“Is everything okay? Why are you calling from an unknown number?”
Sirens blared in the background, and I coughed when the shifting wind blew smoke and chemicals into my face.
“Are you okay?”
“Everyone’s fine, but someone threw burning trash onto the clinic’s lawn.”
A little freaked out, but fine.
“The fire didn’t reach the clinic. It’s just, it seems weird that they’d throw it so far on the lawn.”
“Want me to come down?” Concern laced his voice.
“Only if you’re not busy.” And only because it might be arson. If it was, I wanted my brother kept in the loop.
“I’ve got an hour before my next client. I’ll head over and talk to the police. See what they say.”
“Thanks, baby brother. “
His sigh made me chuckle. “Twenty-two minutes, Madi.”
“Long enough to make me older.” It was a lifelong running joke between us, and I had no intention of ever letting him forget he was my younger brother.
“I’m on my way,” Jamie said with a laugh.
“Thanks.”
A big red fire engine pulled in front of the clinic.
I apologized for making them come out since I’d extinguished the fire, but they told me calling 9-1-1 was the right choice.
Calling out first responders felt like overkill, but I wanted to report the incident. Weatherford FD would decide if they needed to investigate.
Like Dad always says, better safe than sorry.
Which was exactly what I told Officer Campbell, who went by Sammie when she worked at SSI, when I gave her my statement.
The firefighters were making sure the fire was thoroughly out when Jamie arrived.
“Sammie, I’m glad it’s you,” Jamie said as he approached.
“You know I can’t tell you anything about an ongoing investigation,” she said.
“I know.”
Jamie hugged me, squeezing a little tighter than necessary, before saying, “I’ll be right back.” He walked to the small pile of smoking trash and talked to the firefighters. Before coming back to my side, he handed them business cards. No doubt he’d follow up with them.
“Are we thinking arson?” he asked.
“It’s possible, but what’d they hope to gain?” Sammie nodded towards the scorched grass as she answered. “It was probably kids being careless. We’ll see what the fire investigator says, but most likely they put a cigarette butt in the bag and tossed it out the window.”
She had a point. If they’d wanted to set the building on fire, they’d missed by several yards.
“Perhaps.”
Jamie sounded like he considered it an intentional act of violence directed at the clinic.
He turned towards the porch, then scanned the road. Despite having left the Weatherford police force five years ago, Jamiestill looked and acted like a cop. Probably because being a PI was a lot like being a police detective, minus the uniform, the red tape, the shitty hours, and the political bullshit.
