Chapter 28: Nobody Inside

Cormac put the back of his hand flat against the nursery door.

He took it away fast.

"Hot," he said. "Clem. Get Margo out."

I turned to the back stairs and screamed it down them.

"Fire! East wing! Fire!"

The music downstairs stopped.

Boots on the stairs, two at a time.

The big guy came up first, then the lieutenant, then the probie with a red extinguisher he'd pulled out of the van in the drive.

I'd told them to bring one each.

The probie had brought two.

I put Margo in the big guy's arms.

"Out," I said. "The lawn. Don't stop for anybody."

He didn't cry.

He just wrapped both arms around her and went.

"Sprinkler valve," the lieutenant said. "Where's the basement?"

"Kitchen. Door by the pantry."

He was gone before I finished.

Then Bradford came up the front stairs and down the white hall at a run.

His face was gray.

"He's in there," he said. "I put him in there. She'd never hurt him. She'd never..."

He didn't finish.

He shoved past Cormac and threw the nursery door open.

Smoke rolled out black along the ceiling, thick as wool.

Behind it, in the corner, the rocking chair was on fire.

The sheepskin was burning. The curtain beside it had caught, and flame was running up it toward the ceiling.

Bradford went in.

Two steps, and the smoke swallowed him.

I heard him cough, and then a crash, and then nothing.

"Bradford!"

Cormac pulled his shirt up over his mouth and nose.

"Stay here," he said. "I mean it."

He dropped low and went in after him.

The seconds stretched, terrifying and blind.

"I can't see the crib!" Cormac's voice, from inside, muffled and rough. "I've got him, I've got Bradford, I can't see the crib!"

I knew where the crib was.