Heaven's Fire (14 page)

They were both quiet, the dimness of the room almost intimate. On the monitor, Neal Cravens got up from the news desk and walked out of the picture. A moment later, the studio lights went off and the screen went black.

Jake reached over and flicked off the monitor.
"
We’ll look at my masters instead of the ones I made for you. We’ll get better resolution with them."

"
This one has the breaking news coverage from last night," she continued, lifting the top tape in her stack of three.
"
The next is the actual fireworks program up to the explosion, and this one,
"
she indicated the third cassette,
"
is all the B-roll, the stuff we didn’t use. What do you want to see?
"

"
The close-up view you showed right after the explosion. I assume Burns shot it from the next barge.
"

Jake flushed. "Actually, I
will
need your tape then. That footage isn't on any of these."

She set down the tape she had picked up, and Simon cocked his head at her. "I thought you had the masters. How can there be something on mine that isn't on yours?"

Jake was squirming. She looked at him, then away, then back again. "There's a gap on the masters. Like the Watergate tapes."

"A gap? You mean they've been erased? By who?"

"Taped over, actually. And by me." She was back to not looking at him.

He didn't get it. Why would Jake destroy the footage unless there was something on it she wanted to hide? But if that were so, why did she give it to him in the first place?

He asked her, swiveling her chair around to so she faced him.

"I didn't want to chance anyone airing it again." She cl
eared her throat. "T
he night of the explosion, it felt like the worst kind of voyeurism. Pasquale deserved better. We all deserve better."

Simon nodded. You could question the woman's methods, but not her motives. "But isn't that destroying station property?"

"Heck, yeah." Jake cracked a grin. "But you're talking to the woman who lost an entire truck. What's one little section of tape?"

Simon didn't think she was quite as unconcerned as she pretended. He held out the box to her. "Let's see it."

Jake selected a tape and stuck it into a slot on the console. She turned a knob clockwise, and the image on the screen raced ahead. When she reached the place she was looking for, she turned the knob the other way, and the tape rewound and then slowed to normal speed. Sure beat the clunkiness of a regular VCR. Sometimes Simon felt like he could go out for pizza in the time it took for his machine to move from rewind to play. Yet another reason why DVDs deserved to send videotapes into extinction.

"
Here it is,
"
Jake said.

Simon leaned forward. You could see Pasquale clearly in the reflected light of the flare he held. As they watched, he came forward and leaned down to light the quickmatch. A flash of light and the fire ran up the fuse to the first shell as the old man stepped back and turned his face skyward.

A small flash and a whoosh as the first shell went up. Simon checked the clock on the editing console. Three seconds later, another flash, another whoosh. And three seconds later...nothing.

"
Stop it here,
"
Simon said,
"
and run it back for me. If you slow it down, will the clock still show elapsed time?
"

"
It will slow down to match the tape," Jake confirmed. "Why? What do you see?
"

"
Nothing, that’s the thing.
"
Simon pointed at the screen as the tape started to run in slow motion.
"
Look here. Pat said there was a three-second time fuse between the first and second shell and the second and third." He counted as the clock on the console ticked off the seconds, also in slow motion. "One...two ...three... There goes the second shell, see it?
"
He traced the path of the shell with his finger.
"
Three more seconds, the third one should go up.
"

"
But we know it didn’t. It exploded on the barge,
"
Jake stopped the tape.

"
That’s right, and Pasquale realized it hadn’t gone up.
"
Simon touched the figure of Pasquale on the screen.
"
Start it again, and watch. One, two, three, four... See? Here’s where he realizes the shell didn’t go up, so he heads back to the mortar to re-light it.
"

"
And it explodes when he touches the torch to it?
"

Simon shook his head.
"
I don’t think so. Here rewind again.
"
They went back to the beginning of the sequence.
"
After the lift charge blasts the shell out of the mortar and into the air, there should be a ten-second delay before the pyro, the color, actually bursts. That ten seconds gives the shell time to climb high enough in the sky.

"
That means," he continued, "since they were timed three seconds apart, the red shell would burst at ten seconds, the white at thirteen, and the blue at sixteen."

Jake zeroed out the clock, and Simon counted as the red shell went up. "Eight...nine... This is when Pasquale starts back to the mortar. He already knows something is wrong. There goes the red burst. Eleven...twelve...the white...fourteen..."

Pasquale reached the mortar.

"Fifteen...sixteen...
"

The screen went yellow, then white, then black.

"
Geez,
"
Jake muttered.

Simon sat back and thought. So the blue shell's internal time fuse--the ten-second fuse in the shell itself--
did
light. That accounted for the ten-second delay before the shell burst.

