That Which Leads Us Home - Chapter 6, Where There's Smoke.....
That Which Leads us Home
by Frakkin_Eh
Rating: K for now....
Authors notes: This story is a sequel of sorts to the Movie 'For All time' starring Mark Harmon and Mary McDonnell. It picks up in the second to last scene in the movie. If you have not seen the movie you should be able to follow the story anyway as I hope (fingers crossed on that one) that I've provided enough information in the story about what happened prior to the timeline the story takes place in. You should watch the movie though, for no other reason than it's a wonderful little movie and .. well, Mary's in it.
Special Thanks to tayryn for being my beta. Thank God someone's around to make me look good... errr .... ok maybe I'm stretchin' it a bit.
Chapter 6 - Where there’s smoke….
The ladder creaked as she reached over and slid the last book in place. Charles held his breath, waiting for the crash, as each rung groaned in protest as she slowly made her way back down. “Back so soon, Mr. Lattimer?” she asked.
“Yes, Ma’am. It’s been ages since I’ve had an opportunity to spend time in a library as well kept as yours. I can’t seem to get enough.”
“You’re much too kind, sir.” She said, as she waddled over to the desk and wedged herself into the chair with a groan. “Oh!” She grumbled. “I don’t know what they were thinking when they made these chairs. Not nearly wide enough to be comfortable.”
“I know what you mean, Mrs. Keily.” Charles responded with a grin.
She flashed him a yellow smile as she asked, “So what are we going to read up on today, young man?”
“****************************************************************************
“****************************************************************************
As Charles sat reading his philosophy book his mind began to wander. It had been four days since he’d last spoken to her. While he’d seen Laura several times around town he’d always managed to avoid her. He figured it would be best to give her some room… let things cool down a little before he tried to talk to her again. He was, however, concerned with some of the things he’d been hearing. Since their run-in with Wallace Thompson, Laura apparently had experienced a little run of bad luck. The first incident occurred the day after the fight in the store, where a rock mysteriously found its way through the window of the “Gazette”. The second incident occurred yesterday. The axel on her wagon had been tampered with, causing her to almost lose a wheel on her way home. Luckily nobody had been hurt and Walt was able to repair the damage with little effort, but it had him worried.
As Charles’ stomach started to growl he pulled his watch from his pocket. It was almost six o’clock and dusk was setting in. “Better call it a day,” he figured. As had become his custom, he then looked out the window and down the street. Turnip was gone, which meant she had called it quits for the day as well. “Okay, Charlie, guess it’s safe to go.” He said under his breath.
Making his way down the street he stopped in front of the general store. For the past few days he’d been avoiding that place too. He took a peek in the window and saw Brigitte standing behind the counter. “Okay.” he said aloud. “Let’s just get this over with.” He then reached for the door and opened it.
Brigitte looked up from the record book she was updating when she heard the door open.
“Good evening, Mrs. Rourke.” Charles said.
“Mr. Lattimer, good evening.” She replied.
Looking down at his hand, which was still swollen and slightly bruised, she asked, “How’s the hand?”
“It looks worse than it is, Ma’am. In a few more days it should be fine.”
“Glad to hear it.”
An uncomfortable silence settled between them before Charles finally spoke. “I ummm… I wanted to come by and apologize for any troubles I may have caused the other day.”
“No need to apologize, Mr. Lattimer. If you hadn’t have hit him I think I would have.” She stated with a grin and a playful wink.
Charles laughed uncomfortably. “I also was wondering just how much damage was done to the shelf and its contents. I’d like to pay for any losses if I could.”
“That won’t be necessary, sir. Any items that were broken were charged to Mr. Thompson’s account...” She said with a smirk, “… and the shelf itself wasn’t broken too badly. It only took Ormond ten minutes and a few nails to repair it.”
“Glad to hear it, Mrs. Rourke.” Charles replied.
Brigitte gave him a polite nod and returned her attention to her work.
As Charles turned to leave, Brigitte looked up once again. “Mr. Lattimer?”
Charles stopped and turned around. “Yes, Ma’am?”
“I’m the fourth of seven children. It’s just me and my six brothers.”
Charles made a grimace that won him a small chuckle from Brigitte. “That’s what most people say.” She said. Her expression then turned serious as she continued, “My whole life people would laugh and say ’Oh, poor Brigitte, the only girl in a house full of boys. Too bad she didn’t have a sister’.” She paused and smiled at him. “Thing is, sir, I always felt like I did have a sister. And I love her dearly.”
