The Unbreakable Code by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

Author:Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

CHAPTER

28

EMILY STOOD in the middle of a crowd of onlookers who had gathered outside Hollister’s store, but she’d never felt more alone. She shivered, even in the warmth of the sunshine. Someone draped a blanket over her shoulders.

Hollister’s main window cracked, and Emily watched numbly as a triangular pane of glass dropped. The group around her collectively jumped back, but she didn’t move. She didn’t even feel like she was actually there on the street anymore.

The in-store sprinkler system had kicked on, and through the broken gap of window she could hear water hiss in its battle with fire. There were sirens, and emergency responders got there quickly. Or was it slowly? Her perspective of time wasn’t working right.

A paramedic looked Emily over. A man with the fire department spoke with her. She felt useless not being able to give any sort of insight into why the fire began.

“I heard a sound,” she said.

“Could you describe it?” the detective asked.

She tried to remember, but it was difficult to recall amid the hum of idling vehicles, the background medley of excited and agitated and hushed voices, and the crunch of firefighters’ boots stepping on shards of glass from the piece that had splintered on the sidewalk.

“There was a pop, I think, and then a kind of … sizzling sound.”

“Sizzling?”

“Or crinkling. With a sizzle. Like paper when you toss it in a fireplace.”

The detective nodded succinctly, and Emily realized how unhelpful her answer must be. Of course a bookstore fire would sound like paper burning.

“It was more than that, though—it was…” Emily studied her clasped hands. “I can’t remember,” she said.

The detective placed a firm hand on her shoulder. “You did just fine. You’ve been a great help.”

Emily spotted Hollister walking up the street from more than a block away, and her heart felt like it had been plunged in ice water. His brown skin shone with sweat, and his familiar side-to-side sway looked so upbeat it made her eyes tear up. He tilted his head in a wondering kind of way, focused on the flashing lights and double-parked vehicles. They would have passed him as he came back to the bookstore. She imagined how he might have been curious about them at first in that distant sort of way where you feel bad for the strangers who must be on the end of the emergency call, and then when he saw they were parked in the street right by his store, his concern probably tightened to worry that a friend was in trouble. When Hollister stopped abruptly in the middle of the sidewalk, Emily knew he had realized it was his store that was the emergency. She would never forget that moment.

The second thing Emily would never forget was noticing the door next to the bookstore. She must have walked by it a hundred times on her way to and from school without giving it a second glance. After the fire, it was propped open and revealed a staircase. Emily realized it was the entrance to the apartments overhead.

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