Justin waited at the end of Bobwhite Lane to flag Miranda down. She couldn’t be more than a few minutes behind them, and he wanted to be the one to stop her. Things looked far worse than they were.

At number thirteen, her son was sitting in the open cab of Engine 3, wrapped in a blanket, holding Marvin. The cat, despite his role in the unfolding events, was peacefully settled in his boy’s lap, cleaning his paws.

Miranda’s Camry appeared around the corner of Coturnix and Justin took a deep breath...