Coming in April 2013
J. J. Cook is a pseudonym for a married couple who writes mysteries, mostly set in the South, with a touch of paranormal and romance. That Old Flame of Mine is the first book in the Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade Mysteries set in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee featuring Fire Chief Stella Griffin.
She could tell the heart of the fire was in the basement.
They didn’t have long to search for Tory. The flames were spreading up the
stairs, igniting the other floors as they reached out toward the roof.
“Third floor,” she told John. She’d purposely chosen him
because he’d been a cop for years and she figured he could deal with a crisis
better than the others. “Banyin, check the ground floor then get out.”
John and Stella ran up the long winding stairway, parting
at the second floor. Tory’s bedroom was on this floor but Stella couldn’t take
the chance that she could be somewhere else in the house.
She ran to Tory’s bedroom. The door was locked. She
didn’t waste any time kicking it open. She pushed off the face mask and yelled
for her friend. There was no response. She ran to the luxurious marble bathroom,
shouting Tory’s name. The bathroom was empty too.
“Any sign of her?” She called John and Banyin on the
radio.
“Nothing down here,” Banyin responded. “Should I come up
there and help you all look?”
“No. Get out,” Stella responded. “John, any luck?”
“Not up here. I’m on my way down.”
Stella looked around the smoky bedroom that was as yet
untouched by the fire. Tory might be at the park. She might be outside in the
crowd by now. She could be having tea with friends. There was no way to know.
She prayed Tory wasn’t in the basement, although common
sense told her that she’d been getting ready for the party. She shouldn’t be
there.
“Chief,”
John said on the radio. “You gotta get out of there. You won’t make it back down
the stairs if you don’t move now.”
“I’m on my way.” Stella was going through Tory’s bedroom
one last time. When there were children involved, they always checked the
closets. She was going to sweep the closets then hope to God that Tory was
already at the party.
Stella opened the closet door in the bedroom and pushed
through tons of clothes and shoes to reach the back. All of the clothes were
neatly hung, even color coordinated. The shoes were all in boxes or hanging in
shoe racks.
Until she got to the back.
Here the clothes were thrown on the floor, shoes
everywhere. Stella pushed everything out of the way and swore when she found
Tory beneath the mess.
Tory wasn’t breathing.
