Chapter Fifteen
Inferno
After we’d given our orders, he sat there with his sensible black coffee and a stack of paperwork that looked like it would give me a migraine.
Danner had a cop’s patience and a fireman’s tolerance for bullshit -- which was to say none -- so it surprised me he’d brought so much with him.
Normally, he’d have brought in the summary and left the rest in his vehicle.
I slid into the seat across from him. Danner didn’t look up as he tapped the file folder with two fingers, then pushed it across the table between us.
“Pulled it from the paper archives,” Danner said.
“Figured you want to see it all as it was written.” When he finally looked at me, his gaze lingered on mine for a beat.
“You told me you’d know it when you saw it. ”
I opened the folder open as the waitress came with our orders and Danner dug in.
The first page, the official summary, was neat and carefully printed in black ink.
I’d never known a fireman or medic who kept such clearly legible run sheets or reports unless there was a good Goddamned reason.
Most of the time we couldn’t read our own handwriting after the ink dried.
What had been hanging me up was the passage about the burn pattern at the north wall suggesting a possible accelerant, but that burn progression might also be consistent with aging wiring.
The conclusion was listed as undetermined…
which was the crux of the problem. The burn pattern wouldn’t have been mentioned if the investigator hadn’t been suspicious.
Photos of the unit’s interior after the fire were clipped in the back, glossy and in color.
The walls were streaked with black in three distinct locations.
I flipped them out onto the table to study them.
One at floor level, one shoulder-height, and one near the ceiling grid.
The accelerant had probably been poured in three places on her things at different heights but near each other, and some had slopped along the floor when it splashed.
Tin roof overhead had been burned away to nothing but warped struts.
I pulled one picture closer, squinting at the shadowed arc along the block wall.
Of course, most of this came from the reconstruction.
The place had not only ignited, but the vapor had exploded and some of the non-cinder block part had been blown away.
“You see it?” Danner’s voice was a rough whisper. “They’re counting on the eye tracking up, not down. If you look at the floor, you’ll see the true point of origin. The wall burns are staged.”
He slid a second sheet from the folder. Field notes, not part of the official file. Danner’s own handwriting this time. “My initial report showed I estimated five gallons of accelerant were used, probably more. Goddamned thing burned wicked hot.”
I nodded, more to myself than to him. “Multiple points,” I said, “but made to look like one.”
“Yep. And enough juice that there’s nothing left for a lab to test by the time the fire runs its course.
” Danner tapped the edge of the table for emphasis.
He didn’t look at the file. “Thing that always bugged me about this case is I always thought whoever set it got lucky. The more I think about it, I’m not so sure anymore. ”
“You think this is more than just a firebug.”
“Yeah, Jonah. I think this guy has perfected his technique and done this before.”
My mouth twisted. “But was this a warning or a message?”
My friend shrugged. “Both, maybe? The woman denied any gasoline or other flammable liquid being stored in her unit, but the initial investigator stated he was told she’d inquired about storing extra gas for her lawn mower, though no name was provided as to who heard the statement.
” He made a noncommittal sound. “You want to tell me what you plan to do with this?”
I closed the folder and looked him in the eye. “Let’s say there’s a guy with a history of torching properties that mean something to women he can’t control. I intend to stop the pattern of bad behavior.”
Danner’s lips twitched. “Not my business, so long as a repeat performance doesn’t make its way onto my desk.” He didn’t blink. “But if you’re planning anything illegal, it doesn’t come from this file. You understand?”
I grinned. “Loud and clear, Danner. Appreciate you going out on a limb. More than I can say.”
He drained the last of his coffee and wiped his mouth before standing, leaving the folder in front of me. “You don’t owe me anything for this,” he said in a low tone, “but if you ever need to make something disappear, you call first. I’m not one to rat out one of my best friends. So don’t make me.”
I gave him a respectful nod. “I promise, Frank.”
I had very little memory of the ride back to the compound.
My mind was working too hard to concentrate on anything but the folder in my saddlebag.
I needed to think about all this. Make a whiteboard or something to visualize it because I knew I had all the information right in front of me. I just hadn’t connected all the dots.
