Dark of Night

by T. F. Walsh

  CHAPTER 5

  Lu got up at four-thirty — long before she needed to. What the hell was wrong with her? Working with Inspector Morgan was just a different assignment. She got to work half an hour early, then drove down the street to a coffee shop so she wouldn’t seem too eager. Then, of course, by quarter of eight she was sleepy. She rolled into the common room at eight and tried to pay attention to the exiting night crew’s report. Hell, she didn’t even know where she and Morgan would be working.

  “Ready to be a cop, Lu?” Ace whispered from behind her.

  “Yup. I’ve been practicing my Charlie’s Angels’ moves all night.”

  “Just make sure Morgan doesn’t lure you over to the other team full time,” Ace warned her. “I hear he’s pretty persuasive.”

  “Nah. I’m better with a hose than a gun.”

  Reynolds shot them a warning look as Gord droned on. You didn’t have to listen, but you were supposed to at least pretend to — or that was how Lu believed the morning report worked. Gord had finally wrapped up his monologue when Morgan walked in the door and made a beeline for her. Ace gave Lu a knowing look before sidling off.

  “You ready to go catch some bad guys?” Morgan asked.

  “Sure. As long as we don’t put the fire department out of business.” Lu smiled up at Morgan. “We’d hate to have to set the fires ourselves.”

  “Don’t worry. It’s like crime, you never run out.” Morgan started toward the door. “I just need to pick up some reports from Josh and we’ll be on our way.”

  “Do I need all my sh-stuff, or are we coming back here?”

  “Bring whatever sh-tuff you’ll need for the day.” He grinned. “But I’ll bring you back here after.” Morgan took the file folder Ace handed him. “Thanks, Ace.” He scanned the contents, then looked at her. “You need to get anything?”

  “Nope, I’m good.”

  They walked out into the bright spring day and Lu had to squint against the glaring sunlight. Forsythia were bursting forth in a yellow explosion beside the fire hall. Lu wondered if gardening would soon be added to the scheduled chores. Not that there was much of a garden, but even the teeny plot of flowers would have to be maintained. Byron stopped by a minuscule square car and Lu looked at him in disbelief.

  “This is your car?” It didn’t look like the two of them would fit into the thing.

  “Yup.” He reached around her and opened the door for her.

  Lu slid into the toy car and was surprised how roomy it actually was. “Somehow I’d pictured you with a more substantial car, like an SUV.”

  “I might go for that next … This Smart had the best gas mileage, but with the newer hybrids and electric cars …” He shrugged. The car started up with a tinny rumble.

  “Where are we going?” Lu asked.

  “I’d like to go back to that last fire your team attended. The marijuana grow-op on Baker Road. It’s still a sealed crime scene.”

  “Oh.”

  “Is that a problem?” He turned to look at her after he braked at a red light.

  “No. Of course not. I’ve just never revisited a fire scene.”

  “Really?” He sounded surprised. “I guess that’s why I switched over to the police department and became a fire inspector. I always wanted to know what happened next.”

  “Inspector Morgan — ”

  “Byron, please.”

  “Okay. Byron.” She smiled self-consciously. “What’ll we be looking for?”

  “The initial investigation indicated that the fire started at the front of the building with faulty wiring. But I’d like to see if there was a secondary source.”

  Lu felt her stomach tighten inexplicably as they turned down the industrial boulevard. No, maybe not so inexplicably. She still heard that woman’s screams late at night and wondered if they’d only been quicker, if they could’ve saved her. But there was no point dwelling on that. The only thing she could do for the woman now would be to find the person responsible for the fire and the woman’s death.

  “How can you tell where the fire started?”

  “I’ll show you.” He pulled into a small spot near the new metal fencing that had been erected around the burnt-out house.

  Lu got out of the car and stared at the building. It looked so different in daylight, the blackened stripes reaching up from the broken windows, and the gaping holes in the roof. That night it had been a burning angry opponent; now it seemed sad and defeated. She hoped she wouldn’t get emotional when they went inside.

  Byron looked at her oddly and she wondered if her worry had shown on her face. Shit. “Okay, let’s do this.”

  “Wait, you’ll need this.” Byron handed her a hard hat. “I should’ve told you to wear steel-toed boots, but the safety-Nazis have shored up the building pretty good. We should be fine.”

  Lu glanced at Byron in surprise. She’d gotten so used to Reynolds stripping away all hints of politically incorrect language that the Nazi reference felt weird. Morgan put the white plastic bucket on his head and didn’t look as dorky as he should’ve. She put hers on and followed him through the break in the fencing. He stopped in front of the building.

  “Here’s where the fire started. You can see that this window took the brunt of the damage, being the first to explode from the heat. The hole in the roof indicates this as well. The worst fire damage is centered there.” He pointed to the nearest hole in the cedar shake roofing and then to another gaping wound. “That hole there was hit by water before the flames reached the outside of the roof. So even though it looks larger, much of the damage to that part would’ve been caused by your hoses first.”

  “I see.”

