《Through The Flames: The Arsonist》 Epolouge On a cold autumn morning, what looked like a parade of fire trucks traveled down South Live Oak Drive preceded by a guard of six motorcycle police officers. The lead engine, Engine 212, was draped with black cloth and a black wreath at its front. Standing on the tailboard, Firefighters in dress uniform clung to the rear of the truck while, behind it, the rest of Company 21 marched, followed closely by a dozen trucks from different departments, law enforcement officers, and then, family and friends. This was the last ride of Assistant Chief William P. Miller. At the entrance to the cemetery, two ladder trucks sat, their ladders extended, and a large American flag hung between them over the entrance, awaiting the engine to drive under. The motorcycle officers took position on either side of the entrance, allowing Engine 212 to lead the procession to its final destination. It proceeded through the large cemetery lined with grand live oaks, moss hanging from their branches, to a plot near the back where a large open tent sat with several chairs set up. Floral wreaths sat on either side of the gravesite, and at their center, was a picture of the former chief in a blue fire department t-shirt standing next to the engine that carried him here. From the smile he had, the large man seemed full of happiness, his cheeks rosy, his brown hair sticking out under his cap, and his eyes full of hope. At the bottom was a small plaque reading, ¡°Captain Miller 10-12-1995 with Engine 212¡±. As the procession came to a stop, the fire chief in dress whites guided Engine 212 into position near the gravesite. He directed several other firefighters in uniform lineup, creating a corridor leading from the tailboard of the truck to the site itself. Finally, the officer driving the truck stepped down from the cab. He straightened his uniform and placed a captain''s cover on his closely shaved head. He was almost the spitting image of the man pictured next to the firetruck twenty years before. He was quickly joined by two other firefighters in dress uniforms. The first was Frankie Casselman, the Captain''s best friend. He was slightly slimmer, his hair cut high and tight, his blue eyes standing out against his tanned skin. The second was Kayla Lee. She was slightly taller than the two of them with brunette hair pulled up into a bun. Together, they made their way to the back of the truck, joining the other firefighters there. Captain Miller took a few steps from the truck, allowing for the other pallbearers to take their positions before belting out, ¡°Company, attention!¡± The gathered officers snapped to attention, and the casket was lowered from the hose bed by the two firefighters riding the tailboard and its Pallbearers. Once down, the captain gave a shout, ¡°Present arms!¡± The assembled in uniform all saluted as the casket, draped in a flag of Station 21, was carried to the gravesite. They stood motionless, but on the faces of many, the pain and sorrow were undeniable. Captain Miller marched in front, leading them the last few yards before stopping and saluting while the casket was set down. Once the casket was in position, the officers who bore its weight stepped back and saluted it, waiting on their next order. ¡°At ease!¡± the captain bellowed before turning to sit in an empty seat reserved for family. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. As the chief walked up to the small podium to prepare for the ceremony, he cleared his throat, then spoke, his tone even and calm. ¡°Since its conception, the fire service has been closely related to the ringing bells. In the past, a bell would signal the start of a firefighter¡¯s shift. During the day, it was a bell that would signal the firefighter to the need for his service to protect the lives of the citizens under his care, and when the call was done, it was the bell that signaled the completion of the call and the time to return home. Today, we still hold true to these traditions as a symbol of honor and respect to those who have given so much of themselves and who served the public proudly. We symbolize the devotion that these brave souls had for their duty with a special signal: three rings, three times each, representing the end of their duties and that they are returning to quarters, their tasks completed, and their duties well done. This, their final alarm signals that they are returning home.¡± Once he finished speaking, the bell chimed three times, then three again and then three once more. Suddenly, a tone rang out as the radios on every firefighter began to sound off. The static on the radio cracked and a voice called out, ¡°Twenty-one oh two, twenty-one oh two, twenty-one oh two, Central to all units, end of watch for Assistant Chief William Miller. Twenty-one oh two is out of service and has gone home.