What Burns Within by Sandra Ruttan Page B

“Don’t worry about me. Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Have you two been in a fire?”
Ashlyn looked at Tain. “In a manner of speaking, yes.”
Luke’s face wrinkled with unasked questions, but Tain spoke this time. “We need to talk to all the children in your group.”
For the first time since Tain had started talking to Luke Driscoll, he sensed some tension in the young man. Luke’s shoulders stiffened and his eyes narrowed when Tain told him what they needed. “Don’t we need to have their parents present?”
“This isn’t an interrogation,” Ashlyn said. “You or your volunteers can be present. We just need to ask the kids if they saw anything.”
“But you’ve already asked the volunteers with our group.”
“Sometimes kids see things they don’t tell the adults about.”
Luke stared at her for a moment, and Tain noticed she gave him one of her more innocent smiles before he nodded slowly. “All right. I’ll come with you.”
     
“Finally,” Lori muttered, turning into the driveway.
She pressed a button and watched the garage door pull up, shake, then stop no more than a foot off the ground.
Lori pressed the button again. She heard a groan from the garage, and the door shuddered as it descended back to the pavement.
“Damn thing.” She pressed the button again. Nothing.
She left the car in the driveway and went in the front door. A passing glance at the answering machine was all it took to know there weren’t any messages to deal with. Lori went straight into the kitchen, made a plate of crackers and cheese and cold cuts, poured a glass of wine and went down the hall to the master bathroom.
A quick rinse of the tub was all that was needed before she started the water running. A relaxing evening, a soak in the tub and maybe some sleep before Vish got home would do her good. She reached around her waist and unbuttoned her skirt, kicking it into the corner. She started unbuttoning her blouse as she walked through the doorway to the bedroom, then rummaged through a pile of books on the nightstand, looking for the book on sailing that Vish had been nagging her to read.
It wasn’t on his side of the bed, so she walked around to her side, figuring he must have put it on her nightstand as a hint. Sure enough, there it was, propped precariously on the corner. Vish’s solution to all their problems, problems he thought were so small. They’d sail off into the sunset and it would be like the past four months never happened. Yeah, Vish was a dreamer. She picked it up and started walking back to the bathroom door, wriggling one arm out of her blouse and then the other, letting the shirt fall to the floor.
     
The minute they climbed onto the bus the chatter stopped, and then a girl called from the back, “When are we going home?”
“Soon. These police officers need to talk to you first, though.” Luke stepped back, gesturing at Tain and Ashlyn.
“What we need…” Tain started.
“Are you really a police officer?”
“You don’t look like a police officer.”
“What’s all over your clothes?”
“You stink.”
“Can I see your badge?”
Tain glanced at Ashlyn, who was twisting her mouth the way she did when she was trying not to laugh. And obviously too busy trying to conceal her amusement to bail him out.
“Uh, you know, that’s a good question. Just because somebody says they’re a police officer, it doesn’t mean they are.” Tain pulled out his ID and passed it to the closest child. Child? What did you call kids ten and eleven years old, anyway? To him, they were all kids. “It’s always good to check when somebody you don’t know wants to talk to you.”
“Okay.” The kid passed on the ID. “So you really are a cop. Why do you stink?”
“Do any of you watch the news?” Tain asked.
There was a murmur of assent.
“Did you see that fire on TV?”
“That building that burned down yesterday?” a freckle-faced boy three rows back said. “Yeah, I saw