Chapter 16 Holt
HOLT
The morning sun streamed through the windows of the Sandpiper Shores Police Station as Holt settled into the small office Chief Morrison had arranged for him.
The desk was cluttered with case files from the catastrophe ten years ago and the previous night’s fire.
A fresh cup of coffee steamed beside his laptop.
Despite the early hour, Holt felt more energized than he had in weeks.
Having a purpose again, something concrete to focus on, was exactly what he needed.
The sound of footsteps in the hallway announced Tom’s arrival, and Holt looked up as the police chief appeared in the doorway.
“Have you got everything you need?” Tom asked.
“Yes, thank you,” Holt said, his eyes scanning the documents. “I’m just going through it all and will make notes.”
“Okay, keep me updated if you find anything,” Tom told him. “Or need anything else.”
“I will,” Holt said.
“I’ll let you get back to it,” Tom said and left.
Holt took a sip of his coffee before turning back to the reports.
He decided to start with the previous night’s incident, methodically reviewing every witness statement and photograph.
The illegal campsite bothered him—the placement seemed too strategic, too calculated for random campers.
The abandoned equipment told a story of either extreme carelessness or deliberate staging.
But it was the gasoline can that had captured his investigative attention. Ace had found it hidden in brush that hadn’t burned, suggesting someone who understood fire behavior well enough to ensure the evidence survived. That level of sophistication didn’t match a casual arsonist.
Holt reached for the main file from ten years ago, the thick folder that contained the investigation into Shaun Parker’s death and the fire that had devastated the community. The cover had a note marked ‘See folders’ with an arrow pointing to a stack of numbered folders beside it.
Curious, Holt opened the first numbered folder.
Inside was documentation of a small fire that had occurred three weeks before the fatal blaze.
It was a brush fire behind one of the downtown businesses.
Officially ruled electrical, but the investigator’s notes mentioned scorch patterns inconsistent with that conclusion.
The second folder contained reports of another small fire at the edge of the official campground a few days before Shaun’s death. There was no registered camper for that site, and it had been attributed to an unattended campfire.
As Holt worked through each numbered folder, a chilling pattern emerged.
Someone had been systematically setting small fires around Sandpiper Shores for weeks before the devastating blaze.
Each incident had been carefully planned, the locations chosen to test emergency response times and procedures.
But there was something else. In several of the folders, witness statements mentioned the same person appearing at multiple fire scenes. A young man claiming to be an independent news podcaster, asking questions about the response efforts and taking extensive photographs and video.
Holt jotted down the file numbers and the recurring mentions of this journalist. The same individual kept appearing as a spectator, always asking questions, always documenting everything. Gilbert Fry was that man’s name, and it appeared in witness statement after witness statement.
Reaching for the main folder again, Holt noticed another note from Willa on the cover: “See back of folder.” He flipped it over, and his eyebrows shot up at what he found written there.
Incidents aimed at emergency personnel before the tragic fire:
Captain Shaun Parker’s bookshelves collapsed in his office, nearly hitting him in the head.
Captain Shaun Parker was trapped in the file room when filing cabinets mysteriously got toppled over.
Captain Shaun Parker was trapped in his office when his door handle broke—this was later seen as sabotage.
A fire started in Captain Shaun Parker’s waste paper bin when he was out at a fire scene.
Captain Shaun Parker’s tires were slashed on his Fire Captain’s SUV.
Captain Shaun Parker was attacked by a masked man after leaving a shift in the early hours of the morning. He got five stitches in his arm, and the assailant disappeared.
Lieutenant Travis Markham was also attacked after standing in for Shaun a few nights later, when coming off a shift in the early hours of the morning.
Lieutenant (at the time) Willa Parker also had her vehicle’s tires slashed.
The trash bins at the back of Willa and Shaun Parker’s house were set ablaze.
By the time Holt had finished reading the list of incidents that led up to the main fire, it was plain to see that Shaun and probably Willa as well had been specific targets. This wasn’t random violence. It was someone who had been systematically terrorizing the fire captain and his family.
