Ripple Effect

Chapter Eighty-Three: ...the fallout.

Elizabeth

12:30 PM

What remained of the black walnut tree listed at a thirty degree angle towards the clinic building, whilst what remained of Kostov's car wrapped around the tree trunk in a fatal embrace. Both still smouldered in a mangled mess of charred wood and ripped-up metal, and plumes of black and grey smoke billowed up to clog the air and cloud the crisp blue skies. Ambulances, police cars, an array of FBI vehicles and the bomb squad truck lined the gravel track that wound towards the grey stone pillars in the distance, and they peeked out from behind the wraithlike trunks of the paper birches. The fire engine was stationed at the end of the track nearest to the car park, and the gush of foam continued to spurt and spray from the nozzle of the deck gun; it doused the shredded scraps of metal that occupied the parking bays and occasionally pivoted back to the black walnut tree and Kostov's car to smother the threat of an orange glow before it could take hold once more.

The warmth from the fires groped across the car park and brushed up against Elizabeth where she perched on the concrete ledge outside the main entrance, a woollen blanket that DS had taken from the laundry room folded beneath her, both shielding her from the rain that had soaked into the slabs and cushioning her. Her knees were bunched towards her chest, her right arm—now cleaned, sutured and dressed—rested atop them, whilst the balls of her sneakers pressed into the gravel and their heels gaped away from her gauze-bandaged soles. Shrapnel of bark from the black walnut tree littered the car park, along with fist-sized chunks of its upper branches. Some of those pieces still smouldered too, and the sweetness of woodsmoke and damp from the rain wove with the acridity of gasoline and burnt rubber.

The scene probably ought to have inspired some kind of awestruck horror, after all the explosion had been designed to kill her and the blown-in glass had left her with a meteor shower of tiny and not so tiny cuts across her hands, feet, face and arms, but with the gentle warmth of the flames fending off the winter chill and all the firefighters, paramedics, policemen, FBI agents, bomb squad technicians and members of her own detail milling around, she drank in the scene with a thirsty stare as though she were a child watching the crowd that had gathered for a bonfire.

Something niggled about that. A light frown settled on her brow. She opened her mouth, and then paused before murmuring, "We turned out all right...right?"

There came a shout from one of the firemen for everyone to get back as orange and scarlet flames flared beneath what used to be the front end of Kostov's car. The deck gun of the fire engine pivoted away from the row of blackened car shells that formed a series of stepping stones towards the blown-in window of the therapy room, and the spray of foam arced through the air towards the black walnut tree and the remnants of the Ford Focus.

"Sure," Will said, from where he sat beside her.

The trunk of the black walnut tree groaned and cracked. It strained against the last of the roots that tethered it to the grassy island, and as it hungered towards the ground, it levered Kostov's car higher and higher into the air, eliciting another cry of, 'Get back! Everybody back!' from a gesticulating fireman.

A moment later, the tree crashed to the gravel and a burst of flames rippled along its length before they divided and tore along the remaining branches.

Everyone stared on with wide eyes and open mouths, frozen in the echoing silence.

Everyone except for Elizabeth, whose chin had dipped as she tried to smother the smirk that had sprung to her lips. But it ached through her cheeks, and the pressure in her chest grew and grew, like bubbles mounting in a shaken up soda. The urge fizzled up until she couldn't bottle it anymore, she held her breath and pinned her bottom lip between her teeth, but then at the same time as Will, she burst into laughter. Her shoulders shook beneath the jacket that Will had draped around her and tears stung her eyes.