Page 2 of Breathe

“Didn’t you have security cameras? Can you get any leads?”

“I’ll have to leave those questions for the fire chief and the police,” he said, sweeping a hand behind him where the men in uniform were standing. “But I want to emphasize that the fire was not the fault of the employees. It’s all too easy to set fire to a lumber mill if someone really wants to. We spend a lot of time and energy reducing fire risk, but it can’t be eliminated altogether.”

“Who do you think did it?”

Kane gave a magnificent, all-encompassing shrug. Fielding Paper were the good guys. He couldn’t have any enemies. “Just someone with a fixation for setting fire to things, I guess.”

He put one hand in his pocket and slouched to indicate that he was relaxed and confident in everyone’s ability to fix this problem. “Our reputation means that people won’t settle for less than Fielding Paper,” he said, leaning more heavily on his Boston accent, as it was part of his image, part of the centuries-old story of the company. “I’m happy to say that we’ll have no problem delivering on our orders.” Don’t worry, his body language said, I got this. Never mind that in his head a voice was hammering what if what if what if... What if there’s another one... What if I can’t fix things this time... What if the next time someone dies?

Someone with a sly edge to her voice said, “On a different subject, are you dating anyone we know?”

Kane grinned at her and said, “Why? Are you offering?” The crowd laughed. The reporter held his look and grinned back. To Kane, this showed that he’d succeeded; if they’d moved on to his social life, they had stopped worrying about the future of his company. If he could convince them, maybe he could convince himself.