¡± Many of the firefighters began to cry as a bagpipe played ¡°Amazing Grace¡± in the distance. The color guard stepped forward and folded the flag before presenting it to the seated family and saluting the captain. The chief at the podium saluted the casket then bellowed, ¡°Detail, dismissed,¡± and the assembled fire fighters began to move away from the grave site. One officer didn¡¯t move. He sat in his seat, staring through his dark glasses at the casket. ¡°Captain Miller,¡± a voice broke him from his thoughts. He looked up to see the chief standing before him. ¡°Chief Rose, thank you for taking over for me.¡± He looked back at the casket. ¡°Of course, son. May I sit?¡± He sat next to the young captain as he nodded. ¡°Your father was a good man, Wayne, and a good friend. He made this department proud,¡± he said staring forward, ¡°but you were the one thing that made him the proudest.¡± A small smile hit Captain Miller¡¯s face. ¡°He used to say I was the only one of his sons he still had to put up with at home.¡± Chief Rose nodded, ¡°He embraced the idea that we were one big family and replacing him will be a tall order for anyone who tries to, but if anybody could do it, you could.¡± Captain Miller looked confused. ¡°Sir, are you offering me my father¡¯s job? What about the battalion chief?¡± Chief Rose nodded, ¡°Barry is two years from retirement if not sooner and isn¡¯t interested in the position. Letting you skip a step was his idea, but I don¡¯t think it was a bad idea. Take your leave, and think about it, son. It¡¯ll be here when you get back, if you want it. It¡¯s what he would have wanted, I think.¡± The Chief stood, saluted once more, then turned and shook the captain''s hand before leaving the grave site, leaving the son alone with his father and his thoughts. It was at this moment, while others were chatting and saying their goodbyes, that he finally allowed himself the moment to cry. Chapter 1 The old Jefferies Building was ablaze, flames shooting high above its three-story frame. It stood on the edge of the lake, and the reflection in the dark water at night was eerie and frightening. The glow from the inferno illuminated the surrounding grounds making it seem like daylight as the firefighters scrambled to battle the blaze. Captain Miller stood in front of Engine 210 staring at the Inferno that had engulfed the southwest corner of the Old Jefferies Building. ¡°All units report in,¡± he said into the radio on his shoulder. ¡°Attack 1, we¡¯re on the first floor have confirmed fire near the A-B corner,¡± a voice crackled from the radio. ¡°Rescue Team 1 exiting from the second floor with two P.I.s, advise medical,¡± came another response. ¡°Rescue Team 2, we¡¯re approaching the C-D corner on floor one, continuing search,¡± was the final transmission. Captain Miller turned towards the ambulance crew waiting nearby, ¡°I got two coming out the main entrance, probably gonna need O2.¡± As more trucks arrived, Captain Miller continued to shout orders, ¡°Have the 2-6 take the A side and protect that exposure. Get me an ETA on additional medic units. Have 7-1 prep their Ritt team, so 54 can stand down.¡± He was calm, even though the urgency in his speech was apparent. He knew his men; he knew his neighboring stations; and they knew their jobs. So long as they worked together, this was something they could handle. The older trucks that were arriving reminded him of how far things had come since he first set foot in a fire house. Wayne Miller had been doing this all his life it seemed. When he was twelve, his father took him to the firehouse for the first time. Back then, the department was much smaller, working out of a small 60 by 80-foot garage basically. The department was all volunteer and had two engines: Engine 210, which was a 1969 Ford front end pumper with a 750-gallon tank, and Engine 211, a 1983 American Lafrance Cab-over with a 1000-gallon tank. The two old trucks required a lot of maintenance, and he spent many Saturdays at the station with his father and the other firefighters working on the trucks. When they weren¡¯t working on the trucks, the chief at the time would do things like challenge him to roll hose faster or race him across the hose bed of Engine 211. In those days, his father wouldn¡¯t let him near a charged line, but he let him learn how to work the pump. He taught him how to throttle the engine and what valves started to move the water properly through the pump. His father taught him about friction loss and water hammer and the effects it had not just on the truck but on the firefighters at the end of the line. By sixteen, Wayne was officially considered a junior firefighter and had his own gear and helmet. His father was now the safety captain, and though he didn¡¯t allow Wayne to fight fire, he did let him train with the other firefighters. He could hoist a ladder and tie a bowline; he could name all of the tools on the truck and knew their purpose. He would often invite his best friend to join him, but the offer was always turned down. When he was eighteen, Wayne had a huge falling out with his father. He moved to Myrtle Beach for a few months and worked on the strip as a security guard. Meanwhile, his best friend Frankie joined the Marine Corps, and he left for Parris Island. It took three months before Wayne decided to come home, and his father welcomed him with open arms. Wayne went to school and started working for an electrician. But the fire department called to him, and it wasn¡¯t long before he made his way to the academy. Captain Miller was directing external support operations when Lt. Mellon ran to him from the building, bringing him out of his trip down memory lane. ¡°Cap, she¡¯s breathing from the sides,¡± he yelled as he pointed to the building on fire, ¡°I think she¡¯s about to go.