The Burning Road to Divorce After the Fire novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Play It Loud

I did not step back from the phone.

I walked past it, into the waiting room, and stood in the middle of the floor between the chairs.

"Brent says he misses his wife," I said. "I'd like everybody here to hear what he said the night my grandmother died."

"Lainey," Brent said, softly, to the camera. "Babe. Not here."

I took the recorder out of my jacket pocket.

I had carried it there for three days, over my heart, where I could feel the corner of it.

"This is a radio channel from that night," I said. "A fire captain recorded it. It has the time on it."

I pressed play and turned the volume all the way up.

The hiss filled the waiting room.

Then Brent's voice came out of the speaker, cheerful and clear.

"All units, this is Breckenridge Air. Sunflower has Cedar Grade. Ground crews hold your line, repeat, hold. Do not enter the road."

Dispatch said, "Copy, Breckenridge."

The time stamp read 4:04.

Nobody in the room moved.

The old man with the poodle put his hand over his dog's ears.

"I called my husband at 4:03," I said. "I was sitting on that road with my grandmother in my lap. He answered the phone. He knew exactly where I was. He told me the helicopter was four minutes away."

I held up my own phone with the call log on it.

"Then he told every fire crew in the county to stay off the road, and he flew the helicopter east."

Somebody near the window said, "Oh my God."

Brent had lowered his phone.

"That's edited," he said. "Lainey, that's been edited. She's not well."

"The time stamp is from the dispatch center," I said.

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