Page 38 of From the Flames
“Grant, go get dressed. I set out your clothes last night. Then you can come down to eat. Can you do that?”
“I can, I’m big.” He hurried back to his room, and Willy took a few minutes to dress before getting both kids to the kitchen, where he put some french toast sticks in the toaster. He also got out juice and made up plates for both of them.
Kevin joined them as he got the kids’ food and poured himself a mug of coffee. “Red just called. He says he needs to meet with us.”
“Can they come to my office at ten thirty? I have to get the kids to daycare, and I need to get to my class. I can’t be late.” Willy checked the time once more before making up the kids’ lunches and their school bags. Then he got them ready to go.
“They said they’ll meet us at your office,” Kevin followed up. They shared a kiss, and then Willy was off, hoping he could get the kids checked in quickly and get to his office with enough time to get the materials he had prepared.
Of course there was a line at drop-off, but he got both kids checked in and then raced to the college, grateful he found a parking spot quickly. He hurried to his office, grabbed his materials, and got to his classroom with five minutes to spare.
This was one of his favorite classes, and the students were always so energized. They asked a great many questions, and theclass flew by. By the time he finished answering their questions after the lesson, he was nearly late.
“The police are outside your office with my nephew,” Evelyn told him as he entered the building. She must have been waiting for him. “What’s going on?”
“At this point I don’t know exactly, and I don’t have time to bring you up to date, but no one is in trouble… except the people who are.” God, that sounded weird even to him. “Kevin is fine. So am I and the kids.”
She narrowed her gaze. “You better let me know.”
He steeled his own in return. “You know the rule. No gossip.”
She snickered and rolled her eyes. “It’s too late for that. The police will have set everyone’s tongues wagging.”
“Then I’ll give them something to gossip about.” He turned and climbed the stairs, swishing his backside to and fro. From her laughter, he knew Evelyn got the message.
Willy turned the corner on the second floor and found Kevin and the two officers. He stopped as he recognized the fourth person in their group. “You better have a good explanation for this,” he growled, “or else this guy is going to be huddling on the ground with his nuts in his hands… again.”
Red stepped forward. “We wouldn’t have brought him here if we didn’t think you needed to hear what he has to say. Is there a place we can speak privately?” Willy’s office was too small.
Kevin hurried over to him.
“There’s a faculty break room. We can go there.” He led the way, opening the door to the empty room. They went inside, and Willy sat at one of the tables, thankful that Kevin took the seat next to him. “Okay. Why are we here?”
“Like Red said, we wouldn’t do this if we didn’t feel it was necessary.” Red and Carter sat on either side of the man who had threatened Willy and Kevin.
“I didn’t intend to cause you any harm.”
“Then why make fucking threats?” Willy growled. “You scared me half to death, and I have kids. Do you know I spent every night for the last ten days looking out my windows, watching to see if I was followed? And all of that is because of you, so whatever you think you were doing, you really don’t know shit.” He stood. “Are we done here? I have important things that I need to do, and listening to a bunch of crap is a waste of my time. I will press charges for his threats, and I’ll talk to a lawyer about a restraining order if I have to.” He was ready to leave.
“I got burned out of my home the same way you did,” the man said. “I lived in an apartment on the edge of Middletown. I got burned out because Kraft and Hobson did a shit job of building the place. No one did a damned thing about it. So when I heard that someone was investigating them, I thought if I applied a little pressure then people would be less likely to give up.”
“What the hell?” Willy asked in disbelief. “You threatened me because you thought that Kevin and I had some authority and that we’d just give up? That’s kind of fucked up. You could have just knocked on the door and said, ‘Hey, I’m Joe Blow and the same thing happened to me.’ That would have been a lot more helpful.” He shook his head.
“We checked out his story,” Carter said. “That’s why we’re here with him. We believe what he’s telling us. His methods were a little messed up, but he did live in a building that burned, and it was built by the same people who built yours.”
“I think they torched it because people were starting to sniff around. They were using substandard materials and cut a ton of corners. The residents began having a lot of issues, so we were looking into things, and suddenly the building goes up in flames one night. Everyone got out, but some kids were hurt becauseof it. Everyone in the building lost everything, and while the fire department investigated—they even called it arson—things petered out and no one was charged. Now it looks like they’ve done the same thing here. More than once.”
Red and Carter both nodded. “It looks that way. But we don’t have any records, and there isn’t much left of either building for us to investigate. They managed to make sure whatever evidence there might be is pretty much ashes or a tangled mess.”
Kevin cleared his throat. “We have looked at what we can, but like you said, there’s very little left. As best we can put together, they simply spread gasoline on the remaining framework, and it went up hot and fast.”
“Check the concrete.”
“Excuse me?” Kevin asked.
“One of the ways they cheat is substandard concrete, so check the foundations. Those didn’t burn, and you may be able to find a pattern there. No one checked that on my building, but I talked to some of the demo crew who cleared away what remained, and they were remarking about how easy it was and that the job didn’t take very long. I take that to mean that the concrete was easy to dismantle and probably not up to code.”
Red and Carter made notes. “I can have that done,” Red said. “We can also check that against the specs that the borough has.” He turned to the man they had brought. “And no making threats to anyone. That isn’t the way to get attention. If you had come to us, things would have been a lot easier. As it is, any information you give us has to be treated skeptically because of your behavior, and that means more work for us. And if we are able to build a case, we can’t ask you to testify because of the attempted intimidation.”
