Chapter 4: Any Man in This Room

I left the check with Terrence's head nurse and drove to the firehouse.

Sawyer's engine was parked in the bay with its doors open.

Six men in navy T-shirts stood around a table in the back, eating sandwiches nobody was tasting.

They stopped talking when I walked in.

"Mrs. McCormick," one of them said, and stood up.

"I'm looking for my husband."

"He's upstairs, ma'am. Changing."

The young firefighter from the hospital lobby got up from the end of the bench.

He was maybe twenty-five, with a sunburned neck and red eyes.

He walked over and opened his hand.

My ring was in it.

"It was in his helmet," he said. "He was going to leave it in the locker. I took it out."

I took it, and I did not put it on.

"Thank you."

"Ma'am." He glanced back at the others and lowered his voice. "Can I tell you something I told no one?"

"Yes."

"The second ladder was in position."

I did not understand him at first.

"Engine Nine had a ladder on the east side," he said.

"It was already raised to the thirtieth floor."

"It could have reached your daughter's window in under a minute."

"Why didn't it?"

"The captain radioed them off." His mouth twisted. "He said the east side was unstable and he wanted it held back."

"Was it unstable?"

"No, ma'am. I was standing under it."

The others had gone silent.

One of them put down his sandwich.

"So he sent his own crew away from my daughter," I said.

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