“Hey, this is good for us, guys. He won’t be such a crabby bastard anymore,” Charlie teases.
“All right, all right. Enough about my love life. Who's next? Brody? Our brand new ladder engineer?” A round of whoops is shouted in celebration. He finally trained enough to pass the test.
Brody grins and steps up to the starting point. As he’s going through the course, my cell phone rings. Handing over the timer to Charlie, I answer.
“Hey, Chief.”
“Hey, T, we got the report back from the analysts. Can you come take a look with me?”
“Yeah, sure.”
If the chief wants me to look at the report, it means something was found that shouldn’t have been.
I let the guys know I’m headed in for a meeting with the chief and leave them to their drills.
I walk down the hallway of the station and glance at the frames hanging on the wall. We have pictures of past crews and certificates spanning years. It makes me think about Francis and his time with the SFD.
I wonder if I could find anything from his old crew and get a copy for him. After listening to all of his stories the other night, I think he would enjoy it. He had some crazy moments while on shift, and I have no idea how those guys stayed alive. They didn’t have near the equipment we do, even though the fires they dealt with were just like the ones we deal with today.
I make a mental note to hit up the archives when I’ve got some extra time to see if I can find anything from his smoke eater days.
I walk up to the chief's office and knock lightly on the open door.
“Hey, come on in.” He waves his hand at me. “Go ahead and close the door.”
I click the door shut and sit down in a chair opposite the chief’s desk. “What’s going on?”
“We got the report back from the analysts. It’s not good. The rec center fire wasn’t an accident.”
“So, we’re looking at arson then.”
“Unfortunately.”
“Do they have any ideas of what was used or how it started?” I ask as Chief James hands the report over to me.
“Looks like a line was drawn down the west side hallway and to the exit door. They lit the path, and from there, it just spread.”
“Why just the one side?”
“The west side is used for classrooms and only during the summer.”
“Hmm. What about security cameras?”
“Not working at the time.”
“An insider with knowledge?”
“Maybe, but there are over one hundred people on staff, not to mention volunteers. Any one of them could’ve known.” Jack sighs.
“Talk about a shitstorm. Is there anything the police need from us?”
“Chief Jackson said they may need to interview you in the next few weeks. They’ll want your report on the fire and what you found inside or if you noticed anything.”
“Got it. I can give Cooper a call.”
“Thanks, T. Also, the council emailed me today and said the funds have been approved, so go ahead and put an order in.”
“Great! Glad something good is going for us right now.” I stand up and head to my office.