A is for Arson

Part I

The smell of Mike's spaghetti sauce was lingering in the air like a welcoming friend when they came back from their latest run. Nice thing about Mike's spaghetti was that if was just as tasty, if not more so, rewarmed. Fortunately. The outbreaks of trash fires had already gone past the ridiculous. Especially since the latest in the series had caught a nearby building on fire. One that was fortunately unoccupied.

As they began to grab their plates, Captain Stanley came out of his office to grab one for himself. He filled his men in as he scooped a healthy portion onto his plate.

"Just got off the phone with the inspectors. Like we were figuring, the trash fires appear to have been deliberately set. I'm not sure what the common factor is, but they're thinking these are all the work of the same person or group of people."

Chet shook his head and brought over the garlic bread to be passed around.

"I can't understand what anyone could possibly enjoy about setting a dumpster or trashcan on fire. Or anything else on fire outside of a fireplace, for that matter."

Marco paused in-between bites.

"We'll never understand them, amigo. They don't think the way we do. Just like folks that beat up on other people and consider that to be fun."

"I guess you've got that right, Marco. What worries me is that the fires seem to not only be getting bigger, they seem to be happening closer to where people might be at too."

"The investigators have the same concerns about that you do, Chet. They think it's just a matter of time before someone gets hurt at this rate. They figure whoever it is lives in our area since the fires seem to be centering around here."

"I hope whoever it is gets caught soon. As dry as it's been lately, if one of those fires starts up in the wrong place, it could turn into a catastrophe."

They all nodded in agreement with Roy - none of them speaking because their mouths were full of spaghetti. They hadn't finished, but at least all of them had gotten a decent amount to eat before the tones went off again.

It was another trash fire, but this one was nearly right against a building and the wind had whipped the sparks up enough to spread the flames over. Not knowing whether or not anyone was inside, Cap quickly had Johnny and Roy suit up for a quick sweep while Marco and Chet manned the hose to first prevent to fire from spreading any further than it already had by soaking the surrounding area with heavy mist. Once that was completed to their satisfaction, they began fighting back the fire itself.

The area inside was one big room with a considerable amount of shelves and boxes, making searching tricky. Roy spotted a leg and found a man slumped behind a desk, but not close enough to it that he might have hit it. In fact, there was nothing immediately near him that might have accounted for the blood visible on his head. There was no time to do a more thorough examination with the smoke building up in the space - he needed to get the man out and onto oxygen. Roy signaled to Johnny that he had found someone, then quickly shifted the man to carry him out, hoping that the movement wouldn't aggravate the man's wounds.

Johnny finished the search, not spotting any other victims. Hurrying out to join his partner, he found Roy had just finished taking the man's vital signs with Captain Stanley relaying the information to Rampart over the biophone.

Chet and Marco almost had the blaze fully out now, so Cap passed the biophone handset over to Johnny and went to survey the scene closer.

After Johnny relayed the instructions over regarding the IV, he looked back over to Roy.

"How's he doing?"

"Looks like he took a hit to the head. And I don't think it was an accident."

"Don't think what was an accident, Roy? The fire?"

Both men turned their heads at the familiar voice.

"Hi, Vince. I wasn't talking about the fire - but it probably wasn't an accident either. This man took a blow to the head and it doesn't look like it was from falling against anything. There wasn't anything I could see that was close enough for him to have hit."

Vince came close enough to take a better look at the area Roy was irrigating with water.

"I'll have a word with him when he comes to. That should give us the answer as to what happened - assuming he remembers."

The sound of the ambulance arriving reached their ears. Roy quickly dressed the wound and they loaded the man up for the trip to Rampart. Johnny rode in while Roy remained behind to repack the squad. There were a few people standing around now watching the scene, but one in particular was paying very close attention to the remaining paramedic. He was keeping well back so he wouldn't be noticeable, but as the policeman made a last note in his book, Vince called out before he climbed back into his car.

"Take care, Roy. I'll catch up with you guys later."

"Right, Vince. Thanks."

Roy. Station 51. That should be enough information for him to begin with.