The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove

seal the hose correctly and a cloud of fumes got set off. There wasn't much wind last night, so the fumes would have just clung to the ground and built up. Anything could have set it off: the driver could have been smoking, the pilot lights at the hamburger place,a spark in the truck exhaust. Right now I'd say it was totally accidental. It was a company-owned store, and it was turning a profit, so there really isn't a financial motive for arson. Texaco will definitely be building your town a new burger stand and probably paying off some nuisance settlements from people claiming trauma, duress, and irritation."
    "I have the information on the driver," Theo said. "I'll check to see if he was a smoker."
    "I asked him. He's keeping quiet,"came a voice from a few yards away.
    Theo and the arson investigator looked up to see Vance McNally coming toward them holding up a Ziploc bag full of white and gray powder. "I've got him right here," the EMT said. "You want to interrogate him?"
    "Very funny, Vance," Theo said.
    "They're going to have to do the autopsy with a flour sifter," Vance said.
    The investigator took the Ziploc from Vance and examined it. "You find any remains of a cigarette lighter?Anything like that?"
    "Not my job," Vance said. "The fire was so hot it turned the seat springs to liquid.Even incinerated the bones, except for those little bits of calcium in there. Honestly, this might not all be our boy. We might be giving his wife a bag full of burnt-up truck parts to put in an urn on the mantel."
    The investigator shrugged and handed the bag back to Vance. Then to Theo he said, "I'm going home. I'll come back tomorrow and look around some more. As soon as I give the okay, the oil company will send in a crew to drain the ground tanks."
    "Thanks," Theo said. The investigator left in a county car.
    Vance McNally turned the Ziploc bag of truck driver in the air. "Theo, this ever happens to me, I want you to get all my friends together, have a big party, and snort me, okay?"
    "You have friends, Vance?"
    "Okay, it was just an idea," Vance said. He turned and carried his bag to the waiting ambulance.
    Theo sipped his coffee and noticed something moving in the charred brush beyond the Texaco. It looked as if someone was holding up a TV antenna and getting altogether too close to the yellow tape he had run around the perimeter. Jeez, was he going to have to stay here all night guarding the scene? He pried himself off the Volvo and headed for the offender.
    "Hey there!"Theo called.
    Gabe Fenton, the biologist, emerged from the brush, indeed holding up some kind of antenna, followed by his Labrador retriever, Skinner. The dog ran to meet Theo and greeted him with two muddy paw prints on the chest.
    Theo rubbed Skinner's ears to hold him at bay, the classic slobberingLabrador control move. "Gabe, what in the hell are you doing down here?"
    The biologist was covered with burrs and foxtails, his face striped with soot from the charred brush.
    He looked exhausted, yet there was a note of excitement bordering on ecstasy in his voice. "You won't believe this, Theo. My rats moved en masse this morning."
    Theo tried, but couldn't match Gabe's enthusiasm. "That'sswell, Gabe. Texaco blew up last night."
    Gabe Fenton looked around at the surrounding area as if seeing the destruction for the first time.
    "What time?"
    "About four in the morning."
    "Hmmm, maybe they sensed it."
    "They?"
    "The rats.Around 2 A.M. they all started moving west. I can't figure out what caused it. Here, look at the screen. Gabe had a laptop computer strapped into a harness around his waist. He turned it so Theo could see the screen. "Each of these dots represents an animal I have implanted with a tracking chip.
    Here's their location at 1 A.M." He clicked a key and the screen drew a topographical map of the area.
    Green dots were scattered pretty much evenly along the creek bed and the business district of Pine Cove.
    Gabe hit another key. "Now here they are at two." All but a few of the dots had moved into the ranchland east of Pine Cove.
    "Uh-huh," Theo said. Gabe was a nice guy. Spent too much time with vermin, but he was a nice guy.
    Gabe needs to talk to humans occasionally, Theo thought.
    "Well, don't you see? They all moved at once, except for these ten over here that moved to the shore."
    "Uh-huh," Theo said. "Gabe, the Texaco blew up. A guy was killed. I was talking to firemen in space suits all day. Every paper in the county has called me. The