¡± This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. As he looked, he saw smoke leaking from the walls on the A-B corner of the building, and he heard creaking and snapping, now coming from the structure. He knew there was no saving the building any longer, and it could collapse at any time. He grabbed the nearest radio.¡± Emergency Traffic, all crews evacuate now. I repeat, evacuate now.¡± he shouted into the radio, then turned, ¡°Sound evacuation, pull the teams back, and get me a count.¡± Lt. Mellon jumped into the cab of a nearby engine and laid on the air horn. Other apparatus joined in, sounding their sirens and air horns for a full minute, as firefighters scrambled from the building. They all knew the universal signal to drop everything and go meant they were in danger. For a moment Wayne was reminded of his class A burn back at the academy. He was leading the primary rescue team into the building performing a right-side search while the attack team proceeded to the base of the fire. After searching several rooms, they found a stairway leading upstairs and could hear an alarm going off from a personal alert safety system or P.A.S.S device, Wayne proceeded to the top of the stair where they found their victim lying and called for his team. They grabbed her and began to carry when the ladder team opened a side window not far from them and began to make entry, not wanting to waste time Wayne took the patient to them to extricate her and led his team to continue their search. When they came out Wayne was proud of how they performed, the lead instructor was not. Wayne¡¯s team had been instructed to perform a search one floor one, by leaving the first floor they put themselves in danger because command wouldn¡¯t know to search the second floor for them. It was the first time Wayne had heard the term freelancing, performing actions outside of commands ordered, and after the thorough dressing down it was something, he would never forget. He had three more runs that day, as the attack team, rapid intervention team and ladder team, so he followed orders perfectly for them. On that day he realized the importance of working as a team and the chain of command a lesson that stuck with him his whole career. Wayne began going to the different commanders to confirm they had gotten everyone out, he was on his way to his engine when it happened. The sound was deafening as the Corner closest to the seat of the fire collapsed into the building. The dust cloud billowed out towards him, and he shielded his face for a moment before viewing what was left. The corner the attack team was working in was down to a single story, flames now barely visible as the debris had partially smothered them, on the opposite side of the building the second and third floors had partially survived. From his position Wayne wasn¡¯t sure how much of the first floor could possibly still exist, there was no hope of any further internal operations from the looks of it. He approached his crew prepared to start issuing orders when he noticed someone was missing, ¡°Where¡¯s Frank and Lee?¡± he asked Mellon. Mellon¡¯s was staring at the building silent, and it was then Wayne realized what that meant, somewhere inside the remains of that building were two firefighters who had trusted him to get them home safe. He thought of every possible scenario he could remember his mind going a mile a minute. Someone had to go in and get them out. The captain took a single deep breath, the world around him slowed as he processed what he needed to do next. He closed his eyes and pictured the layout of the building from the preplanning they had done, and tried to place where his firefighters might have been heading and what they could be nearby. He opened his eyes and grabbed a set of some of the heavy extrication tools. ¡°Mellon, we¡¯re going around back to try and access that side of the building from the emergency corridor,¡± his eyes focused on the far corner where he knew and emergency exit was, ¡°take over command of operations here and send me a second crew back there with a K12 and air tool in case we gotta cut the concrete.