A/N: This is probably the worst chapter title of all the chapter titles I have here. Sorry. But the next one is the BEST. Promise. The song used in this chaper is 'Sweet Rain' by Train... doesn't do much with the story (actually it reminds me of To Kill A Mockingbird for some strange reason), but I was listening to it when I wrote the chapter, so I just randomly put a few lines in there. :) Another random thing: I randomly chose a state for this one and picked a small town there- and I picked the one I did because "Stillwater" was the name of the band in Almost Famous, one of my favorite movies... I'm so nerdy. :P
Mediatorsk: You're so much better with titles than I am!
immortalwizardpirateelf-fan: It's terrible to be surrounded by people with opposite tastes in music, isn't it? lol.
CHAPTER NINE – INVESTIGATING PYROVILLE
"F. Scott Fitzgerald," Sam said, faster than Angela could react.
"You beat me to it," she said. They turned their attention back to the TV.
"She became the first Ukrainian woman to win a figure skating gold medal in 1994," Alex Trebek announced.
"Oksana Baiul," Angela answered. She waited for her response to be confirmed. "Right again."
Next question. "The president seen here."
"James Madison," Sam answered.
"You people and your intellect are gonna drive me nuts," Dean said, not looking up from his laptop over on the side of the Oklahoma motel room.
"Well fine, Dean, we'll switch to something more on your level," Sam replied. He grabbed the remote and put on Spongebob Squarepants.
"We've got work to do," Dean muttered, obviously not pleased with the joke.
………………………………………………………
They pulled up to the first site- a business which had burnt down about two months prior to their arrival. Dean instantly got out and walked around to the trunk, where he proceeded to collect the Infrared Thermal Scanner, the EMF, and a weapon for each of them.
"If this is the first place that burnt down in a string of them, don't you think it'll be dry by now?" Sam asked. "I say we should check out the most recently hit place."
"One problem with that, Sammy- the police won't let anyone near it yet," Dean explained.
"We've dressed up like cops before," Sam reminded.
"Well, this place was closest. And it'll be prettyinaccurateif weuse a Thermal Scanner in a place that just burnt down, don't you think? Plus, if we find cold spots here, then it means the latest place has to be riddled with them," Dean pointed out. "C'mon." They approached the rubble.
"Man, I hope there's a Laundromat around somewhere," Angela muttered when she saw how much ash was sticking to their jeans. Everything was so charred that they could barely make out what used to be desks, or walls, or computers…
"Whoa…" Sam exclaimed as he stopped walking.
"What is it?" Angela asked.
"There's a huge jump on the EMF here," Sam explained. "What did the police list the official cause of the fire as?"
"Arson," Dean answered. "But they never caught anyone."
"That could explain the cigarette right here," Sam said, looking down at the pile of rubble. "But how could anyone start this big a fire with just a cigarette? And why isn't it burnt to a crisp like everything else?"
"That's the kind of unusual thing that might set off the EMF," Dean commented.
"Why would a spirit want to burn something down?" Angela wondered. "Especially if there wasn't anyone inside at the time. The only person this hurt was the owner."
"Well then, maybe it had a grudge against the owner," Sam suggested. "We should probably ask him some questions."
Sweet Rain
Wet my memory
Sweet Rain
Come on down on me…
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Angela rang the doorbell. A woman came to answer it.
"We'd like to speak to Mr. Chapman if he's free," Sam stated.
"I'll get him," the woman replied. She walked off, and soon a man came back in her place.
"Yes?" he asked.
"Uh, we're reporters from the newspaper up in Stillwater," Dean said. "If you have some time, we'd like to interview you about the fire in your office building."
"They need three reporters for the same story?" Mr. Chapman asked.
"Slow news day," Sam replied.
"I thought you already ran a story about my office," Mr. Chapman remembered.
"Well, yes, but in light of the five other arson cases, we're doing an article about the possible relationship between them," Angela explained.
"You think that all these fires were set by the same person?"
"Well,this isa small town," Dean said. "The only other logical explanation is that there's a group of people working together."
"Right…" Mr. Chapman mumbled. "Come in."
……………………………………………………
"So, do you know anyone in particular who might have wanted to set fire to your business?" Sam asked. "Someone who might've wanted to hurt you personally?"
"Well, I don't have any grudges with anyone I know…" Mr. Chapman started. "But there was this one guy. I didn't mention it to the police because it didn't even occur to me then that he could be linked to the fire. I remember he was in for a job interview he day the place burned down. When I walked in, he was smoking a cigarette, and he had a lighter open. But the weird thing is, it looked like he'd been smoking for a while. And he just left the lighter open, staring at the flame. He put it away when I interviewed him, but he was a really weird guy. I didn't like him at all. Plus, we had like, five other people come in for interviews that day. I told him that he probably wouldn't be needed. He just left, but about a week ago, my secretary told me that on the way out, he told her that we should have more fire extinguishers in the place."
"What's his name?" Dean asked.
"Mark Richard. I have no idea where he lives, though. If my secretary had told me what he'd said earlier, I definitely would've called the police on him. But if this is gonna be in the Stillwater Press, I guess I won't have to."
"Thank you for your time, Mr. Chapman," Dean said, getting up from the couch.
"You don't need to ask me anything else?" he asked, perplexed at the short interview.
"You've told us all we need to know," Dean replied. They left.
……………………………………………………
"So this Mark Richard guy, you think he's the one behind all of these fires?" Sam asked Dean as they drove on to the site of another arson.
"It makes sense," Angela commented from the back seat. "Maybe this is just some guy who was angry about not getting hired. It might not be supernatural at all."
"Then what about the EMF jump?" Sam asked. "Isn't it weird that it was right over a cigarette, one which I might add was sitting on a pile of ash but was only burnt at the tip?"
Dean stopped the car. "You're right. There is something weird involved here. But I don't think going to five other arson sites is going to tell us anything more." He got out and walked over to a telephone booth.
"What is he doing?" Angela asked. Dean started flipping through the phone book. He ripped out a page and returned to the car.
"Mark Richard," he said as he got back in. He showed Sam the phone book page. "Lives just a few blocks away from here, if I'm reading this correctly." He started driving.
"So, how are we gonna deal with this one?" Angela asked.
"I dunno," Sam said. "If this is connected to anything paranormal, he might be pyrokinetic."
"So he can conjure and control fire," Angela inferred. "Or just control it, depending on the level of his ability."
"We don't happen to have a fire extinguisher in here, do we?" Dean asked.
A/N: This gets better next chapter. :) Review!