Burn District 1 Page 4

  “Dad, it’s the government, a defense appropriations person. His hand is in Winston Clarke’s pocket. I can’t prove it but I’m going to try.”

  “Send me the video and I’ll watch it. But you have to lay low. Shut up for a while, please? If not for your own wellbeing, then for your siblings. Lexie is still traumatized.”

  “I’m sorry about Lexie, Dad, but I can’t stop. I have to uncover the truth. There’s no way I can live with myself knowing as much as I do. I couldn’t do it morally.”

  Now she was dead, murdered on the streets of Washington, D.C., while Victor spent the last weekend on the golf course. He poured himself a scotch and took it into his office, closed and locked the door. He’d received the video from Miranda but hadn’t watched it. It made no sense to him; the whole conspiracy thing was not part of his lexicon. There was no Big Brother, no mass murders committed by men who gave their lives and fortunes to run the country. If anything, if what she was saying was true, it was acts committed by terrorists.

  He opened his email and there was Miranda’s message with a video attachment. Dad, thank you for agreeing to watch this. I’m sorry that I’ve embarrassed you. It wasn’t intentional. I love you. Mandy. Victor’s chin dropped to his chest and he sobbed a few guttural sobs. The full impact of her death hadn’t hit yet, but it was beginning to become a reality. He was still trying to convey his public demeanor, sad but in control. “Our family welcomes a full investigation into our daughter’s murder.” A reporter stuck a fifthly microphone in his face asking if he was worried skeletons would be exposed when they started to dig into Miranda’s activities with the Rumor groups.

  “What’s a Rumor group?” He was serious.

  “Sir, you know,” she said smiling. “The groups responsible for the underground unrest surrounding the burns. Miranda was a leader for the Rumor groups.” His face screwed up with confusion he didn’t even try to hide when he looked at her, having already forgotten what Miranda had told him about the forum. Was it the same thing as a Rumor group?

  “Miss, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Later, she told her producer that she believed he really didn’t have a clue.

  He tossed his drink back after viewing the video. Everything his daughter told him came flooding back. It was an unflattering piece; Winston Clarke didn’t need extra help to look bad. He was a greasy, ill-kempt pig of a man who drove government in the direction he wanted by using huge sums of his money in every way possible, legally and illegally. Miranda mentioned a defense appropriations committee and when Victor thought of the men and women who sat on that board, he couldn’t imagine a more patriotic, altruistic group of politicians, including a four star general. It was unthinkable that any amount of money could drive one of them to commit mass murder by burning down whole towns. The idea was ludicrous.

  Pulling away from his desk, he left the office and walked back to the bedroom. Katharine was still lying in bed. Somehow, he had to help her get it together. The funeral needed to be over with as soon as possible. He thought of his siblings and in-laws coming from all over the country, the entertaining they’d have to do. It was overwhelming. Maybe Katharine had the right idea after all; have her cremated, postpone the funeral, have a memorial service early next year. But with the new information about Miranda’s participation in the dissenting group, dragging it out might be the worst thing they could do. Being honest with Katharine about what he’d learned might be best.

  He sat on the edge of the bed and waited for her to move. “What?” she moaned. “Leave me alone, Victor.”

  “No, I can’t. I got an email from Miranda before she died. You need to get up and come to my office to see a video she sent.” Katharine got up on her elbow and looked at him.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Miranda called me the night before she died. She was involved in something that might blow up if we aren’t very careful.” She pushed the blankets aside and slid off the bed when he moved.

  They were silent as she followed him to his office. He watched her face remain expressionless while she watched the video. “What does this mean?” He explained what Miranda had told him about a conspiracy, keeping it vague. Just in case, he didn’t want her to have too much information. It could be dangerous. Grabbing his hand, she looked up at him.

  “Is this why they came to our house? Our daughter was murdered because of the government?” It was sinking in. He nodded and put his finger to his lips.