¡± The Lieutenant nodded proceed towards the main engine and Captain Miller and the rest of their crew proceeded to the back of the structure. The side of the building here looked intact from the outside, but Wayne knew from experience that it didn''t mean the inside was in the same shape. As he arrived at the emergency door another firefighter rushed forward with a Kelly bar and began to pry the door open. It took only a few minutes to open the door, inside was dark and cloudy with dust and smoke. The plans of the building showed this corridor ran the length of this side of the building and with only a few doors along it leading into the building proper. ¡°Mask up people, we only got one shot.¡± he shouted before running into the black expanse. Chapter 2 Chapter 2: Inside the abandoned power station Frankie Casselman crawled along the outside wall reaching out to feel if he could find anybody in the darkness. He had almost no visibility, as the light on his helmet barely illuminated a few feet ahead of him. Behind him Kayla Lee kept on hand on his ankle as she reached out with a halogen bar trying to make contact with anybody who may be there yet hoping that everyone was already out by now. ¡°Fire Department¡± She would shout, ¡°Call out if you can hear me.¡± and Frankie would follow suit. ¡°Fire Department¡± he¡¯d yell, ¡°Is anybody here?¡± They¡¯re calls remained unanswered as they continued along the C side of the building slowly moving away from the source of the fire. As they cleared each room, they¡¯d mark the door and continue on to the next office. The heat had been intense and the longer they searched the more they worried that if they found anyone it would be less of a rescue and more of a body recovery. The structure around the creaked and moaned as the fire raged behind them. They passed through a concrete fire wall that had yet to be breached, and shut the door behind them, knowing there was a way out ahead. This area was less smokey and but still dark, they were able to see more and began to separate a little in order to search faster. Frankie entered a bathroom near the corner of the building leaving Kayla at the door while he searched, they used a rope to stay connected so as not to lose each other. The sound of the building creaking began to get louder. Kayla tugged twice on the rope signaling to Frankie. ¡°It¡¯s not gonna hold much longer we need to get out.¡± She yelled over the sounds of chaos around her. Frankie nodded and began to make his way back out. The sound of sirens began to echo from far off. ¡°Shit!¡± Frankie exclaimed, he grabbed his partner and began to run towards the exit. ¡°We gotta evac now!¡± They ran for the door to the emergency corridor; from there he thought a secondary exit shouldn¡¯t be far. The building¡¯s moaning became louder, Kayla shoved Frankie into a small office just as the building began to crumble around them. He tumbled, his radio and helmet flying off as he went down striking his head, then everything went black. The dust was thick, and it was quiet, when he came to some time later he could hear Kayla¡¯s P.A.S.S device screaming letting him know she had not moved for at least a minute. He made his way towards the sound just inside the door, he found her underneath some ceiling tiles and a lighting fixture that had struck her as she drove them both in here. The door they¡¯d come in was blocked with debris. Frankie cleared the debris from over Kayla and began to check her for injuries, satisfied she wasn¡¯t badly hurt he tried to rouse her. ¡°Hey, Lee can you hear me?¡± he said while tapping her shoulder, she replied with a groan of pain and began to move. ¡°I feel like I got hit by a truck.¡± she started to lift herself up slowly and looked behind her where they had been running, ¡°wasn¡¯t that our way out?¡± Frankie nodded and tried to think where they might be in the building, he knew they were near an outside wall, but that was probably a foot thick concrete, the wall behind them could be supporting debris, and if compromised it might make their situation worse. If they were near the Emergency corridor, they could try and breach that wall, it would only be about 6 inches thick, but there was no guarantee it wasn¡¯t steel reinforced concrete as well, and they had no tools to get through that. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. When he left the Marine core, Frankie found himself with a lot of free time on his hands. He had saved for four years while he served his country and he bought a small place on the river, and Wayne moved in with him. Wayne had been working for the fire department for three years by then and was preparing for his engineer''s test, Frankie of course was constantly forced to help him study. Occasionally they would get help from Scott Mellon, he had just passed the engineers exam and knew every truck pretty much back and forward. Scott had been dating a young bartender whose name Frankie couldn¡¯t remember but it was through her that they had found Kayla, and soon she was around more than Scott was. That was the start