That Old Flame of Mine Read Online Free Page B

than the others. “Ricky, check the ground floor. Then get out. Understood?”
    Ricky nodded.
    John and Stella ran up the long winding stairway, parting at the second floor. Tory’s bedroom was on this floor. She hoped to find the other woman there, but she didn’t want to take any chances. If Tory wasn’t in her bedroom, John or Ricky would find her elsewhere.
    The door to the bedroom was locked. She knocked it in with her pryax then stood aside, waiting to be sure there was no backdraft. She pushed off the face mask and yelled for her friend. There was no response. She ran to the luxurious marble bathroom, shouting Tory’s name. The bathroom was empty too.
    “Any sign of her?” she called to John and Ricky on the radio.
    “Found something down here. Not Ms. Lambert. It’s a puppy,” Ricky responded. “Should I come up there and help you all look?”
    “No. Get yourself and the puppy out,” Stella responded. “John, any luck?”
    “Not up here. I’m on my way down.”
    Stella looked around the bedroom. It was starting to fill with smoke now that the door was open. It hadn’t been touched by the fire yet.
    Her mind raced. Tory might be at the park. She might be outside in the crowd by now. She could be having tea with friends. There was no way to know.
    Stella prayed Tory wasn’t in the basement. There would be no way to get to her, if that was true. Common sense told her that she would have been getting ready for the party. She should’ve been in her room.
    “Chief,” John said over the radio. “You gotta get out of there. You won’t make it back down the stairs if you don’t move now.”
    “I’m on my way.” Stella went through Tory’s bedroom one last time. She was going to sweep the closets, then hope to God that Tory was already at the party.
    Stella opened the closet door in the bedroom and pushed through tons of clothes and shoes. All of the clothes were neatly hung, even color-coordinated. The shoes were all in boxes or hanging in shoe racks.
    Until she got to the back.
    Here the clothes were thrown on the floor. Shoes were everywhere. Stella pushed everything out of the way and swore when she found her friend beneath the mess.
    Tory wasn’t breathing.
    Stella called John and had him radio for an ambulance in case one wasn’t there yet. She slung Tory across her shoulders, wincing as her healing shoulder injury complained at the abuse. She held on tight, hoping they could both make it out in time.
    The stairs were beginning to burn even though there was water everywhere. Stella’s experience told her this wasn’t an accidental fire. There had to be an accelerant involved. Even in a house this old, the flames were burning too hot and fast.
    She took the stairs as quickly as she could, jumping over the last three, which were starting to smolder. Tory was tall but felt lightweight on her shoulders. Stella burst out of the front door and raced down the stairs to the lawn, where debris had begun falling from the roof. Kent Norris was up there with an ax, trying to help the others get the water where it needed to go.
    John and Ricky rushed forward to assist Stella. The three of them moved Tory away from the house and into the neighbor’s yard, as far as possible from the interested crowd.
    “The ambulance is on its way,” John told her before he started CPR on Tory.
    “Is she dead?” Don Rogers asked as he joined them. “She doesn’t look burned.”
    “Probably smoke inhalation.” Stella sat next to Tory in the wet grass. Chief Rogers was right, though. Tory looked like she was asleep.
    Stella knew better. She’d found too many victims dead from breathing in the hot, toxic smoke. Her grandfather told stories of firefighters going in with no masks at all, dying in the smoke with the people they were trying to save. If they survived, they developed emphysema when they were in their early thirties.
    It was still dangerous for firefighters. She’d taken off her mask to call Tory. Over