chapter 23
WHEN THE TELEPHONE rang, Jake, completely startled, sat up in bed. His thoughts were murky as he looked at the alarm clock. It glowed 3:55. The phone rang again and snapped him out of it.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Jake Crosby?”
Jake cleared his throat and answered, “Yes, yes it is.”
Morgan rolled over to listen.
“This is Rosco Blue with the Pickens County Sheriff’s Department.”
“Yes, sir?” Jake sat up in the bed.
“I’m sorry to call you so early, but I got some bad news.”
“What? What is it?” Jake asked, now wide-awake.
“Yo’ camp house down here on Pumpkin Creek has burned down.”
“What!”
“I just left there. It’s a total loss. The volunteer fire department couldn’t do much. It went off like fat wood.”
“Burned? I…what happened?” Jake was trying to get his mind around what he was hearing.
“What’s wrong?” Morgan asked with a feeling of déjà vu. Jake held up his hand.
“We got a call ’bout midnight from a tugboat captain, and by the time we got a fire truck down there, the structure was totally consumed. I’m sorry.”
“Good grief,” Jake said in disbelief.
“At least no one was injured.”
“How’d it start?”
“We don’t know. It’s been drizzlin’ rain here all night.”
“Lightnin’ maybe?” Jake offered, trying to make sense of the news.
“I doubt it, but NOAA weather can let us know if there was any strikes associated with that band of rain. I’m really sorry to call so early, but I figured that iffin it was mine, I’d want to know.” Sheriff Blue tried to sound empathic, but his true motivation was to establish if Jake was home at the time of the fire and to gauge his reaction to the news. He suspected arson, but he didn’t want to mention this just yet. He continued, “We’ll check into it later this mornin’. The fire marshal will look it over. It’s all standard procedure.”
Jake was still stunned. “I don’t know what to say. What do I…what do you need me to do?”
“Can you come down this mornin’ and fill out some paperwork?”
“Yeah, sure. Absolutely.”
“You’re in West Point, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, don’t leave now. Just be down here midmornin’ if you can. My office is in downtown Aliceville. Just ask anybody. I’m the sheriff.”
“Yes, sir. Okay, I’ll be there.” Jake didn’t know whether to thank him or just hang up. He hung up the telephone, and Morgan rapid-fired questions at him. He stared straight ahead. After a moment, Jake said, “That was the Pickens County sheriff. The camp house caught fire and burned down tonight. The sheriff said it’s a total loss.”
Morgan rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and started fresh with more unanswerable questions. Jake finally held up his hand and asked her to stop so he could ask one very important question.
“Please tell me you paid the insurance on the camp house.”