Today's Reading
But she was honored she got to work with him—with all of them.
And go to church with most of them.
Until now.
"A building isn't the church," he said.
She slanted him a glance. "You're a mind reader now?"
"Not exactly, but I read facial expressions pretty well."
"I'll save you the effort. The person who did it either didn't know Mr. Christie was there working, despite the vehicle parked right beside the back entrance, or he—or she—didn't care. Either way, a good man is in the hospital, and while I'm upset about the damage to the church, I'm more upset about Mr. Christie." She wanted to talk to him when he woke up. If he woke up. It was possible he saw the arsonist. But she'd have to get in line. Nathan and Andrew would be the ones doing the questioning.
"Of course." Nathan paused. "Can I ask what you saw that makes you say it was arson?"
"Let me do this one time." She waved over Fire Chief Kurt Laramie.
"What do you have, Jesslyn?"
"I was just explaining a few things to Nathan and wanted you to hear as well."
Chief Laramie nodded. "Go on."
She turned toward Nathan. "Fires usually burn upward and outward. They create a V-shaped pattern." She pointed to the smoldering, blackened structure. "There are multiple V-shaped patterns inside. So what would you deduce from that?"
"Multiple starting points," Nathan said.
"Give the man an A." She sighed. "And the detection dog alerted to an accelerant. Which could mean nothing more than someone stored cleaning products together, but you don't store those in the pulpit, Pastor Graham's office, the kitchen, and the nursery."
He winced. "Someone deliberately burned the nursery?"
"They did."
"That's a special kind of evil," he muttered.
"Part of me wants to take it as a message of some sort. Another part, the rational part, knows it was just a good place to make sure the fire spread hot and fast since the nursery was next to the kitchen—in which all of the gas burners had been turned on." She shrugged. "And in the nursery, you have things like baby oil, wipes, plastic or vinyl mattress covers, and more. Stuff that burns fast and hot. Whoever did this was determined this building was going to burn to the ground. But, here's the kicker. What's interesting is the purple stains."
"Why is that interesting?" Nathan asked.
"It indicates a specific kind of accelerant. One that's homemade and easy to make, relatively safe to handle, but I'll know more once I talk to Marissa at the lab."
"You think this is a one and done?" the chief asked.
"If it's a hate crime and they simply wanted to burn the church down to make a point, then... maybe. Or maybe they'll hit another church. No way to tell right now." She turned to Nathan. "You get to investigate and figure that part out."
Chief Laramie patted her shoulder. "I'm glad to have you working this one, Jesslyn. Your dad would be proud of you."
"Thanks, Chief." He and her dad had been good friends, and the chief had welcomed her into the role of fire marshal with open arms. He walked off and she chewed on her lip.
She guessed her dad would be proud. She could only take the chief's word for it.
"How do you do it?" Nathan asked, breaking into her thoughts.
"Do what?"
"Your job. James told me about your house burning down when you were a child and losing your family. I can't imagine. And then you have to face fire every day?" He shuddered. "I hate fire. Don't even like bonfires."
...
