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The Rise and Fall of Christopher Ford
By the time Lorna reached the street, it was already filling with neighbors and police officers. Fire trucks came roaring in from the sidestreets, racing ahead of her toward the warehouse. Flames were clearly visible, and the bottom floor was already engulfed.
"Oh, God!" Lorna yelled as she ran. She wasn't sure why she was yelling, but it made her feel better. "Chris!"
"Lorna," Jake said, tapping her on the arm.
"It's Chris," she told him. "He was going down there."
"I know," Jake nodded. "I'm sure he's all right."
As they neared the burning warehouse, a firefighter approached to ward them off. The fact that there were already police all over the area made this the fastest response time in San Francisco FD's history, too bad it was an abandoned building they were saving. Jake and Lorna both presented their I.D., then Lorna told the firefighter about Chris. As she was talking, babbling incoherently, Jake tapped her on the arm.
"Look!" he said.
When Lorna looked up, there was Ford on top of the warehouse. He was at the far end, away from them, but when he saw the fire trucks, he started making his way over. Suddenly, flames appeared on the roof between Ford and the firefighters. Ford was driven sideways by the heat, until he was standing on the raised wall. He looked at the flames, then at Lorna and Jake, before attempting to inch his way down the wall toward them.
"Take your time. You can do it," Jake yelled up at him. "It's like getting a hummer from an eighty year-old, just don't look down!"
"They don't have a ladder," Lorna said.
That particular concern was answered when several firefighters dragged over a large ball of yellow plastic. After they'd set it down, one of them pulled a cord, opening a gas tank and inflating a large, yellow square of plastic, a miniature version of the inflated pads used by stunt people jumping off buildings.
Several times, Ford had to pause as a waft of heat rose from the burning building below.
"You want me to aim for that?" Ford yelled down at them.
"Come on Chris," Lorna yelled back. "You can do it. Just jump."
"I'm not 'just jump'-ing!" Ford called. "I'm forty feet up!"
Ford stood at the edge of the wall and looked down at the cluster of people below. He turned around and looked at the fire behind him and seemed to be weighing his options. Suddenly, the firefighters on the ground opened up their hose. The noise startled Ford, and, arms flapping in the air in an effort to fly, he fell forward, off the wall.
Jake and Lorna walked down the side of the warehouse. Thin wisps of oily smoke rolled from the windows, evidence of the fire that raged briefly through the building. Their feet splashed in the puddles of blackened water left by the firemen's hoses. Jake was shaking his head.
"I'm really going to miss him," Jake said.
"Yeah," Lorna said. "Me too."
"Will you two knock it off," Ford said, walking behind them.
"What do you think I can get for his stuff?" Lorna asked. "Should I hold a garage sale? Or just stick everything on Ebay?"
"Garage sale, definitely," Jake said. "You want the cash up front."
"Good point," Lorna replied.
"But let me take a look at his record collection first," Jake added.
"Ok," Ford said, annoyed. "It's not funny anymore. It stopped being funny ten minutes ago."
"Should we start dating right away?" Lorna asked. "Or would that be tacky?"
"Well, we can sleep together," Jake replied. "But it might upset people if we started dating right away, so we should be quiet about it."
"I know two people who aren't getting Christmas gifts this year," Ford said.
As they walked between the police cars and fire trucks that filled the parking lot of the warehouse, a van pulled up and Dwight Church got out, followed shortly by a black Labrador Retriever.
"That's not Skipper," Jake said, kneeling down to pet the dog.
"Actually, this is Ginger," Dwight said. "Skipper's trained for narcotics. Ginger's an arson dog."
"So," Lorna said. "Your cadaver dog would be..."
"Lovey," Dwight said. "Shame about Ford."
"You heard?" Lorna asked.
"Of course, it's all over the radios," Dwight replied. "Wet himself and did a Superman right off the building."
"I didn't wet myself," Ford muttered. "That was sweat."
"There'll be a memorial at the '415 Bar & Grill' later," Jake said.
Dwight knelt down and started waving the shaker of coffee beans under Ginger's nose. After a moment, the dog snorted and Dwight stood up again. Lorna, Ford, and Jake wandered behind him as he entered the building.
The main hallway, which ran along the inside wall, contained almost no debris or water. Ginger immediately started circling just inside the entrance, touching her nose to the floor.
"Sloppy," Dwight said. He knelt down and pulled a handful of kibble out of his pocket, which he held out for Ginger. "I'd bet anything that whoever did this used a red, plastic gas can. I don't know why I'm even here, it's clear this was an arson."
Ginger and Dwight moved down the hallway, followed by the other three. When they rounded the corner leading into the main part of the warehouse, they were stunned. The room was cavernous, and roofless. The floor was covered with debris from the building's former covering; only a few I-beams hung from the walls as a testament that there even was a roof. Two firefighters with flashlights were walking around the far side.
Ginger started pulling on the leash, almost pulling it from Dwight's hand. Shrugging, he followed along. In moments, she'd honed in on a large piece of roofing that was propped up against the wall at an odd angle. She started scratching at the roofing with her paws, as if trying to dig a hole in it. Dwight and Jake both reached in at the same time and pulled it away. Underneath was a charred body, its teeth visible through the black-charred debris around it.
"See?" Ford said. "I told you I saw someone drag a body out of their trunk."
"Did you get a good look at the car?" Jake asked.
"No," Ford replied. "I got halfway down here and the car pulled around back. I thought they were leaving."
"Must've been pouring more gas around the other side," Dwight said.
"Wanted it to look like the fire was the killer," Lorna added.
"Well, this will never get solved," Ford muttered.
"Why not?" Jake asked.
"Because Lambert's been assigned to the case," Ford said, point at the car that had just pulled up.
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