Rae stopped at the kitchen entrance. Elias was down the two steps, with Len beside him. The service-room light was on. An open tool case lay against the wall, and the equipment they were examining had not been left safely isolated.
“Dad. Come out.”
He looked up. “We're ending it.”
“You told Len to stop.”
“We were close. There's one check. I can—”
“No.”
Her voice carried farther than she meant. Ruth came into the hall with the envelope in her hand.
Elias looked past Rae to Ruth. “I don't want to leave you with nothing working.”
“I've already told them they can't stay tonight,” Ruth said. “You aren't giving them that back by arguing with her.”
Len straightened. “We've got the fault where we can see it. Walking away doesn't fix it.”
“You don't finish it with people in the house,” Rae said.
“Most are out.”
“Most isn't all.”
She backed into the hall and called the public emergency line. The time on her phone was 11:06.
She gave the address, the two fires, the batch, the work continuing despite a stop instruction. No smoke yet. The rooms were being emptied. Elias Vale and Len Morris were in the rear service space, accessed through the kitchen.
The operator repeated the location. A response was being assigned. Rae was told to keep people clear, stay outside the work area, and report any change immediately.
“They need to stop,” she said.
“The responders have that information. Are you able to get the remaining residents outside?”
“Yes.”
She wanted the operator to give her an authority she could carry down the steps and make her father obey. Instead she had a task she could actually do.
Jory waited in the hall. She gave him the next two rooms from Ruth's list. He went upstairs and knocked. Rae stayed where she could see the kitchen, not going closer to demonstrate that she meant it.
“Help is coming,” she told Elias.
He moved something out of the way and turned toward the doorway. “All right.”
“Then leave it.”
Len said something she couldn't catch. Elias answered him with an irritated gesture. He was speaking the language of work now, the quick exchanges he'd used with her for years. She could feel the urge to join them and make the last task sensible. That was how he had taught her to be useful: see the problem, take a place beside him, carry one end.
She went to the front door.
Ruth checked off two more names. A man asked whether the café had somewhere to charge his phone. Jory told him he'd find a socket. The last woman on the first-floor corridor wouldn't leave until she knew Ruth had locked her room. Ruth brought her key and turned it while the woman watched.
By eleven twelve, ten residents were at the café. The last one had come home from work and was standing on the porch asking whether he could shower first.
Rae told him no. He said he had grease on his neck. She held his bag while he wiped it with a towel Ruth found in the cupboard.
“I wasn't trying to be difficult,” he said as he stepped outside.
“I know.”
“You looked like I was.”
She handed him the bag. “I'm sorry. I'm worried about something else.”
He nodded and went toward the café.
Ruth crossed the last name. Eleven. She read them again before she put the pen away.
Rae checked the kitchen. Elias was no longer talking about finishing a repair. His attention was fixed on the equipment. Len stood farther back than before.
Something had changed in the room. A harsh little buzzing, then silence. Elias raised a hand toward Len without looking at him.
“Outside,” Rae said.
“I heard it,” Elias replied.
“Come out.”
“We have to isolate it.”
“You have to leave it to the crew.”
He came up one step. The next would put him in the kitchen. Rae moved aside to leave it clear. He held the yellow rail, looking back toward Len. Sweat ran from his temple.
“Tell them exactly what you're seeing,” she said.
He nodded. She wanted to stay until he did. Ruth called her name from the porch, asking her to confirm a resident at the café who'd gone around the other side.
Rae looked from him to the front door. Ruth called her again. She went outside with Ruth, leaving the kitchen passage clear.
The last resident was there, arguing with the café owner about using the side entrance. Rae gave his name, saw him enter the back room, and told the operator all eleven were accounted for. Work continued inside. The equipment was making a new sound. She repeated that Elias and Len were in the service space beyond the kitchen.
The unit was on its way. Rae looked down the empty street. The nearest available crew was coming across the district; no flashing light appeared at the corner yet.
Ruth put a hand against the porch post. “He'll listen when they get here.”
Rae could not make herself agree.
Through the front hall, she saw Elias standing in the service doorway. He was taking his newer personal phone from his pocket. The old work phone was already in his other hand.
The depot clock moved to eleven seventeen.