  “I’m going to dig around a little bit, but you have to promise me not to say a word to anyone. I’m nervous about Miranda’s funeral, too. We’ll have people from every corner of the country banging on our door.”

  “That’s why I want to wait,” she said, miserable. “I can’t face a big production right now.”

  “Well, let’s wait a little while,” he replied. “But I’m afraid the longer we postpone the more they’ll have to say about her.” As soon as he could he was going to research this Rumor forum the reporter had mentioned, hoping it would lead him to more information about a conspiracy. He just hated that word, not understanding the impact it would have on his life.

  Chapter 4

  The first night in Tulip, Carol prepared dinner for everyone. She’d quickly made a home out of Steve’s fifth wheel, happily taking over the kitchen while Randy lounged in the queen-sized bed.

  “This is very comfortable for being a camper,” she said. “As long as we don’t get on each other’s nerves, I think we’ll do okay.”

  “Do you mean like when you talk during a game?” Randy asked, pointing to football on the screen. Team sports would continue for a while longer, no matter what state the country was in.

  “No, actually I meant more like you having the damn television on every waking minute.” But she patted his leg and left the room.

  “This is a special occasion,” he yelled after her. “Because I drove all goddamned night.” She laughed loud enough for Randy to hear. They were just teasing.

  When the food was ready, spaghetti and meatballs, Mike came over and helped carry it back to the house. The kids sat at the counter and there was plenty of room for six adults. Tired after a long, trying trip, they still weren’t ready for bed.

  Junior said it best. “I feel like Santa is coming tonight and I’m too excited to sleep.”

  “We can stay up all night again if we want,” Laura said. “Grandpa and I fixed up the fire pit. Let’s go outside and sit around the fire. There’s nothing on television anyway.” There was an antenna for TV and the adults had forgotten how addictive having the satellite had been, all of those channels luring them away from doing what was important. Satellite television would no longer be an option.

  The kids were excited about having a bonfire. Steve had arranged the wood so that it would ignite with one match. Ned got to strike it and apply it to some wood shavings and in a whoosh, it went up in flames. “I feel odd enjoying fire,” Elise said. Everyone nodded their heads.

  “Do you think there’s anything left at home?” Carin asked. Mike was staring into the fire.

  “I don’t know. I think about it all the time, the house and our stuff. I wish I could go back,” he said, looking at Laura.

  “Can we talk about something nice?” Laura asked. “What are we going to do tomorrow?”

  “We need to plan a garden that’s drought tolerant,” Kelly said.

  “This area is all farming,” Steve replied, trying to discourage her. “We can get everything they grow cheaper than you can imagine. How about you spend tomorrow recovering from the trip?”

  “I doubt the farmers will be in business much longer. Growing our own food is just wise,” Kelly said.

  “I wish we could get some news,” Laura said.

  “I could go into Yuma tomorrow to find out what’s happening,” Mike said.

  “You’re not going anywhere for at least a day,” she said, hoping to find a way to get some news before then.

  “I’ve got an idea,
” Steve said. “We can use the computers at the library. You can log on to your email accounts.”

  “But the IP address will lead to Tulip,” Mike said. “We want to stay under the radar.”

  “Yes, but I don’t care if it leads to me,” he replied. “I can contact friends for you.”

  “Our neighbor, Pete said not to do it,” Mike said, worried. “He said we couldn’t trust our other neighbors.” Laura disagreed but didn’t want to start the conversation in front of the kids. What difference did it make now? There wasn’t a jail big enough in the world to house all the people who’d fled from their homes.

  “I’m afraid that kind of paranoia is just what’s wanted,” Randy said. “Anyway, I imagine if anyone stayed behind they’re all dead.” Laura groaned and Carol elbowed him. But Mike was finished talking about it in front of the kids and Laura was grateful for his discretion.

  “Dad, you could search the forums for information, just to see if there’s any chatter about it.”

  “Okay,” he said, pulling himself out of the low chair. “I’m going into town. You want to come, Laura?” It was getting late and she was exhausted.

