Families are messy - 25

“This is getting to be a habit,” the EMT said, smiling slightly as he checked Casey over for damages. “It looks like other than the ankle you came through unscathed,” he told him moments later.

“I can’t say the same for my house,” Casey replied angrily as he watched the firemen begin rolling up the hoses.

One of the firemen came over to where Casey was seated at the back of the ambulance. Casey immediately asked if he knew what had caused the fire.

“It’s too soon to say for certain but first guess is that you had a faulty extension cord and too many things plugged into it. As far as we can tell there was a lamp going plus the radio and it looks like a space heater as well.”

“No way! First off I don’t own a space heater and if I did it’s for damned sure I wouldn’t plug it into an extension cord. Hell I don’t use extension cords if I can help it. There are plenty of outlets in every room.”

Instead of replying the fireman beckoned to a man in a suit to join them, telling Casey to repeat what he’d said to what turned out to be a fire inspector. Casey did while wondering why there was an inspector here so quickly. He found out when a police officer joined them, one of the ones he’d dealt with before.

The officer said, “You seem to be either very careless or very unlucky.”

Casey smiled wanly. “Or suicidal according to your reports. But trust me if I were I for damned sure wouldn’t go for death by fire.”

“Believe me, sir, I know this time it wasn’t a suicide attempt. One of your neighbors saw you coming back from walking your dog. I doubt you’d do that if you were planning on killing yourself.”

“So I’m just accident prone.”

“If what you told me is true,” the fire inspector interjected, “this was no accident.”

Scrubbing a hand over his face Casey nodded. “I know it wasn’t, but before I explain would it be alright if I made a call?”

“To whom?” the police officer asked.

“Ezra Fairchild. He’s—“

“I know who he is,” the officer said, the look on his face a bit sour as he handed Casey his phone.

* * * *

Fairchild pulled into the only available parking space left on the street, shaking his head at the media circus taking place in front of Casey’s house. It looked as if every television station had people there as well as the newspaper and at least one radio station. They would have been in Casey’s face with their microphones if two police officers weren’t keeping them at bay. That didn’t however keep them from shouting out questions.

Spotting Fairchild, Casey waved him over to where he was now sitting on the porch swing, one leg stretched out in front of him, well wrapped in bandages. Beside him were two men that he introduced as a fire inspector and a detective. Fairchild nodded to the inspector and greeted the detective by name. Then he asked to be filled in on what had happened.

Casey told the story one more time, starting from when Duke had awakened him at the ungodly hour of six a.m. to the moment the fire department had shown up to put out the fire. While he did the police managed to get the various reporters to leave by dint of pointing out that “Mr. Rothem would not be allowed to answer any more questions as this was now a police investigation.”

“And that’s about it,” Casey said in conclusion, “other than that the fire wasn’t an accident.”

Fairchild nodded, stepping close enough to ask him quietly if he’d told the police about the other ‘accidents’.

“Not yet,” Casey replied. “I wanted you here first to,” he shrugged slightly, “To back me up I guess.”

“Well now that he is would you mind explaining just what’s going on with you, Mr. Rothem,” the detective said.

Casey nodded and did so. When he finished the detective shook his head, wondering aloud why the hell he hadn’t come to the police after the second apparent attempt on his life.

“Because,” Casey replied quietly, “I think it’s one of my family members doing this.”

“And so you were willing to take the chance that they’d succeed rather than letting us do something about it?”

“Well I did hire Mr. Fairchild.”

“And he had me watching his back too,” a voice said from behind the detective.