Page 40 of Wild Fires

I pulled away and glared at him. “Why weren't you in uniform when you ran into that fire?”

He gave me a sheepish look. “I was off duty but happened to be driving by when the fire ignited. Vance was there. I hadn't even heard the call come in. When I felt the wind pick up, I ran in to pull him to safety. Another gust and it got me.”

I scowled. “Why was Vance onsite for a fire?”

“It's not uncommon,” Ryan insisted. “Fire, rescue, and police often work together on these things.”

“Maybe,” I said.

I'd seen Vance pick something up at the last site. The combination of the two wasn't sitting well with me. I didn't want to mention my suspicion around Andrew though. I made a mental note to discuss it with Ryan later.

As we left the room, I stopped to talk to the guys and to hear more of their accounts of the story. None of them knew much, just that Andrew was on fire when they arrived.

“We should talk with Vance,” I whispered to Ryan when we finally said goodbye and walked out of the clinic.

“Vance? Why?”

“He was there, Ryan. You heard Andrew.”

“Well, yeah, but Gracie, that's not uncommon.”

“Before it was called in? And I'm telling you, I saw him pick something up at the last site and pocket it. He's up to something. I don't trust him.”

“Vance Thornton? You think he’s the mastermind behind these fires?”

“No. Maybe. I don't know. But we can't just ignore the facts and right now they point straight to him.”

“I'm sure it's nothing, but we can talk to him and see what's going on.”

“He's the best lead we have at the moment. There is nothing else connecting these sites that I can think of.”

“Maybe.”

“What do you mean maybe?”

“The cliff and the barn are both common sites for teens to hang out, or at least they were back in our high school days. Remember?”

I considered it for a moment and nodded. “Yeah, but what does that have to do with the other sites?”

“I don't know yet. I mean, the roadway by Gia's place isn’t really anything special. Big Dick wrecked his car there once senior year. Maybe not that exact location, but in that area. He had several people in the car with him at the time, like more people than were seats. Rattled a lot of feathers for it. That's probably the only reason I even remember it happening.”

“Who was in the car with him?”

Ryan shrugged. “Can't remember. Oh wait, Vance was there.”

“Vance? You're sure?”

“Yes. And he used to hang out at the cliff and the barn too, right?”

“Of course. We all did.”

“The first fire was at the football field. Vance played football.”

“I played football too. A lot of us did.”

“I'm just saying. What about the one down by the river? Any connections there?”

He shrugged. “Not that I can think of.”