Fire Spirit by Graham Masterton Read Free Book Online Page A

how things are progressing.’
    Jack walked Ruth back to her car. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ Ruth told him. ‘Maybe we’ll know the victim’s identity by then.’
    Jack said, ‘Maybe. But I have a strange feeling that’s not going to help much. There’s something real weird about this fire.’
    â€˜Hey, I thought we arson investigators only dealt in forensic evidence. Where do strange feelings come into it?’
    â€˜I only said that for Ron Magruder’s benefit, because I don’t have the least notion how this fire was started, or how it reached such a high RHR so rapidly, or why it suddenly extinguished itself before the rest of the house went up in flames. We’re missing something here. It’s probably going to be downright obvious when we find out what it is, but right now it’s making me feel like there’s a gaggle of geese walking up and down on my grave.’
    â€˜You still think that it might have been spontaneous human combustion? Bob said that woman in Cassville caught fire because of her nylon clothing. You know, static.’
    â€˜That’s what Bob likes to think, because Bob doesn’t want to acknowledge that some fires can’t be completely explained by scientific facts. Listen, Ruth, I’ve been investigating fires for half of my life, and if I’ve learned anything at all, it’s that every fire is a hungry beast with a will of its own. This here was no ordinary fire, believe me. This fire had an appetite for this particular victim, for some reason or another. It ate this person, like a wild animal, but it didn’t eat nothing else, because once it had done that, it was satisfied and it snuffed itself out. Before anything else, we need to find out what this particular fire wanted, and why it wanted it. Until we do, we won’t understand what happened here, or if it might happen again.’

FOUR
    A melia was late coming out of school, so Ruth had to wait outside for over ten minutes. As she sat in her car, watching the last few stragglers emerge, she suddenly felt very tired, and isolated, as if she couldn’t carry on any longer.
    She felt as if everybody depended on her: Ammy, and Jeff, and Craig, and now the anonymous blackened victim who had been burned to death on that mattress. Why me ? she thought. Why can’t they all take care of themselves, and sort out their own problems ? But she knew the answer to that. They needed her, and they had nobody else.
    When Amelia eventually appeared, in her red beret and her red plaid coat, she stopped on the steps outside the school’s main entrance to send a text message on her cellphone. Ruth gave her an impatient toot on her horn.
    â€˜Hey, don’t worry about me,’ she said, as Amelia climbed into the passenger seat. ‘I have all the time in the world.’
    Amelia said, ‘I had to text Sandra. I’m going round to her place this evening, so that we can do our homework together.’
    â€˜Oh, yes. Who says?’
    â€˜Me. I say. Somebody has to help me, don’t they?’
    â€˜ I always help you.’
    â€˜Well, you don’t have to bother any more. Sandra said she can do it.’
    â€˜Sandra knows how to deal with William’s Syndrome? I don’t think so.’
    â€˜At least Sandra doesn’t treat me like a retard.’
    Ruth pulled away from the curb and drove toward Jefferson Street. ‘Ammy, you’re not still mad at me about breakfast, are you?’
    â€˜Of course not. I wish I hadn’t bothered, that’s all.’
    â€˜It was a lovely thought. You don’t know how much I appreciated it.’
    â€˜Don’t lie. You hated it.’
    They stopped at the next red traffic signal. Ruth turned to Amelia and said, ‘Listen, sometimes you can try to do nice things for people and for one reason or another it doesn’t work out. Once I organized a surprise party for Dad’s