by Amy Briggs
“Ok, if you need anything, go over to that Chief’s truck and let Cavanaugh or Jackson know you need me,” he replied gently.
She nodded to him and turned her attention back to her phone.
2
When Clayton returned back to the chief’s vehicle, Scott was waiting for him with a small bag. “Moore, I was thinking that since the fire clearly started on the first floor, you could come with me while I collect some evidence and such, and then I could come with you to the second floor and observe while you do your investigation? It just seems more efficient than separating and asking to read each other’s report tomorrow?” Scott was all about efficiency, and wanted to make sure the two departments were working in unison, instead of against each other which could happen more often than not.
“Yea, that’s a great idea. Good way to avoid a paperwork clusterfuck actually, and I’d honestly like to see what you do. I’d like to go talk to the guys that found the body real quick though before they get sent home and I have to track them down later. I also need to take a peek at the body before they send it down to the morgue. How about if I meet you inside?” Clayton suggested.
“Works for me, I need to start by taking pictures anyway before I do anything else,” Scott walked toward the front of the house, while Clayton went to find the firefighters he needed to interview.
As Scott entered the house, he noticed the pungent smell of chemicals immediately, a clear indicator of arson and some kind of an accelerant. It didn’t smell like gasoline, more like paint thinner and magnesium, which can burn very hot, spreading a fire quickly. As he glanced around the room, he started taking pictures, and looking for burn patterns that would indicate the point of origin. The majority of the front room, directly behind the porch had been completely burned out, giving a pretty clear indication that one of the walls on that side of the room is where the fire started. As Scott was staring at the wall, looking at the burn pattern, Clayton walked in.
“What the fuck is that smell?” He asked, waving his hand in front of his face.
Laughing, Scott replied, “It’s magnesium. Pretty potent right? Burns hot as fuck.”
“What would have magnesium in it? Is that an everyday thing?” Clayton asked.
“Not sure yet, but it’s not hard to get. It’s strong enough in here that it’s definitely one of the accelerants used, but I am gonna have to take samples to the lab for definitive confirmation of course,” he grabbed his knife and scraped some pieces off the wall into a plastic bag. “It smells like paint thinner too, so it’s likely that both were used to get this party started.” Scott agreed with Clayton and thought how bad the smell was and wondered if they shouldn’t be wearing masks to protect their lungs.
“Wait a minute, isn’t that the stuff survivalists and campers use to get fires started quickly out in the middle of nowhere?” The detective had an ‘aha’ moment.
“You got it. Sure is. It’s super cheap and easy to get, but it’s not really a household item,” Scott replied. “You can buy it in huge spools like ribbon.”
“Hmm, interesting. So what else do you see besides a fucking burned out living room?” Clayton waved his hands around. He was legitimately interested in learning how Scott determined things, and what to look for as clues in this type of investigation.
“Well, you see these streaks along the wall?” Scott pointed to a completely charred area of wall above an electrical outlet. The burns had created a pattern that seemed very much like the waves of a heart rhythm on an eKg machine.
“Yea, looks like a lot of black shit,” he said.
“Well, at first glance, yes, it is. But, if you look more closely, you can see there are patterns in the burning. It looks like someone threw an accelerant, likely the paint thinner we’re smelling, all over this wall, to make the fire spread more quickly. That’s why this pattern looks streaky, because as it dripped down the walls, it was more saturated in certain areas.” Scott pointed to the more charred bits of wall where there was an abundance of accelerant.
As Clayton got closer, he noticed the patterns that Scott had pointed out. Impressed, he nodded his head. “I see that now, very interesting. Your job is much like ours, looking for those small details. Will this help your investigation?”
“It might, it might not. At the end of the day, my job is to tell you guys how the fire started, and what was used to do it. Your job is to find out who and why really, but anything I can do to help your investigation along, obviously let me know.”
They continued to take samples from around the room, and around the electrical outlet that appeared to be the origin. They also proceeded to take pictures from every angle of the room possible before making their way upstairs.
