Page 18 of Built of Flames

For a long while, Isabella read through the notes, scrolled up and down, checking information. He saw her hesitate at the warehouse fire, where Roberto had his heart attack and their lives had all changed. After she blew out a long breath, she moved past it and went back to reading and scrolling.

He used the time to study her. Her beauty had matured, and she’d moved from pretty to stunning. Long black waves curled over her shoulders, deep brown eyes. A mobile mouth that showed whatever she was feeling.

Intelligent, beautiful, and kind.

Was she living at Midnight Lake permanently? What were her plans? Would there be any room in her life for him if they built a relationship?

Isabella interrupted his thoughts when she pushed back from the table and grabbed a large bowl from the counter.

He was surprised to see it contained dozens—maybe hundreds—of plain white magnets. Maybe three by four inches each. She also grabbed a mason jar full of markers.

Back at the table, she started writing on the magnets with a few details on each.

Dumpster. SE. 23. P-1. VI-0. RI-0. D-0.

Retail. SC. 18. P-5. VI-1. RI-0. D-0.

Corp. SW. 27. P-1. VI-2. RI-1. D-0.

Residential. NW 28. P-4. VI-1. RI-2. D-0.

And more. Each set of data in a different color. He didn’t want to interrupt her flow, so he watched for a few minutes. But the questions were too big to keep inside. “Can you explain your code?”

She didn’t slow down or look at him. “Sure. Type of structure. Area of the city. Date. Property damage on a scale of one to five. Number of victim injuries. Number of responder injuries and deaths.”

It didn’t take her long to finish, then she stood up. “Now, we’ll take them over to the whiteboard and try different groupings.”

They gathered up the magnets and went to the huge white board mounted on the wall. “Just like school all over again.”

She flashed him a grin. “Exactly. Okay, let’s start with dates.”

Once they were organized by dates, Izzy used a table to snap a picture.

Then she shuffled the pieces to organize by location, then target. Number of injuries. Thankfully, there had been no deaths. Yet.

Izzy tapped her fingers on the table. “Have you mapped them?”

Mitch nodded and went back to his laptop, pulled up the document. She gave him her email, and he sent it along and then she printed it out on a larger printer than they had at the firehouse and added it to the board.

For a while she stood back, and he watched her eyes move over the board. A few times she rearranged the magnets, then she turned to him. “Now let’s add the years the fire took place and see how that changes the data.”

She arranged and rearranged some more. “Do you have information from the surrounding towns for August?”

Mitch smiled. “Not yet. I’ll make some calls.”

She nodded and kept her focus on the board.

It probably didn’t say anything flattering about him that he was thrilled that this consultation looked to be turning into a major project. He’d never been so happy to have an arsonist in his life.

Strike The Match

Bella knew her feelings and memories were coloring her perspective. She was making the data personal, and she needed to stop. An investigator needed to remain removed from the data. Instead of thinkingOh, I worked there during high school; she had to think of it as a deli and arson target.

Memory Lane was a bitch. The map alone was enough to send her heart spinning one way and her mind the other. Seeing the names of businesses and streets she knew so well was messing with her concentration.

Images of the home she’d grown up in, her apartment over the garage at Christo and Mitch’s house, her school, her bank, and more kept overlaying the data and she needed to focus on the information.

Determined to act like the professional she was, Bella pulled up her spreadsheet template on her laptop and started a new file. Kelsor.

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