Chapter 7 – A Fire in the Kitchen
Billy woke Tess up at 1230 on the 5th day of her exile, the same as all the other days. She showered in the white bathroom off her bedroom and dried off with a fluffy pink towel and put on a different track suit than last time, blue with white stripes. Tess cleaned the bathroom fairly quickly and went downstairs to get her awesome home-cooked breakfast. Her mind churned with ways to keep the excellent cuisine coming through the next several years. Tess vaguely wondered if one could become addicted to omelets.
The kitchen this time was not filled with lovely smells, but the huge stove was pulled out from the wall, and Foxx was behind it, rummaging around. Tess said, “What’s going on?”
Foxx said, “Stove won’t light. Can’t figure out why.”
Tess said, “What can go wrong with a gas stove?”
Foxx said, “That’s what I’m thinking. There’s gas to the regulator in the stove. Odd.”
Tess said, “What’s odd? There’s supposed to be gas to the regulator.”
Foxx said, pulling out from behind the old stove, “Right. But this is a 1940’s gas range. There are no complicated controls or anything. No modern computer-controlled crap. Gas isn’t coming out of the cooktop. It isn’t leaking either.”
Tess frowned and said, looking down at the front of the stove, “Do you have anything in the oven?”
Foxx said, “No... I was trying to just use the range.”
Tess said, “There’s something in the oven.”
Foxx said, “Okay, that’s weird. Go get Billy and Ben please?”
Tess said, “Okay, what’s weird?”
Foxx said, “I need you to go get Billy and Benjamin and get them out of the house. Have Billy open the garage and pull her BMW out, and Ben pull his motorcycle out. Your car is on the street so we’re good there.”
Tess said, “You think it’s a bomb or something?”
Foxx said, “I don’t know, but I’m not going to mess around with it. I’m going to call county and they’ll call the Feds. If it’s nothing, it’s nothing.”
Tess said, “Did you put that thing in the oven?”
Foxx said, “Nope.”
Tess said, “Then it’s not nothing.”
Foxx said, “Hey, maybe Ben did it or one of his friends. We’ll see, but for right now, get moving.”
Tess said, “Yes sir!” saluted and moved quickly up the stairs.
She woke up Ben and quickly explained the situation and that there was an unknown device in the oven. Ben said, “Cool! A bomb! That’s awesome,” and slid out of his bunk bed and ran down the stairs, without putting on a shirt or pants.
Tess shook her head in disbelief and went to the next door in the hallway. Billy looked up from her seat at her little desk when Tess told her what was going on, “Okay. Let’s go,” and she threw on a set of sweatpants and grabbed the running jacket off the chair and put it on and they headed downstairs for the car. When they got downstairs Foxx nodded and gestured towards the inside garage door. Tess went out the garage towards the street and Billy pulled her car out.
Foxx came out of the front door, talking and gesticulating wildly, and he said into the phone, “I’m not checking anything. I’m getting the hell out of the house. You just call the FBI and have them call me,“ and hung up.
Foxx came over to Tess, who was loitering around the front of the house, and said, “Hey. It’s probably nothing, but I’m gonna have them check. Just stay back. They’ll be here in a few minutes. I hope.”
Billy and Ben were standing across the street, having moved their cars and motorcycles a couple of houses down.
Tess said, again, “It’s not nothing.”
His phone rang and he answered, “Foxx here,” and listened for a minute.
Foxx said into the phone, “There’s a box in the oven that nobody in the house put there, and the gas doesn’t light up. I’m working on a huge capital case, and I’d rather not get my house blown to the moon.”
He listened some more, then said, “Nobody’s touched anything. I tried to turn the stove on, and nothing happened, no gas came out, no flame. There is a box in the oven that nobody in my house put there. I cooked dinner on that stove yesterday.”
Foxx paused then said, “I’m guessing you’ve got a few minutes. Everybody is out of the house, and the doors are open. I can call the utility company and have them shut off the gas if you want.”
Another pause, “Okay. I’ll wait. See you in 10 minutes.”
Foxx pocketed his phone and looked over at Tess and the kids, “Just hang out. The explosives guys are on the way. We’re gonna try and resolve this without making Billy’s house into a big hole. He thinks that it might be routing gas back into the basement. Which is a little odd because there is a CO/NG detector down there. So... if they disabled it, it would be attempted murder rather than some kind of scare thing.”
Tess asked, “How did they get in the house and when?”
Foxx looked at her, "While we were at work this morning, I’m guessing.”
Tess said, “Ben was home.”
Foxx said, “I know,” and his face changed from placid to fury and back.
Tess stepped forward and put her hand on his arm, “It’s okay, he’s fine.”
Foxx said, “I know,” and he took a deep breath, “I’m alternately thankful and furious. And someone is going to pay very dearly for this. The gloves are off. One of the things you DON’T do is involve the family of law enforcement.”
