If You Play With Fire

Arson

Liam looked at the breakfast listlessly and poked around in it. Through a conversation yesterday evening, Liam learned that the fire was arson a few days ago.

"How do you recognize that it was arson?" Liam asked his parents.

"Well, first of all, we are looking for the source of the fire. So the place where the fire started," Matt replied, "After that, we'll see which way the fire went and if the fire accelerator was used or something that promotes fire."

"Is it easy to convict the perpetrator?" he asked.

"No. The fire destroys much evidence. It's very difficult to convict the arsonist," Matt explained, looking at his son curiously, "Do you know anything about the recent fire?"

"Not really. I saw a man run out of the building shortly before," Liam said.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Gabby wondered.

Liam shrugged his shoulders, "I didn't know it was arson."

"Can you remember what he looked like or what he did then?" Matt asked.

"Well, he got in his car and drove away," Liam said, "He looked normal. I only saw him briefly."

"You'll say anything you know to Antonio," Gabby said, jerking her smartphone out of her pocket and tapping her brother a text message. Moments later, Matt and Gabby drove Liam to the police station, where Liam made a statement. It was not much the boy saw, but he could remember the color and model of the car.

While Matt and Gabby drove back to the apartment after the statement, Liam was sitting on a wall at the harbor - his favorite place. Here he often hung out with friends and there was also a mountain bike parkour.

Liam was startled as he saw the car of the alleged arsonist from a distance. He got up and approached carefully. The window of the car was briefly cranked down and a crumpled piece of paper fell out. Then the car drove off.

Curious, Liam picked it up: Rockwell Street on the corner of Pershing Road. Now!

The address mentioned was not far from its current location. He would be there in 25 minutes by subway.

When he arrived at the address, he looked around. Why should he come here? In front of him stood only a vacant factory and he did not see the car from earlier.

He took a deep breath and wondered what he should do. Maybe he should go inside the building? Carefully, he opened the door and stepped in. The air was stuffy and smoke came from a back room. Immediately he hurried out of the building, straight into the arms of a chief unknown to him. In the time he spent in the building, the fire department moved on. Someone had already called the fire department because of the fire in the back room.

"See who we have here," the Chief said, "What do you have to say in your defense?" And grabbed Liam by the collar of his jacket. The moment firefighters wanted to move into the building there was a explosion. The Chief, Liam, and some people standing near the building fell down. Immediately a firefighter, who had previously stood far enough, reached for Liam.

"Do you think it's funny to blow up buildings?" the fireman asked.

Liam stared at him speechless. Which fire station was that? Looking for help, he looked around. He did not know a single one and the number on the truck told him nothing: 66.

"Aren't you the Casey boy?" Someone asked, coming to the fore. It was the Lieutenant of truck 66 or also known as Tommy Welch.

Liam did not know much about this man, but what he knew was that this lieutenant was not good talking about the 51.

Gabby was supposed to become the new candidate on truck 66. Luckily she was allowed to stay on 51. And not forgetting the traffic accident where truck 81 and truck 66 crashed together and wanted to blame Joe Cruz.

The chief distributed the tasks and the firemen did their work, but Welch prevented Liam from running away.

"Are you worried about your father becoming unemployed or why are you here?" Welch asked.

"Coincidence. I came over here and saw smoke," Liam explained. The truth he did not want to tell this guy. He would not believe him anyway. So he preferred to pick up the truth for his father.

"Well, you see smoke and you think so 'Oh, have to go inside?'", Welch asked and said, "You can kidding someone else. You came out and suddenly the place exploded here."

Liam sighed. Well, that'll be fun. When Liam then realized that truck 66 would like to drive him home to talk to Casey, his decision of the day was clear - it could not be worse, could it?

Matt was not thrilled when Welch rang the doorbell, said a stupid word to Gabby, and then he claimed Liam had picked up at the scene of the fire. Immediately as Welch disappeared, Liam tried to correct the situation and talked about the man who persecuted him.

"These are big accusations you're making here," Matt said.

"But it's true! He laid the fire and demanded that I get there!" Liam explained.

"Are you really sure?" Gabby asked and Liam nodded.

"Why would the man ask you to come there?" Matt wondered.

"Yes, but it's true!" Said Liam.

"I don't deny it, only I don't see any sense behind it," explained Matt. Liam sighed and disappeared into his room.