of the friendship between them, a bond that transferred over to the fire station when Kayla and eventually Frankie joined. It was this bond that made them such a good team, they weren¡¯t just co-workers, they were a family. Frankie knew that no matter what Wayne and Scott were coming for them they just needed to figure out which way they were coming. He picked up his kelly tool and made his way to the wall he suspected was shared with the emergency corridor. He used the tool and began tapping the wall to estimate the type of construction. It was definitely concrete, if he had a sledgehammer and maybe a couple of hours, he could probably knock a hole in it big enough to crawl out of, he didn¡¯t have either of those things, and the effort would only use up the limited air supply quicker. He sat down and began tapping the kelly bar on the wall in a repeating pattern, Tap-tap-tap, tap,tap,tap, tap-tap-tap. He would pause for a second or two then do it again. Kayla moved over to where he was, thinking he had given up. ¡°We¡¯re gonna get outta here, you can''t give up.¡± she said, shaking him. He grinned his blue eyes gleaming in the low light, ¡°Who¡¯s giving up, I¡¯m telling Wayne where to make the hole.¡± She looked from him to the wall and back to him for a moment, ¡°You mean that¡¯s the wall,¡± he cut her off. ¡°Yep, to the emergency corridor, it¡¯s reinforced and when I did the preplan it was determined to be the best point to perform rescue operation on the back side of the building.¡± Kayla began searching the room for something solid, she found a three-hole punch and began tapping the wall in the same pattern as Frankie. Inside the building it was silent except for their tapping and the sound of their airpacks. They tapped for several minutes hearing nothing suddenly they began to hear a loud scraping sound, and they cleared away from the wall, ten minutes later and there was a hole barely big enough for someone¡¯s head to fit through they could see lights shining from the other side. Two air tanks were slid through the hole, allowing them to replace they¡¯re limited air supply followed by a second Kelly bar and a sledgehammer. Kayla changed her air tank and then grabbed the sledge. ¡°Typical, a modern woman¡¯s always gotta rescue herself¡± she joked, and she began breaking the concrete around the hole to make it bigger. Frankie joined suit with the Kelly bar, and with both crews working from either side they began widening the hole. For fifteen minutes they chipped away concrete and cut steel until the hole was big enough for them to squeeze through, and together the crew of Station 21 made their way out of the building, just like Wayne had planned. As they emerged from the building Frankie and Kayle happily removed their masks and got a breath for fresh air. Wayne pulled off his mask and helmet, ¡°You two get in the command truck I¡¯m taking you to get checked out.¡± he said motioning to Frankie and Kayla. Frankie went to protest, but a quick look from the captain said that it would not even be considered. On the opposite side of the building, Lt. Mellon had successfully led the operation to control the remains of the fire. He was in the process of releasing the mutual aid stations and setting up crews for overhaul. He saw the crew coming from the back side of the building. ¡°Captain,¡± he called out, ¡°while you guys goofing off, we were out here working ya know.¡± Wayne looked at him grinned, and laughed, ¡°Well damn Scott looks like you¡¯re after my job, guess you can handle the rest from here, I¡¯m taking these two to get checked.¡± Scott gave him a sly grin as Wayne jumped into the command truck with Frankie and Kayla. He breathed a sigh of relief as they drove off then turned back to the task at hand. He had to get this scene wrapped up if he wanted any sleep tonight. Chapter 3 Chapter 3 As day broke the smoke had mostly cleared over what remained of the Jefferies Power station. A single vehicle remained on the scene, labeled Berkeley County Fire Marshal. Two figures sifted through some of debris near where the fire seemed to have started. The first was Fire Marshal David Green, an older black man about average height with what most would consider a dad bod, his hair and mustache were mostly gray, and the years of service were evident by the lines on his face. His assistant Sylvia Branton was much younger than her mentor, being only 23 years of age, she was small and slender with red hair and freckles skin, her hard rimmed glasses covered green eyes that shone like emeralds. She was scraping a patch of burnt concrete on the floor of the rubble, and placed the scrapings into a small tube, the clear liquid in the tube instantly reacted to the scrapings turning a dark red color. ¡°Sir, look at this.