Tess said, “Calm down, Kojak.”
Foxx said, “Yeah,” and he shook his head and turned to walk to his car.
Foxx walked over to the car and unlocked the trunk, pulled out a leather harness and took off the brown corduroy jacket he was wearing over a polo shirt. He shrugged the harness on and put the blazer back on, then clipped the bottom of the holster to his belt.
Tess looked at Foxx and said, “Where’s the rampaging elephant?”
Foxx said, “In my oven.”
Tess said, “That’s a 10mm, isn’t it? The Glock? Those are a fortune! Portable artillery is expensive.”
Foxx said, “Yes. The dept buys the Baretta’s and I hate them, they lock back all the time, so I got this. I get a 40% discount from the badge. I have the safety slugs in it.”
Tess said, “For when you need a REALLY BIG hole in something, and to hit nothing behind it!”
Foxx said, “Smartass.”
Tess said, “Better than a dumbass.”
Foxx said, “I guess I asked for this, but normally I don’t need to carry a firearm. I just ask questions about where folk’s stereos went, and why it’s sitting there when they said it was stolen. Not things people kill over.”
Tess said, “So, if you sold fake lottery tickets, just the tickets, without replacing the prizes for several months, what kind of money are we talking about?”
Foxx said, “Oh, if you have several stations involved, a supermarket or two, we could be talking tens of thousands of dollars a month, maybe a couple of million dollars a year, if you had enough circulation.”
Tess said, “And is that enough to kill for? And eliminating or scaring you slowing down this investigation makes them more money, right? And now if you’re replacing the tickets?”
Foxx said, “Oh yes. Muggers kill passersby over social security checks.”
Tess said, “So... why are you so angry?”
Foxx said, “Because, I suffer from the arrogance of law enforcement. I believe that I should be invulnerable to consequences because I carry this silly piece of steel with points on it. I believe that my family and friends are part of a social contract between the criminal system and the state.”
Tess said, “That’s not rational. A criminal is someone who doesn’t abide by the social contract in the first place.”
Foxx said, “Wow. You’re spot on. I’m still going to find them and kill them, so be prepared, cause you’re going to help me.”
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Tess smiled and said, “I’m in.”
A police car pulled up and Foxx turned and went over to the curb to talk to the officers in the car. They got out of the cruiser and started moving towards the neighbors on each side, evacuating houses along the street.
Foxx came back over and said, “I told them to say it was a gas leak.”
Tess said, “True enough.”
Ben came up behind Tess and said, “Hey Dad, she ID’d the gun from the grip? You gotta keep this one!”
Foxx said, “Is that opposed to the other ones I threw back?”
Ben laughed and said, “Yeah, Dad, that’s right. What’s going on with the bomb thing?”
Foxx said, “Called the explosives guys, what you call the ‘bomb squad’ for them to look at whatever device is in the oven. Stay away from the house.”
Ben said, “Okay, Dad, this is awesome! Mason isn’t gonna believe this! An actual bomb in my house!”
Foxx said, “Calm down, kid. Wait till something blows up.”
Billy came over and asked, “Tess do you have some workout clothes in your bag in the car? I just ran out of the house.”
Tess said, “Sure I do. I have a couple sets. Are we close to the same size?”
Billy said, “I think so. I think it will be close, anyway.”
Tess said, “Sure, let’s look in the bag, do you need socks too?” and they went over to Tess’s Ford to get some emergency supplies.
About 10 min later the calvary in the form of a big black van rolled up and pulled into the empty driveway, and a bunch of guys in black fatigues and flak jackets hopped out and started pulling equipment out of the van.
A big black guy walked over and shook Foxx hand and said, “David, how are you? Been a little bit. I didn’t expect to ever roll to your address.”
“Tony,” said Foxx, “I didn’t ever expect to see you here except for dinner.”
Tess said, “You know each other, then.”
“Tess,“ Foxx said, “This is Police Lt. James Anthony Driver, a fellow Navy veteran. Tony, this is Theresa Smith, currently in Billy’s protective custody, and I believe the focus of today’s little drama. She has the house where that murder occurred the other night.”
“Davey-boy,” said Driver, “Don’t assume it’s aimed at her because you’re a cop. You have so many enemies that it’s hard to keep track. You need to run the credits first. What’s going on, anyway?”
“I tried to turn on the stove at about 1300 to make breakfast (I’m working night shift) and the gas wouldn’t come on. I checked the gas to the oven and range and there is pressure at the shutoff valve. I didn’t shut it off. Tess looked at the oven and said there was a box in there, and sure enough there is. We didn’t open it, and we just called you.”
