Page 71 of Inferno

Julio didn’t really know what to say to Addie about that. Though it seemed as if she thought she’d given him some sage advice.

In order to get coffee, he had to move out of someone’s way, given he was in the aisle between the wall and the chair backs, which were pushed up against the table. He grabbed a mug, which was difficult given he was basically one-handed with his arm in a sling.

He’d been right about the pain. He’d awoken in the middle of the night, needing the pain meds the doctor had prescribed him. Julio would be on desk duty for a while, but no way was he giving up this case when this guy had tried to kill him and Samantha.

He took a seat.

Across the far end of the table, Special Agent Addie Franklin looked through the papers in front of her. A couple arson investigation and police admins sat to one side, down from a police lieutenant in uniform.

“We aren’t all here, but we don’t have time to waste.” Addie glanced at the clock on the wall. “I believe we’re missing Captain Tennet and our two Intelligence Division detectives. Is that all?”

The FD admin said, “Captain Tennet hasn’t shown up to work yet this morning.”

Julio frowned. It was past nine already. “Have you tried calling him?”

The older woman nodded. “He also isn’t answering his phone. I spotted Sergeant Deerdan on my way in, and she said she’d send a couple of uniformed officers over to his house.”

“Good idea,” Julio said.

He figured everyone was wondering if the guy was their arsonist’s latest victim. As much as he didn’t exactly get along with the Dominic Tennet, he didn’t wish ill of the guy.

He looked around. Flipped his phone over on the table. Still nothing from Samantha, and no sign of her. On the phone, she’d been worried about him being alone on the street. Enough she wanted to make sure he was protected.

He had checked behind him periodically on the drive over here, watching for a tail. But he hadn’t seen anyone. Wherever their arsonist was today, he wasn’t watching Julio.

Which made him wonder if the guy was watching Samantha.

“All right, then. Let’s get started.” Addie stood. “I’ve been comparing the profile I came up with to the incidents so far. At least what we can attribute to this guy.” She glanced around. “A profile isn’t a fact sheet. It’s a living thing that grows and changes as we add information gleaned from his actions, and things like this manifesto.” She tapped her index finger on one of the papers.

Julio figured all of it came together to paint a unique picture.

She continued, “Your ordinary pyromaniac wants to set as many fires as possible. It’s a compulsion. A thrill, watching flames consume the fuel.”

“If that was the case with this guy,” Julio said, “we would have a lot more smaller fires and test fires on our hands.”

“That’s the thing.” She glanced at him. “There are. But we had to go digging in the last five years of fire department reports looking for them.”

“Arsons?” Julio said.

“Most were listed as accidental, or mechanical. Not arson or anything close to being intentional.”

He frowned. That made sense why Tennet hadn’t brought them to the taskforce’s attention. The arson investigator hadn’t ever investigated those fires. Even if he had, firefighters on scene often trampled key evidence. Or cleanup destroyed what remained of a time device or whatever had ignited to start the fire in the first place.

“We found them by searching specifically for records that mentioned issues with the HVAC or fires anything like what Richard Sylvana set.”

“How many?” the FD admin asked.

“A dozen,” Addie said.

“You think they were practice fires?”

She looked at him. “I think he’s been working on this project a long time.”

Julio swallowed too much hot coffee at once. He didn’t like the idea of being a target. Where was Samantha? Maybe she was suffering the aftereffect of what had happened and needed help. Romeo had better be there if that was the case.

Addie continued, “The guy we’re looking for is more than your average pyromaniac. He’s highly intelligent. Strategic. He’s a high-functioning sociopath, the kind of person who blends in enough you’ll let down your guard. People aren’t irrelevant to this guy. They aren’t just too stupid to live if they get in the way of one of his fires. They are tools in his plan. Selected and then discarded.”

The FD officer in the room looked up from making notes in his folder. “To what end?”

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