¡±, she said holding up the tube. Marshal Green made his way to her, ¡°let''s have a look, Kid,¡± Kid was his pet name for Sylvia. He took the tube and studied it for a few seconds before kneeling and scraping off a bit of the residue himself. He placed a bit on the tip of his finger, then smelled it and placed his finger just on the tip of his tongue. He stood silent for a minute then made an offended face and spit out the material. ¡°Alcohol based, definitely an accelerant used, this confirms arson.¡± he said looking around at the destroyed building. ¡°We need to get samples ready to be sent to the lab in Columbia and tell them we need them back asap.¡± he began grabbing evidence bags and scraping around the spot. Sylvia paused for a second then asked a serious question, ¡°This is just like the last two isn¡¯t David?¡± David shook his head, ¡°The last two fires were abandoned buildings, this one was occupied, that¡¯s an escalation kid.¡± An hour later they arrived at Station 21, Engine 210 and Ladder 21 were on the pad getting scrubbed down before the end of shift. Inside the bay Captain Miller and several Firefighter were practicing Yoga for a morning workout, David noted that while he was much older than the captain, he definitely wasn¡¯t nearly that limber anymore. The inspectors waited patiently until they were done before getting the captain¡¯s attention, ¡°Miller, quit showing off for the probies!¡± Wayne made his way over and laughing, ¡°David you¡¯re just jealous you can¡¯t move like I can.¡± David smiled big ¡°from what your wife says I don¡¯t need to, guess it''s all about the right equipment.¡± Wayne hugged his friend, laughing, ¡°I don¡¯t have a comeback for that one so point goes to you.¡± Sylvia shook her head at them and stated in a very matter of fact tone, ¡°I¡¯ll never understand why you men do that, especially when everyone knows it takes a woman to please a woman.¡± David and Wayne stared at her, their mouths agape for a moment as they processed the sly insult they had just received then erupted in laughter, bringing a smile to the young Marshal¡¯s face. ¡°David, she¡¯s more dangerous than you are,¡± Wayne joked, ¡°At this rate you need to look into early retirement.¡± David nodded, ¡°She does always make me proud, one hell of an investigator, speaking of which we need to talk.¡± Wayne nodded and led them to his office, offering them a seat. He grabbed a bottle of water from his mini-fridge and leaned on his desk in front of them. David handed him the report on the Jefferies fire highlighted on was the line reading unk accelerant possible alcohol based. He looked up at David and Sylvia, the concern evident on their faces, ¡°Is it the same style and chemical as the other two?¡± Sylvia glanced at David who nodded then she presented her evidence, ¡°The fire clearly started in a small, sealed room where an accelerant was used to allow it to build quickly, its possible additional fuel was stored there to allow it spread faster as well. We located several trails that show the accelerant was placed to guide the fire to areas where it would find an ample fuel source.¡± She paused for a second, then pulled out two folder and handed them to him, ¡°these are the same patterns found at the fire at the abandon Powertech factory and the old presbyterian church in the past month, both of those building were abandoned for some time, Jefferies, even though it¡¯s shut down still had a small workforce onsite.¡± Wayne walked around to the back of his desk and sat in his chair looking briefly at a photo on the wall of him, his father Frankie and Kayla when she had graduated from the Academy. She was in the first class of recruits he trained. He had just become lieutenant back then, Frankie had maybe in the department a year and his dad was still healthy. He had remembered his father saying how proud he was that all his kids were firefighters now, that was how he had looked at Frankie and Kayla, not just as young people who were friends with his son, but as his own kids, last night someone almost took their lives, and it was intentional. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. ¡°Who else knows all this?¡±, he asked looking back at David and Sylvia, ¡°Who do we need to bring in?¡± ¡°County has a Certified Fire investigator, April Wells, you know her, she was looking into the Powertech fire, at first we figured it was an insurance scam but now¡­¡± he trailed off almost as if what he thought was too dangerous to say. Sylvia cleared her throat then spoke, ¡°Captain in situations like this the first suspects that need to be ruled out are the responders in that area sir, it¡¯s possible that.¡± Wayne slammed his fist on the table cutting her off, ¡°that¡¯s bullshit, everyone one of my crew went into those buildings, and I almost lost two of them, now you wanna blame them!¡±, his face was red with anger as he stood from his chair, Sylvia had never seen this side of him before and for a second she worried he was going to attack them. David spoke calmly, but avoided looking at Wayne, ¡°Nobody thinks they did it, but we have to question them, maybe they saw something they didn¡¯t think was important, but it was, we wanted to give you a fair warning before it started.