Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder

full of soapy water and rinsed out some clothes while she waited. She hadn’t even had time to open the paper or read her mail. Now, she lay dead upstairs. It was unreal.
    Seattle Police officers F. Aesquivel and A. Thole strung up yellow police tape to cordon off the parameters of a possible crime scene and stood guarding the house and yard while the investigators worked inside.
    Inspector Jim Reed headed upstairs. The hallway outside the fire room had sustained very little damage, only some surface blistering on the ceilings and walls. The bedroom beyond, where the woman had died, had similar damage to most of the walls and ceilings—nothing deeply burned at all, just surface burns.
    In the fire room, there was a king-size bed against the south wall, a nightstand next to it, a swivel chair, a nine-drawer dresser with a blackened mirror, and the melted TV set on its metal stand. The light switch controlling the single ceiling fixture was in the off position. The only electrical outlet was behind the dresser.
    The room was carpeted with thick shag carpeting, and it was this carpet that had pushed against the door, making it difficult for Ochs to open it.
    Even though most of the fire room was uncharred, Dorothy Jones’s body had been exposed to such intense heat that her skin had begun to “sleeve” on her legs, forming a thin shell that could be slipped off like a glove. Both of her nostrils were full of soot, and so was her ear on the side that was exposed to the room.
    Jim Reed and Sergeant Jim Whalen bent over the dead woman, searching for some sign that she had been attacked, possibly even killed, before the fire began, but they could detect no wounds whatsoever on the part of her body that they could see. Reed took several photographs before Whalen carefully turned her over.
    The mystery only grew. There were no wounds on the nether side of her body either—nothing at all to indicate why the woman hadn’t simply gotten up and fled the flames. Perhaps an autopsy would show why. Deputies from the medical examiner’s office removed the dead woman, and the investigation continued.
    Reed surveyed the bedroom. There was no damage to the shag carpeting. Fire burns upward, and this was to be expected. The mattress was not burned on top, although the sides were scorched. This tended to eliminate smoking in bed as the cause of the fire. Besides, the ashtray on the nightstand next to the bed held only fire debris, no cigarettes or tobacco residue or ashes.
    The nightstand itself was scorched, the telephone atop it melted. The stand and the television set had been only a few inches from the bed.
    The two investigators lifted the mattress off its metal frame. The carpet beneath it was consumed, with the most damage just under the center of the bed. The floorboards there were charred.
    They carried the mattress out to the front yard. There, under strong auxiliary lighting, they could see that Dorothy Jones’s wallet, checkbook, and savings deposit book were entangled in the bedding. But robbery didn’t appear to be a motive: the wallet held $280 in cash.
    When the mattress was flipped over, a mass of fire damage came into view. The worst charring was in the center and on the left edge where the foot of the bed would have been.
    It seemed obvious that the blaze in the room had not started accidentally—at least not from the usual reasons that arson investigators expect. They had found nothing beneath the bed that could have started the fire—no wires, small appliances, heating pads, electric blanket controls, candles, matches. Nothing. It was as pristine under Dorothy’s bed as in the rest of her house.
    Jim Reed checked the television set. Although the case was melted, the interior wiring appeared intact and undamaged. The on-off knob was also melted, but he removed it and found that the control shaft was in the off position. It was plugged in behind the dresser and the cord was in good condition.
    The two detectives moved to the east bedroom just across the hall. Here, there was no fire damage whatsoever. The room was furnished much like the fire room, and it was as tidy as the downstairs. There was a jewelry case on the dresser, and it was full of both costume pieces and expensive rings and necklaces. There was an open packed suitcase on the bed. Clothing bags holding suits and slacks hung nearby—as if someone was about to take a trip. A pair of white women’s slacks, a silk blouse, and a lacy bra were