"
Can you go back again?
"
Simon asked.
"
Just to the blast.
"

She rewound it again and started through it slowly.

"
Stop there," Simon said. "Did you see that?
"

"See what?" Jake asked, getting closer and freezing the image.

"There." Simon pointed. "That arc of light going off to the side--"

"And being extinguished," Jake finished for him. "Pasquale's flare hitting the water.
"
Jake didn’t turn to look at him when she spoke, just stared straight ahead at the still image.

Simon’s head was very close to hers now, and he could see the tears pooling in her eyes.
"
Probably,
"
he said softly.

Jake stabbed at a button, and the tape started up again, only to go black. As Jake reached to stop the tape, there seemed to be a hiccup, the image got lighter, then bucked and got black again. Simon reached out to prevent her from pressing stop.
"
What was that?
"

They watched for a few seconds, but nothing else happened.

"
Luis must have been trying to adjust the camera and get the image back,
"
Jake said. Then the swell hit and there went the microwave link. You’ve already seen the other tape--the
backup
he had in his camera.
"
She popped out the cassette and cleared her throat.
"
Anything else?
"

Simon leaned back in his chair and stretched. He'd seen what he needed to, even if it only confirmed what he already had suspected.
"
No, I guess that’ll do it for tonight. Can I get a copy of
anything
shot at the fireworks factory, too?
"

Jake got up and crossed the room to a large metal shelving unit filled with neatly labeled videotapes. She came back with the tape and held it out to him.

Simon stood up to take it, and the movement put him closer to her than he’d intended.
"
For what it's worth, I think you were right to erase the tape. I'm glad you made a copy for me first, though.
"

Jake didn’t step back, but she didn’t look at him either.
"
You needed to see it, but no one else does."

Simon took the tape from her and set it down on the console. She was looking down at the floor, any place but at him. He sucked in a deep breath and reminded himself how complicated things could get when...

A tear rolled down her cheek.

Aww, damn. He reached out and brushed it away.

Her eyes closed, and a hint of a tremor ran through her body.
Unable to resist
, he rubbed his thumb across her bottom lip.

Jake's
head came up and her eyes snapped open.
They
were even darker than usual now, if that were possible, but soft and unfocussed. Her lips parted as she started to say something and he slid his thumb ever so slightly in between them. Another shudder, this time unmistakable. She reached up and pulled his head down to hers, and he kissed her.

*****

She kissed him, sex-starved tart that she was.

Right there on the editing console.

Jake was a good ten inches shorter than Simon, so their parts didn't quite match up. She was tottering on her tiptoes, arms twined around his neck, and he hopped her up onto the edge of the console.

The room was quiet and dim. It felt surreal--like they were about to make love in the womb. A bizarre thought, one that would likely put her into therapy for the rest of her life.

Jake was all raw nerve endings, every part of her screaming "yes, yes, yes!" like some shampoo commercial. Under Simon's right arm she could feel what she presumed was a gun in a holster. She could also feel his lips starting to move down from her mouth, and his hands gravitate upward from her waist...

He must have felt her freeze up and lifted his lips from the notch at her throat.
"
What?
"
he whispered hoarsely.
"
Did you hear something?
"

That was as good an excuse as any. She nodded, struggling for breath, and for an irrational second she thought that maybe all the air had been sucked out of the sealed room.

"
Are you okay?
"
Simon asked. He took a step back, and she slid off the console and turned away from him, feeling like an idiot.

Much as she wanted it, much as she wanted him, it was way too complicated. A bad idea on a lot of fronts. She almost giggled at her own joke. Then he'd
really
think she was nuts.
"
I’m sorry. I’m okay. But we can’t do this.
"

"
No,
I’m
sorry. This was inappropriate. Here in your office. Us working together.
"
He
seemed to be
fishing, trying
to pin down exactly what had caused her reaction.

Jake
knew she
should explain, but
then
he'd
just
be embarrassed
or even repelled. Whichever, better to end this now and save them both the trouble
.

She wet her lips
and
,
as
Simon took a step toward her
,
put
up a hand
.
"
Listen, it's fine. I kissed you, or if not--
"
she held up the hand again, as he started to interrupt,
"
it was
certainly mutual. This...it
’s just not such a good idea.
"

Simon raised his hands in surrender.
"
Okay, message received and understood.
"
He picked up the tapes she’d given him.
"
I hope you’ll still give me a hand with these if I need it.
"
He studied her face.
"
During the day. With the door open.
"

Jake smiled, wondering which of the mixed messages she was sending he understood.
"
Deal.
"

Simon started out the door with the tapes, and then turned.
"
I lied before.
"

"
Lied?
"

"
I’m not sorry. I enjoyed every second of it, appropriate or not.
"

Same here, was what she thought.