Invisible Killer

Chapter 4

When Rachelle arrived at Lyndsay's house, she busted through the front door and up to Lyndsay's bedroom. She entered the room being completely out of breath from all of the running. Lyndsay, Troy, and Ryan immediately became worried when she was huffing.
"What's wrong, Rachelle?" Lyndsay hesitated.
Huffing out one word at a time, she said, "Someone just lit my backyard pool on fire."
"What!" screeched Lyndsay as her eyes popped open.
"Are you okay?" asked Ryan.
"I'm fine. My dad saved me, and my mom called 9-1-1. The fire department and an ambulance showed up."
"Did you see anything unusual?" asked Lyndsay.
"No."
"Tell us how it happened."
"I thought that if I went for a swim, it would help me relax a little bit. Then all of a sudden, the pool water was in flames," said Rachelle, slowly controlling her breath.
"There's no way that the pool could just randomly be lit into flames," Troy sarcastically pointed out.
"Well if you would let me finish...," Rachelle began sarcastically. "I found some unusual black powder on the concrete. I thought that maybe you would be able to examine it." She held the evidence bag up in Lyndsay's face.
"Of course...," cheered Lyndsay as she snatched the evidence bag from Rachelle's grip. She placed her glasses onto her nose. "Honey, you're talking to an examining expert."
Lyndsay snapped on a pair of plastic gloves, turned on her handheld scanner, and used a pair of tweezers to grab a few spectacles of the powder. She pulled the loaded tweezers from the bag, carefully placed the particles on the platform of her device, and pressed the search button on the machine. After the device thoroughly scanned the powder, the screen displayed the results.
"Hmm...the unknown powder is recognized to be Diethyl Ether," reported Lyndsay.
"Diethyl Ether?" thought Rachelle aloud with confusion.
"What's that?" asked Ryan.
"You guys seriously don't know what 'Diethyl Ether' is?" smirked Lyndsay, thinking that her friends are retardedly stupid. Rachelle and Ryan shook their heads in denial as a response to Lyndsay's question. Troy crossed his arms and rolled his eyes without a care in the world. Lyndsay sighed, rolled her eyes, and pulled out her laptop. She used the search engine to look up information on Diethyl Ether. The top results came up and Lyndsay shared the information.
"For you clueless knuckleheads, the Diethyl Ether is a mobile liquid that's used as a solvent...," began Lyndsay, scrolling and reading all of the information out loud. "It's very volatile, highly flammable, and it's used for waxes, fats, oils, perfumes, alkaloids, and gums. In other words, it's mainly an organic compound in which two carbon atoms are linked through an oxygen atom. It can be mildly irritating to the skin and mucous membranes. When it comes in contact with the skin, it can cause nausea, toxicity to the organs, and even death."
"What I don't understand is why someone would use that strong of a component to ignite a fire," said Rachelle, still slightly confused.
"The Diethyl Ether is used to easily cause a spark which can then ignite the heptance or other alkaline much more easily. Mainly, a Diethyl Ether fire is very dangerous and can quickly become problematic."
"What does that mean?" asked Ryan.
"In simplest terms, it would present either a problem or difficulty," Lyndsay replied to Ryan's question. Lyndsay's conscience suddenly gained curiousity. "Do you think that somebody tried to kill you again, Ray?" she asked Rachelle.
"Well of course. Why else would my pool catch itself on fire?" responded Rachelle.
"That's a good point." Lyndsay placed her pointer finger up to her chin.
"Do you know of anyone else who'd be behind it all?" wondered Ryan.
"I don't have a clue."
Troy grunted with agitation and uncrossed his arms. "In other words, this shenanigan is preposterous. It's been hot outside, so the sun could've caused the fire," he grunted. Lyndsay and Ryan became blank and stared at him without saying a word.
"How could the sun set a backyard pool on fire?" Rachelle snarled. With his own statement being thrown back at him, Troy didn't have an answer to Rachelle's question.
"What if it was Bruce?" wondered Ryan.
"It couldn't have been. He's locked up in jail, remember?" Lyndsay reminded him.
"Well, what about those people who you call 'aunt and uncle'?" asked Troy, not really caring.
"Are you talking about Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Leo?" wondered Rachelle. Her friends instantly nodded their heads in agreement towards her thought. "What makes you think that they'd be trying to kill me?"
"Well, they did blame you for the death of your cousin, Paisley," Ryan pointed out as a reminder.
"And you point is?...," wondered Rachelle.
"It's probably just a way for them to get back at you," mentioned Troy.
"That's insane. Uncle Leo loves me like a daughter."
"Rachelle, we're thinking it might just be Aunt Bonnie," Ryan quietly implied.
"Why?...," Rachelle began to get nervous. "What are you saying?"
"We're saying that we're going to have to talk to them," said Lyndsay.
"Well I'm not going!" Rachelle crossed her arms and jabbed her head up to the ceiling in a pouty mood.
Troy began to get so angry that he could feel smoke coming out of his ears. He threw a finger up into Rachelle's business and said, "Oh  are."
"Why?" Rachelle demanded as she gave a dishonorable scowl.
"Because this is your doing. You're the one who got yourself into this mess."
Rachelle became disgusted. "What makes you think that I caused this?" she grunted with a hand on her chest.
"Because you're always the problem. I bet that you just had to go and tick somebody off to the limits that they decided that it was time to do away with you...just like you always do!" cried Troy.
"So you're saying that I'm the reason for me dying?"
"Well...no! That's not what I meant."
"That's exactly what you said!...," Rachelle screeched. Rachelle snapped at Troy with that statement and didn't say anything further. Troy froze with slight embarrassment. Lyndsay and Ryan instantly became shocked with silence.
Rachelle started to feel tears fill up in her eyes. "Well if that's how you really feel, then I guess that I'd rather die," she protested while sniffling. She began to leave until Troy stopped her.
"No! Wait!" he called out as he grabbed her arm. "Ray, look..."
"Just leave me alone...," she demanded. She pulled her arm away and walked out the front door.
"Rachelle!..." Troy ran out the door after her.
"What do you want me from me?"
"I want you to be quiet and listen to me."
"Oh! Like how you're listening to me?" she smarted off sarcastically.
"Rachelle, please...," he begged. Rachelle became silent. "If you'd just believe me..."
"Oh! Like how you're believing me?" Rachelle smarted off again.
Troy rolled his eyes and huffed. "Rachelle, I about have had enough of this."
"Well what do you know? Me too!" she rolled her eyes, still keeping up the sarcasm.
Troy sighed with a full level of agitation. "Do you know what? I have a better idea." He lifted Rachelle up into the air and threw her over his shoulder.
"Hey!" Rachelle cried.
"Next stop, the Lawerence residence!"
"Put me down, Troy!"
Troy, having Rachelle over his shoulder, headed to the truck with the others following. They all climbed into the vehicle and headed to the household of Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Leo.