[Four]

Justin has just finished toasting their wheat bread when the doorbell rings. Brian's head jerks up suspiciously at the sound, and all three of them look at each other across the table for a long moment until it rings again and Brian pushes back his chair. "I'll get it, no need for you guys to trip over yourselves in haste."

Justin butters a piece of bread for Brian and sticks it on his plate.

Brian answers the door, and Justin can hear that it's Officer Thomas. Brian says something in a clipped, defensive tone, but the door closes and Thomas' booming voice can be heard even in the kitchen.

"Dispatch had an interesting call from Norman Reed, Brian." Brian's called the cops so many times on Reed's 'little bitch of a son' John that everyone at the station knows the entire Kinney household by their first names. "He claims you threatened his son."

Brian snorts. He lets Thomas into the kitchen and goes about pouring himself some more coffee. "I didn't threaten the little prick. I merely pointed out to Norman that his darling, lawbreaking child had started the fire up in Trisha's orchards. The one Gus could have been killed in."

Office Thomas takes off his hat and puts it on Gus' head, smiling down at him. Brian only lifts an eyebrow. "Well, you see, Brian. I went up and saw the fire, up in old Trisha Kingly's orchards, and then I visited Norman at his father's house, and it seems to me that the boy couldn't have started it."

Brian chokes on the sip of his coffee. Justin hands him a napkin. "What?" Brian laughs, dabbing at the shoulder of his robe where some coffee had splattered. "You're shitting me, right?"

Thomas shakes his head. "I wish I was. It'd be a lot easier to haul Johnny and the rest of his pack down to the station for questioning, maybe rough 'em up a little, stick 'em in a holding cell over night till I got some answers, but…" He shakes his head again, only this time he looks downright perturbed. "It wouldn't do any good."

"I see." Brian sits back from his plate and stares at Thomas levelly. They'd known each other for about a year now, and he knows that Thomas isn't bullshitting, but that doesn't convince him that the man isn't just fucking stupid. "And why wouldn't it? Do any good, I mean?" He props his elbow on the table and rests his chin in the crook of his curved palm.

"Way I see it, those fires that've been going around? The ones all the way up in Canada, too? Now, I may not be a scientist, but I don't figure that Johnny Reed could've flown to seven different states, then up into Canada all in one night AND made it home in time to have breakfast."

Brian scowls. "In the face of your crippling logic, I'm not sure what to say. Only… maybe Johnny heard about the fires on the radio like everyone else in this goddamn town and decided to start a blaze of his own?"

Thomas wedges a thumb underneath his belt and pulls at the leather for a long moment. "You suggesting Johnny started a… copycat fire?"

"Yes, Charles. That's exactly what I'm suggesting he did. You wanna go back to Reed's place and put the kid in cuffs now?"

Thomas purses his lips. "Dunno, Brian. I mean, I couldn't even if I wanted to. I can't go and make arrests on cir-cum-stan-tol evidence; you know that as well as I do." Brian did. At least half of his calls led to Johnny getting off scot-free, Officer Thomas said they were 'unfounded.' "But that's not all I'm thinking about here. Those fires… that's a goddamn freak show if I've ever seen one. Like something you'd see in a movie."

"Really." Brian looks over at Officer Thomas blankly, but Justin can see the corners of his mouth twitching.

"Lotta weird stuff going on in the world today, Brian. Some say it's the devil's work. I dunno about that, but I'm sure as hell not to discount what smarter men than me have thought up."

"Mhm." Brian pointedly takes a bite of his toast and washes it down with a leisurely sip of his coffee.

"I guess I'll be on my way now. There's been some strange reports about animals acting up. Bobby, Mabel's boy? His dog just went wild for no reason and about tore his arm off." He smiles grimly. "What is the world coming to, yes indeed?" Without another word he plucks his hat off of Gus' head and puts it back on. He nods at Justin and is on his way towards the door.

"Don't say a word," Brian warns, when the sound of the front door slamming shut fills the silence. "Not a damn word."