Charles shifted nervously in one spot. While Brigitte had yet to say her name he knew full well whom she was talking about. He looked down at the toe of his boot as she continued. “I won’t pretend to know what’s happened between you two, if anything. But what I do know, sir, is that you have that woman tied up in knots right now and I DO NOT like it.”
Brigitte then put down her pen as a worried look came across her face. “Laura’s been through enough, Mr. Lattimer. She’s been dealt more sorrow and hardship in the past six years than most people see in a lifetime. Please don’t add to it.”
Charles gave her a sincere smile. “I didn’t come here to hurt her, Mrs. Rourke. Please believe me when I tell you that the last thing I want to do is add to her pain.”
“Good,” Replied Brigitte. “Just don’t forget that I have SIX brothers.”
“Duly noted, Mrs. Rourke.” He replied with a faint smile.
Brigitte gave him a polite nod before she returned to her bookkeeping.
Making his way out the door he couldn’t help but be happy that Laura had someone like Brigitte. It was good to know that no matter what; Brigitte Rourke had Laura’s back. A smile graced his face with the comfort of knowing that.
He stopped and looked back at the Gazette. That’s when he noticed it. It was barely enough to see at first, and then it grew thicker. The smell in the air was unmistakable as the smoke began to pour out from under the front door.
“FIRE!” Charles yelled. “FIRE!”
Charles could hear Brigitte calling for Ormond as he shot across the street as fast as his legs could carry him. He frantically tried to open the door… it was locked. A split second decision found his heel on the door which quickly flew open as the lock gave way. Charles buried his face in his jacket as he made his way through the wall of smoke and into the building.
“Is there anybody in here?” he called. No answer. Charles caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of his eye as a shadow darted across the room and out the back door. His first impulse was to go after him, but he realized that the first priority was to put out the flames. If the fire spread she would lose everything.
Through the smoke he could see the flames at the back of the room. As Ormond came up behind him he yelled. “Looks like it’s in the storage room, where they keep the rolls of paper.” Without hesitation the men fought their way through the smoke and into the storage room.
As luck would have it, there was only one roll of paper on the shelf. But it was fully ablaze. Both men seemed to share the same thought as they each grabbed an end of the spindle and sent the fiery mass through the front door and into the street.
“*********************************************************************************
“*********************************************************************************
The smell sent a chill down her spine. She hadn’t stopped shaking since the Hamiltons’ oldest son had fetched her from home. Having done a full inspection of the place, Laura closed her eyes and silently thanked the Lord that the damage had been minimal.
Charles and Ormond were sitting on the front steps; both were filthy from soot and smelled like a smoke stack. “Are you alright, Mr. Rourke?” asked the fire chief.
“Yes, I just swallowed a little smoke is all.” Ormond responded between coughing fits.
“Okay.” Said the sheriff. “Why don’t you boys tell me what happened here. Start at the beginning, and tell me everything.”
“There’s really not a lot to say.” Replied Charles. “I was standing in front of the store, I looked over, I saw smoke, I yelled Fire and then Ormond and I ran in and pulled the paper roll out.”
“Tell me about his person you think you saw.”
“I don’t think I saw someone, Sheriff Wills. I know I saw him. This fire was set deliberately.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, Mr. Lattimer.”
“What? You can’t be serious! Every person standing here knows exactly what happened in there, and exactly who’s behind it. How can you possibly tell me not to get ahead of myself?”
Sherriff Wills looked at Charles with fury in his eyes. “Are you trying to tell me how to do my job, Mr. Lattimer?”
Charles ran a hand over his face, effectively smudging more soot across his face. “No, sheriff, I am not. I am merely pointing out that over the past week there have been a number of things happening around here. First, the rock that was thrown through her window and then the wheel on her wagon… now this. All of which followed an argument that Mrs. Brown had in the store with Wallace Thompson. Does it not seem like a little too much of a coincidence to you?”
The sheriff’s face turned red as he tried to keep his temper at bay. “You know, Mr. Lattimer,” he said in a crisp overly calm tone. “You might want to be careful what you say around here. You can’t just go around town saying things about an upstanding member of our community like Mr. Thompson. Especially since all of this trouble seems to have started the day you arrived in town.”
