“What’s up, D?” I call back.
“The fire’s out. Give it another half hour, then go in and do your thing.”
I nod in thanks and as I get to my feet, Dom reaches over and puts a hand on my arm. I give him a curious look and he arches an eyebrow in return.
“Nothing ever gets done when time is being wasted,” I explain with a grin as I walk toward what’s left of the house. And if I want to find out what caused the fire, I have to get in there and start investigating sooner rather than later.
Chapter 2
I lick my lips as I watch.
She’s going in to see my work.
She’ll look for the cause, critique what I’ve done, and write up a report.
But will she see what I’ve left for her?
She’s missed it so many times before, though I know if she does see it, she’ll understand.
She doesn’t know I’m hunting her—that I have been for years. We’re locked in a game of hide and seek, and soon, I’ll show her there’s beauty to be found in pain.
I go to sleep each night, tossing and turning, as thoughts of her consume me. Soon, I’ll return the favor.
For now, we have to continue our dance. We have a few more notes to play before our story ends on the most beautiful sonata the world will have ever seen.
I take another step back as people begin to walk up the street toward the commotion. They don’t know it, but they’re providing me shelter in the wide open. I’ll be just another face in the crowd until the time is right to continue strumming the chords that will pave the way to the pre-chorus.
One of the people that has come to watch the great fire chief and her crew work inadvertently bumps into me and turns immediately to offer an apology, but I’ve already moved away from the crowd.
I’ll wait until morning for the local newspaper to publish part of her report and devour each and every word. She’s called me a genius so far as well as a madman, though I don’t take the latter to heart.
She just has to see me again and she’ll know why.
Then the fires will stop.
The world will make sense again and the song will be over.
I bury my hands deep into my pockets as I continue walking down the street, my head low. The feeling of achievement that accompanies the night fires swells inside of me as the tips of my fingers graze the lighter in my pocket.
Sing for me again, Makena.
It’s been far too long.
Chapter 3
I roll my neck on my shoulders as I sit at my desk, dropping my forehead into my hand. I’m tired, it’s three in the damn morning, and I’m still not done with my report.
D offered to stay with me until I finished, but I sent him home.
He shouldn’t have to take a verbal lashing from his wife for doing his job and then pulling over time simply because he wants to make sure I make it to my car okay.
I don’t get her. She gets so angry when he rushes out of the house, but I guess that can be attributed to the fact that they have a three-month-old baby that wakes up screaming whenever his daddy barrels out to save the day or night.
I’ll have to run some relays with him and show him how to lighten those big ole steps of his, I think with a tired chuckle as I stifle a yawn.
This can wait until morning.
Everything always can, but I don’t want to lose any memory of what I’ve seen, and I need to go over the pictures that Dom’s technicians took at the crime scene. I ruled it arson almost as soon as I stepped into the house. I could see traces of starter fluid which I followed all the way to the back of the half burnt to hell structure and that’s when I saw something peculiar.
I made sure that Dom’s team got pictures of everything in that room, and then ordered everyone out when a beam fell from the top floor and crashed down through the ceiling of the room we were in.
Then it collapsed.
The entire damn thing collapsed mere moments after we evacuated the building. It makes me angry that someone put so much effort into destroying as much evidence as they could, and almost killed a small group of good men in the process.
It’s obvious to me that whoever has been starting these fires is the same person. More than likely a white male in his mid to late twenties with nothing better to do with his time. He probably lives at home with his parents, in the basement so he feels better about himself, and jacks off to bad mommy porn.
It’s always the fucking weirdos that do this kind of shit.
I sit back in my chair and rub my eyes, then widen them after blinking rapidly a few times. With a sigh, I get to my feet and head into the break room to get a cup of lukewarm coffee so I can continue my report.
Or it could be someone that just happens to like fires, doesn’t know how to stop them when they start them, and then runs away before the good guys come to save the day.
Whoever it happens to be has done a damn fine job of covering their tracks so far, but I’ll catch up to him eventually. It’s part of my duties and I’m very good at what I do. Besides, the sooner I catch him, the sooner the people in this damn county can rest easy.
With almost one million residents, this is one of the largest counties in the States and it’s my job to keep them safe from the crazy people that were bitten by the
