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the
convenience store the night of the fire. No one remembers seeing
anything unusual.”
    “ Take me through what
happened that night,” Rachel said. Even though she had heard the
story first from Nora, then from Mack, she wanted to make sure she
didn’t miss anything. Every detail was critical.
    “ The call
went out around 6:30pm. Sam’s crew was the first to respond.
Because the owner said he thought his son, Mike, was in the
building, they went in first. Sam found Mike on the floor behind
the door of his office. Mack and Kevin dragged him out the front
door, which is about a thousand feet from the office.
W hen Mike was pulled out, they
started performing CPR on him. Mack turned around to speak to Sam
and she wasn’t there. He took a quick look inside the front door
and didn’t see her anywhere. He immediately put in a mayday call.
Then the first explosion hit and the roof collapsed.”
    Mack’s story matched with the
investigators, she thought. “How long was it until someone searched
the rear of the building?” Rachel asked.
    “ The district chief was
first on scene with Station 3. He took an initial drive around the
building when they first arrived. He didn’t remember seeing
anything out of the ordinary. When Sam and her crew went in to
locate the victim, the chief stayed with the pump operator in front
of the warehouse. The fire department had two other trucks that
came in to assist with the fire. They arrived after the first
explosion.”
    “ I met Mack Dixon this
morning. He was at the diner where I was having breakfast. He
mentioned you had some fires lately which were ruled as
arson.”
    “ We’ve been investigating a
possible arsonist for the last couple months,” Jeff
confirmed.
    “ You think the same person
started the warehouse fire?”
    “ It’s too early to make that
assumption. We’re still waiting on the lab to come back with test
results and it takes awhile.”
    “ What does your gut tell
you?”
    “ Off the record…this could be the
work of the same person who set fire to a couple of properties last
month. The first fire was a beach house, thankfully vacant. It was
fully involved by the time firefighters got there. The arsonist
pried a door open and then used gasoline as an
accelerant.”
    “ And the second one?”
    “ That was at Nick’s Seafood
restaurant out on the beach highway. There were similarities
between the two fires. The restaurant was closed for the night and
the fire was started after midnight. Same thing…the back door was
pried opened and gasoline was used as an accelerant.”
    “ Did Sam work those other
fires?”
    “ Well, that is the interesting
thing. All the fires were on Sam’s shift. Coincidence? I don’t
know. But whoever set those fires either didn’t know what they were
doing or were just being plain careless. Gas is an easily traceable
accelerant,” Jeff explained. “It’s not uncommon, especially in this
economy, for people to set their property on fire to collect
insurance or get out from under the debt. There are other
accelerants which can be used that are harder to detect. This
person didn’t know what kind of accelerant to use or just didn’t
care.”
    “ And the owners of the properties
checked out okay?”
    “ Yep. The vacant house was paid for
and the owner didn’t have any debt or any motive to have started
the fire. The owners of the restaurant, though, were mortgaged to
the hilt. But, we didn’t find any evidence to point to their
involvement either.”
    “ How did the arsonist gain access
again?”
    “ They broke in through a back door
in both cases. We’re awaiting matches to the tool marks on all the
cases. After the warehouse fire, I put a rush on it. Sometimes it
takes awhile for forensics to come back with results. I should hear
something soon.”
    “ No fingerprints or any other
evidence left at the crime scene?” Rachel asked.
    “ Nope, not so far. I’m meeting with
police chief Gladstone tomorrow to go over