Arson & Ache (Surrender to Them 8)

“I know.” His brow came together in an intense stare. “I’m going to tell you the same thing I told Kincaid. The gloves are off. We’re done fucking around. He sent another letter to the press. It hasn’t been published yet, but it’s pretty clear what his intentions are. Take a look for yourself.”

“This guy is such an asshole.” I took the piece of paper that Chief Vance handed me and stared at it.

Dear New York,

Your pride is your sin. You destroy to build monuments. Monuments that fall to ruin before your greed is ever satisfied. I will burn them all down and replenish the ground with the ashes of your gluttony. They will glow like an effigy in the night. Prepare yourselves. My message is not heard. My words will be written in flames. I will testify unt

il the last silent voice screams. They’ll be screaming for mercy, and I’ll have none to give. You did this to yourselves. It’s time for your repentance and the sky begs for my symbol. It’s coming.

-Fireball

“Fuck. He’s announcing what he’s going to do before he even does it?” I threw the paper on Chief Vance’s desk in disgust. “Is it not good enough for him to claim the fire after he sets it? Now he wants to create panic?”

“I know.” Chief Vance sighed.

“How the hell are the police not taking this shit seriously!?” I grunted and felt my jaw tighten as the rage started to run through my veins. “Do they need a body before they feel like the case is worth their time?”

“It’s the fucking FBI.” Chief Vance shook his head angrily. “The police department always loses the big cases to the bureau and they’re convinced this case is going to end up like all the others.”

“So they just ignore it?” I started to stand. “Fuck this asshole. We’ll get him ourselves.”

An arson investigator was supposed to just handle the scene and report their findings. That only worked when the police department was ready to act once the evidence was gathered. It seemed that we were going to have to wear a blue hat underneath our helmet because they didn’t want to take the case seriously. I was certain the police would be all too happy to arrest Fireball if we could figure out who he was. They’d take all the glory, and truthfully, I didn’t give a shit. I just wanted the bastard behind bars before he seriously hurt someone. It was only a matter of time. Even if he tried to just send a message, fire was destructive. The apartment building he chose as his last target was a perfect example of that. We were able to get everyone out before there were any casualties, but it could have easily been a disaster if we weren’t prepared to act quickly.

“It looks like you won’t have to worry about working with Detective Lewis anymore.” I walked to Kincaid’s desk and sat down.

“Why is that?” He lifted his head with a surprised look on his face.

“Because—you’ve got a new partner.” I smiled and nodded.

“Wait. Did you just get promoted?” Kincaid’s eyes got wide.

“Chief Vance seems to think I’ll be a top candidate.” I leaned forward so that the other guys in the station couldn’t hear me. “And we’re going to be working on the Fireball case together.”

“That’s awesome!” Kincaid’s face quickly shifted to excitement. “I’ll teach you everything you need to know.”

“It’ll be just like the old days when you were warning me not to run into the burning buildings without my mask.” I chuckled under my breath.

“Yeah, except now you just have to make sure you don’t step on anything important.” He smiled and reached for a file. “Unfortunately, the Fireball case isn’t all we get to work on. I just got a new assignment, so are you ready for some field work?”

“Hell yeah.” I nodded and started to stand. “It’s going to be weird going out there without all my gear on.”

“They’ll still let you ride on the truck if you want normally, but this fire happened last night, so we’re just going to be digging through some ashes.” Kincaid stood up and grabbed his coat.

Working a normal schedule instead of the twenty-four hours on, forty-eight hours off that I had been doing since I started at the fire department was going to take some getting used to. As a bonus though, I didn’t have to work on the weekends anymore—not that its stopped Kincaid once the Fireball case was dropped on his desk. If anything, he seemed to work even more than he did when he was just riding on the truck. The salary bump would definitely be nice if I got the job, and it would come with a lot less risk, so I might live long enough to spend what I made. I had no problem rushing into burning buildings to help people, but I could do just as much good figuring out who set the fires to begin with. Catching Fireball was no longer a hobby that I indulged between calls at the station as I looked over case files with Kincaid. It was my job—and I was pretty damn sure Fireball wouldn’t be able to hide much longer if we were both obsessed with tracking him down.

“Are we just going to ignore what happened on Friday night and not talk about it?” I looked over at Kincaid once we were on the road, headed towards the scene we needed to investigate.

“I figured you’d bring it up eventually.” He shrugged and turned his head towards me slightly, keeping an eye on the road. “If you weren’t too drunk to remember.”

“No, I definitely remember.” I nodded quickly. “Have you called her?”

“Not yet, but I plan to give her a call after work.” He turned his attention back towards the road as we approached an intersection.

“To ask her out on a date—just the two of you?” I sighed and nodded. “I see how it is.”

“I didn’t plan to go behind your back. I was going to tell you if you didn’t bring it up first.” He cut the wheels to the right and pressed on the gas to accelerate past a couple of slow cars.

“You really don’t want to consider what I mentioned? We had fun. Why do we have to complicate things?” I sighed again.