Aaron’s eyes were somber and she felt Travis’s hand, still on her arm, hold on a little tighter. Little lines of concern dimpled between Aaron’s eyebrows. He looked about to remark on it when his eyes shifted again, to a spot over Shannon’s shoulder, and his jaw clenched. “Stay here,” he said and took off at a fast, resolute clip. He angled past a group of men and women in slippers and robes, their faces blank as they remained mesmerized by the spectacle.
Shannon craned her neck and saw the object of Aaron’s quest.
Robert had left his beloved BMW idling and was running through the crowd. His face was twisted in horror, his eyes dark with fear. Though Aaron, keeping stride with him, was talking, Robert didn’t seem to hear. His gaze was fixed on the house, his gait increasing as he pushed past people, ignoring the cops, heading for the front door.
“Mary Beth!” Robert yelled, his voice raw with emotion.
A burly firefighter blocked his path at the door. “Nobody goes in,” he said, then squinted in recognition. “Robert?”
“My wife’s in there!” Robert dove at the door, pushing past his fellow firefighter, who stepped aside.
Shannon barreled in behind him, with Travis and Aaron at her heels.
“Mary Beth!” Robert leaped up the stairs, two at a time.
Shannon felt her eyes tear from smoke but she pressed on, up the stairs, into the hallway where two firemen kneeled on the floor.
She stopped short before the two men.
One was zipping a long, black bag. The other was cradling a body, so singed and charred that the corpse was barely recognizable as Mary Beth.
“Jesus!” Aaron whispered in awe.
“Don’t look,” Travis warned Shannon, but it was too late. She stared in disbelief and horror at the blackened remains of what had so recently been her sister-in-law—a vital, young mother.
Nausea burned up her throat and denial screamed through her brain. These seared remains couldn’t be Mary Beth! Couldn’t! Shannon staggered back to the threshold of her nephew’s room and wretched violently, Travis at her side, Aaron standing stock-still, his face chalky.
“Clear these people out!” someone ordered.
All the while the fire hissed in its inevitable death throes, smoke and ash billowing out through smashed windows.
And above it all, over the sound of the bullhorn, radios, barked orders and stomping boots was a keening wail that cut Shannon to her very soul.
In the soot-stained hall she saw Robert, standing between two firemen, fall to his knees.
Chapter 16
“Come on, I’ll get you out of here,” Travis said.
Her stomach still roiling, her ribs aching, Shannon said shakily, “No, I’ve got to be with Robert. I can’t leave.” Her mouth tasted foul and she felt like she’d been pulled through a wringer both ways.
“There’s nothing you can do here.”
“I can’t leave.”
“Your brothers can take care of him now.”
“I just want to talk to him…to…” She lifted a hand helplessly, watching as Shea arrived in the crowded living room and pushed through a small knot of firefighters to crouch at Robert’s side. Robert was openly crying, his face the color of the ashes upstairs, his body sagging under an unbearable weight. What could she possibly say to ease his pain, to balm his guilt?
“He’s right,” Aaron agreed, his gaze, too, fixed on their two brothers. Robert on his knees. Shea squatting beside him, speaking in low tones.
“But I want…to help.”
“Fine.” Aaron said. “What you can do is call Oliver. He can go over to Mom’s, unless you want to.”
Shannon felt weak inside again. “She’ll have to know,” she agreed tonelessly. “But I don’t have a cell. Mine’s missing.”
Travis whipped a phone from his pocket. “Use mine.”