Page 41 of Inferno

I nodded, more to myself than to him. “Multiple points,” I said, “but made to look like one.”

“Yep. And enough juice that there’s nothing left for a lab to test by the time the fire runs its course.” Danner tapped the edge of the table for emphasis. He didn’t look at the file. “Thing that always bugged me about this case is I always thought whoever set it got lucky. The more I think about it, I’m not so sure anymore.”

“You think this is more than just a firebug.”

“Yeah, Jonah. I think this guy has perfected his technique and done this before.”

My mouth twisted. “But was this a warning or a message?”

My friend shrugged. “Both, maybe? The woman denied any gasoline or other flammable liquid being stored in her unit, but the initial investigator stated he was told she’d inquired about storing extra gas for her lawn mower, though no name was provided as to who heard the statement.” He made a noncommittal sound. “You want to tell me what you plan to do with this?”

I closed the folder and looked him in the eye. “Let’s say there’s a guy with a history of torching properties that mean something to women he can’t control. I intend to stop the pattern of bad behavior.”

Danner’s lips twitched. “Not my business, so long as a repeat performance doesn’t make its way onto my desk.” He didn’t blink. “But if you’re planning anything illegal, it doesn’t come from this file. You understand?”

I grinned. “Loud and clear, Danner. Appreciate you going out on a limb. More than I can say.”

He drained the last of his coffee and wiped his mouth before standing, leaving the folder in front of me. “You don’t owe me anything for this,” he said in a low tone, “but if you ever need to make something disappear, you call first. I’m not one to rat out one of my best friends. So don’t make me.”

I gave him a respectful nod. “I promise, Frank.”

I had very little memory of the ride back to the compound. My mind was working too hard to concentrate on anything but the folder in my saddlebag. I needed to think about all this. Make a whiteboard or something to visualize it because I knew I had all the information right in front of me. I just hadn’t connected all the dots.

Once inside the compound, I headed to mine and Juniper’s apartment. She sat in the living room and looked up when I opened the door.

She sat up straighter. “Is that it?” she asked.

I nodded and dropped the file on the table. “It’s not pretty. You want the highlights or the horror show?”

She crossed her arms over her chest, her expression hardening. “Give me everything.” That was my girl.

I laid out the whole thing, just like Danner had done for me. “Officially, the fire in the unit was undetermined, but Danner wasn’t convinced. Not then, not now.”

She didn’t flinch, flicking through the photos, her jaw tightening with each page she turned. The meanness in her eyes was colder than before. And yeah. My cock sat up and took notice.

“He did this to a woman before,” Juniper said.

“Yeah,” I said. “She’s an ex-girlfriend. The storage unit she rented went up after she left him. He was never charged, but I’d bet my left nut he was involved.”

She tapped the photo -- burn marks crawling up the wall, just like Danner said. “Walk me through how it works,” she said. “What does five gallons of accelerant actually do? Like, physically?”

“You pour it into the right place, it’s a wall of fire before anyone can react. If you stage it, it looks like old wiring or bad luck. But you use five gallons, and it’s deliberate. It’ll burn so hot and fast there’s nothing for arson investigators to test. Especially if the building already stored something like gas or oil. The bastard who did this, he’s done it more than once.”

“So she violated the company’s policy and voided her insurance?”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?”

She studied the papers, flipping through and skimming. “I don’t understand the technical aspects of the investigation, but…”

“But?” I prompted.

“If there was a possibility of her bringing in large quantities of flammable liquid, why didn’t the insurance company review the security footage to see? Places like that have to have pretty good security cameras.”

“Good call.” I grinned at her. “Except that, in the days leading up to the fire, the security system had an issue. All the storage renters were notified by email or text and also in writing. That was two days before the fire.”

“Convenient,” she mused, meeting my gaze.

“It certainly is.”