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Yep, Lucy definitely liked him. “Very,” she said, as Isabella and Sam both nodded in agreement.
“Excellent. In that case, since I’ve already read the arson investigation file on the warehouse fire and the incident reports from the RPD on the other fires, I’d like to start with what the two of you saw, if that’s okay.”
Lucy blinked. She hadn’t expected to have such an active role in this part of the case. But she wasn’t about to shy away from doing whatever she needed to put this arsonist away before he hurt somebody. She turned toward Sam just in time to register his heel doing its rapid-fire micro-tap. The movement was so slight that she wouldn’t have even caught it unless she’d turned at that exact second. But she had, and something flipped like a switch in her brain, realization blooming.
His ideas were racing, and he needed somewhere to send them, some sort of action to take so they didn’t overwhelm him.
“Sam, do you want to take first crack at this since you were on point at the warehouse fire?” Lucy asked.
Gratitude mixed with surprise, both widening his stare, but he nodded. “Sure, of course.”
Sam recapped his version of events from the warehouse fire, starting with seeing someone through the window and his decision to go inside against orders, then moving through the rest. They repeated the process with what Lucy recalled, then went over the other fires with Isabella’s input, and finally, Dallas sat back against the love seat.
“I think it’s important to start with a distinction,” he said. “Pyromaniacs and arsonists are technically not the same thing. Arson is a criminal act, done with malicious intent. There’s always a motive, like covering up a crime or destroying evidence. Vandalism falls under this umbrella, too. The motive is to be destructive.”
“Malicious intent,” Lucy repeated, cataloguing the information in her head.
“Exactly,” Dallas said. “But pyromania is a psychiatric condition. Like kleptomania, it’s an impulse control disorder. It’s compulsive. Pathological. And, obviously, very dangerous if left untreated.”
Lucy’s thoughts spun. “So, which do you think our guy is?”
“It’s rare, but given what we know about the warehouse fire, it’s plausible that we’re looking at a pyromaniac and not an arsonist,” Dallas said. “The fire was clearly well-planned and meant to be a large-scale event. He could’ve very well set it to watch it burn.”
Isabella’s brows drew together in thought. “Then there’s no way this was his first fire.”
“It could have been his first on this scale, but if we’re dealing with a true pyromaniac? Definitely not,” Dallas said by way of agreement. “It’s very feasible that these other fires are also his work, along with any number of others we haven’t yet uncovered.”
Shock straightened Lucy’s spine. “You think there are more fires?”
“Almost certainly.” Dallas’s shrug was anything but dismissive. “Pyromania often manifests early and escalates over time, although it can also be exacerbated or even triggered by things like drug use or traumatic events. But the behavior isn’t isolated. In fact, there are a lot of experts who view it as a kind of addiction, so chances are, this is someone whose obsession with fire has been documented—or, at the very least, noted by the adults close to him.”
“Capelli is already combing the database for any similar crimes,” Isabella said, which didn’t surprise Lucy one bit. “It’s a process to cross-check everything with Nat’s records, but so far, the recent fires are the only matches we’ve found to this guy’s M.O.”
Sam shifted to lean in closer, looking at Isabella. “Could he have done this somewhere else, maybe?”
“Our DB is statewide,” Isabella said, pondering. “But, sure, it’s possible.”
“Either that, or maybe he experienced a recent trauma, which made him escalate,” Dallas suggested, and ugh, narrowing this down was going to be a nightmare.
“Okay, so he’s smart,” Lucy said, counting the facts with her fingers to keep them ordered in her mind. “He’s done this before and he probably has some kind of a record, although maybe not criminal. What else can we use to narrow down his identity before he sets fire to something else?”
Dallas thought about this for a second, his blond brows drawn together tightly. “Well, pyromaniacs are driven by impulse,” he said. “But that impulse isn’t necessarily to set the fire alone. Whoever did this wanted that warehouse to burn, and the chances are extremely high that he was close enough to watch as it did.”
“Only, it didn’t burn,” Sam said slowly, his mouth flattening into a thin line as he looked at Lucy. “At least, not all the way, like the other fires. Captain Bridges was going to let it—we knew the warehouse was abandoned, so it was SOP to let it burn, then water it down once the fire had run its course. But then we ran in and Bridges changed the plan. The RFD put that fire out rather than letting it burn, per protocol, becausewewere inside.”
Lucy’s mind raced, the facts flying around and rearranging themselves in her head until…
Oh. Oh,God.
“And the person who set the fire knows it, because he was there.”
22
Athousand thoughts slammed through Sam’s brain, each of them screaming for attention. But one was louder than all the others, taking up space and demanding to be heard.
Lucy was in danger, and he had to keep her safe.
“We need to find this guy.Now,”he said, and funny, that got everyone’s attention fast.