Charles couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He slowly got to his feet and moved within inches of the sheriff. “Me?” he asked in disbelief. “You can’t possibly be implying that I am responsible for these things.”
Ormond wisely got up and slowly pulled Charles by the arm, putting some space between him and the sheriff.
The sheriff gave him a sideways glance. The anger on his face was unmistakable. “I’m not implying anything, Mr. Lattimer. I am merely pointing out that there is more than one angle we can look at this from. Now why don’t you go back to your hotel and get cleaned up and let me and my deputies do our jobs.”
Charles watched as the sheriff walked up the stairs and into the “Gazette”. As he slowly made his way to his hotel an uneasy feeling came over him. He began to wonder how much influence Wallace Thompson actually had around town.
Laura’s face was void of color as she came down the stairs and onto the street. “Laura.” Ormond said. “How bad?”
She looked at him and a small smile came across her face. “It could have been worse… a lot worse. In fact, other than the paper roll and a few marks on the wall where the fire almost caught… it’s mostly smoke damage. Nothing that can’t be cleaned or and aired out.” She let out a heavy sigh of relief before she continued. “I can’t thank you enough, Ormond. You have no idea what you did for me tonight.”
Ormond shook his head. “I’m not the one you should be thanking for this. If it weren’t for Mr. Lattimer we would have never caught it in time. The whole place would have been engulfed in flames before anyone even noticed.”
Laura’s heart sank more than she cared to admit when she turned to see that Charles had already left for his hotel.
“*********************************************************************************
“*********************************************************************************
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY PUT OUT THE FIRE?” he yelled.
“I’m terribly sorry, sir. I did exactly what you told me to do. I broke in the back door, I set the fire, I waited to make sure it had caught good enough, but then all of a sudden someone was breaking in the front. I didn’t know what to do, sir. So I just ran out the back.”
“You imbecile. You are a good for nothin’ idiot! How hard can it be to set fire to an office that is full of PAPER?” Thompson’s face was blood red as he grabbed his hired thug by the collar. With his face a mere inches from the boy’s he growled, “Who?”
“Sir?” the boy responded, clearly unsure of what was being asked.
“Who broke down the front door?”
“I think I heard one of the firemen call him Lattimer, sir”
Chapter 5 <> Chapter 7
Previous Chapters
by Frakkin_Eh
Rating: K for now....
Authors notes: This story is a sequel of sorts to the Movie 'For All time' starring Mark Harmon and Mary McDonnell. It picks up in the second to last scene in the movie. If you have not seen the movie you should be able to follow the story anyway as I hope (fingers crossed on that one) that I've provided enough information in the story about what happened prior to the timeline the story takes place in. You should watch the movie though, for no other reason than it's a wonderful little movie and .. well, Mary's in it.
Special Thanks to tayryn for being my beta. Thank God someone's around to make me look good... errr .... ok maybe I'm stretchin' it a bit.
Chapter 6 - Where there’s smoke….
The ladder creaked as she reached over and slid the last book in place. Charles held his breath, waiting for the crash, as each rung groaned in protest as she slowly made her way back down. “Back so soon, Mr. Lattimer?” she asked.
“Yes, Ma’am. It’s been ages since I’ve had an opportunity to spend time in a library as well kept as yours. I can’t seem to get enough.”
“You’re much too kind, sir.” She said, as she waddled over to the desk and wedged herself into the chair with a groan. “Oh!” She grumbled. “I don’t know what they were thinking when they made these chairs. Not nearly wide enough to be comfortable.”
“I know what you mean, Mrs. Keily.” Charles responded with a grin.
She flashed him a yellow smile as she asked, “So what are we going to read up on today, young man?”
“****************************************************************************
“****************************************************************************
As Charles sat reading his philosophy book his mind began to wander. It had been four days since he’d last spoken to her. While he’d seen Laura several times around town he’d always managed to avoid her. He figured it would be best to give her some room… let things cool down a little before he tried to talk to her again. He was, however, concerned with some of the things he’d been hearing. Since their run-in with Wallace Thompson, Laura apparently had experienced a little run of bad luck. The first incident occurred the day after the fight in the store, where a rock mysteriously found its way through the window of the “Gazette”. The second incident occurred yesterday. The axel on her wagon had been tampered with, causing her to almost lose a wheel on her way home. Luckily nobody had been hurt and Walt was able to repair the damage with little effort, but it had him worried.
