Page 7 of Heat Advisory

I arrived to find Thompson and a few others already there, including Trent. He worked with me at Station 12 often on the same shift as me, so we were part of the same family. He’d been great, up until he learned we were both applying for the inspector job. We were still civil, but there was definitely tension when it came to the job opening.

“Rainer, thanks for joining us on your day off,” Thompson greeted me. “I’ll have you both follow the BAER team and assist where you can.”

He assigned Trent to follow a man named Bernard, and I was to follow Darren.

We worked side by side with Burned Area Emergency Response—or BAER—on these cases, so I was looking forward to getting some hands-on experience. Bernard was the team leader, and I was hoping to follow him since he had two decades of experience, but I was happy for the opportunity period, so I would go with my guy and learn what I could.

Darren was on the taller side, maybe an inch or so shorter than me, but he was definitely skinnier and lacked any real muscle mass. He had black hair that was fully styled with way too much gel for investigating in the woods. He was lucky the fires were out, or his hair would be one of the first things to go with all those flammable products in it.

This particular fire had been on the northern side of a state forest, which meant protected land that was hard to get to. In theory, that should limit our available suspects, but I’d learned over the years that crazy people would go to extremes to set these fires. The fire had spread quickly thanks to all the dry brush, but since there were no homes or businesses on park property, there was no structural damage.

After following Darren and his crew around for over an hour, I was convinced he was an egotistical idiot. He’d only started a few months ago but acted like he ran the department.

“I’ll have you know that dry trees burn faster than moist ones,” Darren had informed us.

No shit, Captain Obvious.

It was why we always did safety lessons on our station’s social media page about keeping Christmas trees well-watered. A dry, neglected Christmas tree could go up in flames in just ten seconds.

He knew a lot about the forest and fires, but his cocky bedside manner could use some work.

I’d noticed a few others on his team occasionally rolling their eyes, so at least I wasn’t the only one.

At the end, I’d met back up with Trent while we waited for Thompson.

“What was Bernard like?” I asked, curious how he compared to Darren.

“Fine.” Trent shrugged his shoulders, sounding bored. “He’s no more qualified than we are for this gig, so I just followed along and smiled at everything he said and pretended to care. He’s old, so hopefully he’ll be out soon and I can take over.”

I fought the groan that I really wanted to release.

Jesus. From one egotistical asshole to another.

The biggest takeaways were that the fires were definitely arson, and whoever was setting them was growing more confident, increasing both in frequency and aggression.

That evening, I finally had the time to message Cora. After an exhausting day, this was just the medicine I needed.

Me:

If you’re not busy, would you like to grab breakfast on Monday? I could also use some help to pick out whatever ugly penguin suit my sister has insisted I wear to her wedding.

Cora:

You haven’t tried on your tux yet? It’s less than a month away!

Of course, that was the part she would focus on.

Me:

Not yet. So, is that a yes to breakfast, and then you’ll go with me to help me figure out what to wear?

I saw the dots pop up and then disappear once and then a second time. Shit. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned the suit. Just food.

Cora:

Sure. How about I meet you at the café across the street from the bridal store at eight?

Me: