Isaac, Pete, and the Fire Inspector left the morgue and went straight to the site of the fire — the Cuyahoga County Canning Factory. A place that had been an institution in the city for decades was now reduced to rubble. Over 60 percent of the building was gone, completely unsalvageable, while the other 40 percent was mired in water damage. This was the definition of burned to the ground.
“Watch your step.” Hudson handed them both hard-hats he’d fished from his truck.
Isaac heeded Captain Hudson’s warning as they followed him around the debris of the building.
“Lawson was found here.” Hudson stopped walking and pointed to the spot directly in front of them. “His body was here. And I believe he fell from right up there.”
Isaac and Pete looked up at the overhang, and Isaac knew instantly that Hudson had been right from the beginning. There was no way a fall from that height would kill a grown man.
“Are those steps able to bear my weight?” Isaac eyed the steps leading up to that overhang.
“Probably, but I can’t let you chance it.”
Isaac looked at Hudson. “I take full responsibility, Captain Hudson.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you do that. It’s against regulations.”
Isaac opened his mouth to argue the point, but Pete spoke up first.
“Ike.” Pete raised a hand, like he was going to place it on Isaac’s shoulder, but he never actually touched him. Isaac appreciated that. “Stand down, man. Okay, I know you want to get up there and vibe the place, but it’s not safe.”
His partner wasn’t wrong. He would love to get up there and use his abilities to see if he got any sort of psychic impression about who might have committed this murder.
“Jive the place?” Hudson looked puzzled.
They both ignored him.
“Besides,” Pete continued still looking at his partner, “Sidney would kick my ass if I let anything happen to you.”
That comment made Isaac smile, but he hid it. “Fine. But you do realize that our crime scene is up there? This is just where the victim fell, but the crime happened up there.”
His gaze bounced back and forth between Pete and Hudson. He could see that the realization meant something to Pete, but Hudson was not budging.
“I’m sorry, Detective. I can’t allow the two of you up there. What if I did that and you both fell through those steps? Or through the floor of the landing?”
“Then let one of us go.”
“The risks are the same.”
“I don’t give a shit about the risks. We’re trying to solve a murder here. A murder brought to us by your insistence. Now, the first rule in any homicide investigation is a thorough examination of the crime scene. How the hell are we supposed to do that if you won’t let us near it?”
Hudson put his fists on his hips with a huff. Isaac could see the man’s mind working. “All right. I’ll allow one of you to go up there. But you will wear a hard-hat and you will step lightly. If any part of the floor feels like it might give way, don’t continue to move forward! Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
Isaac removed his jacket, his wallet, and his holster and gun, handing it all over to Pete in an effort to make himself lighter. Then he adjusted the bright yellow hard-hat Hudson provided and walked over to the stairs.
He moved slowly, taking each step up gingerly, and trying not to touch so much as the railing.
“These steps feel solid underneath my feet.”
“Be careful anyway!” Hudson shouted.
Every square inch of the place was covered in a thick layer of black soot, and the steps were no exception. Every step he took was leaving a perfect imprint behind him.
At the top of the overhang, Isaac spotted a break in the railing that had either been cracked at the time, or had given way to Jim Lawson’s weight when he fell. Either way, he took out his cellphone and took a picture of it.
He activated the flashlight on his cellphone and used it to aid his search. He walked further away from the stairs, his gaze scanning every inch of his surroundings. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting to find, but he was disappointed when not a single piece of evidence presented itself.
He turned off the flashlight and put his phone away. Then on instinct, he turned away from his small audience of two down below, taking a deep breath to center himself. He closed his natural eyes, and opened his psychic eye.
It was a technique he’d been working on with his grandfather, Sterling Taylor, the man he’d inherited his abilities from. For months now, they’d been working on Isaac’s awareness of when and how he was using his gifts. The theory being that if he could learn to use them only when he wanted to, then he could also turn them off when he wanted.
So far, that hadn’t proven true, but it was giving Isaac better control over his abilities than he’d ever had before, so he counted it as a win.
On exhale, the strangest sense of euphoria seeped in.
Exhilaration.
Intoxication.
Almost maniacal in its pattern. It was an energy Isaac didn’t like, and he mentally pushed it away.
Opening his eyes, he turned around and moved closer to that broken railing where Lawson must’ve fallen through. He reached out and barely placed his left hand flat against it. He was hoping for a little heat on his palm. Hoping for something that would indicate left over psychic energy still hanging around.
But he felt nothing unusual.
He took one last look around for any physical evidence that might lead them somewhere, but found nothing. Disappointed, he made his way back down the stairs.
“Find anything useful?” Hudson sounded hopeful.
“Just a broken railing that must have snapped when Lawson fell through it. I suppose we could contact the plant manager or owner to ask if that particular railing had been broken before the fire.”
Pete nodded and handed him back his stuff, being extra careful not to touch him. “Not a bad idea. I’ll get on that.”
“Other than that, I’m afraid any evidence that might’ve existed is buried under a foot of soot. I’m not sure a CSU could salvage anything if we could get them up there.”
“And we can’t,” Hudson insisted.
“Time to begin the unpleasantness then.” Isaac knew he was being droll, but he felt it was warranted. Questioning fellow first responders in connection with a homicide was the last thing he wanted to do.
“I don’t suppose you’ll let me tag along for that, huh?” A shit-eating grin crossed Captain Hudson’s lips.
“I’m afraid that would be against our regulations.”
“Can’t blame a guy for trying.” Hudson chuckled.
They followed Hudson away from the rubble of the building, outside where they parted ways.
“Good luck, boys,” Hudson shook Pete’s hand. “They’re going to be pissed. They’ll try to stonewall you.”
“They can try all they want.” Isaac stared him in the eyes. “That’s not gonna fly.”
“They’ll try to intimidate you.”
“I don’t intimidate easily.”
The words were true, but on the drive to the firehouse, Isaac could feel the dread stewing in his stomach. The closer they got, the more it began to bubble and boil.
“I don’t know about you, Ike, but I’m not really looking forward to this.” Pete sounded about as eager to question the firefighters as he was.
Isaac sighed and pulled to a stop right outside Firehouse 12.
“Me either. It’s always a tricky prospect when we have to question those we’re generally taught to think of as being part of our team.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s why I don’t think I could ever be an effective investigator for Internal Affairs. Suspecting your own all the time? That’s got to suck.”
“I couldn’t do it,” Pete sounded grim. “And I don’t want to do this either.”
“We’ve got no choice.” Isaac took a deep breath and reached for his resolve. “Come on. The sooner we get to it, the sooner we get through it.”
Pete glanced over at him with a smart-ass grin. “That was deep, Ike. Very profound.”
“Oh, you like that? I got a million of ’em. How about move your ass or I’ll turn it to grass.”
Pete chuckled, and they climbed out of the car and headed for the station.
When they walked through the glass front door, Isaac held up his badge to the firefighter seated at the desk. The face was somewhat familiar, but he couldn’t readily call his name.
“Detective Sgt. Taylor.”
That voice, and the face that came with it, was much more familiar to him, and Isaac smiled at the tall, Black man who entered the lobby from a door behind the front desk.
“Lt. Williams.” Isaac clasped his hands behind his back to avoid any handshake attempts. Not that Williams would’ve tried. He was well aware that Isaac didn’t shake.
“You’re here about the death of Jim Lawson, right?”
Isaac nodded. “That’s right.”
“Hell of a thing,” Williams said, folding arms like pythons across his wide chest. “We’re all still in shock around here.”
“I can imagine. And I’m truly sorry for your loss.” Isaac gestured to Pete. “Lt. Mike Williams, this is my partner, Det. Pete Vega.”
The two men shook hands.
“Vega and I met with Fire Investigator Ryan Hudson this morning to go over his findings, and then we spoke with the Medical Examiner. Lawson’s death has officially been ruled a homicide.”
Williams blew a long breath past his lips and looked down at the floor for a second. “I was really hoping you were going to say something different.”
Isaac only nodded in response.
“If I may ask, what was the cause of his death, Detective Taylor?”
“Blunt force trauma to the back of the head that snapped his neck. M.E. says he was most likely dead by the time he took that 8 foot drop to the floor.”
“Jesus.” It was a sad, astonished whisper, and Isaac watched Williams closely. He seemed to be genuinely affected by this news.
“Williams, I’m afraid that our next step in this investigation has to be speaking with each of the firefighters who were on the scene of that blaze.”
