Part II
As he signed his release papers, Hank Stanley reflected that both he and his engineer had been lucky. The best guess was that it was a small pocket of methane gas that had blown and knocked the two of them off of their feet. But beyond soreness and a few livid bruises, they didn't suffer any damages. The report back on Big Red was equally encouraging. Charlie had found one hose damaged that he was replacing and they should have her delivered back to their bay in about an hour.
Having come in to check on his men, Chief McConakee stuck around to give the engine crew a lift back to Station 51. He also accepted the offer of joining the men for a cup of coffee – as soon as a pot could be brewed. Hank was a bit surprised that Chet wasn't back. It had been four hours altogether since the blast that sent them to Rampart. Surely the fire was out by now?
As Marco started up the coffee pot and Mike rummaged in the refrigerator to find something to make sandwiches out of, Hank headed over to the phone on his desk, leaving the door open as usual as he made a call over to Station 45.
"Hello, Captain Lightner? Yes. This is Stanley over at 51. Listen, I know you might be a man down, but I need mine back. We're getting our engine back in about an hour and –"
The four men got the Chief's attention when they all stopped what they were doing and turned with curious glances toward the office door. Hank stopping a sentence midway was generally a bad sign. His attention was fully captured by the shout that came out of the office next.
"You did what?"
Every man of A-Shift who wasn't before was now on their feet. Captain Stanley was not the type to raise his voice without cause. The phone was still in one hand, gripped so tightly that his knuckles were white, as Hank put his head out of the door, looking until spotted the Chief. Unlike the whiteness of his hand, the Captain face was flushed with a combination of worry and anger.
"Chief – apparently Station 45 left my man at the scene by himself. Last time someone actually remembers seeing Kelly was over three hours ago. Permission to go back to the scene and retrieve him?"
"I'll drive you there myself. DeSoto – Gage? Call out the squad to that scene as well. I'll clear it with Dispatch."
The Chief didn't say what was on all of their minds. In that amount of time, anything could have happened and, if Chet had been able, surely he would have managed to have gotten to a telephone and called in to request pickup. As the men rushed to get what they might need, Chief McConakee took the phone from Hank and then closed the office door to have a few words with Captain Lightner himself before calling Dispatch.
As they pulled out of the Station, everyone was tense. Johnny was fretting on his side of the squad as Roy drove them there.
"Man. Over three hours. Even something minor could turn bad in three hours. How could they just drive off and leave him like that?"
"These things do happen. I remember when it happened to me as a kid. Feels awful."
"You got left behind as a kid?"
"Yep. Fourth grade. Our school district was having a spelling competition. Five kids from each school were competing. Well, the morning of the competition, one of the five from my school called in sick, so I was the last-minute replacement. We were dropped off by one teacher in the morning and, that afternoon, a different teacher was sent to pick us up. She had the list of names of the kids that were originally supposed to go, so she didn't even look for me. I'd gone to the bathroom, came back and the other four from my school were gone. Of course, in my case, there were still a lot of folks around and one of them called my school to tell them that they forgot one."
"Okay, sure - things happen, but you'd think a captain would be more careful."
"If he has anything left of his backside to sit on after Cap and the Chief get through with it, you can pretty well bet he'll be a lot more careful about it in the future, Johnny. Captain Lightner just better hope Chet's not hurt or trapped."
When they arrived, they quickly divided into three search teams – Roy with Johnny, Cap with Marco and Chief with Mike. Everyone had a flashlight and each team had an HT with them. Despite the fact that they all wanted to hurry, they steeled themselves and searched slowly and methodically. Chet had waited long enough. They weren't going to make him wait any longer because they rushed past him without realizing it.
It was Marco who caught the first sight that something was wrong when his flashlight fell on the helmet.
"Cap! It's Chet's –"
The choked sound Marco made when his words broke off alarmed Hank and he hurried over to where his other lineman was standing, eyes wide and fixed on the spot being illuminated by the flashlight beam. Blood. Hank didn't move any closer. He ran his own flashlight over the area and quickly spotted the rest of Chet's turnout gear and the fire axe. His hand wasn't quite steady as he brought the HT up and keyed it.
"Chief – fellows. We need to back out of the area and call the police. Chet's gear is here – and some blood. And it looks like there was a fight down here."
Hank didn't mention the rest of it - that it looked like more than two or three had been involved. The arson investigators had already been looking at a series of fires that they thought had been set by one or more of the local gangs. If there had been a gang responsible and they'd come across Chet?
Still staring at the blood, Marco sent up a silent prayer that whatever had happened, they would find Chet before anything worse happened to his friend.
