Page 67 of The Pacifist
“Well, for one it’s illegal,” Missy pointed out.
“Legal and right isn’t the same thing.”
“Ahh, so you feel your sense of morality is above the law?” Missy scrunched up her mouth.
Cole’s tone was defensive. “Why don’t you ask Anne how she knew about it? Isn’t it funny to you that Anne had no problem racing and drinking while living at home, but five years later she’s pointing fingers and setting fire to her family’s home?”
Anne gasped and Missy blinked as if projectiles were coming at her.
I hadn’t spoken until now, but sensing that this meeting was off to a bad start, I looked straight at Anne and spoke with a calm voice. “What happened? Why did you set the storage building on fire?”
Anne’s cheeks flamed red and she averted eye contact.
“This is what we know.” In a factual tone of voice, I used my wristband to present the evidence to Missy and Anne. “You ordered a drone and landed close to the family unit at ten past two a.m. Seventeen minutes later you left again. Here’s a picture of you getting into the drone. We also know that you attempted to hide your tracks by editing your name in the traffic registry the next morning.
“We were all sleeping inside the house but woke up to find the storage building in flames. The firefighters concluded it was arson. If the authorities haven’t spoken to you about it already, they will very soon.”
Anne moved in her seat, crossing and uncrossing her legs.
“Why? Please help us understand. Were you trying to kill us?”
“No!” Anne looked genuinely disturbed by my question.
“Then what was your plan?”
“I was going to destroy the brewery, but then things went wrong. I didn’t mean to burn down the whole building. I was just going to melt one of the…” She looked down. “Anyway, when it caught fire, I tried to put it out but I couldn’t find a water hose. The next best thing was the buckets of water bubbles that stood close by, so I poured them on the small fire. Only it didn’t put out the fire, it just made it worse.”
Cole made a sound of annoyance. “Those weren’t water bubbles, they were…” His eyes went to Missy. “Never mind.”
“What were they?” Missy asked in a firm voice.
Clearing his throat, he answered, “Alcohol, and you don’t want to mix that with fire.”
“Why, what happens when you mix alcohol and fire?”
With alcohol being illegal we couldn’t blame them for having no experience or understanding of what alcohol could do to a fire.
“Alcohol has an explosive effect on fire,” I explained and turned to Anne. “So, let me get this straight. The fire got out of control and then you fled leaving us to possibly burn up? Is that it?”
“No. I was running toward the house when I saw lights coming on in the guestroom window, and then I panicked.”
“And took off.”
“Yes.” She shrank in her chair, folding her arms around herself.
“But why did you want to destroy the brewery in the first place? After all these years, why now?”
Tears ran down Anne’s cheeks and she brushed them away with annoyance. “Because of Cole.”
“Me? What did I do? You were always ungrateful and dramatic. I didn’t do anything to you.”
“You burned my clothes.”
Cole gave a grimace of confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m just going to stop things for a second.” Missy held up a hand. “The tone got a little high-pitched there so we’re all just going to take a deep breath and release it slowly, like we’re letting go of our anger. Come on, do it with me.” She waited until the three of us were all taking deep breaths. “Good, now continue, Anne. Explain what you meant when you said Cole burned your clothes.”
“I was a teenager and nothing I did was ever good enough for him. And then one morning he took my favorite outfit and burned it right outside the house.”
