into the school building. The doors slammed hard behind them.

Sirens squealed on the street as three hose-and-ladder fire engines, flashing bloodred lights, roared onto the block. Lea turned to see the wall of fire. She couldn’t see the houses behind them. Trees burned, swaying under the weight of the roaring flames.

The whole block is on fire. Like hellfire. They’re turning Sag Harbor into Hell.

“They killed a cop!” an old man in a gray sweatsuit was screaming, his eyes bulging, waving his arms like a madman. “They killed a cop! They killed a cop!”

Lea coughed and covered her face as waves of thick smoke rolled over the schoolyard. Two more fire trucks screamed onto the block. One bumped over the curb, nearly smashing the back of an SUV.

They must have called other towns, Lea knew. The Sag Harbor firefighters were mostly volunteer, not up to battling a fire this big.

“They killed a cop! They killed a cop!”

The police seemed in disarray now. Several dark-uniformed cops ran to the front doors of the school building and began to pound with their fists.

Lea spotted the two officers who had come to her house. They had moved to face the crowd of terrified parents. They were shouting something, but Lea couldn’t hear them over the shrill squeal of the sirens and the shouts of firefighters as they leaped off their trucks into action.

Were the cops trying to get parents to leave the school grounds? They were shouting and motioning frantically as wave after wave of charcoal smoke, thick as cotton candy, rolled over everyone, turning the world dark and making people choke and gasp for air.

Like one of those black-and-white horror movies Mark likes so much.

“They killed a cop! They killed a cop!”

Couldn’t anyone shut the poor guy up?

Lea turned and realized she’d lost Roz and Axl. They were right beside me. Maybe Roz wanted to get Axl out of the smoke.

Someone had covered the dead officer with a canvas tarp. The FBI agents were conferring in a circle with the uniformed cops.

As Lea watched, her panic swelled. She thought about Elena and Ira. A sob escaped her throat. She clenched her jaw. Bit her tongue, hoping the pain would force back her panic.

Without realizing it, she had moved up the lawn, toward the circle of law officers. She stopped when she heard the FBI agent’s voice, raw and raspy: “They killed a cop. Prepare your weapons. We’re going in.”

Lea stifled another sob. She stumbled back.

Ira and Elena must be terrified.

She spun away, choking from the smoke, her throat burning as if she was on fire. She strode toward the street, toward the flames, the crackling trees trembling their limbs as if pleading for help, the frantic men hooking up long hoses, the flames, the flames, such a horrifying twitch and dance of the flames.

She walked quickly toward her car at the end of the block, fumbling in her pocket for the key.

All my fault. All my fault.

I have no choice. I have to find Mark.

I’ll wait in the car, away from the choking smoke. As soon as the kids are safe, I’ll find Mark.

And tell him everything.