Clear as Ice by Penelope Marzec

Author:Penelope Marzec [Marzec, Penelope]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian Fiction, inspirational fiction, Clean and Wholesome Novels, Religion and Spirituality
ISBN: 9781522398707
Publisher: Pelican Book Group
Published: 2019-11-19T00:00:00+00:00

7

Ethan woke to Rufus’s growls the next morning. Stumbling out of bed, he found the dog with his paws on the kitchen windowsill, barking and snarling at something.

“What’s the matter, buddy?” he asked the dog. “Haylie won’t be out there today.” Through his bleary eyes, Ethan didn’t notice anything unusual. Water covered the ice on the lake. The weather outside consisted of an encompassing gloom of fog.

Rufus growled again and whined as well. He kept hanging onto the windowsill and staring outside.

“What’s bothering you?” Ethan pulled up a chair and peered through the panes of glass at Rufus’s level. Above the fog, a pillar of black smoke rose in the heavily wooded area on the opposite side of the lake, a tract of land set aside as a park though it was never developed.

“I doubt kids would be having a campfire in this weather.”

Rufus barked and ran to the front door.

Ethan groaned. “Is it really necessary for you to go out now?”

Rufus ran back and forth, whining and prancing in apparent desperation.

“All right, but I better bring the umbrella. It might rain again.”

Within a few minutes, Rufus was pulling Ethan along the road toward the cliff.

“Do you like to watch things burn. What are you part fire dog?” he asked. Had the mutt inherited the DNA of a Dalmatian somewhere along his lineage?

Rufus put all his energy into pulling his master along, so there was probably some ancestral sled dog as well. Ethan grumbled beneath his breath. He realized he neglected to teach his pet to walk alongside him in the proper manner. Teaching Rufus anything was an uphill battle, but it needed to be done.

Despite the damp atmosphere, the acrid smell of the fire hovered in the air. There were several houses near the park. What if this was the beginning of a wildfire? But wildfires didn’t usually take hold in such high humidity. Ethan’s shoulders tensed. No doubt the fire was deliberately set with some sort of accelerant. He sure hoped no one got hurt. He didn’t want to cart any victims off to the burn center, something he helped with several times in the past. He inwardly shuddered and wished he could erase the horror of charred flesh from his memory.

In the few minutes it took for Rufus and Ethan to reach the cliff, the column of billowing smoke swelled into a massive black cloud. Homeowners who lived close to the area gathered in the street.

Rufus halted suddenly and refused to go any further.

“Now you’re scared?” Ethan commented, though he was, too. A cold knot formed in his stomach. He drew close to one group of neighbors to listen.

“It started with a loud boom—‘bout an hour ago.” One man stated as he held a steaming cup of coffee in his hand. “Ain’t no way a fire could get started in this weather without gasoline. The wood is wet, and the leaves are soggy.”

The other people around him all nodded their heads in agreement.

“Probably some stupid kids,” another man added.

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