As Charles’ stomach started to growl he pulled his watch from his pocket. It was almost six o’clock and dusk was setting in. “Better call it a day,” he figured. As had become his custom, he then looked out the window and down the street. Turnip was gone, which meant she had called it quits for the day as well. “Okay, Charlie, guess it’s safe to go.” He said under his breath.
Making his way down the street he stopped in front of the general store. For the past few days he’d been avoiding that place too. He took a peek in the window and saw Brigitte standing behind the counter. “Okay.” he said aloud. “Let’s just get this over with.” He then reached for the door and opened it.
Brigitte looked up from the record book she was updating when she heard the door open.
“Good evening, Mrs. Rourke.” Charles said.
“Mr. Lattimer, good evening.” She replied.
Looking down at his hand, which was still swollen and slightly bruised, she asked, “How’s the hand?”
“It looks worse than it is, Ma’am. In a few more days it should be fine.”
“Glad to hear it.”
An uncomfortable silence settled between them before Charles finally spoke. “I ummm… I wanted to come by and apologize for any troubles I may have caused the other day.”
“No need to apologize, Mr. Lattimer. If you hadn’t have hit him I think I would have.” She stated with a grin and a playful wink.
Charles laughed uncomfortably. “I also was wondering just how much damage was done to the shelf and its contents. I’d like to pay for any losses if I could.”
“That won’t be necessary, sir. Any items that were broken were charged to Mr. Thompson’s account...” She said with a smirk, “… and the shelf itself wasn’t broken too badly. It only took Ormond ten minutes and a few nails to repair it.”
“Glad to hear it, Mrs. Rourke.” Charles replied.
Brigitte gave him a polite nod and returned her attention to her work.
As Charles turned to leave, Brigitte looked up once again. “Mr. Lattimer?”
Charles stopped and turned around. “Yes, Ma’am?”
“I’m the fourth of seven children. It’s just me and my six brothers.”
Charles made a grimace that won him a small chuckle from Brigitte. “That’s what most people say.” She said. Her expression then turned serious as she continued, “My whole life people would laugh and say ’Oh, poor Brigitte, the only girl in a house full of boys. Too bad she didn’t have a sister’.” She paused and smiled at him. “Thing is, sir, I always felt like I did have a sister. And I love her dearly.”
Charles shifted nervously in one spot. While Brigitte had yet to say her name he knew full well whom she was talking about. He looked down at the toe of his boot as she continued. “I won’t pretend to know what’s happened between you two, if anything. But what I do know, sir, is that you have that woman tied up in knots right now and I DO NOT like it.”
Brigitte then put down her pen as a worried look came across her face. “Laura’s been through enough, Mr. Lattimer. She’s been dealt more sorrow and hardship in the past six years than most people see in a lifetime. Please don’t add to it.”
Charles gave her a sincere smile. “I didn’t come here to hurt her, Mrs. Rourke. Please believe me when I tell you that the last thing I want to do is add to her pain.”
“Good,” Replied Brigitte. “Just don’t forget that I have SIX brothers.”
“Duly noted, Mrs. Rourke.” He replied with a faint smile.
Brigitte gave him a polite nod before she returned to her bookkeeping.
Making his way out the door he couldn’t help but be happy that Laura had someone like Brigitte. It was good to know that no matter what; Brigitte Rourke had Laura’s back. A smile graced his face with the comfort of knowing that.
He stopped and looked back at the Gazette. That’s when he noticed it. It was barely enough to see at first, and then it grew thicker. The smell in the air was unmistakable as the smoke began to pour out from under the front door.
“FIRE!” Charles yelled. “FIRE!”
Charles could hear Brigitte calling for Ormond as he shot across the street as fast as his legs could carry him. He frantically tried to open the door… it was locked. A split second decision found his heel on the door which quickly flew open as the lock gave way. Charles buried his face in his jacket as he made his way through the wall of smoke and into the building.
“Is there anybody in here?” he called. No answer. Charles caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of his eye as a shadow darted across the room and out the back door. His first impulse was to go after him, but he realized that the first priority was to put out the flames. If the fire spread she would lose everything.
Through the smoke he could see the flames at the back of the room. As Ormond came up behind him he yelled. “Looks like it’s in the storage room, where they keep the rolls of paper.” Without hesitation the men fought their way through the smoke and into the storage room.