Williams’ gaze zipped back to Isaac with a scrunched brow.
“Seriously?”
“We’ve got no choice. Jim Lawson was in the middle of a warehouse fire with his fellow firefighters at the time of his death. Our investigation has to start with them. With what they saw, what they witnessed.”
“I get it.”
“Now, we are more than happy to conduct those interviews here at the fire station if you have someplace where we can do that?”
Williams nodded. “Sure. We can get you set up in the lounge. I’ll have the guys come talk to you one at a time.”
“Thank you.” Isaac continued to watch him. “You want to go first?”
That question startled Williams. Isaac could see it in the surprise that flashed in his eyes. “Me?”
“You were on the scene last night, weren’t you? You were calling the shots?”
Isaac already knew the answer to that question. Like all the calls station 12 responded to, Lt. Williams was the one in charge.
Williams swallowed. “Yes, I was.” A short pause followed, and Williams licked his lips. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
They followed Williams up the stairs and into a large room with several comfortable-looking sofas and chairs, a large screen TV, and a fairly large and well-stocked book case. It looked more like someone’s living room than a fire station, but Isaac understood.
The firefighters typically worked a 24/48 schedule, meaning they were on duty for a full 24 hours and then off for 48 hours. Which meant they spent a lot of time in this station during their on-duty time. A room like this was a necessity at a firehouse.
When they entered the room there were two firefighters already kicked back there watching TV.
“Hey, would you fellas mind giving us the room, please?” Williams said.
The two men flashed puzzled glances around at them and got to their feet. But Isaac could see the questions forming in both of their minds.
“And let the others know that this room is off limits for the time being, okay?” Williams added.
“Is everything all right, Lieutenant?” one of them asked, shooting darts of suspicion at Isaac and Pete from his eyes.
“No, Cooper. We lost a man in a questionable manner last night, and our brothers in blue are here to try and get to the bottom of it. Everything is not all right.” Williams’ tone held way more acid than it had seconds before, and Isaac wondered what kind of animosity was between these two men.
Cooper stared Williams in the eyes for a long second before he followed the other firefighter out of the room.
Isaac took a seat in a chair and waited for Pete to get situated on the sofa. When he did, he pulled out a small notebook and pen and gave Isaac a nod.
“Why don’t we start with that little confrontation?” Isaac nodded toward the door, indicating the run-in they’d just witnessed. “What’s your beef with firefighter Cooper?”
William’s face turned to stone. “How is that relevant to Jim Lawson’s death, Taylor?”
“You tell me? I’m just following up on the tension I witnessed between you two. A tension presumably connected to the loss of Lawson. Explain it for me.”
Williams licked his lips and ran his palms over his knees. There was a moment’s hesitation, and Isaac wasn’t sure if Williams was gathering his thoughts or crafting a lie.
“My beef with Cooper is his beef with Lawson.”
“The two men didn’t get along?” Pete asked.
“Lawson was promoted to driver engineer over Cooper about a year ago, and there’s been hurt feelings ever since. But it goes deeper than that.”
“How much deeper?” Isaac asked.
“High school shit really. Undelivered messages, petty sabotage and pranks, the stealing of girlfriends. None of us took it too seriously, you know? Not until a fistfight broke out between them downstairs in the kitchen. Took about four of us to break it up.”
“When was this?” Isaac sat forward, resting his forearms on his knees and folded his hands together.
“About a month ago.”
“You know what that altercation was about?”
“I don’t know what started the fight, but I did hear Molly’s name tossed out.”
“Molly?”
“Molly Chase was Lawson’s fiancée. They were tight, had been together for about three years. But they broke up a few weeks ago. I don’t know the details of why, but I do know that it had something to do with her indiscretion with Cooper.”
“The stealing of girlfriends you mentioned before?”
“Yes.”
“So how were things between Lawson and Cooper after that fight?”
“Glacial. They barely spoke. Lawson came to me shortly after the fight requesting a transfer to to 23. Said he couldn’t work with Cooper anymore.”
Williams paused and Isaac was shocked to see him choke back emotion. “I asked him to wait. To give it time. I had just promoted him to driver engineer and I didn’t want to have to restructure things here.”
