can only help by staying out of the way so we can focus completely on your wife and not have to think about you.” Even in this distraught state, the logic of this reaches him.
The two outfitted firefighters go in through the front door.
“Upstairs!” Hank screams after them. “Go upstairs!”
The fire hoses burst on full force and begin to flush the house creating huge white plumes of dense smoke.
“Oh, god,” Hank says, “My fault. This is my fault.”
“Sir, did you set this fire?”
“No.”
“Then, it is not your fault.”
“She needed me and I left.” He collapses to his knees in agony, sinking into the wet cold ground. “I should never have left. I will never forgive myself.”
The neighbors see Hank sink to his knees and several of them turn their faces away in wounded sympathy. Tears come to their eyes. The children ask no questions, they only stare, even the littlest of them can sense the gravity of it all and instinctively they are silent.
When the initial report of a gunshot came over the police scanner Officer Thomas recognized the address. He jumped into his car and drove over with his siren blaring. He pulls up along the curb, sees Hank, and charges onto the lawn.
“Mr. Kraft?” Thomas says.
Hank jumps up. “Thomas!”
The firefighter is grateful to have Officer Thomas’ help. “Good. He’s yours.” And the firefighter runs back to the truck and to the business of the fire.
“She’s inside!” Hank tells Thomas.
Thomas says, “A neighbor reported a gunshot. We were on our way already when fire got the call.”
“Oh, no. I left her there. I left her there distraught with a gun.” What must have happened dawns on them both.
“Mr. Kraft, I am so sorry. But the fire guys will find her. She may be all right.”
“She shot herself.” Hank can barely form the words; the thought alone has knocked the wind out of him.
“We don’t know that for sure.”
“She could be dying on the floor right now!”
“They’re already in. They’re good guys.”
Hanks pleads, “Help me get in there. Thomas, help me get in.”
“You could never find her without a hot suit in that smoke. You’d be dead before you hit the stairs. Think about your son.”
Hank looks at his home. The whole upstairs is engulfed. “What’s taking them so long so find her?”
“They’re being careful.”
The neighbors are being pushed even farther back away from the heartbreaking scene. One man won’t move. He stands and argues and pushes back. He yells and points. It is Hank’s next-door neighbor, Jessie Collins. He screams over the noise to get Hank’s attention.
“Hey, Hank!” Jessie persists. He tries to break through the barricade but is stopped by the police so he yells again, “Hank!”
Hank hears him and turns, “Jessie?”
“I called!” He yells, “I’m the one who called. I called the cops!”
Thomas and Hank walk toward him. “Yes?” Thomas indicates for the policeman to let Jessie through.
“I heard them say they think Alison may have set the house on fire and then shot herself but I don’t think so. It couldn’t have happened that way. Not possible.”
“Why not?” Thomas asks.
“There were a bunch of gunshots.”
Thomas demands, “A bunch? More than one? You’re sure?”
“Yeah, like four maybe five, with space in between so unless she’s shooting herself over and over - you see, it doesn’t make sense.”
Hank whirls on Thomas with a fury, “You said he was dead!” Hank lashes out at Thomas explosively angry with the police and with himself, “You said he was dead!”
“You saw the pictures.” Thomas responds as he works this new information through his head.
“DNA?”
“Not finished yet.”
“All this time I didn’t believe her.”
“Jesus.” Thomas yells into his radio. “Get everyone out of there! We may have a sniper inside.”
“No! Help her!” Hank spins again toward the burning front door and runs. Thomas rushes after him, jumps out, grabs him around the legs and brings him down hard on the doorstep. Hank rolls over and swings closed fisted at Thomas landing a hard punch on his right cheek. Thomas takes the hit hard and then tries to hold Hank without hitting back. Another Officer sees the scuffle and runs toward them when two gunshots ring out from the garage and they freeze!
Inside of the garage, it is just the two of them. Inside their world, it is just the two of them. Ben has his prey cornered and he is feeling relaxed. He sees nothing else, hears nothing else, because he is hunting. He will avenge the deaths of his brothers and then