  “Can we go in the morning? I think it’s time to figure out who’s sleeping where in our new house.” The kids were rough housing and laughing as they walked toward the trailer.

  “I guess so,” Steve said, disappointed the evening was ending. “I have the rest of my life to go into town.”

  Chapter 5

  Kelly Barnes climbed into the overhead berth of Steve’s fifth wheel camper. After the initial disappointment that she wouldn’t be staying in the trailer with Laura’s family, Kelly was relieved. A second bathroom would have gone a long way to make it more comfortable, but she’d get over it. As contradictory as it seemed, after spending an intense day and a half with the Davis family, she was glad for this moment when being alone was possible.

  At forty-three, she was in the middle, with thirty-six year old Laura the youngest of the adults, and fifty-nine year old Randy the oldest. Laura’s dad, Steve, in his late fifties, intrigued her. He was handsome, in shape and well spoken, often staring at her when he thought she wasn’t looking. His interest had stirred something in her that she’d fought to silence for months. The last date she’d gone on was a nightmare, bad enough that she made the decision to concentrate on preparing to leave instead of internet dating. Whereas Laura had a family of six to pack for, she only had herself, and she’d left nothing behind that had any value.

  On that significant day, Laura had approached her cubicle at work. After working together for years, they’d discovered they shared similar beliefs, so it was a natural progression in their growing friendship for Laura to warn her in spite of Pete’s admonition. “Can I tell you something private?” Laura had whispered.

  “Of course,” Kelly answered, thinking she was going to say Mike had asked for a divorce.

  “Remember I told you about my neighbor who works for the township?” she whispered, Kelly nodding her head. “He came over late last night. Eagle Township is targeted to be burned!” Laura’s eyes filled with tears. Grabbing her arm, Kelly stood up.

  “Let’s take a walk outside. I don’t trust this place.” She handed Laura a tissue and led her to the exit door. They were supposed to be working, but it wasn’t the kind of office where you’d get fired if you left for a breath of fresh air.

  It was a beautiful, sunny day, just a hint of leaf smoke in the air, the sky as blue as cornflowers. How could anything go wrong on a day like this? They entered a walking path installed for office workers who had to sit in front of computers all day. Kelly turned to Laura and took her by the arm again. “Okay, tell me what he said.” Laura repeated everything she could remember.

  “He said once he gave us the thumbs up, we’d have about two hours to gather our belongings and get at least twenty miles away. Twenty miles! And you know what I thought? I hope they wait until my tomato plants are finished. I want to get every tomato off those things. What a dumb thing to think of.”

  Distraught, Laura turned to Kelly. “You have to come with us.”

  Kelly lived at the edge of the township, five miles from Laura’s rural/suburban neighborhood. “My place would go first, too,” Kelly said. “Those units are packed in like sardines.”

  “Do you want to stay at our place? You’d have to move in with us now since we don’t know exactly when it will happen.” Laura offered. But Kelly shook her head.

  “No, thank you my friend, but no. I like my privacy. How will you notify me? Could we meet up somewhere?” For the first time in a long while, Kelly felt her lack of marital status was working against her. It would be so awful to flee alone. Maybe it would be better to just stay put and let nature take its course. She said as much to Laura.

  “Stop it. You’ll come with us. We have that big old van with plenty of room. My girls would love you to come along.”

  “What about Mike?” Kelly asked, bending over to pretend-tie her shoe.

  “Mike would be fine with it. You know how easy going he is. Pete said to start preparing now. I’m going to begin tonight. Every night after dinner, I’ll work as if we’re leaving tomorrow. We’re going to pack up the trailer, too. You need to prepare, too.”

  “Tell me what the plan is then?” Kelly felt growing anxiety, Laura’s despair contagious. Could she trust Laura to include her?

  “Well, as soon as we hear, my kids and I will run to Wal-Mart. They say Wal-Mart is never burned. Why is that I wonder? Mike will hook up the van, pick up his parents and meet us at Wal-Mart. We decided we had to get the kids out of the house right away. We can’t hang around for a second.”

