Page 25 of Burn With Me

“I’m Captain West from the 126, and this is Violet Clarke, one of the fire investigators. We were called in to take a look.” The officer waved us on through, and I parked near one of the fire trucks but kept it out of the way. “Do you see your boss?”

“Yeah, that’s him over there.” Vi nodded in the general direction of a man that looked to be in his fifties. “Okay, be honest. How horrible do I look?”

I took in the way her hair layered around her face and my cock ached with the urge to fuck her hard. The eye makeup was no longer perfect, but it somehow looked fantastic, and so did the way-too-large hoodie and track pants, right down to the adorable pink heels.

“You look good enough to eat,” I said, and her mouth fell open, closed again, and then opened once more. “Come on, we better go. Your boss is staring,” I said, fully aware of the pair of eyes watching us.

Getting out of the truck, I looked around at the scene and took in everything. The first thing I noticed was that there were a ton of people lingering on the perimeter. My eyes scanned the crowd. Not really sure what I was looking for, but something was needling my brain. With a serial arsonist that had surfaced a few months back, causing havoc, I now felt like every scene was this person’s doing. Sometimes it felt like this person was taunting me. The attacks were more frequent when I was on my shift, and I’d attended more fires in the last six weeks than I had the full year prior.

“Mitch, this is Captain Asher West. Asher, this is Mitch Randall, the head of the fire investigative services.” I held out my hand to the man who was all business as he shook it.

“This is interesting attire,” Mitch said as he glanced at Vi.

“Yeah sorry. We were out when you called, and I’d gotten wet, so Asher gave me his clothes,” Vi said.

I held back the chuckle, but the look on Mitch’s face was priceless.

“Oh shit, that sounded wrong. I mean, my clothes were wet from the rain and….” Vi’s face was as red as I’d seen it all night as she stumbled over her words. She was so fucking adorable when she did that. In a blink, her spine straightened, and her face was firm. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. I was off duty. You going to show me what you wanted me to see or what?”

Gone was the sweet and shy woman that wasn’t sure of her own sex appeal, and in her place was a calm and in control woman who was used to giving orders. I was impressed.

“I wouldn’t have called you out if I didn’t think this was important, but I knew you’d want to see this,” Mitch said as we walked into the structure and took the elevator to the top floor.

Stepping out, I was assaulted by two scents: gasoline and burnt rubber. Next was the sweet scent of some form of accelerant. Underneath it all, I could detect the hint of burnt flesh. It was a distinct smell, and it was something you never forgot.

The car had been extinguished, but it was still smoldering, and whoever had been in the driver’s seat had already been removed. The doors were blown open, and so had the trunk and the hood of the engine. This vehicle definitely exploded. I wasn't sure whether the fire started and hit the gas tank or the explosion came first, but the small bits of debris that littered the ground told me the car had burned hot and violent.

“Is this our arsonist again,” Vi asked as she slowly moved around the car, her keen eyes searching every square inch of the vehicle.

“Maybe, maybe not, but that is not what is so strange.” Mitch said walking over to an officer standing guard with an item in a plastic bag.

Mitch put on rubber gloves and reached into the bag to pull out what looked like a handful of credit cards. “I don’t think your apartment fire was an accident. I mean, we were pretty sure it was arson, but I’m positive your neighbor was the target.”

“Why do you say that,” Vi asked, making her way back around the car to where we were standing.

“Because of this.” He held up a driver’s license. It was easy to tell that it was the same woman. “And because my initial examination determined that there had been a bomb connected to the ignition. As soon as she turned the key, the whole car went up. I have no idea what your neighbor was into or whose path she crossed, but they wanted to make sure she wasn’t walking away.”

Vi stood with her hands on her hips and stared at the ID. Her body language said she was fine and unaffected, but her eyes told a different story. “Poor Kim. She’s so young. I wonder what’s going to happen to her now,” she said softly.

“It could be a coincidence,” Mitch said.

Vi shook her head. “No, there is no such thing. There was a reason her kitchen window wouldn’t open and this is why.” She nodded toward the car. “She was set up, and she was supposed to die. I screwed that up.” She chewed on her lower lip. “I should’ve seen that coming. I should’ve had an inkling to warn her. Maybe I could’ve prevented this.”

“No,” I said before Mitch could. “The fire at the apartment was professional. You said so yourself. If that person wanted your neighbor dead, then they were going to find another way, no matter what. There was nothing you could say to change that. You can’t blame yourself for someone else’s actions.”

“What he said,” Mitch said, putting the I.D. back in the plastic bag.

“I need your full attention on this case and the serial arsonist. I don’t know if they’re connected or not, but I want you to find out. I need you to figure out who this asshole is. You’re the best we have, Violet, and whatever resources you need, you’ll have them.”

“Sign my form,” she said and Mitch’s face fell.

“Not this again,” he said, and crossed his arms.

I didn’t know what they were talking about, but whatever it was, Vi now had the winning hand. It was easy to see that Mitch was going to cave as Vi laid down her metaphorical royal flush.

“You want me on this case and to be one-hundred percent focused, then sign my form,” she said.

“You do know this is your job, right?”