They also didn’t need me to help—the team clearly had the fire under control, even if it wasn’t out yet, and if I tried to doanything, I’d only be in the way. So I stayed standing next to Colfax, trying to subtly shift my weight to keep my knee from getting too angry without looking like I was fidgeting. If Colfax noticed, they didn’t say anything.
As I waited for the fire team to finish extinguishing the fire, I regretted not yet having bought fire boots—I was trying to save up the money rather than putting it on a credit card and not paying it off completely, since that came with interest
After a while Colfax wandered off, telling me to stay put, coming back with a pair of massive rubber boots. I toed off a shoe to stick my foot in it and grimaced a little at the tightness. Beggars can’t be choosers, I guess.
“You’ll want to get a pair,” the orc told me.
I nodded. “It’s on my list,” I said. A lot of things were on my list, not that I could afford most of them. Or any of them, actually.
“It better be pretty high on that list if we keep having to call you,” Colfax pointed out, leaving unsaid the fact that not having the right gear for walking through smoldering ashes could do a lot of damage.
I mentally moved it up, wondering which things I could do without in order to be able to afford the hundreds of dollars it would take to get a decent pair for my giant feet. “Yes, lieutenant,” was what I said, staring down at the borrowed boots that were pinching my feet.
“Let’s go, Mays.”
I followed the orc toward the husk of the concession building, steam and smoke still rising from the ashes around us, making it uncomfortably warm. It wasn’t surprising—we were walking on debris that had just been on fire, after all—but that didn’t make it any more pleasant.
“Start sniffing, Mays,” Colfax ordered.
“Yes, lieutenant.”
I’d learned, since the chlorhexidine incident last spring, how to smell correctly in order to not burn out my entire sinus cavity. Shallow breaths, slow and steady, to see if there was anythingtosmell.
Not that it was particularly easy to smell anything other than burnt wood, charred cement, melted plastic, warped metal, and hot oil, among other things. Including burned meat and cheese, both strong enough that it was clear they’d been fully stocked.
Colfax watched me as I paced the length of the far wall, slowly working my way through the building—until I stopped next to what I think must have been a fryer. I looked over at Colfax. “Any reason you can think of that someone would be using gasoline near a fryer?”
Colfax walked over and took a deep sniff. An orc’s sense of smell is almost as good as a shifter’s, and it was strong enough that I assumed the lieutenant would also be able to mark it. “I have a suggestion,” Colfax said dryly.
“Is it arson?” I asked, just as flatly.
“Might be,” came the reply. “Let’s check the other one, just in case.”
I sighed. As unpleasant as burnt kitchens smell, burnt shit smells worse.
29
Elliot Crane
Are you at work?
Seth Mays
Finishing up.
Are you back at the house?
Nothing.Which was a bit worrying.
I’d gotten back to my apartment around two in the morning, showered—which I’d desperately needed—and then not slept terribly well. I’d met Colfax back at the fire scene at dawn, and now it was nearly one in the afternoon, which meant I’d made fairly decent time, given all the tire tracks, possible footprints, and trace evidence that needed to be swabbed and tagged.
I finally finished logging all the evidence back at the Sheriff’s Office—since Colfax had officially ruled it an arson—and checked my phone again.
Still no answer.
I’d clearly done something to annoy or upset or make Elliot angry. First he’d spent the night at Henry’s, and now he wasn’t responding to me. And yes, I was also aware that I would muchrather he spent the night at Henry’s than in the house by himself—and since I was working, I should have been happy about that decision. But he’d made it without knowing I would be trapped at a scene through the whole night.
I waited another five minutes. Ten. Twenty.