As luck would have it, there was only one roll of paper on the shelf. But it was fully ablaze. Both men seemed to share the same thought as they each grabbed an end of the spindle and sent the fiery mass through the front door and into the street.
“*********************************************************************************
“*********************************************************************************
The smell sent a chill down her spine. She hadn’t stopped shaking since the Hamiltons’ oldest son had fetched her from home. Having done a full inspection of the place, Laura closed her eyes and silently thanked the Lord that the damage had been minimal.
Charles and Ormond were sitting on the front steps; both were filthy from soot and smelled like a smoke stack. “Are you alright, Mr. Rourke?” asked the fire chief.
“Yes, I just swallowed a little smoke is all.” Ormond responded between coughing fits.
“Okay.” Said the sheriff. “Why don’t you boys tell me what happened here. Start at the beginning, and tell me everything.”
“There’s really not a lot to say.” Replied Charles. “I was standing in front of the store, I looked over, I saw smoke, I yelled Fire and then Ormond and I ran in and pulled the paper roll out.”
“Tell me about his person you think you saw.”
“I don’t think I saw someone, Sheriff Wills. I know I saw him. This fire was set deliberately.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, Mr. Lattimer.”
“What? You can’t be serious! Every person standing here knows exactly what happened in there, and exactly who’s behind it. How can you possibly tell me not to get ahead of myself?”
Sherriff Wills looked at Charles with fury in his eyes. “Are you trying to tell me how to do my job, Mr. Lattimer?”
Charles ran a hand over his face, effectively smudging more soot across his face. “No, sheriff, I am not. I am merely pointing out that over the past week there have been a number of things happening around here. First, the rock that was thrown through her window and then the wheel on her wagon… now this. All of which followed an argument that Mrs. Brown had in the store with Wallace Thompson. Does it not seem like a little too much of a coincidence to you?”
The sheriff’s face turned red as he tried to keep his temper at bay. “You know, Mr. Lattimer,” he said in a crisp overly calm tone. “You might want to be careful what you say around here. You can’t just go around town saying things about an upstanding member of our community like Mr. Thompson. Especially since all of this trouble seems to have started the day you arrived in town.”
Charles couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He slowly got to his feet and moved within inches of the sheriff. “Me?” he asked in disbelief. “You can’t possibly be implying that I am responsible for these things.”
Ormond wisely got up and slowly pulled Charles by the arm, putting some space between him and the sheriff.
The sheriff gave him a sideways glance. The anger on his face was unmistakable. “I’m not implying anything, Mr. Lattimer. I am merely pointing out that there is more than one angle we can look at this from. Now why don’t you go back to your hotel and get cleaned up and let me and my deputies do our jobs.”
Charles watched as the sheriff walked up the stairs and into the “Gazette”. As he slowly made his way to his hotel an uneasy feeling came over him. He began to wonder how much influence Wallace Thompson actually had around town.
Laura’s face was void of color as she came down the stairs and onto the street. “Laura.” Ormond said. “How bad?”
She looked at him and a small smile came across her face. “It could have been worse… a lot worse. In fact, other than the paper roll and a few marks on the wall where the fire almost caught… it’s mostly smoke damage. Nothing that can’t be cleaned or and aired out.” She let out a heavy sigh of relief before she continued. “I can’t thank you enough, Ormond. You have no idea what you did for me tonight.”
Ormond shook his head. “I’m not the one you should be thanking for this. If it weren’t for Mr. Lattimer we would have never caught it in time. The whole place would have been engulfed in flames before anyone even noticed.”
Laura’s heart sank more than she cared to admit when she turned to see that Charles had already left for his hotel.
“*********************************************************************************
“*********************************************************************************
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY PUT OUT THE FIRE?” he yelled.
“I’m terribly sorry, sir. I did exactly what you told me to do. I broke in the back door, I set the fire, I waited to make sure it had caught good enough, but then all of a sudden someone was breaking in the front. I didn’t know what to do, sir. So I just ran out the back.”
“You imbecile. You are a good for nothin’ idiot! How hard can it be to set fire to an office that is full of PAPER?” Thompson’s face was blood red as he grabbed his hired thug by the collar. With his face a mere inches from the boy’s he growled, “Who?”
“Sir?” the boy responded, clearly unsure of what was being asked.
“Who broke down the front door?”
“I think I heard one of the firemen call him Lattimer, sir”
Chapter 5 <> Chapter 7
Previous Chapters