Liz Turner [Turner - Up in Flames - Again!

up in flames again!
a Carol Hennessey cozy mystery

LIZ TURNER

Copyright 2019 by Liz Turner.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Publishers Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the authors imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

Contents

Chapter 1
Musical Expression

Fire! someone yelled.Fire? But theres no way . .. Carol said. Two in one week? Oh no, no, no... Not this again...

She couldnt tell if she was screaming in the moment, or if it was the sound of screams from her memory that caused her heart to race. It was the same as it was back then; the building before her was in flames, and someone was screaming in agony.

Fire has to be the worst way to go, she thought.

Why did I take this case? she muttered. I retired for a reason. I was never supposed to be back here .

Mrs. Hennessey! a man yelled, frantically running up to Carol and grabbing her shoulders. Mrs. Hennessey, you have to save her!

Her? Whos her?

Shes still in there! He pointed at the burning building. Youre an arson investigator, arent you? You know about fire! Please , you have to save her!

The mans face seemed to bend and shimmer as Carol struggled to remember where she was and what was happening.

How did this man know my name? she wondered. Do I know him?

She concentrated, fairly sure she remembered him from somewhere.

Hello, Mrs. Hennessey, Sergeant Hansen said.

Suddenly, Carol was all the way back at the end of last week, remembering a conversation shed had from her front door on Saturday morning. She recognized it must have been important for her to suddenly remember it now.

In her memory, she gestured for Sergeant Hansen to come inside, and the two of them sat in her well-lit front room, talking.

I understand you retired from the FBI a couple years ago? You worked as an arson investigator? he said.

Yes, Carol answered. I used to love all the traveling and consulting I got to do. But after a while, you just wanna settle down, you know?

Well, thats actually why Im here, he said. Dont worry, you wont have to go anywhere because it actually happened here in Edmonds. Were certain it wasnt an accident, but we just dont have the expertize to do much more than think it looks like arson. We dont have the training for a case like this, so myself and the fire department were wondering what we would have to do to convince you to consult on this case?

What happened?

Young man left for work, and when he returned, his house was completely destroyed. Everyone, including the homeowner, was convinced it must have been an accident. But then, one of the firefighters discovered gasoline residue on a cluster of exposed wires. There was no reason for gasoline to be anywhere near the wires, so were in desperate need of a second opinion from a specialist.

And the victim?

Johnny Jeong. Korean American, professional hip-hop dancer. Bought the house about a year ago.

Sorry. I dont care about who he is. I wanna know who he is.

Sergeant Hansen blinked. Uhm...what?

I dont care about how he sees himself. I wanna know how other people see him. Who wouldve wanted this property destroyed? What benefit did it have making this man their victim? And then, if we cant find a suitable reason to target him , we consider the value of the property and such.

Well, I can tell you right now, we already have a pretty solid suspect. The mans recently divorcedfrom his business partner, no less.

And?

And his ex-wife has no alibi.

Did the divorce end badly?

Not that we know of. But he took everythingthe house, the car, the tv The only thing he didnt take was their studio, probably because shes better at managing money than he is. Meanwhile, she went back to living with her parents.

Sergeant, Ill be blunt, Carol said. So far, Im not convinced you need my consultation on this case. If you already have a solid suspect, why would you need my assistance?

Because, wellwould you look at the scene, at least? We just have some doubts...

Fine. And you dont have to pay me for this part. Carol grabbed her coat out of the closet. Ill look at a frayed wire for free.

Sergeant Hansen drove Carol to the remains of Johnny Jeongs house, where the chief of the fire department and Mr. Jeong stood waiting. Johnny tapped his foot nervously, and Carol couldnt help noticing he kept looking over his shoulder, paranoid.

Does he believe his ex is responsible? Carol asked as they got out of the car.

No, Hansen said. Hes convinced its not in her nature, but thats what everyone thinks until they find out it is, right?

Well, not usually with arson.

Why not?

It may just be my experience talking, but I find arsonists are rarely surprising. Most arsonists fall into a very specific psychological profile, and its unusual for no one to see the signs. Whats tricky is determining which men are arsonists, and which just fit the profile of one. If they dont fit the profile to begin with though, they likely didnt do it.

Well, like I said, we dont deal with cases like this often. Usually, if someone burns something down in this town, they want the victim to know it was them.

Youd be surprised, Carol said. Youve probably seen more arson than you even know.

Okay, on that note, Hansen said, approaching the men, Carol, this is Chief Barrow, and this is Johnny Jeong, the homeowner. Gentlemen, this is former arson investigator, Carol Hennessey.

Former? Chief Barrow eyed Carol. Im sorry, but you look way too young to be retired!

Yes, wellthings are different in the FBI, she retorted.

Sorry, didnt mean to come off as rude, Barrow said. Its good to have you here.

Where are these frayed wires? Carol asked, getting straight to the point.

Ah, yesright over here. Now, its not unusual to have wires visible on this panel, but it is unusual that several of them were exposed and worn like this. According to Mr. Jeong, these wires looked old and in need of replacing long before they lived here. But what I dont understand is how the gasoline got involved. How many people do you know store gasoline near their breaker closet?

Well, I never doubted that this was intentional, Carol said. I just want to see what exactly was done to these wires. Itll help me give you a timeframe for when the suspect was actually here.

But we know when the fire started

The time the fire started doesnt matter, Carol explained. If all they did was poured gasoline on these wires, they couldve been long gone before the fire started. Im trying to see if they wore down the wires any more to accelerate the fire and see if I can find evidence of how much gasoline may have been used. That's gonna give you a better idea of when they were here.

Oh, Chief Barrow said. Well, we didnt find any signs of intentional acceleration . Thats why I initially believed it was an accident. But the perp obviously didnt know how easy it is to find residue after you pour gasoline on a non-flammable surface like this electrical tape.

Then its lucky for us that our homeowner didnt put another layer of tape over the exposed wires. Otherwise, this might have ended very differently and he mightve gotten away with it, Carol said. Johnny, what was your air conditioner set to when you left?