“Probably smart. These’s things have been popular lately. It’s probably an NG1 feedback device. I bet we’ll find a new pipe going into your basement. Let us check it out, and then we’ll ventilate the house and get the gas shut off. If this follows the pattern, there’s a little tank in the box with a detonator. We’ll see,” said Driver, “We can probably keep your very nice house from becoming a crater. Did you open the oven door?”
“Nope, didn’t touch anything. Saw the weirdness and called it in, and it’s Billy’s house, not mine, so don’t blow it up cause you’re mad about Rota,” said Foxx.
“Good plan,” said Driver, “All right. We’ll try not to burn Billy’s house down. And I am still mad about Rota.”
Tess asked, “Rota, Spain? You two were in the service together? What happened?”
Foxx said, “Later, Tess. First, let’s get the house saved.”
Tess said, “Come on, you can’t leave me hanging like that!”
Foxx said, “It’s a navy story. It involves stupid and alcohol. Later.”
Tess said, “Fine!”
Driver nodded and said, “Nice to meet you, Tess. Let’s get to it,” and he waved at the guys standing around the truck, then walked into the house and went into the basement.
A couple of guys went around to the side of the house and started setting a big fan, and Driver grabbed a camera and a stand, and set up some monitoring devices around the oven and started busily investigating the area. Another couple guys vanished into the basement. After about 15 minutes of activity, Driver came back over.
“Hey,” he said, “It looks like the same device we’ve been seeing lately in houses and buildings with gas. I don’t know how sophisticated this thing is, but we’ve opened your basement window and we are pulling the gas out of the house. I got a temporary pipe venting it outside from the oven. It’ll be about 10 minutes before that concentration drops enough to prevent any flashover, then we just have the fuel in the oven. Lately we’ve been seeing doors switches that flash the front of the stove or whatever. I’ve found these things in cabinets too. ”
“So, what happens in the end,” asked Tess.
“In the end, the entire house detonates, destroying the building and damaging or destroying the surrounding structures. It’s not survivable, all the oxygen gets sucked out of the air and the victim’s lungs,” said Driver.
“It’s murder then,” said Foxx.
“It’s murder and terrorism and some other stuff, because it’s a weapon with a wide area of affect. Depending on the size of your basement and the gas pressure it could take out the whole block,” said Driver, “It’s unlikely to go that far, but it will certainly take out your whole family and some of the neighbors.”
“What now?” asked Foxx.
“We shut off the gas and wait,” said Driver, “A couple of minutes later the fuel will either vent to the basement or it will detonate, or nothing. If nothing, then we can take the door off the oven or just open it with a string. It will almost certainly flash over then.”
“Okay?” asked Foxx, “My kitchen sure isn’t worth anybody's life.”
“Don’t worry,” said Driver, “Won’t be that bad. That box isn’t big enough to hold enough fuel to do more than flash.”
“Well, it is what it is,” said Foxx.
“Oh, we’re not waiting on you. We’re venting the basement right now. They disabled your Carbon Monoxide/Gas Detector. Need to replace that.” said Driver.
“Well, great,” said Foxx.
Another 10 or so minutes went by, and nothing happened. The bomb squad guys just sat around. Tess thought, 40 years ago they’d have been smoking. “40 years ago, they’d have been smoking... covered with diesel fuel and powder,” said Foxx.
“I was just thinking that,” said Tess, “How much longer?”
“Not too much longer,” said Foxx.
Driver walked over and said, “Well, we can pretty much assume the only fuel in there is in the device itself, I can do a bunch of massive gyrations and all that or we can just yank the door open. If they didn’t trap the door, it’s likely we can pull the box out. If they did, well, it’s an oven. There’s not a lot we can do to get inside that won’t set the thing off.”
“Do it,” said Foxx, sipping a cup of coffee that magically appeared from somewhere in his hand.
“Can I have a cup?” asked Tess, staring at the cup.
“Right, “ said Driver.
“Billy has some in her cruiser,” said Foxx pointing at the police cruiser next to Billy’s BMW.
Driver walked over to the van and after some rummaging pulled out a roll of fishing line and a little weight with a pully on it. He wandered into the kitchen, set the weight down in front the oven and ran the line through the pully and tied it around the oven door with a slip knot. He wandered back out the front door and over to a spot about 30 ft from the house and in view of the kitchen. He squatted down and looked around and said, “Fire in the hole!”
“Oh, you’re so funny,” said Foxx.
Driver gave the little cord a yank and the oven door slowly dropped open. There was a dramatic pause.
Then nothing.
Driver said, “Hmmm.”
Foxx said sharply from a point off center of the door, “Wait. These guys are real jerks.”
Thirty or so seconds went by.
