“You’re the Bailey girl, aren’t you?”
“I am. Why?”
Lacey answered, ‘Thought you might like to know something. My men have searched from Broad, here, to Ash. Your mother was pretty badly cut up. Or did you know?”
Lenore shook her head. “Dad?”
“Nobody else in your house, that we found. Your mother’s up at the Crystal Lake Church. She’ll live, I guess. Maybe she’s on the lawn, though, so no use looking. The church is crammed with the ones worst off.”
“I haven’t time,” Lenore answered. She said, “Poor Mom!”
A man ran up the street toward them. “Hey!” he yelled. “Hey!”
“Another loony,” Lacey muttered. He reached out with one arm and stopped the man.
He wasn’t out of his mind; he was merely burned badly and having trouble seeing. “I came across Broad on Bigelow from the cemetery,” he said, choking. “Place is loaded and the people can’t get any farther. Broad’s too hot. Look at me!”
“Have to blast a way to ’em,” Lacey said. He stared toward the fire chief.