Page 27 of Built of Flames

Izzy flushed when she looked at him. “Sorry. I assumed you’d spoken with Christo. You guys share everything.”

Christo’s voice was wry. “Apparently not. First an interest in my sister and then a serial arsonist. What else are you hiding?”

Mitch tried to stop his skin from flaming. It sounded bad when Christo said it that way. “I haven’t been hiding anything. I’ve felt like August was a hotbed—ha ha—for fires for us and I wanted an outside take. Marcus said he knew an investigator, and he’d set up a meeting. I didn’t know that investigator was Izzy until I got here.”

Christo arched an eyebrow. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Mitch shrugged. “I figured I was grasping at straws. Still think I might be. Didn’t want to look like an idiot.”

Christo grinned. “Why would today be any different?”

And they were back. Unless Mitch screwed up. “Okay, smart-ass, you look at Isabella’s board and tell me what you see.”

They moved inside, and Christo looked around. “Nice setup. Is there where you live?”

“No. I’ve got a room in the lodge. I’m going to turn the bedroom here into a lab. My friend Aisling is going to start construction in the next few days.”

Christo moved into the fire lab, but Mitch stayed behind them while they chatted. Christo’s appearance had surprised him, but he was glad he’d walked into them kissing. At least they weren’t trying to figure out how to tell him. Once his buddy got used to the idea, it would be fine.

Mitch moved back to the board and looked it over. Izzy had added a dot of color to each of the magnets.

Several colors, and the colors were spread throughout the groups. What new information had she added? He’d seen her spreadsheets and had been overwhelmed by the amount of data she tracked and analyzed.

He shifted a few magnets to group them by the dots, then realized he was messing up her pattern. Before he could put them back, Isabella and Christo returned.

When she moved to the board, she pointed to his new group. “Did you see anything new?”

“Sorry, I was trying to figure out the dots.”

She laughed. “Don’t apologize. They’re movable for a reason. Grouping and regrouping is how the patterns emerge. Leaving things static never works. You’ve got to mix things up to get the brain to see something new.”

Mitch and Christo exchanged a look, and Christo ruffled his sister’s hair. “When did you get so smart?”

“I’ve always been smart. You just didn’t notice.”

Her flippant words and tone proved she’d meant it as a joke, but Mitch’s heart ached.

Christo must have agreed, because he pulled her in for a side-armed hug. “We’re noticing now. Impress us, o wise one.”

She explained the codes on the magnets for Christo and then pointed to the dots. “These are accelerant codes. Blue for explosion, orange for gasoline in a can or splashed around, red for gasoline with a trail of rags or other fuse. Green for Molotov cocktails, purple for cigarettes, and yellow for materials found onsite.”

Mitch studied the board. “So yellow ones are more likely to be spontaneous. The others are more likely premeditated?”

She smiled at him. “Very good.”

Christo frowned at the board. “We’ve always been told that most arsonists use the same type of accelerant each time. Or they follow the same patterns. There’s not a lot of that here. Why were you thinking serial arsonist, Mitch?”

He smiled. “This is why I didn’t bring it up to you or anyone else at the fire hall. I don’t know what it is about August, but I feel like someone has a target. And now I’m wondering if that target is us.”

Irons In The Fire

Bella looked at the board with that new piece of information. “You never said that before.”

Mitch shook his head. “I wanted an unbiased opinion.”

She nodded. She’d done the same with her groupings. Wondering what Christo’s input would be, she quickly moved the magnets back to where she’d had them before. “Christo, tell me what you see now.”

It took a few minutes for Christo to absorb the board. Mitch leaned back on the conference table and Bella went to stand beside him. She leaned her head against his shoulder and answered her brother’s questions as he caught up on her codes and short forms.

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