Chapter 1
Someone screamed.
Short.
Sharp.
Abruptly cut off.
Sarah Cameron struggled upright in bed, sweat beading her
forehead. Translucent shafts of moonlight playing through
the partially opened mini blinds showed indistinct shapes
rising out of the dark. Body tense, heart pounding she
glanced around. No stranger hovered over her bed or lurked
in the shadows. No one shared the room with her. No one
had screamed.
The shrill sound of the telephone ringing on the bedside
table jerked her attention in that direction. Next to the
phone, the illuminated numbers on the clock read three-
fifteen am. Her palms broke into a clammy sweat as
memories of the last time the phone rang at such an
ungodly hour reared their ugly ghost heads.
Don’t think about that.
The phone continued to scream. Wishing this weren’t
happening she reached out to answer. With her hand shaking
so badly, she almost dropped the receiver, she put the
phone to her ear. Beyond the buzzing in her head, she
heard a voice calling her name. The same voice that had
called in the dark of night before.
“Sarah? Sarah! Are you there? It’s Neil.”
She didn’t want to know what might have happened. As long
as she didn’t respond, she wouldn’t have to know. But how
could it be any worse than the last late night phone call?
“What’s happened?” she managed to say, hating the quaver
in her voice.
“It’s bad news, Sarah.” Neil’s voice was soft. As though
he were using it to cushion his message.
Every muscle in her body tightened in preparation for his
next words. The phone slipped in her sweaty palm.
“It seems I’m always the harbinger of bad news. The South
Main Art Gallery is in flames.”
As though someone had punched her in the gut, air exited
her lungs in a rush. The gallery! Three years of hard work
lost as she sat here. The need to try to save something
gripped her. Gulping breaths, she cut off Neil’s dimly
heard explanation, “I’m on my way. You can tell me what
happened when I get there.”
Energized by panic, she leaped from the bed, yanked on the
worn jeans and Sun Studios tee shirt she’d taken off only
a few hours earlier and tore down the stairs.
###
She made it all the way downtown without picking up a
lurking cop out to catch speeders. The angels must have
been on her side. Maybe it was….
“Stop,” she ordered herself. “Don’t start thinking about
them now.”
She had to slow down as she approached South Main. Fuming
at the slow moving traffic didn’t improve her situation.
The adrenaline raging through her veins made it impossible
to move at this snails’ pace.
Her eyes searched the sky. Even from two blocks away she
could see flames shooting into the air. The fire must be
fully engaged for the flames to leap above buildings two
stories high.
For an insane minute she wanted to giggle.
Leaping tall buildings.
Just like Superman.
Forcing the hysterical reaction down, she jammed the car
into a small space between two others and took off on
foot. Pushing her way brusquely between the rubberneckers
on their way to see the show, she sped up until she was
running at breakneck speed.
Skidding around the corner onto South Main, she hauled
up short. A large crowd was gathered in the street across
from the gallery, held back by the Memphis Fire Department.
Her mind boggled at what lay before her.
Flames, at least sixty feet high, licked eagerly at the
black velvet sky like the tongues of hell attempting to
eat the stars from the heavens. Silhouetted against the
conflagration, the watchers looked like players from a
scene in Dante’s Inferno. Some pointed at the flames as
their mouths moved in unheard conversation with their
neighbors. Others, apparently attracted from nearby bars,
held beer bottles, swigging from them as they watched the
flames.
Three fire trucks stood in front of the building. A half
dozen firemen trained hoses on the structure in what
looked like a vain effort to extinguish the flames. Nearby
more firemen trained water on the businesses nearby to
keep them from being set afire by stray sparks. Pieces of
debris floated in the air like blackened snowflakes.
Forcing her feet to move, Sarah approached with
trepidation. There was no way she could save any of her
artwork. The fire was far too advanced for her to enter
the gallery. The closer she got, the hotter the night air
became, the already sultry summer night turning steamy as
a sauna.
Searching the crowd for Neil, she spotted Evie first.
Bless her heart.
Weaving through the crowd, Sarah made her way to her
friend.
Oblivious to Sarah’s presence, Evie stood with eyes glued
to the burning gallery. Tears streaming down her cheeks
reflected orange in the glow of the fire. Her hands
pressed tightly against her lips holding in sobs.
Tentatively Sarah touched her arm. As though waking from a
trance, Evie turned her head.
“Oh Sarah,” she gasped. “It’s all gone. The fire was too
far gone for me to get in and save anything.” Evie sobbed.