Driver stood up and the oven jumped up and Driver dropped right back down flat. The oven burped a 30 ft. tongue of flame towards the side of the house, vomiting flames out the door and driving the oven back into the wall at high speed. The blast was low and long and not very loud but filled the kitchen completely with flames. All the windows in the back of the kitchen blew out and fire ran out the door, then zipped back in like a vacuum cleaner sucked it up.
“Well, shit,” said Foxx.
“Nice one,” said Driver.
“It would be great if I didn’t live here,” said Foxx.
“That should be about it. The ventilation fans limited it to just the flashover, so a little paint and a new stove and you should be just fine,” said Driver, grinning.
“You really love this,” said Foxx.
“Oh, yeah. Nothing like a good flashover to get my blood running after lunch,” said Driver.
Tess said to Driver, “What about Rota?”
Driver said, “He bailed on me. Left me drunk and stupid in the barracks to face the music.”
“I did not. I got busted by the SP’s on the way back,” said Foxx.
“There was no record of it, asshole,” said Driver, “You bailed on me and left me for the Chief to find.”
“We’ve covered this a hundred times,” said Foxx, “What about my house?”
“It’s Billy’s house,” said Driver.
Billy came over behind Driver and said, “Hey Tony, that was pretty cool. Can we go back in?”
Driver said, “Not yet, honey. Gotta pull the device out and check the premises for other explosives. It’ll be about an hour before you can enter. You might get on the phone to your insurance company and all that. They’re not gonna let you live here till it’s checked by an engineer. We can release the house back to you after the CSI guys get done. The whole place is a crime scene right now.”
Tess said, “You can stay with me, if you can get the porch released from the clutches of the county.”
Ben said, “Camp out with the dead guy! I’m in.”
Tess said, “I don’t think he’s still on the porch.”
Foxx said, “He’s in a drawer in the morgue with a tag on his toe, awaiting autopsy. The knife is right next to the body in a little bag till Mr. Forensic Pathologist of the week gets to match it to the body and tag it.”
Tess said, “I gather you don’t have a permanent county coroner?”
Foxx said, “No, we don’t really need one most of the time. The county really doesn’t have that many cases that require a local forensic pathologist.”
Driver said, “All right, I got a bunch of paperwork to fill out. Just a hint, but most insurance companies will refuse to pay at first if the damage was intentional. They seem to think that intentional equals fraud. We’ll have a police report for you in a couple of days. I’ll email you a copy.”
Foxx said, “Hey, thanks for not blowing the house off the map.”
Driver laughed and said, “Billy is a friend of mine.”
Foxx said, “Man!”
Driver said, “How many opportunities do I get to bust your balls? You’ve outranked me from the very start in boot camp, since you came back from that dive company.”
Foxx said, “Not my fault the Navy lost my records, then found them. Then lost them again.”
Driver said, “So?”
Foxx said, “Get out of here, dammit.”
Driver said, “Dinner Friday?”
Foxx gestured at Tess and said, “Well now, I think you might have to ask the new host. The fixing certainly isn’t going to be done by Friday.”
Driver said, “I’m interested to see what you can do in someone else’s kitchen.”
Tess said, “It’s fine. My life is in complete shambles anyway. The church told me I should take a leave of absence….an extended leave of absence. I assume it’s because I supposedly killed that man.”
Foxx said, “Nobody has said that. I specifically reported that it wasn’t possible, and the County Attorney agreed.”
Tess said, ”Billings called the church and told them I was a suspect. Asked them a bunch of questions. Told them I was the most likely candidate.”
Foxx said, “When did he do this and why didn’t you tell me?”
Tess said, “I am assuming it was Billings and it was the day after the murder. Or at least close to then, because they left a message for me on my new phone the next day. I didn’t tell you because there isn’t anything you can do about it. They won’t believe you. I told them that I appreciated their ‘understanding and empathy’ and that I quit. That's the inevitable outcome anyway so I figured I might as well be the one to do the door slamming, so to speak."
Ben said, “Good job, Tess! Don’t worry, I think we’ve got something else lined up for you.”
Foxx said, “Do you? Wow, that's great. She’s going to assemble cars in the auto shop? Fix your chromebook?”
Ben said, “By we, I meant you, Dad.”
Foxx said, “I know what you meant. I was telling you to shut up.”
Ben said, “I know you were. I was ignoring you. I am now continuing to ignore you,” and he ostentatiously turned his head away.
Driver said, “Howya doin, Ben? You still practicing? You gonna put some clothes on?”
Ben said, “Yessir, Mr. Tony, I got that move down, I think I can surprise my Dad next time we spar. The girls love my shorts!”
Foxx said, “Don’t count on it, son. David hasn’t surprised me in a decade. When he wins it’s because of brute force. And put some damn clothes on.”
Ben said, “I’m still faster than you, old man. We’ll see.”
Billy went over to her car to call the insurance company and get a refill on her coffee.
Tess just stood there and shook her head in disbelief at their antics.