Holt flipped through the main file and saw that Lieutenant Travis Markham was listed as one of the firefighters who had been killed in the fire with Shaun. The targeting had escalated to the fire that had taken Shaun, Travis, and two other firefighters’ lives.
One thing Holt couldn’t remember was how exactly they had died. Holt remembered the incident from news reports, but he’d never learned the specific details of how Shaun and the other three firefighters had lost their lives.
He flipped through the pages until he found the incident report, then stopped short as he read the devastating details.
They’d been trapped in a cabin with Gilbert Fry, who had locked them all inside the blazing cabin.
The report stated that Fry had barricaded the doors from the inside, preventing his escape and that of the firefighters who had come to confront him.
Holt sat back in his chair and stared at the report.
Something about the entire scenario didn’t sit right with him.
He turned the page and found the police report on the deaths.
Gilbert Fry was described as a twenty-two-year-old independent journalist who had been making a name for himself by investigating small-town corruption and elite cover-ups through his podcast called “Hidden Truth.” The show had gained a following for exposing local political scandals and conspiracy theories in rural communities across Florida.
After Fry died in the fire, all the incidents and fires had stopped completely, and the case was promptly closed.
But what Holt saw in the investigative work troubled him deeply.
The detective work appeared sloppy, with no meaningful follow-up investigations.
The detective who had handled the case, the man Rad had recently replaced, had written that there seemed to be no connection between Fry and any of the firefighters, including Captain Parker.
Holt hadn’t even been present during the investigation, but just reading the files had his mind spinning with unanswered questions. His brows furrowed as he considered the glaringly obvious problems with the official conclusion.
Why hadn’t anyone tried to establish a clear motive for what Fry was doing? If there was no connection to Captain Parker, why was Fry specifically targeting him and his family? What were Fry’s actual motives for the incidents and setting the fires?
His eyes dropped back to the police file, where he found the official motive listed: “Possible Motive: Gilbert Fry was trying to make a bigger name for himself in investigative journalism, so he staged everything for podcast content and audience growth.”
Holt shook his head in disbelief and made a note to research Gilbert Fry’s background more thoroughly. The suggested motive made no logical sense. Why would someone seeking fame lock themselves in a burning building, guaranteeing their own death?
Then he searched the report for any mention of devices or evidence that might have been recovered from the scene. The report stated that Fry was at all the fire scenes, taking photos and videos, and asking questions. More importantly, he wanted to know whose cabin they had been trapped in.
Flipping through the file again, Holt found no clear answer to that crucial question.
The more he read, the more questions arose in his mind.
The biggest red flag about Gilbert Fry remained the fundamental question of motivation.
Why target Shaun Parker specifically? If the goal was really podcast fame and audience engagement, why lock himself in a burning cabin, ensuring his own death?
Whose cabin was it, anyway? Was it Gilbert’s rental, or someone else’s property?
Nothing in the official investigation made logical sense.
The inconsistencies and gaps in the investigation were troubling enough that Holt decided he needed more information. He gathered the files and headed next door to the fire station, hoping to find Willa and get her perspective on the case.
He found her in the apparatus bay, conducting a routine equipment check on one of the fire trucks.
When she looked up and saw him approaching, that same protective feeling hit him again.
A surge of concern that he automatically attributed to her being June’s daughter.
Given his and June’s complicated history, such feelings were only natural.
“Director Dillinger,” Willa said, seeming genuinely pleased to see him. “How can I help you?”
“Could we talk somewhere private?” Holt asked. “I have some questions about the investigation from ten years ago.”
“Of course,” Willa said, setting down her clipboard. “Let’s go to my office.”
Her office was small but efficiently organized, with commendation certificates on the walls and family photos on her desk. Holt noticed a picture of Shaun in his dress uniform, forever young and smiling.
“I’ve been going through the files from the fire that killed your husband,” Holt said gently, opening the folder. “I have some concerns about how the investigation was handled.”