“It looks like the fire got in the walls and probably went up into the attic. I didn’t ask Brian, so we’ll need to check and see what kind of damage is up there, but the second floor doesn’t seem to have much damage other than smoke. You ready to check out the the second floor?” Scott asked.
“Yep, let’s see where my vic ate it,” Clayton said. They hadn’t learned much about the victim other than that he lived there. He appeared to be a middle aged, white male but that was all they knew.
The walls of the stairwell and hallway were completely untouched. Scott ran his hand along them, checking for residual warmth.
“What are you feeling for?” Clayton asked as they made their way to the back room where the victim was found.
“I’m just feeling to see if the fire made it into the walls. They put the fire out a while ago, but if there was fire in the walls, it’s likely the drywall would still be warm. Based on the construction of this building, the second floor was an addition, not part of the original structure, so it would be balloon frame construction,” noticing the look Clayton gave him, Scott continued. “Basically, it means that there’s a bunch of open space on the other side of the walls for the fire to eat up the insulation and shoot to the attic all the way from the bottom floor, then the fire would spread across the entire length of the house extremely quickly. That scenario would cause a sandwich of fire from the attic down, and the first floor up, which may or may not be intentional.”
“Get the fuck out. It gets into the walls like that?” Clayton was shocked to know that fire traveled in those small pockets.
“Yea, and it can get crazy fast. Drywall isn’t really all that combustible, it gets dry and crumbly in a fire, but doesn’t catch fire like the insulation in the walls would.”
Scott followed Clayton up the stairs, since they were entering more of what fell into his purview, the homicide investigation. Scott was extremely intrigued by learning what was involved on the other side, and watched to see what Clayton was looking for.
“Alright, so the body was found back here in this corner,” Clayton pointed out, talking through the scene out loud. “It looks like he was coming out of the master bathroom when the assailant must have shot him or attacked him or whatever from this direction. Based on the way the body was found, at least from the eye witness accounts from your guys, the victim was facing the attacker.”
“So do you think the assailant was standing in the doorway or something?” Scott asked.
“Probably, or just inside the doorway. You can see the blood splatter here on the wall, so it was some kind of close range projectile, maybe a high caliber; I mean it looked like the guy got shot, but an autopsy will confirm that for me.” Clayton said.
“What about this pattern makes you think it was close range or high caliber?”
“Well, the higher the caliber, more damage basically. It definitely wouldn’t have been a .22, for example, either way, because it’s a small bullet. Even at close range, you won’t get blood splatter on the walls and right here on the floor like this.” Clayton pointed to the carpet. “A 9mm round at close range, could cause this kind of spray, but a .45 as far away as this doorway would also cause this kind of mess. I couldn’t tell by looking at the body quickly in the rig, so we’ll ha
ve to see what kind of bullet they pull out of this guy downtown.”
“That makes perfect sense really. So, based on my TV knowledge of crime, the bullet could potentially lead you to the weapon, and then maybe the guy that did it?”
Laughing, Clayton said, “Yea something like that. It gives us some clues. Doesn’t give us motive or anything, so we’ll have to do some digging into this victim and see what kind of person he was. Seems like kind of a personal attack for him to get shot, then have his house lit on fire.” He got out his camera and started taking pictures of the blood splatter, the location the body was found, as well as the rest of the room from various perspectives, very similarly to what Scott had done downstairs.
When he got to the spot where the victim was found, he observed the area around him thoughtfully, then asked Scott, “Yo man, how tall are you?”
“Six four, why?” He replied, confused.
“Come over here for a minute,” he waved Scott over to the spot the body was found. “Stand right here and face me for a minute.” Clayton positioned Scott facing the doorway to the bedroom, just outside the bathroom, then held him still. Looking around the room, Clayton walked around Scott examining the walls.
“What are you doing?” Scott asked, confused.