Tears welling in her own eyes, Sarah pulled her friend
into her arms. “Hush. It’ll be all right. Don’t take on
so.”
“How can you say that? All your beautiful paintings were
in there.”
Sarah patted Evie’s back, her own tears now streaming down
her face. Why? Why did I have to lose those paintings?
Haven’t I suffered enough? With effort, Sarah stanched her
tears. Don’t think about it now. Put on your game face.
Don’t let anybody see. Not even Evie. “I’ll just have to
paint some more, won’t I?”
Evie’s shocked, tearstained eyes met hers. “But…the
paintings of your family were in there.”
Sarah’s heart squeezed. Her game face wobbled. Her family
portraits, painted from life, could never be replaced.
Before she could succumb to the excruciating pain brought
on by thoughts of her family, Neil arrived out of the
crowd. He threw a disapproving look at Evie, then his arm
went around her shoulders, pulling her against his side.
His storm gray eyes were sad.
“Sarah. I’m so sorry. I know what those paintings meant to
you. I can’t imagine how this happened. I was in my
apartment down the street. I couldn’t sleep and went up to
the roof to get some air and saw the fire then. I rushed
over here, but I don’t know how it started. The fireman in
charge won’t tell me a thing. They’re too busy putting out
the flames right now and he wouldn’t speculate. I told him
I’d be here until he can talk to me.”
Sarah couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Grateful
for the support of her two friends, she held her tears in
check. Neil’s arm held her close on one side. Evie held
her hand tightly on the other.
The three of them stood watching as what was left of the
building came down with a roar. Flaming debris flew in all
directions. Firemen leaped back, hoses still trained on
the flames. As one, the crowd moved back further, but
didn’t disperse. Sarah fought back sobs again. Not that
she’d had a real hope of saving what was in the gallery,
but the crash of destruction signaled the end of even a
remote possibility. Evie’s hand gripped hers even harder.
“Vultures,” Neil spat, looking over the crowd. “Why are so
many people drawn to watch disasters?”
“A lot of people are drawn to catastrophes,” replied
Evie. “It just a part of human nature.”
Neil gave Evie a scathing look. “We’re not interested in
hearing your mumbo jumbo theories.”
Sarah knew Neil despised Evie’s New Age religion, not to
mention her wild shaggy hair currently dyed purple. But
surely he could see Evie’s big heart. Her love for Sarah.
A lifetime of friendship between the two women should have
shown Neil Evie’s true nature. Was it simply the
difference in age? Sarah and Evie were both twenty-two to
Neil’s forty. Neil certainly didn’t have any problems
being Sarah’s friend. She never would have made it through
the pain last year if not for Neil. And Evie. And Isaiah.
Oh God. She’d have to call Isaiah and tell him about this.
Hoping to head off an argument between Neil and Evie,
Sarah said, “Come on, ya’ll. Don’t get into one of your
arguments here. I can’t take it right now.”
“I don’t see why Neil has to be such an ass about
everything.”
Sarah cut off her friend with a look. Evie unwrapped a
piece of bubble gum and popped it into her mouth. Great.
Another of her habits that drove Neil up the wall. Evie
was incapable of chewing gum without popping it like a
small child.
Catching a sly look in Evie’s eyes, Sarah realized with a
jolt that her friend was distracting her from the loss.
Doing it Evie style by drawing Sarah’s emotions away from
what was happening here the only way she knew how, picking
a fight with Neil. With a wicked grin, her friend began
snapping her gum double time. Neil’s arm clamped harder
around Sarah’s waist. Thinking the situation was about to
escalate to all out war, she looked up into Neil’s face.
His gaze wasn’t locked on her friend as she expected, but
further up the sidewalk.
Looking in that direction, Sarah saw a tall, dark haired
man headed their way “Do you know that guy, Neil?”
“What?”
“Your arm is crushing into my side. You’re looking at the
guy walking this way, so I thought maybe you know him and
don’t like him or something.”
Neil relaxed his arm to a more casual hold. “Oh. No I
don’t know him, but he’s dressed in a fire department
uniform. I think he’s got something to tell us.”
Sarah noticed the stranger’s puzzled gaze was glued to
Neil as he approached little their group.
“Professor Reston?” he questioned.
Confused, Sarah looked around. Evie shrugged her
mystification. There was no one else standing nearby. And
the stranger was still looking straight at Neil with angry
eyes.