“Williams, this is not your fault.”
Williams’ eyes met his, and Isaac could suddenly feel the man’s deep sense of sorrow and regret. He closed his eyes and mentally pushed William’s feelings away, getting to work on constructing that imaginary concrete wall in his mind. The wall he used to keep other’s raw emotions from overpowering his own.
“Isn’t it? If I had just granted his transfer request—”
“If you had granted his request, he would’ve been working out of station 23 instead of 12. But he still would’ve ended up at the canning plant fire last night, along with the rest of station 23. You had no control over that.”
“Maybe not. But I still feel responsible.”
“I’m sure you do. You lost a man under your command. That’s got to be hard. But I have to ask you, Williams… are you really telling me that you suspect Cooper of killing Jim Lawson?”
Williams looked slowly around the room as though he were weighing his thoughts, and then nodded his head. “You said it was homicide. If that’s the case, I only know of one person who wanted to hurt him.”
Isaac and Pete glanced at each other.
“What’s Cooper’s first name?” Pete asked, ready to scribble it down.
“Andrew.”
“Let’s switch gears now.” Isaac pulled out his cellphone and activated the recorder. “Things are about to get technical, and as we’re not firefighters I’d like to be able to refer back to a word-for-word account if we need to.”
“I understand.”
“Lt. Williams, take us to the fire last night at the canning plant. Tell us everything you remember about the fire itself. About your orders to your team, and about Jim Lawson’s movements during the blaze.”
They questioned Mike Williams for another half hour before Isaac was satisfied they had enough from him.
“Did anything unusual happen during that call last night?”
“Unusual?” Williams repeated, shaking his head.
“Anything out of the ordinary? Anything that seemed curious?”
“Actually, now that you mention it, there was something.” Williams pointed a finger at him. “During the call, Santori radioed to ask me if I had ordered anyone to the east block of the warehouse.”
“And why was that odd?”
“Because that part of the warehouse wasn’t in any danger at that point. But Santori said she spotted someone heading that way. It didn’t make any sense because all personnel were accounted for. Even the guys from 23.”
“Did you ever figure it out?” Isaac found this bit of information intriguing.
Williams slowly shook his head. “No. And things got crazy right after that, so I didn’t follow up like I should have.”
“Okay. Thank you for your time, Lieutenant.”
“Of course. I’ll get you a list of everyone who was present on the scene last night so you can check them off as you go.”
“That’d be great, thank you. We’d like to speak to Cooper next.”
“I’ll let him know.”
Williams left the room, and Isaac looked at Pete. “Thoughts?”
“Sounds like some serious bad blood between Lawson and Cooper.”
“Yeah.”
“Enough to kill over though? I have my doubts, Ike.”
“Me too. But stranger things have certainly happened.”
“True.”
They waited for nearly ten minutes before Andrew Cooper sauntered in, shoving his attitude through the door ahead of him. He flicked a sheet of paper onto the table in front of Isaac.
“Williams told me to give you that,” he said, taking a seat across from him.
Isaac stared him down. “Thank you. I know we’ve seen each other around before, but I don’t think we’ve ever formally met. I’m Detective Sgt. Isaac Taylor, this is Detective Pete Vega.”
“Look, I was told to come in here and speak to you about the fire and Lawson’s death. Can we skip the fake pleasantries and get to it?”
“Okay. Tell us about your altercation with Engineer Lawson last month.” Isaac purposely used Lawson’s title, pushing the position Cooper had wanted for himself in the man’s face. “We hear it came to blows in the kitchen.”
Cooper’s face turned red, but he never broke eye contact with Isaac. “Did the lieutenant tell you that? I bet he tripped over himself to tell you all about it, didn’t he?” An angry smirk quirked up the corner of his lips. “Figures. He and Lawson were buddies. That’s the only reason he promoted him over me in the first place.”
“We’re not here to talk about your shortcomings as a firefighter or your failure to land a promotion. We’re here because a firefighter from this house was murdered during that call last night.”
“Murdered?”
Cooper looked genuinely shocked, and Isaac found that interesting.
“We’re homicide detectives, Mr. Cooper. What did you think we were doing here?”
“I-I don’t… know. I…”
His voice trailed off and his face drained of color. All of his attitude morphed into something Isaac recognized as fear.
