Arson & Ache (Surrender to Them 8)

“Maybe.” Chief Vance nodded. “Or it could be a copycat—or an accomplice. I’m not ready to throw Detective Lewis under the bus quite yet, but I think you’re right.”

“I need to get back to work.” I held up the paper. “Can I keep this?”

“Yeah, go ahead. It’s a copy.” Chief Vance walked over and grabbed the door. “You need to call Donovan.”

“I know.” I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket as I walked towards my desk.

I was just about to click on Donovan’s name when the front door of the fire station opened, and Detective Lewis walked in. All of the confidence and arrogance I saw on his face the last time he was in the fire station was gone. He looked like a broken man, and I didn’t have any sympathy for him. He acted without making sure he had found the right suspect, and that had backfired on him. I didn’t believe the Chief’s theories about an accomplice, nor did I believe that we were dealing with a copycat. The letter was pretty clear. We were being taunted and shamed for claiming we had Fireball behind bars when the wrong man was sitting in a cage. The city wasn’t safe, and once the letter finally did get published, we were all going to look like fools. We gave the people who trusted us a false sense of security, and I hoped Fireball didn’t retaliate by adding more casualties just to prove we were incompetent.

“I guess you’ve seen the letter.” Detective Lewis walked up to me and looked down at the floor.

“Yes.” I growled and turned towards the board behind my desk. “I guess we can take Johnny West’s picture down now.”

“I’m sorry. I was under so much fucking pressure from the mayor—I had to do something. I thought we had the right man.” Detective Lewis exhaled sharply.

“Pressure?” My anger started to build up inside me. “I’ve been under fucking pressure since all of this shit started!”

“I know—I just thought we had our guy. He was a perfect fit.” Detective Lewis lifted his head and sighed. “Now we’re finding out that he had an alibi for several of the fires.”

“Wouldn’t that have been something you looked into before you slapped the fucking handcuffs on him?” I walked over and tore Johnny West’s picture off the board. “Do you know how many fucking suspects I’ve had? Do you know how many people I could have asked you to arrest because they fit the damn profile?”

“We jumped the gun.” Detective West leaned forward and put his hands on my desk. “We fucked up. This one is on us.”

“Have fun with this fucking lawsuit.” I tossed the picture in front of Detective Lewis. “You’ve branded him as Fireball. His life is over, even if he’s innocent. Great job, asshole.”

“We need to work together now. It’s more important than ever. The lieutenant has told me I can have as many men as I need. We’ll tear this city apart if it helps us find Fireball.” Detective Lewis grunted angrily. “But you know the investigation—you know what kind of guy we should be looking for.”

Oh, now you want to work together? Now that your face is covered in shit because you fucked up?

“If I knew that much, I’d have figured out who he was by now.” I sat down in my chair with a thud. “I’m going to go back through the case files—including the ones I neglected because I thought you arrested Fireball. I’ll let you know if I find something.”

After I make sure I have the right fucking guy.

“We have to figure out who Fireball is before he shows his face. If he’s doing that, he has something big planned—and he’ll probably disappear completely once it’s done.” Detective Lewis leaned back from my desk. “We can’t let that happen.”

“Right…” I nodded and grabbed the top file off the stack.

It took everything I had not to just verbally obliterate Detective Lewis. There was so much I wanted to say to him that I could have spent an entire afternoon berating his incompetence. He would have to live with the guilt and the hate that was coming his way. The mayor wasn’t going to forgive that incompetence, especially after he found out Johnny West had an alibi for some of the fires. It would have been fine to bring Johnny West in for questioning. We had questioned several suspects, although most of it was left up to me because Detective Lewis couldn’t be bothered to give a fuck. He put his own pride before his badge and arrested the wrong man. He also pissed off the real Fireball, and I was almost certain things were going to escalate. Anything that happened would be on his conscious, but I wasn’t going to sit idly by if the city was still in jeopardy.

Fuck, I need to call Donovan.

I picked up my phone and tried to call him, but it went to voicemail. It was still early, so it was possible he decided to sleep in. I left what ended up being a frantic voicemail and returned to the case files. I felt like I was staring at hieroglyphs. The answer had to be in there somewhere. Fireball hated greedy people, he targeted monuments of greed, and even went after people who profited from it. I wondered if perhaps Detective Lewis was on the right track—it could be someone who was directly impacted by the greed of others. Johnny West was an obvious suspect, but he couldn’t be the only one who had grievances. It was going to take a long time to go through an entire list of people who had been wronged by the firms associated with the buildings Fireball targeted. The only thing I could do was start at the beginning. I needed a clue—something that would reveal the face we were going to see if we failed to figure out who it was.

“Did you get in touch with Donovan?” Chief Vance walked up to my desk as I quickly flipped through files.

“No, he didn’t answer my call, but I’m sure he’ll be on the way as soon as he hears my voicemail.” I sighed and looked up at Chief Vance.

“I called the lieutenant and ask them to send over everything Detective Lewis worked on over the weekend. Maybe there’s something in there that can help.” Chief Vance pointed at my computer. “Check your email. I believe Detective Lewis put together some sort of database with all the information from the case files. It should make it easier to search through stuff.”

“Thanks, Chief.” I turned towards my computer and loaded my email. “Wow, yeah—this is going to be a big help.”

Well at least Detective Lewis did something right. If this database helped him find Johnny West, then maybe the real suspect is still in here somewhere.

Donovan

Earlier that morning

“Dad! Oh shit. Abby, he’s not breathing—call an ambulance!” I looked at my stepmother as panic swept through my veins.