"It's functional." Erin immediately regretted the defensive edge in her voice.
They began laying out documents with exaggerated care to avoid touching, building separate piles that gradually merged as the pattern became clearer. Lena had building permits, property records, and timeline data showing the inspection company connection. Erin had the inspection certificates, safety violations, fire suppression system blueprints, and her detailed assessments of burn patterns.
"Here." Lena pulled out a thick folder. "Phoenix Ridge Building Safety Services handled all four locations. The warehouse inspection was done by Marcus Webb in 2021, community center by Tracy Pomeroy in 2020, the beachside center by Webb again in 2019, and the library by Sandra Lyston in 2022."
Erin leaned closer to read the signatures, catching the subtle scent of Lena's perfume cutting through the office's smell of coffee and industrial air freshener. "Different inspectors, but Webb appears twice."
"That's what caught my attention." Lena opened her laptop, fingers flying across the keyboard. "Webb left the company around two years ago. I'm trying to track down his current employment."
"What about the violations they found?" Erin reached across the small table for the inspection reports, their shoulders brushing briefly in the cramped space.
"That's the interesting part." Lena's voice had dropped slightly as she focused on the paper she held. "Every location had noted fire safety deficiencies that were never corrected. There were outdated electrical systems, insufficient fire suppression, and blocked access to utilities."
Erin studied the reports, cross-referencing them with her burn pattern analysis. "The arsonist exploited every single one of these vulnerabilities. Look"—she pointed to a diagram—”the accelerant placement at the warehouse directly targeted the electrical panel Webb flagged as non-compliant."
"And the library fire started in the exact section where Sandra Lyston noted improper wiring." Lena turned the laptop screen toward Erin, their knees bumping under the small table. "Someone had access to these inspection reports and used them as a targeting guide."
The excitement of discovery was building between them, professional minds working in sync. Erin found herself leaning closer to see Lena's screen, both women absorbed in the data flowing across it.
"Can you pull up Webb's employment history?" Erin asked. "If he's working somewhere else now with access to building systems?—"
"Already on it." Lena's fingers moved across the keyboard, pulling up personnel records. "Marcus Webb, age thirty-four, worked for Phoenix Ridge Building Safety Services from 2019 to early 2023. Before that, residential construction. After, nothing official. There’s no current employer in the system."
"That's odd." Erin reached for her own files. "Most people in building safety move between companies, not out of the field entirely."
"He could be working under the table. Cash jobs, private consulting, that sort of thing."
"Or planning arson attacks." Erin pulled Webb's inspection reports toward her, studying his handwriting and notation style. "His work was thorough. Maybe a little too thorough. He documented every weakness these buildings had."
They worked in focused silence as they studied documents and scribbled notes on a notepad.
"Detective." Erin's voice raised a pitch in excitement as she discovered something in Marcus Webb's notes."Look at these violation codes. He used non-standard notation."
Lena moved her chair closer to see better. "What do you mean?"
"Standard fire safety inspectors use numerical codes to denote the violations. But Webb added his own symbols." Erin pointed to tiny marks in the margins of his reports. "See these? They correspond exactly to the points where accelerants were placed in the fires."
Lena stared at the reports, then at Erin. "You're saying Webb created a map for the arsonist?"
"I'm saying someone who understands fire behavior used Webb's detailed documentation to plan these attacks. But whether that's Webb himself or someone who had access to his reports..."
"We need to find him." Lena's voice was sharp with urgency.
“Agreed. But if Webb left the field entirely, he might not be our arsonist. He might just be the source.”
“Which means we’re looking for someone who had access to his reports,” Lena said, following the logic.
“Or someone who worked alongside him.” Erin began stacking the inspection reports. “We need to look at current employees, former employees, and supervisors.”
"That's a lot of potential suspects, but it's more than we had this morning." Lena pulled up another screen on her laptop. "Ihave Webb's last known address from his employment records. It's about thirty minutes outside Phoenix Ridge."
Erin leaned closer to see the screen. "Think he's still there?"
"Only one way to find out." Lena glanced at her watch as she closed her laptop with a decisive click. "We could drive out there and see if he's around or if neighbors know where he went."
“Both of us?”
Lena shrugged. “Maybe you’ll catch something I miss or vice versa.”
