Before the Dawn by Gail Chianese

Author:Gail Chianese
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gail Chianese

“Randall, Captain wants to see you in his office,” Rodriguez told Shawn when he returned to the firehouse.

He didn’t want to talk to the captain. He wanted to grab some chow and down about half a bottle of Motrin for the mother of all headaches. He loved kids, really did, but today had almost done him in. One of the local schools had hosted a safety class, bringing in all four kindergarten classes, four first grade classes and five rooms of second-graders all at once. Man, were those kids loud. After two and a half hours of listening to them yell their answers his head felt like Rodriguez had finally planted a fire ax in his skull.

He also had to return Daines’s call.

Hopefully Sara Wallis had shown up or been found.

Stepping into the captain’s office, he knocked on the doorframe. “Captain, you wanted to see me?”

“How’d it go this afternoon?”

Shawn put a hand to his head. “Trust me, those kids know all about stop, drop, and roll.”

“Good, that’s what we want. Look, I need you to hand the arson case off to Clark or Calabrese. You’ve only got two weeks until you leave and I’ve got a full list of school visits and inspections I need you to get done.”

His gut clenched as confusion and frustration twisted through him. “I’ve got time to finish this up before I go, sir. I’d like to see it closed.”

“You’ve done a great job, Shawn, and it’s going in your record that you’re a valuable member to this firehouse and district both as a fighter and marshal, but you and I both know the chance of this case never being closed is high. I need one of the other two, who aren’t leaving me, to familiarize themselves with the details. Besides, the kids love you.” He turned and picked up his phone. Discussion over.

Shit. He understood the captain’s logic. If he were the one in charge, he’d make the same call, but it still felt like crap to be on the receiving end. Handing the case off to one of the others felt like giving up. It also meant less time spent with Kat. Right now, he couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or not.

The empty office gave him a chance to stew over the captain’s orders while he put a call into Daines. Listening to his friend’s news about the gang members didn’t make the day any better. Not only did the little pukes have alibis, but no one could find Sara. He prayed the girl was alive and unharmed, somewhere. One way or the other he’d find her and make sure. He’d never been some overachieving people pleaser, but he’d always considered himself as the type who, once given a job, did it and did it well. Call it personal satisfaction. It didn’t look like this time he’d win. For every two steps forward, they were taking four steps back on this case and it was killing him.

The jackhammer threatened to burst through his skull at any moment.

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