  “Now we’ll go inside and look for the instigator. With grow-ops, everyone usually assumes it’s the faulty wiring because of the massive amount of electricity required, and because the people setting them up aren’t too concerned about safety codes.” He pulled out a key, unlocked the door and pushed it open. After a quick look from the doorway, he walked inside.

  Lu followed with a morbid curiosity about what she might see and feel. The bright rays of sunshine streaking between the roof beams and through the broken windows made it difficult for her to focus on the unlit corners of the room. Plus the black and grey soot made the shapes even less distinct. She could see where someone — cops? — had added rebar to reinforce what remained of the roof. They’d also cleaned and a lot of the rubble had been pushed into piles. Despite the fact that the fire had been a week ago, there were still puddles of water and the odor of ashes hung in the damp air.

  “What we’ll be looking for is some kind of additional accelerant, either something that was thrown into the building, like a Molotov cocktail, or set up with a fuse from inside the building.”

  “Do you mean someone broke in and set the fire? Or was it an inside job?”

  “Hard to know. Might’ve been a fight between the grow-op partners. Or maybe they felt the cops were onto them and decided to pull up stakes. It looks like they’d already cleared out a lot of the supplies and product.”

  “But what about the woman in the back?”

  “And that’s the other question.” He nodded in approval. “Perhaps something in the back rooms could’ve started the fire, and then inadvertently sparked another fire in the wiring.”

  “This sounds like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

  “Yup. That’s why I need your help. I asked Josh for someone who’d actually attended the fire.”

  “We were so concerned with trying to get to the vic, I’m not sure I’ll be that much help on details.”

  “You’ll be surprised at how much you noticed.”

  “I don’t know. I’ve only been at this hall for about five months; I’m probably not as observant as the others.” Why was she was trying to talk him out of w
orking with her? It actually sounded like an interesting assignment. Was she worried about disappointing him? How stupid was that?

  “And that’s why I asked for you. As a newer person to this hall, your memory won’t be clouded with memories of other fires in this district.”

  “I thought I was assigned because I have low seniority?”

  “No. That was just a way of justifying it. Josh and I didn’t want Ace or Marcus pulling rank.”

  “Sneaky.” Lu tried to reconcile the image of Reynolds and Morgan discussing her assignment with Ace’s revelation about their long-standing feud.

  “Self-preservation.” He looked at his clipboard and then at the wall. “The original outlets start here.” He walked over to the corner of the room and pointed down at the floorboard. “And the rest of them should be every sixteen feet around the perimeter, according to the builder’s plans.”

  Lu followed Byron as he paced out to the next outlet. “Shouldn’t we be more concerned about the added power boxes?”

  “Definitely. The additional boxes are on the northeast side of the room.” He pointed back in the direction they’d come in when they entered the room. “That would be shortest distance to the exterior power lines.”

  “What are we looking for with these?”

  “Any signs of the fire having been more intense around the outlets. If fire is burning hotter, it goes further inside the wall before moving up and the charring will be deeper and darker.” He kneeled down. “See? Like here. And notice the dark pattern starts slightly below the plate. That indicates there was some force pushing the fire downward.”

  “Hmm, does that mean it was a regular outlet that started this fire?”

  “No. It could’ve been triggered by the illegal outlet or any number of things.” He chuckled at Lu’s huff of exasperation. “You can’t expect instant answers. We gather all the clues and then piece them together as best we can.”

  They continued inspecting the rest of the perimeter outlets with Byron explaining more of the sleuthing aspect before Lu finally asked, “Am I supposed to confirm what you detect, or do you want me to start checking on my own?”

  “Patience. We’re doing the basic check together so that when we write up the notes on this part, we don’t have any discrepancies. Also this’ll help you understand when we’re checking files from previous fires what we’re trying to read between the lines.”

  “Sorry. I don’t mean to be pushy.”

  “Not at all. I’m glad you’re eager.” He glanced at his watch. “Do you want to break for lunch?”

  “Already?”

  “It’s three. I’m not sure when you normally eat lunch, but I’m starving.”

  “Oh.” Lu checked her watch in disbelief. This was way more interesting than sitting around the fire hall. “Sure.”

  “Mexican okay?” He seemed to move even faster when motivated by food. He’d locked up the building before she’d even mentally changed gears, shifting away from the last bit of information he’d divulged. Keeping up with Byron both physically and mentally was challenging. Should she have taken notes? She’d jot them down tonight while they were still fresh in her mind.

  “Great.”

  “Are you feeling a little brain-overload?” He smiled sympathetically as they walked to his car.

  “No … I mean, it all makes sense.” She chuckled. “It’s just that fire fighters don’t think about any of these things when we’re fighting a fire. We look at where it’s coming from and search for the safest, quickest way to kill it.”

  “I’ve heard you’re pretty good at assessing fires.”

  Lu couldn’t see his face as he reached by her to open the car door for her, but she felt a nervous clench in her stomach. “Ace tends to exaggerate.”

  “Hmm.” Byron closed the car door behind her and walked to the driver’s side. She hoped he would drop the subject.

  “How’d you become an arson inspector?” she asked, when he’d settled into his seat.

  “Many years of training, Grasshopper.”

  “Huh?”

