Page 15 of His Ex's Little Sister
6
Reid
Robin’slucky that my phone rings and pulls me back to taking care of business. There’s no doubt in my mind anymore. It’s clear as day that she’s curious about me, and I’m not talking about hobbies. The lust in her eyes is impossible to mask. But work comes first at the moment, so I set aside my own budding interest in her to deal with a newissue.
“I’m about five minutes out,” I tell Leo over the speakerphone when he calls me a second time. I’ve been speeding northwest for half hour to get to a horse farm owned by Gerald Mason of Mason Industries, one of our biggest clients. “Whathappened?”
“Stable fire,” Leo informs me. “Nothing major. There were no human or equine injuries, but it’s the third suspicious fire at a Mason Industriesproperty.”
“It’s early in the game, but there has to be a connection,right?”
“Probably,” he agrees. “The grounds manager didn’t notice anyone suspicious on the property. And from the sounds of this fire, it could have started from an electrical short in one of the air conditioning units. We can’t take any chances,though.”
“No doubt. It’s a mystery allright.”
“Hey, someone’s calling on the other line. I’ll meet you over there. Gotta go.” The tension in Leo’s voice is evident from all the unnecessarygruffness.
A few minutes later, our vehicles make it into the parking lot from opposite ends at about the same time, and Leo hops out of his SUV, stepping up to me with a ground-eating stride because he’s probably in a hurry to wrap up this meeting and get to the next one. Our client roster has been growing faster than ever, since Mason Industries came onboard.
“Mason wants us to investigate these incidents independent of the fire inspectors,” he tells me, nodding over at the large stable structure a few hundredfeetaway.
I nod as we hurry over to it. “We always do. So, nowitnesses?”
“No. The fire started about an hour after most of the daytime staff left thepremises.”
“Let’s take a look while we’re on site,” I suggest. “I can find out about access control threatslater.”
“We’ve put forward the possibility of an inside man before. These fires can’t be as simple as just coincidences. The animals closest to the source of the fire are Mason’s thoroughbred racing horses.” Leo rubs his forehead with the back of his hand. “Some of them are over half a millionapop.”
“That sure would put a dent in his pockets. How are we for interim monitoringstaff?”
“Beau is taking care of bringing everyone in until we figure out who’s behind thesefires.”
My eyebrows raise as we make it to the burnt-out section of the stable. This isn’t a small fire by any means, but only one section of the massive structure was affected. The roof seems intact as well. Because the firefighters are still here working with long hoses to put out hot spots, there is sure to be significant waterdamage.
Taking a long breath, Leo pulls out his phone and calls the stable grounds manager, but even he can’t get us clearance to enter the cordoned off areas. Not while firefighters are still in response mode. Leo and I join the small group of ranch staff waiting beyond the perimeter. It’s near impossible to ignore the scent of soot, smoke and charred wood hanging in the air, which is only upstaged by the large plume of smoke billowing from thebuilding.
It takes close to two hours for us to get close enough to the structure. By then, the last of the flames are put out, and fire responders begin to recoil hoses and return their equipment to the truck. We make our way to the damaged section, navigating muddy puddles and scorched planks of floor boards to get as close to the air conditioning unit reported to be the alleged culprit for starting the blaze. Nothing looks unusual in here, so we return outside to look at the exterior wall closest tothisspot.
“Do you see those scorch marks?” Leo asks, pointing at an oval-shaped spot about four feet belowtheunit.
“Yup,” I answer, ducking down to take a closer look. “There shouldn’t be anything down at that height if the air conditioner had a short circuit. Unless the short started inside the wall, but Idoubtit.”
“It looks like incendiaries to me,” Leo agrees. “Gasoline?”
“That or propane. The rough oval shape makes me think something was thrown on that spot, and whatever quantity was still in a liquid state ended up dripping down the wall. So,arson.”
Leo nods knowingly. “We’ll wait for fire investigators to confirm, but that’s myguesstoo.”
“Did we install any cameras that point in this direction?” I ask, looking back at the other structures, then over at the main house about a few hundredfeetaway.
“Good call. I’ll have one of the technicians pull up the feeds to verify. Geoff may still be at the office. That’s all we can do here for now. Do you want to head out? I don’t mind waiting here for Beau and thereliefteam.”
I check the time on my phone. “Sure, but don’t you have more shit on yourplate?”
“Naw.It’sfine.”
“Okay. I’ll work with Geoff on the video feeds back at the office. We can regroup for a briefingtomorrow.”