“Wait. You aren’t here because you think that I did something to him, are you? No.” Cooper shook his head. “No, Lawson died in that fire. I had nothing to do with it!”
“Calm down, Mr. Cooper. No one is accusing you of anything. Right now, we’re only asking questions. This investigation is just beginning.”
“Yeah, but you think one of us killed him. That’s why you’re really here.”
“We’re here because we have a job to do. Now you can either calm down and answer our questions here, or we can escort you to our station. Either way, this interview is going to happen.”
“Not if I get a lawyer.” His tone was as defiant as his eyes.
“Even if you get a lawyer. In fact, we’d be more than happy to take you in and give you a nice little room where you can wait for your lawyer to arrive. It’s your choice.”
Cooper ran both of his hands through his sandy brown hair, and Isaac could tell the man was extremely stressed. He could feel Cooper’s heightened anxiety pushing against his carefully constructed imaginary concrete wall.
“All right, fine. Ask your questions.”
“What caused the fight in the firehouse kitchen a month ago?”
“Molly.”
“Molly Chase? Lawson’s former fiancée?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“So you argued over Molly and it came to blows?”
“I don’t remember what we started bickering about. But Molly’s name got mentioned and then yeah. The fight was on.”
“And you fought about Molly because…?”
Cooper looked Isaac in the eyes. “You need me to spell it out?”
“For the record, yes.”
“Fine. I hated the guy okay? He was always so damn self-righteous, so smug. Walking around here like no one could touch him. Flaunting his friendship with the lieutenant and his rich girlfriend. So yeah, I set out to knock him down off of that high horse. I went after her. I made it my mission to get his woman into my bed and then rub it in his fat, smug face. And that’s exactly what I did.”
“Nice guy.” Pete made no attempt to water down his disgust, and Cooper’s gaze snapped to him.
“I never claimed to be. And she didn’t have to sleep with me. It’s not like I forced myself on her. Actually, it wasn’t all that difficult to turn her head either, so obviously Mr. Perfect wasn’t satisfying her.” The pride dripped from his voice, unfiltered.
“You went to all that trouble just to get under the guy’s skin?” Isaac was trying to understand, but this just seemed so petty. Then again, he’d worked cases where people had killed for a lot less.
“Sleeping with Molly wasn’t exactly a hardship, but yeah. And I’d do it again just to see the dumb look on his face when he found out. He learned that day, I’ll tell ya.”
Cooper sounded proud of himself, and Isaac stared at him. “What exactly did he learn that day?”
“He learned that he wasn’t the big shot, great guy that everyone around here thought he was. He learned that I’m not the joker he took me for!”
“Sounds to me like all you succeeded in doing was making yourself look like a world-class jealous ass to all of your colleagues. But that’s just my opinion.”
Cooper didn’t appreciate that comment, but Isaac didn’t care. And he didn’t give him a chance to respond either.
“Tell us what you remember about the fire last night.”
Cooper’s attitude settled slightly when the questioning changed directions, but Isaac could tell the man was still on edge. They questioned him at length about the fire and what he remembered of Jim Lawson’s movements during the blaze.
“Do you recall anything unusual happening during that fire?”
Cooper stared down at the table for a long moment, shaking his head. He stopped suddenly, and Isaac could see the spark of something in his eyes.
“Mr. Cooper?”
“Yes.” He finally looked up at Isaac. “There was something unusual.”
“Go on.”
“I remember seeing a firefighter that I didn’t recognize.”
“I don’t follow.”
“Well, it’s always chaotic during a big blaze like that. And between the dark and the smoke and the adrenalin, it can get confusing. Especially when there’s more than one firehouse involved. So our names are on our turn out gear. Big, easy-to-read, block letters in reflective material so we can identify each other at a glance.”
“Okay.”
“Well this guy, this firefighter I didn’t recognize… he had no name on his turn out jacket. It was odd. The suit was just like all the others, but there was no name.”
“And where was this firefighter when you spotted him?”
“Rounding the engine and headed toward the building.”
“Did you call out to him?”
“No. I had orders to carry out and he was several yards away from me.”
“All right. Thank you for your time today, Mr. Cooper. We’ll be in touch.”
“That’s it? I can go?”
“For now. Stay local.”
