You Can’t Catch What You Can’t See

You don’t know me.

You don’t want to know me.

I don’t have a name.

I only have a face…and it’s the face of Fear.

My heart is black and my eyes are dead.

But; you won’t recognize me.

I’m not from around here. I’m not from anywhere, except the last place I’ve been.

I don’t want you to like me and I don’t care if you hate me. Hate me because you fear me. You fear me so much that I rob you of your sleep. You keep the TV on 24/7, hoping to hear that I have been captured. You are a fool! I haven’t destroyed your world yet and still, I affect you in that way. You hate me for all of the uncertainty; not knowing when I’ll strike.

You want to believe that I won’t come if you’re home. It really doesn’t matter; I’ll get you anyway! You’re a prisoner in your own home and you don’t have to be. It would be better for you if you weren’t at home. You might even live and if you do, chalk it up to a stroke of Luck.

Just knowing that you fear me exhilarates me. I feed off of your fear. It energizes me; it gives me purpose and immense enjoyment.

I don’t pray to a God, so I don’t concern myself with questions of Redemption. You will pray to God that I don’t find you, but you have no say in it. If the feeling moves me, you will have no choice in the matter.

Don’t insult me by calling me an ‘arsonist’. I am much more complex than that. I am a pyro-technician with extraordinary skill. I am a tactician; an expert with surgical precision that will take your heart and soul before you realize it. And by then, it’s already too late!

But, don’t take it personally. I don’t know anything about you; other than you are too weak and scared to deal with the likes of me. You are just another target in a career that spans two decades and is littered with victims too numerous to count.

I’m sorry; did I say ‘victim’? I meant to say ‘adversary’. And I’m not sorry, either!

So; aren’t you the least bit curious as to what’s in store for you? Do you want to know how you will die?

You will die for 69 cents!

That’s correct; 69 lousy cents. Figure it out?

That’s the cost of a disposable lighter! Ain’t that a hoot?

In your mind, your life is precious and valuable-‘so much left to do’. You have a family, a community and a God to serve…and I could give a rat’s patoot. You’re not valuable; you’re vulnerable. Your life isn’t precious; to me, it isn’t worth the price of a disposable, cigarette lighter.

You’re upsetting me right now, because you think so highly of yourself that you show me no respect; yet, I hold your life in my hands. Me!

You think that I’m just some kook who gets his jollies from setting fires? You couldn’t be more wrong. I don’t even stay to watch them burn, because I already know the outcome and besides; I have to get ready for the next one. I won’t watch the news or read the papers; I don’t have to. Everyone will be talking about it. ‘Did you hear about the terrible fire? How tragic; an entire family died. No one knows how it happened’.

I don’t normally tell war stories, but a couple of years ago, I did a mobile home fire. Keep in mind, I got my information second hand from the people who talked about it, but they said it was pretty gruesome. The mobile home had a skirt around it and they had placed bales of straw around the trailer to insulate it from the cold, I guess and it was heated with LP from a big tank at the back of their property. Anyway, one early morning, I disconnected the LP connection at the trailer and was pumping it in under the trailer and then lit a bale of straw just before I left. I mean; trailers are like gas cans anyway, but people said that when it exploded, it jumped about four feet off of its foundation. The fire burnt so hot that the six bodies were unrecognizable. In fact; people were talking about how some of the bodies were found sort of stuck together. You couldn’t tell where one ended and another started. Kind of like a ‘human clinker’. Apparently, the trailer was owned by a couple of meth heads, so the locals thought that they had a cooking accident while making meth. And who was I to convince them otherwise?

Do you know that by the time that black, acrid smoke gets its hands around your throat, paralyzing you to the point that you can’t scream and you can’t move that you will still be able to hear and feel your flesh burning? A light bulb starts to melt at about 600 degrees; flesh burns to well done! And…the fire will sear your pores shut and your organs will boil from the inside out. And do you know what your final thought on this Earth will be?

‘I can’t believe I wasted all of that money on that sophisticated alarm system’! Sorry; but a ‘kook’ finds that funny.

Have you figured it out yet, Einstein? Figured out that I don’t fit the ‘profile’? Cops and so-called ‘arson investigators’ are always looking for cookie cutter culprits. They try to match up their crappy, textbook data, written by ‘experts’ with whoever fits into their ‘definition’.

