Page 64 of Burn With Me

We stood quietly, staring down at the folders for a few minutes. I realized that this was new for her as well. Vi was not the type to let people in, and her work had become her joy. What threw me off was that I had a new craving simmering in my system. I wanted to become her joy.

“What’s your theory,” she asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

Reluctantly, I moved away from her and pointed to the piles I’d already searched.

“I began cross-referencing when this new arsonist came on the scene. I still haven’t tracked down what his first fire was, but I’m confident we will get there.” I picked up the pile of fires that I didn’t think had anything to do with the new arsonist. “I don’t think these are him.”

Vi’s forehead wrinkled up as she looked at me. “Okay, how did you draw that conclusion?”

“I was looking for three specific things. The first was whether it was still deemed suspicious, but with no real accelerant found. Our guy is smart, and he either puts on a display like at the warehouse, or no one ever knows he’s coming. Either way, there seems to be a very specific pattern. He sets the fires so they move like they are alive. They don’t move like regular fire.”

Vi rubbed her arms. “Why is it that just feels entirely too creepy?”

I smiled at her.

“It is, and yet it’s kind of beautiful in this weird way.” She cocked a brow at me. “Okay, creepy it is. Anyway, the next thing I looked for was if someone did indeed die. Not all the fires here have a death, some are just random abandoned buildings, but no one was inside. That is not our guy. Everything he’s been doing feels like it has a purpose.”

“I feel you getting more excited. What have you figured out?” She looked closer at the sticky notes I’d set up for the piles.

“Excited is the wrong word, but maybe happy that I’m onto something? Okay, what if I told you that I thought that our guy was a vigilante or maybe an antihero type?”

“What do you mean?”

Taking a deep breath I picked up the folders that I was pretty sure were our guy and tried to shake off the unease settling in my chest.

“You’d asked me what was wrong when we went to see Kim. I saw her body language. She had the same reactions I gave people when I was young. My father was not a nice man. Most days, my brother and I called him the monster and for good reason. From the moment he arrived home from work until he left again, we would either hide as best we could or leave home.”

“Oh, Asher, I’m so sorry,” Vi said, and stepped close to my side, but she seemed to realize that I needed this moment without being touched to get through this.

“It was a long time ago, but those kinds of demons stay with you. The look in Kim’s eyes…the point is that this guy went after Sarah, not once, but twice when Kim wasn’t around. She was the target. It wasn’t random. It’s not just the fire that is driving him.”

“You think that he’s hurting people, that hurt people? How does that explain Britnay?”

“That was the one stumbling block I still hadn’t figured out. I’m not sure, but it is possible that Britnay had offended him or was rude to someone, and he saw it. Could also be that he has been watching the fires and wanted to put us on notice that he sees us. I haven’t solved that one yet, but if you take her out of the pile….”

I held out the stack for Vi to take. “All of these fires started approximately five months ago. All of these fires, someone died, and all of these fires, the person or persons that died were either charged with rape, assault, gang affiliation, or pedophilia…you name it, and it’s in these portfolios.”

Vi’s eyes went wide. “For him to know that….”

“He’s either a cop or he’s a stalker. He is hunting them. He knows their patterns, their sleeping schedules, what they drive, and what their homes need. He’s a master at making bombs, and that doesn’t happen by accident, so maybe he was in the military at some point. All I know for certain is that this guy is going after people he deems toxic to society. Yes, others get caught in the crossfire, but my guess is that he deems them necessary collateral damage to achieve his goals.”

I took the top file from Vi and opened it. “This was the subdivision fire that was attached to the golf course.”

“I remember. That was when I got involved with this case.”

“I don’t think it was his first, but my initial thought was this was just mass murder. Some person had wanted to see an entire street burn. Don’t get me wrong. I’m pretty sure this guy got off on seeing all those houses go up, but….”

I quickly opened the folder and spread all the files out to show her who had died.

“Every single one of these families has something to do with corruption. You don’t see it at first, but this judge was taking bribes, and this lawyer was working for a local gang.”

I held up another picture.

“This doctor was charged with rape and got off because the woman was sedated and couldn’t prove for certain that the attack happened. This one? The doctor was suspected of torturing patients at a mental hospital. I mean, this is like an all you can eat buffet for someone like our guy. Granted, civilians died in the blasts, but the root attack was specific. He wanted these people to pay for their sins.”

Vi took a deep shuddering breath and looked at the dozens of files spread out and then finally down to the armload I’d given her.

“We need to go back to the beginning. We need to find the fire that started all this. If we find that fire, we will find our guy.”