“Well, the victim was six foot one, so you’re about the same height. I’m checking the blood spatter around you to figure out where exactly the victim was standing, so I can figure out where the perp was. Based on the direction of the splatter behind you, it looks like the perp was actually further into the room than standing at the doorway.” Clayton paused, and made a humming sound, “hmmm, that’s strange,” he said.
“What?” Now Scott was really intrigued.
“Well, there’s no bullet in the walls anywhere, so that means the bullet is definitely still inside our guy. Which is weird, because at such a close range, or with such a high caliber, it should have passed completely through him and hit the wall somewhere over here,” he pointed to the corner which was clean.
“That is weird for sure. Can I move now?” Scott asked.
“Oh, yea sorry man. Thanks.”
“So what do you think that means?” Scott inquired thoughtfully, finding the process interesting.
Scratching his head, Clayton looked deliberately around the room. “I honestly don’t know. This is the first piece of the puzzle. I’ll have to collect some more pieces then put them all together.” Nagging at him was the thought that something was off about this scene, he just couldn’t figure out what it was yet. “Was anything that you found out of the ordinary?”
“Well, magnesium is an interesting tool to start a fire inside of a house. Like I mentioned, it’s typically for camping and shit, so why you’d have it in your living room would be weird, so I’d have to assume that the perp brought it with him,” he surmised.
“Good point,” Clayton nodded. “I think we’ve got our hands full on this one.”
“I’d say you’re right,” Scott sighed looking around. “I still need to check the attic if you want to come, but it’ll only take me a minute. I just need to see how far the fire spread if at all since the guys didn’t tell me and I’m already here.”
“I’m gonna take some more pictures, and look for shell casings or other shit the perp left behind. There is always evidence left behind, it’s just a matter of finding it. So far, I haven’t found shit,” he grumbled.
“Alright, I’ll be back in a minute, I’ll let you know if I find anything,” Scott walked off looking for the entrance to the attic, which he found in a different bedroom. “Well this is creepy as fuck,” he muttered as he climbed the stairs pulling out his flashlight.
Unable to find any evidence himself, Clayton decided he would have the forensics team come out and comb the room, so he went to find Scott.
“Yo man! You find anything up there?” He yelled up the stairs. The dark, narrow stairwell had the dark dangerous feel like something you’d see in a horror movie, so he had no intention of going up there.
“Nope, nothing here, I’m coming back down,” he yelled back.
“Alright, let’s get the fuck out of here,” Clayton said. “I’m not finding anything, so I’m calling in the crime scene guys to collect fibers and shit.”
“Ok, I need to give the Chief a rundown outside too,” Scott said.
“It’s been a long fucking night, you want to grab a beer and compare notes? I gotta call my Captain too.”
“Sounds good, how about Shea’s? It’s like three blocks away,” Scott suggested.
“Yea, I know the place. I’ll meet you in twenty.”
Scott wondered if the hot sister would be joining them, and secretly he hoped she would.
3
Scott headed over to the Chief’s vehicle where he found Brian and Jax at the back of the truck. “Hey Chief, got a second? Want to give you the info I have before I head out.”
“Yea of course, what did you find?” They walked together to the front of the truck again to get away from the scene which was dwindling, and winding down.
“The only suspicious stuff I found was that it appears, and it still has to be confirmed by the lab, that magnesium strips were used to start and spread the fire along with paint thinner or something similar.”
“What? Like the ones used for camping and shit?” Brian asked, his jaw dropping in surprise.
“Yea, that’s the same response I had. Definitely paint thinner or something in there was splashed all over the walls too, so it was a murder arson, for sure. But that’s really all we’ve got.” Scott tucked his hands into the pockets of his jeans and shrugged.
“Thanks for coming out on this one man, it was good to see you,” Brian said, giving Scott a pat on the shoulder.
“Yea absolutely, it’s what I’m here for. Good to see you too, we gotta grab a beer soon. I know we keep missing each other. And please tell Jo I said hi. I’m looking forward to the wedding,” he smiled at Brian knowing that wedding was a long time coming.
