Page 118 of Ink and Ashes
“What’s up, baby?”
“I hate to bring this up, but I have to ask…” She rolls her lips together, pausing for a moment. I stroke my thumb along her waist, waiting patiently for her to spit it out. After a beat, she exhales and asks, “What was the official cause of the fire at your apartment building?”
My brows pull together, my hand freezing in place. “It was an electrical fire.” I swallow roughly. “Why do you ask?”
Holland clears her throat. “Because…I think it’s possible it was related to the arsonist.”
I stop breathing. Everything I was feeling a few minutes ago vanishes as the edges of my vision go blurry, my mind racing with the suggestion that the arsonist might be the reason Ellie is dead.
I feel like I’m going to be sick.
Quickly but carefully, I lift Holland off of my lap then rush to the garbage can in the corner of the room. I empty the contents of my stomach into it, feeling Holland’s soft touch on my back as she comforts me through it. When I’m done, I let out a sigh and fall back against the wall.
The cold tile floor feels nice against my clammy skin, and Holland’s voice slowly cuts through the ringing in my ears. My vision clears, her face becoming my focal point as she says, “God, Colson. I’m sorry. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so.” I blow out a breath, leaning my head against the wall as Holland stands, grabbing my bottle of water off the desk and passing it to me. “Thanks.” I take a quick swig, then meet her gaze. “What the hell do you mean you think the apartment fire was related?”
She lets out a breath. “Ever since your dad got that note, I’ve been trying to figure out what the importance of the Welland Ranch fire is, and it got me thinking about whether there were other fires here that the arsonist could’ve set over the years. As it turns out?—”
She’s interrupted by the sound of the klaxons, and I tense. I wait for the announcer to tell us what it’s for, and when they say it’s a dumpster fire, I drop my head between my knees.
I’m relieved this isn’t anything big, but considering today is day eighteen, I also hate that it isn’t. I wish this guy would quit pulling us in every direction and just get on with what we all know is coming. With each call we receive that isn’t for that, the sinking feeling in my stomach drops even lower.
I blow out a breath as Holland reaches her hand down to help me up. I still feel lightheaded as I rise to my feet, and she braces her hand on my shoulder to help me keep my balance.
“Are you gonna be okay? I can go tell Beau you can’t make it to this call if you need.”
I swallow roughly, shaking my head. “No. No, I need to go. I’m okay.” I swipe my tongue over my lips as I look up at her. “We’ll finish this later, okay?”
She jerks her head, looking up at me with sadness in her big, brown eyes. “Okay. I’m sorry again.”
“Don’t apologize. You did nothing wrong.” I press a kiss to her forehead, then pull back to meet her eyes. “We shouldn’t be long. You gonna hangout here?”
Holland nods again.
“I’ll see you when we get back then.”
“See you when you get back.” She rolls her lips together. “Be safe, Lieutenant.”
“I will be, Red.”
CHAPTER 42
Holland
After the crew leaves, I head upstairs to the conference room. My anxiety grows with each step I take, wondering what the arsonist’s angle is at this point. Given the number of fires he’s set for the team to fight over the past few days, it’s clear that he’s leading up to his endgame. I’ve been trying to figure out what that’s going to be, but still not knowing who’s responsible for them doesn’t make that any easier.
I’ve been watching the crew closely over the past few days. While some have had days off here and there, no one’s time off has overlapped with the exact moments of the fires. Which means the arsonist is either setting them in places they won’t be seen quickly and then calling them in when he gets here, or he’s using some kind of incendiary device.
We’ve found traces of candles at the scene of every decoy fire, and I know the arsonist is doing it intentionally now to toy with us. None of these fires have burned long enough to melt the candle completely, so we’ve been finding more than just the tabs.
There was another dumpster fire yesterday,and we found an entire unburned pillar candle around the corner from it. But it turned out the cause of that fire was simply a match thrown inside, which leads me to question whether he’s actually been using candles as his form of ignition this whole time, or if he’s been leaving them at the scene of each crime for another reason.
Since realizing last week at the station’s barbecue that maybe the Welland Ranch fireandthe apartment fire are related to these ones, I’ve poured my all into figuring out how.
As it turns out, every five years since Welland Ranch burned down, Ember Grove has faced a fire worse than the ones they’ve seen in the past. Most have been wildfires that were just extra stubborn or larger than the ones in the years previous, but there have been a few structure fires too. First at an old warehouse on the outskirts of town, then at the local grocery store. No one was injured in either of those, and they happened fifteen and twenty years ago respectively, so I didn’t make the connection before now.
From what I can see, it seems like the arsonist—whoever they are—has been returning to the area every five years like clockwork to set a fire. It started five years to the day after the Welland Ranch burned down, and it’s continued on that same pattern every year.