¡± Wayne crossed his arms, the anger still very evident on his face, ¡°Ask any question you need to, you can use my office, but my team didn¡¯t do it, I¡¯ll call then crew back in but watch your ass or it¡¯ll be 03 all over again David.¡± He stormed out of the office and made his way towards the truck bay. Sylivia turned towards David, ¡°03¡¯?¡± she inquired. David looked away as if ashamed, ¡°I accused his father of trying to protect a possible arsonist, things got heated and Wayne put me on my ass.¡± Sylvia was shocked, Wayne was almost always happy and joking around, she would never have thought him to be violent. David gave a chuckle, ¡°You wouldn¡¯t think he gets violent, but you go after one of his and he¡¯s like a demon, he¡¯s been willing to fight just as hard for me as anybody in this department, I really feel for the first guy who breaks his daughters heart.¡± Officer Wells arrived about an hour later, she was around 5¡¯8¡± with curly dark hair tanned skin and an athletic figure. She went to greet Wayne but the second she saw his face she made a u-turn and went straight into the office without so much as a word to the captain. April had known him since high school and she knew he was very hard to anger but when you did, just avoid him. She was a former marine and nurse before she became a cop, she volunteered for the arson training because she thought she¡¯d get to work closely with firefighters and so many of her friends were in the department. Unfortunately, when they saw her coming most times it wasn¡¯t a friendly visit, and the conversations were far from enjoyable. Over the next several hours every firefighter from all three shifts at station 21 came in for an interview, for most of them it was their day off and they were annoyed to say the least. The last interview was Kayla Lee, she was bandaged from injuries she¡¯d gotten during the collapse. April knew Kayla wasn¡¯t the type to set fires, but she had to do her job. Kayla walked into the room in blue jean shorts and a halter top, her skin gleaming from a light bead of sweat from the South Carolina summer heat. She gave Sylvia a wry smile causing her to nervously glance away momentarily, before sitting and glaring at April. April pushed record on the device sitting between then then cleared her throat. ¡°Firefighter Lee, are you aware why you are here?¡± she asked ¡°Because you¡¯re a cop and the lead in you bullets fills your head sometimes?¡± Kayla quipped back sarcastically before giving a real answer, ¡°cause you think one of us set that fire.¡± April nodded, ¡°I don¡¯t think any of you did it, but I have to rule you all out, and I have to know what you saw.¡± She tried to take as relaxed a stance as possible so she wouldn¡¯t upset her any more than she was. ¡°How many times have you been to Jefferies in the last 48 hours?¡± Kayla sighed in frustration then took a deep breath, ¡°Once, I was on the first engine to respond to the fire last night.¡± This is good April thought she¡¯s less hostile, maybe she¡¯ll be easier to work with, ¡°Can you describe your initial response?¡± Kayla groaned but answered, ¡°It was a textbook response, Engine 210 took an attack position, Scott, had the backup lay a line in from the hydrant, Ladder 21 set on the A-D corner, we met with security, they said people were still inside, McMurray and Cambell were teamed up and me and Frankie of course went in for S&R and Tillman and Watts had the attack line, we filled them in and searched left side throughout the building til it came down on our heads.¡± April nodded, ¡°Did you notice anything unusual?¡± Kayla was about to snap no when a thought hit her, ¡°Me and Frankie preplanned that building, where we found the seat of the fire, shouldn¡¯t have had anything that would¡¯ve burned that hot, it was mainly the break area and cafeteria, and most of that was shut down. I mean it shouldn¡¯t have been enough to cause that spread or bring the place down so fast.¡± April and Sylvia exchanged a glance, ¡°So that area was largely unused?¡± Kayla nodded, ¡°After they shut the main plant down that area of the building was really only used for meetings, I mean everybody was usually up in the control room or in the back offices where we got trapped.¡± April turned off the recorder, and looked at Kayla, ¡°Kayla, thank you, I¡¯m sorry you had to come in here, but we have to follow procedure,¡± she reached out to shake Kayla¡¯s hand and for a moment Kayla let it sit there before accepting it. ¡°Just make sure you catch whoever did this April and remember who your friends are.¡± She walked out with the same swagger she walked in with only briefly turning towards Sylvia to give her a wink before vanishing from sight. ¡°Syliva you¡¯re drooling, ¡°April said flatly gathering her papers and files, ¡°though I guess I can see why, but come one, I gotta face Wayne and he¡¯s easier to deal with when kids are around.¡±