  “Sorry, I’m showing my age. It’s from Kung Fu, an old TV show I watched as a kid. The master used to call his pupil Grasshopper.”

  “Oh.” So how old was he? He didn’t look older than Reynolds, maybe forty-five, tops. “Do they have classes in arsonist psychology?”

  “I studied criminology, psychology, sociology, and about ten other ologies. Then there was the physics, chemistry, Deuteronomy, astronomy, hydrocepholomony — ”

  “Now you’re just making things up.”

  “Yeah. I took a few extra classes before I joined the police department, and then learned more at conferences and discussing cases with colleagues.” He glanced over at her. “Am I luring you over to the law-enforcement side of fires?”

  “The dark side? They warned me that you might try to corrupt me, but so soon?” Lu stiffened in surprise as he popped the car sideways into a parking spot.

  “Is that what your team calls it? My coworkers describe my crossing fields as ‘seeing the light.’”

  “Poor disillusioned folk,” Lu shot back, stepping out of the car. It certainly was easier than getting out of lower sedans. If only it didn’t look like a clown car …

  “This is one of my favorite cheap restaurants.” Byron pointed to the large awning with a dancing coyote next to a cactus. “Nothing says tasty food like a cartoon character.”

  “As long as they don’t serve coyote burgers.” Lu walked through the door he held for her. The restaurant was dimly lit with low beams and dark wood décor. She stopped just inside the door to let her eyes adjust. Byron had to pull himself up short. He braced his hand on her shoulder to keep from bumping into her.

  “Sorry,” Lu said, “I didn’t mean to — ”

  “No, it is dark.” Byron nodded at the bartender and directed Lu to a table. “This should be good. We don’t want to sit too close to the speakers. They turn up the mariachi music after 3:30 for early happy-hour.”

  Lu felt self-conscious as Byron pulled out her chair for her, but he didn’t seem to notice. It was probably an instinctive action rather than sexist. The waiter filled their water glasses and took their orders. Lu guzzled her water. She hadn’t realized how thirsty she was.

  “So when we’re checking the — ”

  “No shop talk,” he interrupted with a smile. “This is a chance to rest our brains.”

  “Hmm … Nice weather. And what about those Mariners?” Lu smiled blandly at him.

  “Do you follow baseball?”

  “Not particularly. You?”

  “I used to. Gave it up for Lent.” Byron nodded thanks at the waiter as he plunked down the tortilla chips and salsa. Conversation stalled while they munched on the chips. “So I’m curious, how did you know where that Carroll Street fire was a few weeks ago? I heard that Dispatch had been several blocks off with the address.”

  “Um, I don’t know,” Lu answered truthfully. “I must’ve seen smoke, or heard something when we were driving.”

  “No one else did, and it was a contained fire from all accounts.” Despite the casual expression on his face, Lu could feel the intensity behind his question.

  “I can’t explain it. Marcus was driving to the call and it felt like we’d passed it so I yelled up to him to turn onto Carroll Street. He kept following the dispatchers’ route, but then it turned out the civilian calling in the fire gave the wrong address. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “But you were right.”

  “I know, but I didn’t have any proof. We’re supposed to follow directions, not hunches.”

  “You seem to have quite good hunches.” He chuckled. “I bet that bugs the shit out of Josh. If it ain’t typed up in his beloved manuals …”

  Lu felt disloy
al to Reynolds, but couldn’t help smiling at Byron’s assessment.

  “What’s Ace’s nickname for you?”

  “The Nose.” Lu grimaced. “Said it was after some Steve Martin movie where he plays a fire captain and the fire truck follows him down the street as he sniffs out fires.”

  “I think that movie was Roxanne,” Byron supplied helpfully. “But your nose is much cuter.”

  Lu jammed some more chips in her mouth. It was fun working with Byron, but he made her nervous when he got personal. Maybe because he always seemed to know more than he was letting on.

  “I’m only going to keep you until about five-thirty. We’ll finish the perimeter check, the windows, doors, and call it a day. I’ll go back to my office to write it up so we’ll keep Josh happy.”

  Lu looked up, startled.

  “I know. He probably warned you not to do any paperwork for me. ”

  The waiter placed two large plates in front of them and Lu took the opportunity to glance at Byron’s expression. He was much more gregarious than Reynolds, but in his way, just as inscrutable. She pitied the woman who had gotten caught between those two men …

  CHAPTER 6

  “Did someone else work with Byron while I was gone?” Lu asked Ace as they gathered for the morning report. She’d been off for her four days and no one had mentioned whether she was back at the hall or still assigned to cop detail. Maybe Byron had replaced her permanently. She felt a stab of jealousy, but surely that was just because it was more interesting doing something rather than sitting around waiting for calls.

  “Not while I was on shift. But he may be borrowing from other halls, too.” Ace eyed her coffee. “That fresh?” At her nod, he wandered off to the kitchen.

  “Okay, everyone listen up.” Reynolds waited for silence. “We’re doing ladder drills at ten-thirty.” He ignored the quiet groans. “That last call was pathetic. We’ll do it until you get the timing and precision right every time. You should be able to do this in your sleep, people.”