Read Ellery Mountain 1 -The Fireman and the Cop for Free Online Page B

never quite got over the fact people posted shit like that online—detailed instructions on how to burn a building to the ground in three easy stages simply using a bottle and accelerant. He had to check what was out there for people to follow now.
The whole area was cordoned off by tape, but there were contractors setting up a ring of fencing around the whole site. The place was still a crime scene, and until the cops and the fire team signed off on cause, it was likely to stay that way. Given the assumption that arson was the cause, Max wanted to just get one last look at what was left.
He ducked under the tape then circled the structure. With the ceiling and roof collapsing in it was hard to make an assessment of what had been where. Two storeys of old building had been destroyed through a combination of fire and water, and Max didn’t need witness reports to locate point of origin. The fire had spread outwards, and tracing the widest part back to the narrowest, there had been no question that whoever had thrown that first bottle had been standing to the rear of the building and on the slight hill that was behind. Max climbed until he was at that vantage point and looked down at what would have been here.
Quinn had already been out and done a review but something about this didn’t sit right with Max. He’d spent his lunch hour flicking through the witness reports. There had been three staff in the office. Kathy White, the dispatcher who had just been leaving to go off shift, Drew Bryant, the officer still with a few hours left on his shift, and Corporal Finn Ryan. Of course, there had also been Mike Fitzgerald. From all he’d heard, the man was the ubiquitous town drunk and records indicated Corporal Ryan had brought him in after picking him up in Broadfields Park just on the outskirts of town.
The dispatcher said a call had been made and Corporal Ryan was asked to pick him up on the way back from wherever he was through town. He hadn’t even been on duty and was just picking the guy up—as every cop at this small station had at some point or another—as a favour. Five minutes after making Fitzgerald comfortable in temporary holding, in Finn’s words, ‘just to keep him safe’, the fire had started. Kathy and Drew had been downstairs. Finn had stood signing paperwork in the small area outside holding upstairs. Then the explosion. Drew reported it as like a firework that had kept on going, crackles and sparks and a great whoosh of sound. That was consistent with the use of an accelerant and the old construction style of the building.
Finn, on the other hand, said he’d been immediately overwhelmed with heat even before he’d heard a thing. Which implied the entry was on the upper floor. So whoever had been throwing had aimed up and away from them. They evidently had no clue how much damage the accelerant and fire could cause. In a building that old there would be no need for a second attack, but whoever had stood there and thrown that first bottle had a second bottle just in case. That was focused and personal and not at all a random thing.
Kathy and Drew had used the front door and the fire had been between Finn, who was forced down the stairs, and Fitzgerald in holding. Yet as soon as Finn had his wits about him he’d gone back in. Risked himself for a guy who appeared to have little love from his fellow townspeople. There was a whole layer of bravery and stupidity wrapped in the action. Max could understand why he had done it.
“What do you think?” Max looked up to see the chief staring down at him in his crouch.
“I don’t think we can help anymore,” Max concluded. “Forensics on this won’t give us anything else. It’s a cop matter now.”
“I came to the same conclusion.” Quinn sounded tired and Max stood with a stretch. The expression on the other man’s face was one of confusion and defeat.
“We can’t always have the answers,” Max offered.
Quinn nodded. “Twenty-four years I’ve