He didn’t respond. Eyes locked on the flames, face tight, he seemed miles away.
When she set her hand on his arm, he nearly leaped out of his skin. “Hey, just me.” She sent him a smile he didn’t return. “You all right?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t look it. You’re in pain.”
“Nah. I’ve got enough pain meds in me to change my name to Anna Nicole Smith.”
With a low laugh, she turned back to the rig and saw Isobel had located their vic. He was shaking his head, pushing her hands away before walking off. He didn’t seem to want treatment. “Looks like we don’t have a transport after all. Can we give you a ride?”
When Blake didn’t answer, she looked at him-he was limping away with shocking speed. Running after him, Brooke caught up just as he got as close as he could to the flames without igniting. “Blake, what are you doing?”
At the sound of her voice, he jerked. “Brooke?” He blinked, as if surprised to see her, as if he didn’t remember seeing her only two seconds ago.
“Okay, you know what? You’re not okay.” She put her hand on his arm. “Let’s go sit down.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m working. On you. Why are you out of the hospital?”
“I don’t know.” He closed his eyes. “I’m sorry. I just…I’m sorry. For everything.”
“Come on. Let’s get you back.” Away from the fire and the pain she suspected he was suffering. “We’re in the way here.”
He looked around and blanched. “God, I’m sorry.”
“For what, Blake?”
“I can’t…” He shoved his fingers through his hair and turned away from her, but not before she saw a suspicious sheen to his eyes. “I’m so damned sorry. I should have handled this better. I should have stopped it sooner.”
“Blake? Stopped what sooner?”
Staring at the flames, he appeared transfixed. “I don’t want to lose another partner. Or a friend.”
“What do you mean? Blake, done what sooner?”
“Lots of things, actually.” He walked off, but again she stopped him.
“I don’t think being alone is what you need, Blake.”
“Please.” He jerked free, his face tortured. “Just leave me alone. There’s nothing you can do to stop it from happening.”
“What do you mean?” But she was afraid she knew, or at least was starting to know. “Blake-”
“It’s not what you think.”
But she was suddenly sure it was exactly what she thought. The arsonist was someone from within their own ranks. Possibly, terrifyingly, the someone standing right here in front of her. “Okay, let’s go over to the ambulance, and-”
“Isobel needs you.”
Brooke turned back to the rig and saw Isobel waving at her frantically.
“We have a call!” she was yelling.
Brooke turned back to Blake. “I have to go but I want you to come with me-”
But she was talking to herself. “Blake?”
He’d vanished.
Chapter 17
Brooke ran back to the rig. Hopping into the driver’s seat, she pulled out her cell phone.
“No talking on the phone while you’re driving,” Isobel said.
“I’m not driving yet.” She punched in Zach’s cell phone number.
“We have a call. Eighth and Beach.”
“I know, but this is an emergency, too.” She got Zach’s voice mail. Damn it. “Zach,” she said, very aware of Isobel listening to every word. “I need to talk to you. ASAP.” She shut the phone and tried to order her racing thoughts. “We need to get someone else to take this call. Blake-”
“There is no one else. We need to go, now.”
“Fine.” She handed her cell over to Isobel. “Call the station, have someone come to get Blake. Then call Tommy Ramirez. Tell him-” What? What the hell could she say? All she had were suspicions. “Tell him I need to talk to him. That it’s urgent. Ask him to meet us at the hospital after we pick up our vic.”
But Tommy didn’t meet her. So after Brooke and Isobel had turned their patient over to the E.R., she tried the chief, and shock of all shocks, got him.
“This better be important, O’Brien,” he said in his sharply authoritative voice. “I’m in a meeting.”
“It’s about Blake.”
The chief was silent for a single, long beat. “What about him?”
Brooke moved away from Isobel so that she could speak frankly. “He was at the scene of the Third Street fire today, and he didn’t look right. And…” Oh, God, how to say this? “And I think he was trying to confess to arson.”
“You think? What the hell does that mean? And what arson?”
“He wasn’t coherent. He-” She frowned at the static in her ear. “Sir? Hello, Chief?” She’d lost him. “Shit.”
“You’re not supposed to swear while in uniform,” Isobel said.
Brooke contained the urge to wrap her fingers around Isobel’s neck and drove them back to the station.
The chief was there, waiting for her. “Blake isn’t at the hospital or at the fire.”
“What’s going on?” Cristina stood in the doorway, looking unnerved. “What’s the matter with Blake? Eddie went to go get him but he couldn’t find him.”
“He’s missing,” the chief said. “And he’s not answering his cell.”
“He was at the Third Street fire,” Brooke told Cristina. “He was walking with a crutch, definitely disoriented-oh my God.”
The chief turned on her. “What?”
“What if he went into the fire?”
“Why would he do that?” Panic raised Cristina’s voice. “He wasn’t suited up, he wasn’t working-”
“But he wasn’t himself,” Brooke said slowly, reviewing their conversation. “He was rambling, not making much sense, and just staring at the flames.”
“Rambling about what?” Cristina cried.
“He kept saying sorry about the fires, like he was trying to confess.”
Cristina gasped and covered her mouth. “He didn’t-he wouldn’t-”
“He didn’t look good, and then we got a call. He’d vanished.”
The chief headed for his truck with long strides while Cristina dragged Brooke inside, where she sank to the couch in the living room.
“That building is gone,” Brooke said. “Completely gone. I should have stopped him. I should have-”
“You couldn’t have stopped him,” Sam said, coming in behind them. “And he’s not that stupid.”
Cristina let out a low sound of grief.
“Look, he hasn’t been the same since Lynn died,” Sam told her. “We’ve all tried to talk to him about it, but you know how he is. He’s Eeyore. He’s stubborn. But not stupid,” he repeated. “No way did he go into that fire.”
“He was hurting,” Cristina whispered. “He lost his partner.”
“And he’s dealing with it.” Dustin said this very gently, coming in from the kitchen. “You can’t do it for him.”
Covering her face, she sank to the couch next to Brooke. “This. This is why I like to alienate people. Goddamn it, you made me forget to alienate him and now I care!”
“Cristina.” When she didn’t answer, Dustin crouched at her side. “Cristina.”