Cooper stood and walked out without another word.
Isaac looked at Pete. “Can you believe that guy?”
“What an ass. Sounds like he had a big jealous hard-on for Lawson for some reason.”
“Right? I’ve never understood that way of thinking. You’re jealous of this person, so you go out of your way to sabotage them? Don’t you have anything better to do with your time?”
“It’s human nature, Ike.”
“It’s not my nature.”
“Yeah, but you’re not human.”
“Very funny. But it’s not your nature either.”
“So maybe some people are just bad.”
“Worthless wastes of skin, that’s what they are.”
Pete softly chuckled at Isaac’s tirade while they waited for the next firefighter to be interviewed.
“Hey, so what about this mystery firefighter, huh? Both Williams and Cooper mentioned something about him.”
“And Santori,” Isaac nodded, making a mental note to ask Santori about it. “I’m not sure what to make of that. Was Santori mistaken about what she saw? Or was there really a mystery person in that building?”
“Maybe we should request to see this Santori next?”
The door opened before Isaac could respond to that, and a tall, slender female walked in. Her black hair was cut in one of those short boyish styles, and Isaac knew the woman had once dated Sasha Palmer, one of the female homicide detectives, for over a year.
“Request unnecessary.” Isaac smiled at her. “Gina, nice to see you again. Although I’m sorry about the circumstances.”
“How are you, Ike?”
“Good. And you?”
“Heartbroken over Lawson. Thanks for asking.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry.” Isaac motioned to Pete as. “Not sure if you’ve met my partner, Detective Pete Vega. Pete, this is Gina Santori.”
Gina reached for Pete’s hand. “Yeah, we’ve seen each other around.”
She took a seat and then looked back and forth between them. “Lt. Williams said you two are here interviewing everyone who was on duty last night. I don’t understand why. What’s going on?”
“I’m afraid Jim Lawson’s death has been ruled a homicide.” Isaac watched her reaction to the news. It didn’t surprise him to see tears spring to her eyes. She wiped them away with trembling fingers.
“Someone murdered him?”
“It looks that way.”
“Oh, my God. I don’t believe it.” Gina covered her mouth with her hand. “He did it. He really did it.”
Tears streamed silently down her face, and Isaac and Pete exchanged a look before he focused back on her. He fished a yellow bandana-style handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her.
“Thank you.”
“Gina, who are you talking about? Who did it?”
“Cooper.” The word was blurted out with tears. “Andrew Cooper. He did this, didn’t he? He made good on his threats to kill Jimmy?”
“Were there threats made?” Isaac scooted to the edge of his seat, leaning in.
“On several occasions!” She wiped her tears and tried to collect herself.
“Like the fight Cooper and Lawson had in the firehouse kitchen?” Isaac asked.
“Oh, the kitchen was just the tip of the iceberg with those two. They fought in the locker room once and both men earned a three-day suspension out of it. And yes, both times Cooper threatened to kill Jimmy.”
“Do you know the root of the bad blood between them?”
“Not really. Jimmy told me that Cooper simply took a dislike to him the moment they met. I think Cooper was jealous of Jimmy, but I have never known why exactly. It’s like he just wanted everything Jimmy had — his friends, his position, his girl. Almost like he wanted to be Jimmy, you know?”
Isaac let that sink in for a moment. “Gina, Lt. Williams mentioned that during the fire, you radioed to ask him if he’d ordered anyone to the east block of the warehouse. Do you recall that?”
Gina nodded. “Yes, I do.”
“Why did you ask that question?”
“Because I thought I saw someone headed in that direction. But I hadn’t heard Williams order anyone to that side. It just seemed odd for a second.”
“What exactly did you think you saw?”
“A person.”
“A firefighter?”
“Yes. I mean, I thought so at the time. But it was nothing.”
“You’re sure it was nothing?”
“Well, when I looked again whoever I thought I saw wasn’t there. So I guess it was just my imagination. It can get disorienting sometimes, especially in all that smoke.”
“And what would you say if I told you that someone else mentioned seeing someone they couldn’t identify in the middle of that blaze?”
Gina perked up, her surprised gaze boring into him. “Really? You mean it wasn’t my imagination?”
Isaac shrugged a shoulder. “We don’t know that for sure. But you are not the only one who thought they saw something strange.”
