Blue Smoke

reaching for her weapon, poised to run down and out.
    He stepped out of the doorway in front of her, wearing a Sirico’s T-shirt. And holding a .22.
    “Time for the big surprise. You’re going to want to take that gun out slow, Reena. Drop it on the floor.”
    She raised both hands. Don’t surrender your weapon, she thought. Never give up your weapon. “There are cops all around the house, Joey.”
    “Yeah, I’ve seen them. Two front, two back. Got here about ten minutes after me. Had a busy night, haven’t you? You got soot on your face. You went into my house, didn’t you? I knew you would. I’ve done quite a study on you. Did you get to them before the fire did?”
    “Yeah.”
    He grinned hugely. “Hey, where’s your partner?”
    Gleeful, that’s what he was. And she would see him in hell for it, whatever the cost. “You’ve killed a cop now, Joey. You’re done. Every cop in Baltimore will come after you. You’re not going to get out of this.”
    “I think I will. But if I don’t, I’ll have finished what the hell I started. The gun, Reena.”

    “You use yours, the cops’ll be in here before I drop. That’s not the way you want to finish this. That’s not the point, is it? Fire’s the point. There’s no satisfaction unless I burn.”
    “And you will. Bet your partner burned good.”
    The image flash backed, and she suppressed it. But it left a sparking wire in her blood.
    Oh, she could feel, and she could think. And he’d misjudged her. “I know about your father, the cancer.”
    Fury flamed into his face. “You don’t talk about my father. You don’t say his name.”
    “Maybe you think you have it, too. That it came into you from him. But that’s a small chance, Joey. Single digits.”
    “What the fuck do you know about it? It’s eating him from the inside. You can watch it eating him, smell it. I’m not going that way, and neither’s he. I’m going to take care of him before it finishes him. Fire purifies.”
    Fresh horror struck her. He meant to burn his own father to death. “You can’t help him, can’t purify him if you die here.”
    “Maybe not. But he taught me to look out for number one. And I think I’ll get out. You’ll burn, they’ll come running, and I’ll slip out. Like smoke.”
    He stepped forward; she stepped back. “Belly shot probably won’t kill you—at least not right away. But it’ll hurt like hell. They might hear it. Little gun like this doesn’t make much of a bang, so maybe not. Either way, I’ll have just enough time. I got everything set up for you.”
    He shoved her back, into the bedroom, hit the lights.
    Trailers and chimneys were set over the floor, over the bed.
    He grabbed her hair, yanked her down to her knees with the gun pressed to her temple. “One sound, one move, I put it in your brain, then burn what’s left of you.”
    Stay alive, she ordered herself. She couldn’t shut him down if she was dead. “You’ll burn, too.”
    “That happens, I can’t think of a better way to go out. I’ve been waiting to find out what it’s like since I was twelve.” He wrenched her policeissue out of her holster, tossed it aside. “Too big a bang,” he told her. “You’ve wondered what it was like, too. To go into it, to let the fire take you. You’re going to find out. Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to call your old man, tell him to come on down. You want to talk to him, in private.”
    Doesn’t know I just came in for clothes. Doesn’t know they’re waiting for me. “Why?”
    “He burns, you burn, and that ends it. Circle closes.”
    “Do you think I’d bring my father to you?”
    “He killed mine. He’s got a price to pay. You got a choice. You call him, you sacrifice him, or I take them all. Your whole family.” He wrapped her hair around his fist, yanked until stars exploded in front of her eyes. “Mother, brother, sisters. All those little brats. Every single one. So you choose. Your father, or all of them.”
    “All he did was defend me, the way fathers are supposed to.”
    “He humiliated mine. He had him dragged off, locked in a cell.”
    “Your father did that to himself the minute he lit the match inside Sirico’s.”
    “He didn’t do it alone. Didn’t know that, did you?” His grin spread until his whole face was alight with it. “He took me with him that night. He showed me the fire, how to create it. He showed me what you do to people who get in your face !” He backhanded