A Hope City Duet - Kris Michaels Page 0,153

wood. Recording directly into her phone, she talked through her observations.

“The entry foyer is destroyed, although the floor appears intact. To the left is the living room, the fire damage worse in the back corner on the floor. A nearby sofa is charred as well as an end table and two other chairs.”

She stopped recording and snapped pictures, making sure to get every angle.

“The dining room to the right has fire damage from the walls closest to the hall, lessening toward the far right. The hall splitting the middle has smoke and water damage, with the walls destroyed closest to the living room.”

She continued taking pictures, documenting her observations. Moving down the hall toward the kitchen, she could see that it had mostly smoke and water damage. Before she had a chance to go upstairs, Peter arrived at the front door.

He saw her on the stairs and before she had a chance to greet him, he asked, “Have you already finished down here?”

Hearing the strident tone of his voice, she sighed. “No, I haven’t done any collection at all. I walked around the perimeter, dictated my first impressions of the living room, dining room, hall, and kitchen, and I was going to go upstairs to see what we have on the second floor. I figured you’d be here by then, and we could collect evidence down here together.”

“I got this down here,” he said quickly.

“We’ll collect it together.” He did little to hide his glower at her repeated statement. Until you’re fully certified in fire evidence collection, you’re supposed to work under me, dickhead.

While he walked around downstairs and outside, she made her way upstairs and checked the bedrooms. The parents’ bedroom was in the back, and much like the kitchen had water and smoke damage. There were two bedrooms closer to the front of the house, and the one directly over the living room had sustained the most damage. The wooden floor was blistered, and she did not take a chance on it holding her weight even though it had been cleared by the fire department.

Her gaze settled on a crib in the corner and her heart squeezed. Whenever there was a house fire where the occupants were at home, it was as though she could feel their terror.

Back downstairs, she met Peter as he was coming through the front door again. Determined to be pleasant and professional, she nodded toward him. “Go ahead and start processing what you see, and then we can do a comparison to make sure we haven’t missed anything.”

He walked around the living room, and she listened as he dictated his notes, agreeing with most of his findings. He noted the origin of the fire and its placement. He noted that the fire traveled through the room by way of the sofa and floors. He noted a small, electrical space heater in the corner and said, “There’s the culprit. I read the fire department’s report and have to agree that it started here. They must not have turned it off when they went to bed.”

She gave him a sharp look. “Did you examine it?”

“No, but we can tell that’s where the fire started. It doesn’t matter if they forgot to turn it off or if it was faulty, our company will pay either way.”

“The work you’ve done is good, Peter, but you’re stopping just short of knowing the whole story. If the space heater was faulty, then the family might want to have the company know that. If they left it on, they should know that as well.”

“But neither of those have any bearing on whether or not Eastern Mutual Insurance company pays. Not with the policy they had.”

Nodding, she held on to her exasperation. “I agree. All I’m saying is that for the family’s peace of mind, exactly how the space heater caught their house on fire is something they should know.”

She heard him scoff but ignored him as she moved to the corner and knelt among the charred remains, taking a look at the small, black metal heater. It was charred, but she could still see that the on-off switch had been placed to the off position. Snapping pictures, she stood and turned around, facing Peter.

His brow furrowed as he asked, “And was it on?”

“It’s a simple heater with an on-off button,” she replied. “It had been flipped to the off position. We’ll check with the fire department report as well, but that means that this fire was not the fault of

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