Page 18 of Flash and Bang
“Something bothered me about the note that was sent to the base operations office. It sounded almost familiar. Look at this.” Thayne pointed to a page open on his computer.
Isaiah 30:33 "The breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it."“It’s part of a Bible passage from the book of Isaiah. I thought I’d heard that somewhere before. It must have been in Sunday school or something.”
Jarrett stared at the laptop and then ran his finger over the photocopy of the note in the file folder before meeting Thayne’s gaze. He pulled out a chair and thumped down into it, stretching out his longlegs and crossing them at the ankles. “So we have a religious nut, just like I said.”
Thayne nodded as he pointed at the laptop. “There’s a lot about fire and brimstone here. Look.”
Revelation 19:20 “Andthe beastwas taken, and with him the false prophetthat wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone."
Jarrett picked up the file folder and began flipping through pages as if looking for something.
“What?”
“Any reports from the medical examiner?” Jarrett asked, squinting at the file.
Thayne shook his head. “No, because the only fatality so far was Gregory Mason.”
Jarrett blew out a breath and rubbed his eyes. “Yeah, of course. There wouldn’t be one yet.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know. If we’re dealing with a religious nutjob, it might make sense that Mason himself was targeted. Maybe he had the ‘mark of the beast’ on him or something.”
Thayne smiled. “Like the kid in The Omen?”
Jarrett’s whole face lit up. “Yeah! Like that.”
Thayne snorted. “I suppose you want us to ask the medical examiner to shave Mason’s head.”
Jarrett nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
Thayne laughed. “You slay me, man.”
“Hey, that’s why ya keep me around… for the little things.”
Thayne shook his head and returned his attention to the laptop, where he studied the Wikipedia page for fire and brimstone references in the bible. Something occurred to him and he began typing.
“What? You think of something else?” Jarrett asked.
Thayne squinted at the laptop, scrolling through web pages. “Here. Check this out.” He turned the laptop so Jarrett could read it with him. He’d opened a page dedicated to San Diego’s climate, topography, and ecology. “This states that the Torrey Pines region of San Diego, which is very close to Miramar, has a lagoon, which you could probably call a lake… you know as in “lake of fire” and look at this,” he pointed triumphantly. “In 2003, San Diego was the site of the largest wildfire in California over the past century. It killed 15 people, destroyed 2,200 homes, and burned over 280,000 acres.”
“The lake… of fire?” Jarrett said, meeting his gaze with a raised eyebrow. “That’s a bit of a stretch, Thayne, but you may be on to something. If the killer blew up this firework display as a result of them being a religious fanatic, there could be more of these crimes somewhere.”
“We need to do some more research, Jarrett. If someone connected to this pyrotechnic crew is doing this, they would be traveling all over. They set up these shows in other places. What do you want to bet there are other fireworks explosions somewhere else besides the LA region?” Thayne said.
“We need to find out whether there are more of these. And as much as I hate to say it, we might need to bring the FBI in on this. If something happened somewhere else using the same MO, we might be dealing with a serial.”
“But if it was a fireworks explosion, it would have landed on our radar not the FBI’s,” Thayne said.
“Unless the police department investigated it as an accident,” Jarrett said.
Thayne’s eyes widened. “You’re right. I’mgonna call Sarah and see if she can do a little research.” He reached for his phone when Jarrett stopped him by grabbing his wrist.
“Dude, it’s 4:25 in the morning,” Jarrett said with a laugh.
“Oh, shit. I just got caught up in all this,” Thayne said, putting down his phone. He threw Jarrett his best leer as he closed his laptop. “I guess this will have to wait a few hours. Then we can call Sarah to ask for her help in checking out the other regions from the office, call Stanger to update him, call Ada and get into the medical examiner’s office, and hit up the local FBI.” He stood up and leaned down, putting both hands on Jarrett’s shoulders, giving Jarrett his sexiest come hither smile. “I suppose we’ll have to find something else to do until we wake everyone up.”
Jarrett smirked at him as he stood up, reaching for Thayne. “I guess so, darlin’.”