  “You should hook the van up every night, just in case,” Kelly said.

  “That’s a great idea, Kel, but Mike would never agree to it. He’d have to unhook it every morning then, before work.”

  “Okay, then what?”

  “Then Mike will pick us up and we’ll head over to your house. It’s right on the way to the turnpike. We need to get to the turnpike fast. We are going to do a dry run, just to time it out. In the meantime, you need to let me know where you are going to be at all times. If Pete tells us to go, I can’t stop to call you, do you understand? We can’t even have our cell phones on.”

  “Do you really think that will make a difference?” Kelly asked.

  “I don’t know, but I’m not willing to take the risk.”

  Sighing, Kelly took Laura’s hand. “We better get back,” she said. “Thank you so much for including me. I know how lucky I am to have you in my life.” After that conversation, every night Kelly went home and started sorting through her belongings. Anything she simply couldn’t throw away, she was going to ship to her mother in San Diego, with the request that she keep it in storage because Kelly was selling her townhouse and going on a religious pilgrimage to Nepal. She also started sending money threatening her with estrangement if she didn’t cash the checks and set the money aside.

  “When I get back from Nepal I’ll need that cash, mother. If you hoard the checks, they won’t be any good. Promise me you’ll cash them!” And so she did, the evidence in Kelly’s online bank statements.

  Active in the San Diego Voters for American Rights, even the mention of what was happening on the east coast sent her mother into a tizzy. Well-discussed at headquarters, she believed every single bit of brainwashing garbage the news spewed. “Kelly Ann, be sure to get your immunization against that hurricane virus! Our delegate to Washington has kept us informed about the horrible situation you people are going through.”

  “Yes, mother. I’m going to Nepal, remember? So there will be no need for immunization.”

  “But Nepal is so filthy, Kelly Ann. You’ll need tons of shots to go over there. Aren’t those people Hindus? What kind of religious retreat is this? A born-again Christian doesn’t need anything from the Hindus.”

  Conversations with her mother exhausted her, but there was a possibility she’d end up living wi
th her some day so she always tried to placate her. Rolling over to look out the mini-window, the sky was clear and the stars shone brightly as they do only in the desert where there are no competing lights. Crawling over to the other window, she peeked out to see if the lights were on in the trailer. She thought she could see shadowy figures walk past the curtained windows; maybe the girls were watching television. As much as she hated to admit it, she was jealous of Laura. Even the oldest boy, the kid with Downs, even he made Laura’s life enviable.

  “You make it look so easy,” she once said to Laura, who’d invited her to Easter dinner the previous spring. Nursing a glass of wine at eleven in the morning, Kelly sat at the counter watching her hostess move effortlessly from one task to the next, putting the ham on, tending to tears when Ned fell off his skateboard, trying to comfort Junior who’d found a dead Cardinal. Carin came in with a magazine to show her mother a photo of a dress she liked, and Elise brought a male friend in to meet the parents. While all this chaos was taking place, Laura prepared a cake mix, made deviled eggs, peeled five pounds of potatoes.

  “Can’t I help you?” Kelly had asked, secretly hoping the answer would be no.

  “Oh no, I’m fine. Everything is under control. My mother-in-law will be here at noon and she likes to take over in the kitchen. I’ll be free to hit the wine at that time.” She laughed out loud, just as Mike walked in. Now it was the person of Mike, who moved Kelly’s modest envy of her friend over to green-eyed jealousy. Before she met Mike, Kelly wondered why Laura never spoke of him. Maybe he was a jerk.

  “You never mention your husband. What’s going on there?” They were at work. She watched Laura carefully after asking the question, and was sorry she had. It was so obvious they were in love. Laura flushed, red starting over her chest and moving up her neck, little spots of red dotting her face until it finally stopped at her cheeks. It made her look ten years younger.

  “My marriage is private, that’s all. ‘Don’t brag your man around town.’ It’s an old saying.”