“I’ll let her know for sure man. Can’t wait to be honest,” Brian smiled. “Alright, I’ll let you get out of here, I’ll look for your report.”
“You got it,” Scott headed back to his car to put his things away, and head over to the bar to meet Clayton, and hopefully to see Dani again.
Scott had arrived at the bar before Clayton, so he grabbed a booth in the back, so that they could talk quietly. Nobody needs to hear about murder and arson investigations in public, and while many of the patrons of Shea’s were in one of the public services, it was still frowned upon.
Emergency responders always wanted to face the door, it was a means of egress safety thing, and since he arrived first, Scott took the side of the booth facing the door. It also made it easier to see when Clayton and hopefully Dani arrived. Moments later, she did walk in, her red hair shining from the bar lights in the windows, completely distracting him from his thoughts.
Giving a small wave to get her attention, Scott stood up so that they could see where he was. As they walked over, Dani checked out the room nervously as Clayton followed behind her.
“Hey man,” Scott said, then turned his attention to Dani. “I don’t believe we’ve met, I’m Scott. Scott Walker,” he held his hand out to her.
“Oh, hi. I’m Dani Moore, Clay’s sister,” she said quietly, taking his hand. As he took her small hand into his, he noticed it was as soft as he imagined would be. He lingered for a moment, when she pulled away, putting her hands in the pocket of her gray hoodie before scooting inside the booth across from him. The striking color of her red hair set off her eyes, making them pop even more than he’d originally noticed.
“Hey, sorry I had to get my Captain on the horn and give him a quick brief of what’s going on here,” Clayton folded himself into the booth next to his sister, leaning over his crossed arms on the table. “So, I’m gonna have the lab guys hit up the scene tomorrow morning.”
“Sounds good, I have to send my samples to our lab
guys, so we can compare notes when we get the reports back.” Scott waved over the waitress so Clayton and Dani could order a drink.
When Jodi, the usual bartender swung by the table, she quickly realized she knew everyone at the table except Dani. “Hey boys, didn’t know you guys knew each other, what can I get ya?”
“I’ll just have whatever the local on tap is,” Scott said.
“I’ll have the same,” Clayton said.
“And what about you honey? What can I get ya?” She pulled Dani from whatever she was thinking about.
“Oh, I uh… I’ll have a Jack and Coke, please,” she said sweetly.
“Coming right up y’all,” Jodi replied in her southern accent before she sauntered off to get their drinks. Clayton watched her ass shake all the way back to the bar until Scott spoke up, bringing his attention back to the table.
“So, I mean no offense, but can we talk about the case in front of Dani?” He flashed a nod cautiously in her direction, not wanting to upset her, but wanting to be appropriate as well.
“Yea, absolutely, Dani here might give her two cents, but other than that, she’s fine,” he nudged her in the booth, and she promptly rolled her eyes at him in an almost child like way.
“Ok cool, well let’s compare some notes then,” Scott suggested anxiously.
“What are you looking at so far?” Clayton asked, pulling his little notebook from his pocket, flipping through the pages.
“Well, it’s definitely arson. I mean we discussed that when we were inside. The strange thing is the magnesium, which to me implies some kind of hunter or camper or some shit. While it’s easy enough to get, it’s just not an everyday item to have at your house. Also, if you’re trying to cover up a body with fire, why wouldn’t you just light the room the body is in on fire? That doesn’t make any sense to me either,” Scott said.
“All I’ve got is the obvious too. The dude was shot, but a lot of the evidence here doesn’t add up. I think we’re going to have to wait for some of the lab work to come back and regroup. I need autopsy results, but my initial thoughts are I may need to ask a buddy of mine who deals with some weird shit all the time to get his take on what we’ve found so far.” Clayton scratched his chin, thinking of how much he didn’t want to ask Seth Lane for help, but he already knew that this kind of odd scene was right up his alley.