Once inside the compound, I headed to mine and Juniper’s apartment. She sat in the living room and looked up when I opened the door.
She sat up straighter. “Is that it?” she asked.
I nodded and dropped the file on the table. “It’s not pretty. You want the highlights or the horror show?”
She crossed her arms over her chest, her expression hardening. “Give me everything.” That was my girl.
I laid out the whole thing, just like Danner had done for me. “Officially, the fire in the unit was undetermined, but Danner wasn’t convinced. Not then, not now.”
She didn’t flinch, flicking through the photos, her jaw tightening with each page she turned. The meanness in her eyes was colder than before. And yeah. My cock sat up and took notice.
“He did this to a woman before,” Juniper said.
“Yeah,” I said. “She’s an ex-girlfriend. The storage unit she rented went up after she left him. He was never charged, but I’d bet my left nut he was involved.”
She tapped the photo -- burn marks crawling up the wall, just like Danner said. “Walk me through how it works,” she said. “What does five gallons of accelerant actually do? Like, physically?”
“You pour it into the right place, it’s a wall of fire before anyone can react.
If you stage it, it looks like old wiring or bad luck.
But you use five gallons, and it’s deliberate.
It’ll burn so hot and fast there’s nothing for arson investigators to test. Especially if the building already stored something like gas or oil.
The bastard who did this, he’s done it more than once. ”
“So she violated the company’s policy and voided her insurance?”
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?”
She studied the papers, flipping through and skimming. “I don’t understand the technical aspects of the investigation, but…”
“But?” I prompted.
“If there was a possibility of her bringing in large quantities of flammable liquid, why didn’t the insurance company review the security footage to see? Places like that have to have pretty good security cameras.”
“Good call.” I grinned at her. “Except that, in the days leading up to the fire, the security system had an issue. All the storage renters were notified by email or text and also in writing. That was two days before the fire.”
“Convenient,” she mused, meeting my gaze.
“It certainly is.”
Juniper’s lips curled, and it wasn’t a pleasant sight. Kind of gave me chills while simultaneously bringing all the blood in my body straight to my dick. “You think Brett’s planning to do this again. To my building this time.”
“Yeah.” I started laying out the purchase records Knight had pulled. “He bought ten gallons of racing fuel from less than reputable sources. That’s enough to level the bakery and whatever’s next to it. He also bought trackers. We found the one in your recipe box, but there could be another one.”
“Why now?” she asked. “If the review bombs and the health complaints didn’t work, why torch the place? He doesn’t even get the insurance if I lose everything.”
I shrugged. “Best guess? He wants to see you broken. The cash offer was a test. The fake reviews, the inspectors, your girl quitting. Death by a thousand cuts. Now that you’ve refused to budge, he escalates.
He tries to make it look like a freak accident or carelessness on your part.
Maybe he even doesn’t try to hide that it’s arson.
Maybe he makes it look like you did this and you lose the insurance money, as well as end up in prison for insurance fraud.
” I saw her anger grow with each passing second.
Though I didn’t want to cause her more distress, seeing her ready to fight suited me much better than tears.
“This is straight-up predator bullshit, Juniper. And it ends with you, whether you agree or not. So don’t ask to be involved or even know what’s going on if you can’t handle the fact that this fucker is going to die. ”
“You’re not doing anything without me,” she said. “I’m not ignorant, so I’m not going to pretend to not understand what you’re talking about. So I will say this. Either we’re a team, or there is no ‘us’.”
“All right, then.”
She looked contemplative. “You think he’ll use the same stuff? Do things the same way?”
“He’s a creature of habit,” I said. “He uses what he trusts. Knight’s tracking the transactions, but the way this is set up, he can strike and be gone in under two minutes.
If we’re not on-site and ready before he lights it, it will be too dangerous to approach.
The only variable is degrees of destruction. ”
She exhaled, jaw clenched. “I really hate that fucker,” she muttered. “Do you want me to keep the shop closed?”
“I’d prefer it. I know you have bills, but you have to know the club will help you out. We can live here. This place takes care of itself.”