Hot as Heller (Aster Valley 3)

I told myself it didn’t mean anything. In an emergency like this, cell signals were jammed. For all I knew, a tower had come down in the explosion.

As much as I tried to focus on helping organize the emergency response, my thoughts kept spinning with thoughts of Finn missing, maybe trapped in that cave-in. I knew he was on set today, but I didn’t know where he was supposed to be filming. Was it at the cave?

When we finally touched down on a meadow near the scene, I saw right away the response was still in chaos. Cast and crew wandered around in a daze, some with injuries and debris on their hair and clothes. I was desperate to find Finn, but I had to keep my focus on the job. Doing my job was the best way to get to Finn as fast as possible.

I found Deputy Farmer. “Do we know how many people are trapped?”

He was the most experienced deputy in the department. As a father of four and grandfather of fifteen, the man had no interest in the responsibility of being sheriff, but he certainly had the personality and know-how for the job. I’d felt confident putting him in charge, but I hated seeing any small-town deputy have to handle something of this magnitude. We simply didn’t have the resources.

“No. The closest we can guess is at least six people. We’ve sent two buses to the hospital with fairly minor injuries so far and have one waiting here in case of a more serious injury. The rest are scrapes and bruises from what we can tell. One of the EMT crews is setting up a station to treat those over there.” He indicated a nearby tent that had probably been used for some of the film crew during the shoot. “The good news is it wasn’t a bomb. One of the crew members mentioned pyrotechnics for a scene they were filming. It was supposed to happen late next week, I guess, but they moved it up.”

Rage churned in my gut, and I tried to hold it down.

That was the scene Finn was supposed to be in with Crystobell and Logan. Where Finn’s character comes to save Crystobell’s character from Logan’s clutches and Logan dies in the explosion. But all of it was supposed to happen in the structure, not the cave. The shack structure that was still standing nearby, completely untouched, when everything around it seemed covered in rock dust.

I finally got close enough to see the mouth of the cave behind the temporary shack. Only it was no longer the mouth of a cave; it was a pile of boulders. My stomach dropped. Clearing an opening in that was going to take hours, and meanwhile, the people inside would be…

Do not imagine Finn trapped under those rocks.

A man I vaguely recognized shouted commands to a work crew nearby. I blinked and asked Deputy Farmer who it was.

“Coleman Harrow. He runs an excavation company used by the mining companies mostly. He lives over on Thistledown, so he was one of the first on the scene. The man’s an expert at earth moving and managing big rocks. We’re lucky to have him and his crews.”

The street name reminded me how I knew Coleman. He’d been attacked by the squirrel while trying to feed the raccoon. Finn’s life was in the hands of someone who thought it was brilliant to try stealing food out of a squirrel’s mouth.

If I hadn’t trusted Deputy Farmer’s assessment, I would have thought we were screwed.

“Sheriff, we found Mr. Trainor,” Deputy Kenton said, pulling the director along by the elbow. He was covered in just as much debris, but he also looked very confused.

“Sir, who was in the cave when the explosion happened?” I asked.

“What explosion?”

I wanted to throttle him. Right now I had to keep reminding myself to stay professional. Do what it took to get answers.

“The explosion that collapsed the cave. Which of your cast and crew were inside when it happened? How many people are missing?”

Trainor glanced around as if seeing the scene for the first time. “Oh my. Something happened.” Once he turned completely around, I saw his head sported a big bloody gash. “Creation sometimes means destruction! You have to keep innovating, Pushing the envelope. Pushing, pushing, pushing the… what was I saying?”

I gritted my teeth. “Deputy, where did you find Mr. Trainor?”

“He was just wandering around.”

“Get him medical attention, please.” Even though he deserved it less than anyone else on set. “It looks like maybe he hit his head.”

I wanted to beat the man to a bloody pulp, but that wouldn’t help me get Finn back any faster. Instead, I looked around to see who else I could find who might know who was in the cave when the explosion happened.