“Marc Hunter is already up there?” He and Joaquin were good friends.
“That’s what I said. I’m sending Leah Tanaka, a rookie from the news side, to report on this. She’ll meet you at the municipal airport in ten. I cut a deal with Channel Twelve. You’re flying up in their helicopter with their news crew.”
It wouldn’t be Joaquin’s first time in a helicopter.
“Got it.” Joaquin ended the call, turned to Mia, saw the disappointment on her face. “Sorry, but there’s a big fire west of Scarlet Springs.”
“That’s not good. Isn’t the Cimarron up that way?”
“It is, but it sounds like this fire is burning west of town. The ranch is north of Scarlet. He drew her into his arms. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Be safe up there, okay? Don’t take any risks.”
He kissed her hair. “I won’t.”
He hurried inside, changed into a clean pair of jeans and a T-shirt, and grabbed his camera bag, which he kept ready to go at all times.
Mia met him at the door with a filled water bottle and a bag of snacks—an apple, a couple of energy bars, some trail mix, a cheese stick. “You might need these.”
“Thanks.” He stuck the bag and the bottle into the outside pocket of his camera bag, kissed his wife, and grabbed his keys. “Sorry about this.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I’ll keep in touch.”
“Cell coverage is probably spotty up there.”
“Right. See you tonight.”
She watched from the door as he climbed into his truck.
Before backing out of the driveway, he sent a text message to Hunter.
On my way up to Scarlet Springs to cover the fire. Are you up there?
He waved to Mia and headed down the road.
Marcand the others had removed the conversion kits from their firearms after lunch and were now carrying live anti-personnel rounds. The reason for this was apparent in the garbage strewn around the abandoned campsite Deputy Marcs had found last week.
Food wrappers and plastic soda bottles lay everywhere. Next to the blackened fire ring sat a face mask. Twenty yards away, flies buzzed around a pit of human excrement mixed with wads of used toilet paper. Spent shotgun shells littered the forest floor.
Marc kept his distance. “They were cooking meth.”
“Shake-and-bake.” Darcangelo surveyed the piles of plastic bottles and propane tanks. “They didn’t just leave a mess. They left a toxic mess.”
McBride walked up to them. “Come on, guys. We’ve got to go. That fire is burning out of control. Pella has ordered us to evacuate.”
They climbed into the van and headed back down the dirt access road.
“I should have gone with Pella this morning.” Deputy Marcs was clearly upset. “I could be evacuating people now rather than evacuating myself.”
Marc didn’t want her blaming herself. “Hey, you couldn’t have known.”
“How many people live in the evac zone?” Darcangelo asked.
“A few hundred.” Deputy Marcs took a drink from her water bottle. “We’ve got a reverse 911 system, but some of them live off the grid and don’t have phones. I don’t know if we can get to all of them in the next half hour.”
Marc didn’t need to think about it. “I’ll help.”