Power, rage, sexual gratification, hero worship-‘yep; we got our guy, because he fits the profile!’

I didn’t wet the bed. I didn’t hate my parents. I didn’t start fires as a kid. I had a normal pre-adult life. I don’t drink alcohol. I have no failed relationships.

Oh; you think it’s about ‘power’? Is it because I write the rules that control the situation? Well, if you’re that one dimensional, then go ahead and believe it. And I will prove you ‘dead’ wrong.

I’m guessing that a lot of firesetters are still in business, because the cops have a very narrow focus, but that’s OK. It lets me fly below the radar. And though I resent someone else getting the credit for my work, I will bear that burden for the chance to strike again…and I will!

I might set a diversionary fire that will kick the fire department’s butt. They will commit all of their resources to it. They might order a call back of off-duty personnel, but really; many of them will be hung over, tired and ticked off because their personal time was interrupted. They won’t be in the right frame of mind to deal with me. A false alarm will get called in by a ‘passer-by’ and that’s when I will cut your phone service, disable your alarm system and exact my will upon you.

You can’t prepare for it. You can’t ‘get ready’…because I’m coming. And there is nothing you can do to stop it!

I have my target in sight.

Failure is not an option.

The Face of Fear is coming to Grandview!

Stew Monihan, Grandview FD’s ace arson investigator is teaching an arson class.

“Can anyone tell me what can be a fire investigator’s two, worst enemies?” asks Stew. “Vinnie?”

“Is one of them an arsonist?” asks Vinnie.

“No, but we’ll get to that later on”, says Stew.

“At the scene of a fire investigation, too much water and aggressive over-haul can sometimes leave little for the investigator. Some of you may want to remember that when you’re on the pipe. If you ever make it to ‘Investigation’, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about”, says Stew.

“Stew; when you get to a cause of ‘suspicious origin’, do you start going through your Rolodex of known arsonists?” asks Jimmy Mac.

“That’s a good question, Mac, but the rule of thumb is that, unless you can eliminate all of the ‘accidental’ causes, then you cannot classify the fire as incendiary. You have to review, then toss out all of the impossible causes and that narrows the probable causes. So, you look at electrical systems, electrical equipment, gas hook ups, the presence of pets, paint equipment/supplies, heater units, solar energy, lightning, children, smoking materials and even hay and hay storage for our friends of agriculture. Any possibility should be explored. There can be accidental ignitions from unusual sources, but in order for a fire to occur, there must be an ignition source and combustible material. Common ignition sources are well established and can be traced to their location in a building. Then, you consider the probability of it being a viable ignition source. And this is where your training will start. Then, we will discuss the fire’s behavior-the color of the smoke, direction of travel, intensity-odors, the condition of the contents (some products have known burn times), doors and windows (entry/exit points and if they have been forced or not), familiar faces at the scene, interested by-standers or other suspicious circumstances. From there, we will review arson patterns and arsonist profiles”, says Stew.

“Aren’t serial arsons rare?” asks Vinnie.

“Not as rare as they used to be, but just because a perp sets more than one fire doesn’t mean that he’s a serial arsonist. There has to be some criteria matched in order to classify them as a serial arsonist”, says Stew.

“Have you ever investigated a serial arson?” asks Vinnie.

“Yes…and it almost drove me over the edge. Because the fires come so fast, you can’t eat, sleep or think about anything else. It affects you at work, at home, the gas station, the ball game-people are screaming at you to catch the guy, because they don’t want to be next”, says Stew.

“We’ll get to the arsonists soon enough, but first; you have to learn how to rule it in or out. That’s it for today. See you next week”, says Stew.

Stew got home just in time to grab a beer and turn on the Red Sox/Yankees game. Stew was 3 beers into the game and nodded off.

He woke up, wringing with sweat. His heart felt like it was going to bust out of his chest. He looked around the room, momentarily forgetting where he was. He’d been dreaming about HIS arsonist again.

What Stew didn’t know was that his “dream” was about to come true…again!

Sleep well, kiddies.

The article submitted is a fictional account of events-real or imagined. Any similarities to the people, places or situations portrayed are purely coincidental. The article as submitted is published under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella and is the intellectual property of Art Goodrich a.k.a. xchief22 and ChiefReason. It is protected by federal copyright laws and cannot be re-printed in any form without expressed permission from the author.