Jamie Garrett - Riley Reid 02 - Fire and Lies by Jamie Garrett

flabby from a decade behind a desk. All of his hair seemed to be retreating from his forehead. He had a very thick goatee that had patches of white.

    “To get the guy who made those dead bodies, Sir,” Sam pointed at his backseat.

    Chief Owens walked over and looked into Sam’s car. “Well, I’ll be damned. Is that Pastor Pritchard?”

    “Sure is, Sir.”

    “And why are you so sure he did this?”

    “Well, he was at the scene of the crime and ran when he saw us. Not to mention he took a couple pot shots at Riley.”

    Chief Owens looked over at me. “Why is she here, Greyson? No offense, Riley.”

    “None taken.” He was right. I shouldn’t have been there. But I was happy I was.

    “I told you, I needed some help investigating the fires. She was the one who led me here. If not for her, I’d probably still be trying to figure out if they were accidents or not.” Sam was able to stand up for me and himself all at once.

    “So, what you’re telling me is that you’re too incompetent to do the job yourself?” Chief Owens was his usual cranky self.

    “No, I’m telling you it might be time to promote some more detectives…Sir.”

    Chief Owens grunted and walked away from us. As he did, he mumbled, “Good work, Reid.”

    “So what did you guys find in there?” I asked Sam as he walked and I limped towards the Branches’ front door.

    “You’ll see,” teased Sam.

    We entered the house. Sam led me to a door just off the kitchen. He opened it up and turned on his flashlight. When I took a look, I saw a staircase that went down into a basement.

    The stairs were precarious. A mixture of moisture, darkness and neglect had rendered them soft and rotted. Sam’s foot even fell through one. After helping him get his foot out, we proceeded into the basement.

    It was dark and humid. The beam of light from our lone flashlight highlighted randomly-placed cardboard boxes and old furniture. As Sam moved it around the room, I caught a glimpse of what looked like a light bulb hanging from the ceiling.

    I made my way to the light bulb and felt around for the pull chain. When I pulled it, the basement lit up. The newly-illuminated basement revealed a lot.

    “Here we go,” said Sam, as he walked over to a workbench that was against one of the walls. He wiped the top with hand. Then he showed me his fingers and palm. There was rust colored residue on it.

    “Iron oxide,” I said as I went to the bench.

    Upon taking a closer look at the workbench, I found some other evidence. There was what looked like grey sand. That was the powdered aluminum. I saw some kitchen scales with more remnants of the two chemicals.

    “Over here,” said Sam. He bent over near some boxes. When he stood back up, he had a large covered bucket in each hand.

    We found the ingredients to make thermite. We found bibles with the pastor’s church stamp inside. We found Pritchard in the same place as two dead bodies. We were almost ready to close the case.

Under Questioning
     
    The next morning, I sat behind a pane of one-way glass. The room was dark and small. It only had enough room for me and Officer Rodriguez of the Stone Harbor Police, who was monitoring the interrogation through a monitor. That monitor was the only light and was connected to a camera on the other side of the mirror-like glass.

    Officer Rodriguez and I were watching the interrogation of Thomas Pritchard. The pastor was suspected of not only burning down his own church but also setting an abandoned marina outside of town aflame. More serious than the suspected arson were the murders of Robert and Destiny Branch. And Sam was tasked with trying to get answers out of Pritchard.

    It was strange seeing Pastor Pritchard in the Stone Harbor Police Department interrogation room. He was a man that I had only known as gentle and kind. But he had fired a gun at me the night before. Also, he was found at the Branches’ home shortly after they were murdered. Why was he