Fireproof

looking for, then hesitated like he didn’t want to leave her alone with them. Thankfully he was too busy to stay. She immediately locked the door behind him.
    Last night Wes Harper’s description of what fire can do to a body had freaked her out more than she liked to admit. What bothered her the most was how much pleasure Harper seemed to take in telling all the gruesome details. She also didn’t like the fact that he and Jeffery seemed awfully chummy for having just met.
    Just how did Jeffery know so much about these fires and about this fire starter? Yes, he did a ton of research, a habit he claimed was left over from his high school teaching days. So Sam was never surprised by the things he knew or remembered. He was one of the brightest guys she knew. And he could have learned things from Otis P. Dodd’s personal letters, but they wouldn’t have told Jeffery any details about these fires.
    She couldn’t remember any one of their interviewees or sources mentioning that the fires were started by a chemical reaction. Yet Jeffery appeared certain. She wanted to check some of their filmfootage. And she needed to check the films’ date and time stamps. How did Jeffery know about the fires so early?
    She wondered if someone was tipping him off. He often joked that he had more contacts and informants than the CIA, and Sam had always been amazed at the network of people he knew, not just across the country, but across the world.
    Why Big Mac hadn’t given Jeffery his own show always baffled Sam. Except that he didn’t have the “look.” Jeffery Cole was a bit too ordinary looking.
    Sam jotted down names as she watched the taped segments. Was it possible one of these criminals had been paroled since the interview? There had to be a way she could check.
    After two hours she was certain no one on the list, other than Otis P. Dodd, had been charged or was serving time for arson. Of course that didn’t mean arson wasn’t in their background. Most of these guys were charged with multiple offenses. And they weren’t choosy about what the offenses were. But if there was a connection between one of these criminals that Jeffery had interviewed and the fires from the past two weeks, she couldn’t find it. Even Otis’s “mystery man,” who had killed the woman with the orange socks and stuffed her into a culvert, didn’t show up anywhere else.
    She was convinced, however, that Jeffery had inside knowledge. If not directly from the arsonist, then from someone who knew when and where the fires would happen. But who? And what kind of dangerous game had Jeffery gotten himself into this time?
    Sam pulled up the footage from the warehouse fires, the footage she had taken before the fire trucks and rescue crews arrived. She remembered thinking it odd that no one else was there, and yet at the same time she had been excited about getting the exclusive. Agent Tully had been interested in this same footage but onlyuntil he found the man with the red backpack. Sam started watching from the point where Agent Tully stopped.
    It was boring. Slow going. She clicked up the speed. Paused it when the crowd began to grow. Zoomed in. Panned the faces. Nothing. She wasn’t even sure what she was looking for. Did she really expect to recognize anyone?
    She sent it speeding along again. Just after the second explosion, she stopped the film. Hit REWIND then PLAY , and let it move in regular time. She grabbed her cup of coffee and sipped, keeping an eye on the computer monitor. She glanced away to look at her watch. When she looked back up she noticed several more people had joined the crowd. Just before the time stamp where she knew the second blast occurred, Sam paused and zoomed in again. She started panning the new crowd. Then suddenly she recognized someone.
    She reached up so quickly to tap STOP that she knocked over her coffee cup.
    What in the world was he doing there?

CHAPTER 55

    Maggie listened while Dr. Ling went over all the same information with Racine. The detective, however, didn’t appear all that interested. Maggie knew Julia Racine well enough to know something was up. She was patient and polite but she asked few questions. Dr. Ling started talking about the skull found inside the burned building. Then Racine became a bit agitated.
    “But you can’t be sure he was killed in the same way or even with the same weapon?” she asked.
    “Yes, I’m simply speculating. Although the fractures to the top and to the side