With one nozzle team still fighting fire, with the laborious work of pulling ceilings and opening walls to chase spot fires and rekindles, and with the added excitement of a victim that had been clearly murdered, the house, the fire scene, and the Command Center were bustling with officials. All of them too busy to notice a lone firefighter, the rookie from Engine Company Two, in full turnout gear, shamble up from the basement, through the shadowed back yard, and away.
Two short residential blocks away, on the next main thoroughfare, sat the Trackside Bar and Grill. It was a seedy little drinking joint with seedier customers slouched over heavy wooden tables covered in just the right number of stains. Fewer and they"d have wanted livelier customers. More and they would have had no custome
