back the same day, and there’s always plenty of underlings to pore over shit like this,” he replied, holding up several pieces of paper.
His eyes were crossed from looking at names, but finally halted when he came across Haufman. He blinked for a second, the name capturing his attention. Lifting his gaze up from the papers, it hit him where he had seen that name. It was on the door across from Harper’s apartment. Daniel’s apartment.
He had missed the cross-reference earlier because the list from one of the local chemical companies had a customer by the name of Anthony Haufman. Going back through the list of Hope City retired firefighters, he discovered Anthony Daniel Haufman. His adrenaline kicked in as he immediately turned back to his computer. Seeing Jonas staring at him, he said, “I might have found something. I can’t fuckin’ believe it, but I might’ve found something.”
Jonas’ attention was riveted on Sean, but he remained quiet, giving Sean a chance to work.
Sean looked up the address for Anthony Daniel Haufman and discovered that it matched what was in the chemical company’s customer database—and matched the apartment across from Harper’s. With a few more taps on his computer, he searched to see what he could find on Daniel. A simple search turned up several newspaper articles from as far back as twenty years ago relating the heroics of Daniel as a firefighter.
“Looks like he always managed to get his picture in the paper, didn’t he?” Jonas commented. “Who is he?”
“He’s a retired firefighter who’s also bought phosphorus and carbon disulfide from Hartfield Chemicals.” Sean twisted his head around to hold his partner’s gaze. “And he’s been living across the hall from Harper.”
Visibly jerking, Jonas cursed, “Fuckin’ hell, you gotta be kidding me.”
Picking up his phone, Sean placed a call to Fire Chief Evans as Todd walked out of his office. “Chief Evans, Sean McBride here. I know this may seem unorthodox, but I’ve got to know anything you can tell me about a former firefighter you used to work with. Daniel Haufman. And with full disclosure, my Captain, Todd James is here also.”
“Sean, I’m not supposed to speak about personnel matters, but I’m assuming since you’re calling this means you need something fast.”
“Chief Evans, anything you can give us may help us find the serial arsonist sooner.”
There was a brief pause, then Chief Evans sighed. “Jesus Christ, I hope to God what you’re insinuating is not true.” After another few seconds of silence, Sean thought he was going to have to press, but the long-time Fire Chief finally spoke.
“I worked with Daniel for years. We came on board about the same time. Good guy, good firefighter. Always available, worked extra shifts. Because we had people all over the place it never dawned on me that he always managed to be where the big fires were, rolling up the hose, and still around whenever the press wanted to talk to someone. He always acted like it was an inconvenience, and we used to tease him about it. Someone even joked that if we were going to do a firefighter calendar, he’d have to appear for each month.”
Sean, Jonas, and Todd shared a glance. Anticipation curled through him, but his stomach churned. This is going to fuckin’ gut Harper. “Why did he retire when he did?”
Chief Evans sighed once more. “It started slow. So slow that none of us noticed right away. It seemed like when we would go to a bar at the end of the shift, he was always the last one to leave. A few times when he showed up for work there was a slight smell of alcohol. But hell, you all know what it’s like. No one was going to say anything about someone who drank maybe a little more than they should have. He had a wife at one time… a pretty little thing. But they got divorced, and his behavior became noticeably erratic. He seemed to get antsy when there wasn’t a fire. And by antsy, I mean that he would start drinking. He was caught a couple of times with alcohol at the station and was reprimanded. But the behavior continued, and he was counseled, encouraged to get help, everything that our Fire Chief at the time could think to do. Finally, he showed up to a scene and was stinking drunk. At that point, he was given a choice of being fired or retiring.”
“Fuck.” Sean scrubbed his hand over his face.
“Can you