Page 33 of Serial Burn

Jesslyn laughed. “No, I’ve slept away too many hours. I didn’t have a chance to get tired of you. You’re probably sick of hanging around here.”

“Never. How’s your head?”

Jesslyn touched the wound. “It’s fine. Healing up nicely.” She paused. “Did I really fall asleep in the middle ofCasablanca?”

“You did.”

“Wow.”

“I know. You need to repent of that behavior.”

“Cute.” Just as she took her first sip of coffee, her phone went off and she tapped the notification. “Uh-oh.”

Kenzie raised a brow at her. “What?”

“Fire at the Endurance Empire Gym.”

“Oh no.”

Jesslyn bit her lip and looked at Kenzie. “That’s my gym.”

“I know.”

“I’m back on duty as of right now.” Jesslyn raced to get ready, then hurried out to the rental that her friends had dropped off for her and loaded her gear into the back.

“You can’t do anything yet, Jess,” Kenzie said. “They have to get the fire out first. Why don’t you wait until you—”

“No, I need to be there and I need Nathan and Andrew to be there. They should be looking for him.”

“Yeah. Okay. Let’s go. I’ll follow you.”

Jesslyn’s heart pounded as she slid into the driver’s seat of her rental and gunned the vehicle in the direction of the fire. Kenzie fell in behind her, and their lights and sirens parted the traffic like a hot knife through butter.

Within ten minutes, she parked in the vicinity of the fire engines. Close, but not in the way if the firefighters needed to grab something from one of the trucks. She climbed out of her vehicle and assessed the scene, starting with the facility.

The building, engulfed in flames, was located on a piece of property just off the main road through Lake City. Jesslyn tried to picture it as it normally was. In a shallow valley surrounded by tall oaks that separated the businesses on either side of it. The parking lot ran the length of the right and front sides of the fitness center with the main entrance off the right.

Flames and smoke billowed from the building while firefighters kept their gushing hoses aimed at the destruction. The heat reached her and she stepped back, continuing to sweep her gaze over the crowd.

Kenzie joined her. “So far no one has been reported injured even though people were in the gym at the time.”

“How many?”

“Four.”

“It’s an off time during the day,” she murmured. “Most of the early morning crowd is gone and the lunch breakers haven’t gotten here yet.”

“So, does this person want to hurt someone or not?” Kenzie asked.

“I’m not sure. Mr. Christie was at the church, but his van was around the back. He cleans at night, and if he was at the back of the church, the front would have been dark and looked empty.” She shrugged. “And even at the back, if there was a light on, it wouldn’t have been unusual.”

“But the van?”

“Could have been mistaken for a church vehicle. He doesn’t have any kind of identifying logos or advertisements on the side.” She studied the building while she thought. “And here, it’s an off time. The arsonist started the fire away from the main workout space. It’s possible he’s at least making an effort to avoid hurting people. Assuming the two fires are related.”

“You think they are.”

“Not just related, but maybe somehow connected to me? It was my church, now it’s my gym. Once the fire’s out, I’ll look for other things that may connect them.”

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