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THEO
I’d been dealingwith too much paperwork this morning. It had only been a couple hours since I dropped Sara off at work, but I hadn’t been able to get her out of my head. And having nothing interesting distracting me here wasn’t helping. I considered taking my lunch break to go check on her, but since I was later than usual this morning, it would be a bad look to leave again this early.
I read through reports from my deputies and officers. A couple DUIs, a shoplifting report from one of the downtown stores. Drew Olsen was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct. That piqued my interest.
The report stated he was drunk and tried to start a fight at O’Reilly’s pub. When they threw him out, he got belligerent and refused to leave. Drew wasn’t a bad guy, but he’d been through some real shit lately and I felt for him. Maybe I’d go check on him later, see if there was something I could do to help.
And that thought reminded me I had dinner plans with my mom later. I set a reminder in my phone so I wouldn’t forget to order the lobster rolls. I wonder if Sara would want to go with me?
Huh. I’d really just considered bringing a woman over to my mom’s house. This was an interesting development. I still didn’t want Sara to be alone right now, but there were options. So why did I not want her to take advantage of those? Did I really want to introduce her to my mom? When we weren’t even officially anything? I didn’t even know how all that worked. But for the first time in my life, I wasn’t nervous about the thought of it.
A knock at my door stole my attention. I looked up to see Dane, the new county fire marshal, standing in the doorway.
“Hey man, you have a few minutes?”
“Sure. You settling in okay?” I gestured to the chairs in front of my desk and he took a seat in one.
“Yeah, finally got all unpacked.”
“You down on the south side?”
“Yeah, I bought a little place on Pine Hill Drive.”
“Ah, that’s a nice neighborhood,” I said, thinking how I’d just been there a couple weeks ago, doing the walk of shame from that one night stand. Crazy to think how so much could change in such a short time. I didn’t know where I stood with Sara, but I sure as hell wasn’t interested in hooking up with anyone else anymore. And that in itself was a whole revelation.
“…so I thought you might want to come along?”
Damn, I was missing things because my mind was on Sara overload. I had to figure out a way to exist without thinking about that hippie every second of the day.
He continued, “I still have to finish writing up the report but it’s looking like arson for sure, both the Dugan property and the lumber mill.”
“Christ, really?” I sat up, paying rapt attention now.
“Yeah. I just wrapped up on site at the Dugan property. Found two points of origin. Possibly three, but lab testing will confirm that. I just wanted to take another look at the second scene because there are enough similarities to get my sixth sense tingling.”
“Shit. You think we have a serial arsonist on our hands?”
“Well we’d need more confirmed fires for us to call it that. Which hopefully doesn’t happen. But it’s concerning for sure.”
I released a deep sigh and looked at the sign on my door that read “Sheriff.” The responsibility of being sheriff was a heavy one, and I knew in my heart I was the right person for the job. But when some unknown attacker was coming after my town, the gravity of it all weighed heavily on me.
I was never one to shy away from doing what was right or from hard work. I thought of Sara again. She was hard work. And for once in my life, when it came to a woman, I wanted to put the work in. She was worth it, just like this town I loved.
I stood up and nodded at Dane.
“Let’s roll out.”
* * *
The sun’s glare on the white hood of my police cruiser stung my eyes as we pulled up to the lumber mill. Or what was left of it.
Most of the building was gone. The roof had caved in but the back wall and part of the right wall were still standing, creating an ominous, charred diorama. Trucks parked next to the building had gone up in flames too, effectively destroying the business. At least until the insurance money came in. But with Dane calling it arson, that was going to be a fight.
I walked up to what used to be the entrance, the smell of smoke still hanging in the air, and observed the ruins. There wasn’t as much ash as I expected, though that could have blown away with the strong spring winds. It was mostly just blackened rubble spread out over the entire foundation.
“We’re still running tests on accelerant,” Dane said, coming up behind me. “First point of origin is over here.”
He pointed to the left front corner, where I knew the office used to be. “The head moved up this way, along the west wall, came in contact with origin point number two, then moved right. The flanks moved out from either side, and it spread from there.”
“And with all this dry wood around, it didn’t take long.”
“Yeah. The real question, or one of them anyway, is why the sprinkler system didn’t go off. Places like this should have a good set-up.”
“I was wondering the same thing myself. Have you spoken with Tucker yet?”
“Not yet. He’s been a little hard to pin down.”
I rolled my eyes. Tucker Pyle was one of those who liked to lawyer up just for jaywalking. This mill meant everything to him. It was all he really had, so I doubted he was responsible, but he was a paranoid guy. Probably thought cooperating with the investigation would come back to bite him when the claims adjuster came around.
“So what are the similarities you were talking about?”
Dane walked around the foundation to the west side and gestured with his hands.
“See the pattern? The path the fire took? It’s not all that unique, but it tells a story. How the perp moved, among other things. It’s interesting because it’s identical to the fire at the Dugan’s property.”
“Damn. I knew it was suspicious to have two fires so close together in such a short amount of time. But I was really hoping it was a coincidence.”
“Not much is, in my experience.”
“No shit.”
My eyes combed over the wreckage again. Who would want to damage the mill? Someone who had it out for Tucker? But where did Jim Dugan fit in? They didn’t really run in the same circles as far as I knew. Jim was a fisherman, and was a good fifteen years younger than Tucker. Moon Harbor was a small town, so most people knew everyone else, but not always in a familiar way, and I couldn’t recall the two men ever having a mutual connection.
“When should we get the lab results back?” I asked.
“They said probably within a week.”
I just hoped nothing else caught flames before then.
