over and drop his pants. Although it was starting to look like maybe the Lazenby brothers hadn’t been joking about that. “A hundred pounds of pressure for the nozzle, twenty-five for each section of inch-and-a-half, forty-five for the nine stories above grade, and twenty-five for the standpipe. Nothing for the parallel two-and-a-halfs until you’re flowing more than two hundred gallons a minute. You’re pumping at two-twenty.”
“Try doing that out in the rain after you’ve been drilling for three hours.”
“Put me out in the rain and drill me for three hours.” Finney smiled.
Reese furrowed his brow. “You think the way your old man treated me was funny?”
“Not at all.” Finney had no idea where this was leading. If his father had been hard on Reese, he’d been hard on Finney, too. And on his brother. They’d suffered his wrath for a good many more years than Charlie Reese. Inside and outside the department Gil Finney had been a son of a bitch, and because of that, John had always kept his own counsel regarding his father, as he would now. Gil Finney had come into the fire department under a regime headed by flint-eyed men who’d fought in World War II and Korea, unforgiving men, a gruff bunch who schooled him until he was hard, too, the part of him that wasn’t steel to begin with. People either loved him or hated him, and on both sides of the fence they were intimidated by him.
Reese leaned against his desk and clasped his hands together. “Every time I ran into your old man, he made me look like a fool. I swore I was going to get even.”
“You’re going to outlive him, if that’s any consolation.” Finney thought it was ironic that Reese groused about Chief Finney, because as feared as his father had been in certain quarters, there were men who would have given their lives for him. On the flip side of the coin, there weren’t too many people who would spit the toothpick out of their mouths for Reese. Finney knew it had a lot to do with the indifference he displayed, as if he didn’t feel anything for the people working under him and wanted them to know it. In fact, it seemed to Finney that Reese was and always had been proud of how much he was disliked.
Reese gave him a long, withering look. “He used to go home and laugh about me, didn’t he?”
“I wouldn’t know. I barely spoke to him until after Leary Way.”
“Leary Way? Goddamn. I almost forgot about that. You’re not still bothering people over that fire, are you?”
Obviously it was poor interview strategy to bring up the night he’d lost his partner, and Finney felt like kicking himself for it. Still, the words were out of his mouth, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do. “I’m looking into it.”
“Still?”
“Still.”
“Tell you what,” said Reese, smugly. “Here’s your million-dollar question. Get this right and you’ve got the job. You’re deep inside a fire building. A wall collapses on your partner. You can’t dig him out. You have one radio between the two of you, but neither of you knows exactly where you are, so you can’t tell anybody how to get there. What do you do?”
“Charlie, is this a joke?”
“I think from now on you’d better call me
chief
.”
Finney felt a rush of heat in his face. Impossible and wrong as it seemed, he knew now that despite having the top score on the list, he wasn’t going to get promoted. Thirty-five lieutenants were going to come off that list, but he wouldn’t be one of them. Maybe Reese wanted an answer to his question. Maybe he didn’t. Finney knew giving him one wouldn’t change his mind.
For a few moments, Reese stared morosely at the wall. It wasn’t a joke, but he didn’t require an answer either. “I’m glad you came up. I needed a breather. You know, this job is like riding a bicycle around the inside of a tornado. Phone calls. Messages. Meetings. The mayor’s office. Carla and I are having dinner with Jon Stevenson tonight. The
“Try doing that out in the rain after you’ve been drilling for three hours.”
“Put me out in the rain and drill me for three hours.” Finney smiled.
Reese furrowed his brow. “You think the way your old man treated me was funny?”
“Not at all.” Finney had no idea where this was leading. If his father had been hard on Reese, he’d been hard on Finney, too. And on his brother. They’d suffered his wrath for a good many more years than Charlie Reese. Inside and outside the department Gil Finney had been a son of a bitch, and because of that, John had always kept his own counsel regarding his father, as he would now. Gil Finney had come into the fire department under a regime headed by flint-eyed men who’d fought in World War II and Korea, unforgiving men, a gruff bunch who schooled him until he was hard, too, the part of him that wasn’t steel to begin with. People either loved him or hated him, and on both sides of the fence they were intimidated by him.
Reese leaned against his desk and clasped his hands together. “Every time I ran into your old man, he made me look like a fool. I swore I was going to get even.”
“You’re going to outlive him, if that’s any consolation.” Finney thought it was ironic that Reese groused about Chief Finney, because as feared as his father had been in certain quarters, there were men who would have given their lives for him. On the flip side of the coin, there weren’t too many people who would spit the toothpick out of their mouths for Reese. Finney knew it had a lot to do with the indifference he displayed, as if he didn’t feel anything for the people working under him and wanted them to know it. In fact, it seemed to Finney that Reese was and always had been proud of how much he was disliked.
Reese gave him a long, withering look. “He used to go home and laugh about me, didn’t he?”
“I wouldn’t know. I barely spoke to him until after Leary Way.”
“Leary Way? Goddamn. I almost forgot about that. You’re not still bothering people over that fire, are you?”
Obviously it was poor interview strategy to bring up the night he’d lost his partner, and Finney felt like kicking himself for it. Still, the words were out of his mouth, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do. “I’m looking into it.”
“Still?”
“Still.”
“Tell you what,” said Reese, smugly. “Here’s your million-dollar question. Get this right and you’ve got the job. You’re deep inside a fire building. A wall collapses on your partner. You can’t dig him out. You have one radio between the two of you, but neither of you knows exactly where you are, so you can’t tell anybody how to get there. What do you do?”
“Charlie, is this a joke?”
“I think from now on you’d better call me
chief
.”
Finney felt a rush of heat in his face. Impossible and wrong as it seemed, he knew now that despite having the top score on the list, he wasn’t going to get promoted. Thirty-five lieutenants were going to come off that list, but he wouldn’t be one of them. Maybe Reese wanted an answer to his question. Maybe he didn’t. Finney knew giving him one wouldn’t change his mind.
For a few moments, Reese stared morosely at the wall. It wasn’t a joke, but he didn’t require an answer either. “I’m glad you came up. I needed a breather. You know, this job is like riding a bicycle around the inside of a tornado. Phone calls. Messages. Meetings. The mayor’s office. Carla and I are having dinner with Jon Stevenson tonight. The
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