“Ms. Santori, can you tell us exactly what you think you saw?” Pete asked.
Gina ran a hand through her hair and licked her lips. “Well, it was only a split second or two. But I thought I saw a person. A firefighter. At least, I think it was a firefighter.”
“Was he wearing turn out gear?” Isaac asked.
“Yes. But that’s the confusing part. It was identical to our turn out gear, which is why I figured Williams had ordered someone else inside. Only there was no name on the jacket. The names on the jackets are important. It’s how we recognize each other in all that smoke and haze.”
“And this jacket had no name?”
“None. But when I went to do a double take, the person was gone. That’s when I radioed Lt. Williams. When he said there was no one inside but me, Rivers, Jimmy, and Cooper I figured my imagination had just been playing tricks on me.”
“Wait a minute,” Isaac held up a hand to back her up a bit. “Cooper was ordered inside with you and Rivers?”
“Well, yes and no. Rivers and I were ordered to vent the roof of the south side of the warehouse. Jimmy and Cooper were ordered to try and find the source of the fire once the venting was complete.”
Isaac looked at Pete, who shot him a subtle eyebrow lift as he jotted down more notes.
“So Cooper and Jim Lawson were inside alone.” It wasn’t really a question meant for Gina. Isaac was simply processing the information.
“Okay, Gina. Thank you for your time.”
“Of course. You know, Ike… I don’t know what this mystery person, if he even exists, has to do with Jimmy’s death, but if you’re asking my opinion—”
“And I am.”
“My money would be on Cooper. He hated Jimmy. He told him that he would kill him. We all heard it.”
Isaac nodded. He appreciated Gina’s insights on her coworkers, but it was his job to look at every angle.
“Thank you, Gina. Would you send in the next person, please?”
“Sure.”
Isaac checked her name off the list and they moved on to the next interview, Delroy Rivers. As soon as he took his seat Isaac could feel the tension.
“Mr. Rivers we’re here because—”
“I know why you’re here. I heard that Jim Lawson’s death was ruled a homicide. It’s all over the station by now. Everyone’s buzzing about it. And I can’t believe that you’re wasting your time harassing us over it!”
“Harassing you?” Pete sounded surprised.
“I said what I said.” Rivers voice was full of indignation and reproach. “What ever happened to first responders being on the same team, huh? What happened to cops and firefighters having each other’s backs? Instead y’all are down here accusing us of killing one of our own? This is bullshit.”
“Well, I’m sorry you feel that way, Mr. Rivers. We’re not accusing anybody of anything.” Isaac’s tone was calm, but he hoped his steel gaze told Rivers that he meant business. “But the fact is we’ve got a job to do. Jim Lawson was murdered during a 5-alarm blaze that he was helping to put out with his fellow firefighters. So logically, any investigation has to begin with the people who were there at the time. That means all of you.”
“Like I said… bullshit.”
“Bullshit or not, this interview is happening. Whether it happens here or down at the police station is up to you.”
Rivers blew a puff of air from his lips and looked away. “Now you’re threatening me? Nice.”
“I’m not threatening you, Mr. Rivers. I’m just stating the facts. Can we stop wasting time and get started now?”
The fire alarm sounded a nanosecond later, and Isaac rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair.
A shit-eating grin spread across Rivers’ face and he got to his feet and headed for the door. “Oops. I guess we can’t.”
“This interview is only delayed, Rivers. You will talk to us.”
“Sure thing, Detective.”
Firefighters scrambled past the open door and Isaac stood, prompting Pete to stand too.
“Shouldn’t we wait, Ike?”
“We have no idea how long this call will take. Could be an hour or more. Makes no sense to wait around.”
“Yeah, but that means we have to come back.”
“And potentially back, and back, and back until we’ve spoken to them all. The only other alternative is to haul them into the police station one at a time, and I doubt that would do anything to foster good will between us.”
“That means questioning the firefighters could potentially take us days. Especially if we’re also planning on questioning house 23.”
“Yeah. We’re going to need some help here, that’s for sure. I’ll request Lt. Hayes put another set of detectives on questioning 23. Might help speed things up a bit.”
“That would be great.”
They made their way down the stairs just as the firetruck and engine sped out of the station.