"Not yet. 1 want to make sure whatever warrant I request covers the right things." He had a very bad feeling about the body lying in the Doughertys' kitchen and being a meticulous man, he was mentally preparing for the all the legal angles. "We're good to go in for origin and cause. Any more and I want a court order, especially since the owners aren't here to give us permission to enter."

Reed led them through the foyer, past the staircase and into the kitchen where the lights shone bright as day. The room was destroyed. The glass had blown from the windows and the ceiling had collapsed in one spot, making it difficult to cross the room without climbing over fallen roof supports. A thick layer of ash covered the tile floor. But most riveting was the victim who lay where Larry Fletcher had first discovered her.

For a long moment all three men stood motionless, staring down at the victim, forcing their minds to process what was more horrific in the light than it had been in the dark. With a deep breath, Reed finally pushed himself into action, pulling on a pair of latex gloves before pulling his mini-tape-recorder from his pocket. "Foster, start with the camcorder. We'll get stills once we've done our first walk-through."

He lifted his own recorder to his mouth as Foster began to shoot tape. "This is Lieutenant Reed Solliday, accompanied by Marshals Ben Trammell and Foster Richards. This is the Dougherty household, twenty-four November, oh-three-hundred. Outside conditions, twenty-one degrees Fahrenheit with winds from the northeast at fifteen miles per hour." He drew a breath. "A single victim has been found in the kitchen. The skin is charred. Facial detail has been destroyed. Gender is not immediately apparent. Small stature indicates a female which is consistent with witness accounts."

Reed crouched next to the body and with his free hand pulled the sniffer from the bag he wore slung over one shoulder. Carefully he passed the instrument over the body, the sniffer's tone instantly switching to a high pitched whine.

He wasn't surprised. He glanced up at Ben. He could make it a trainable moment at least. "Ben?"

"High concentrations of hydrocarbons," Ben said tightly. "Indicates presence of accelerants."

"Good. Which suggests?"

"Which suggests the victim was doused in gasoline before being lit."

"Gasoline, or something." Reed focused, not allowing the stench to cloud his senses or the image of the dead young girl to tear at his heart. The first was nearly impossible, the second completely so. Still, he had a job to do. "The ME will be able to tell us exactly what was used on her. Good, Ben."

Ben cleared his throat. "Do you want me to call for the dog?"

"I did already. Larramie's on duty tonight. He should have Buddy here in twenty minutes." Reed straightened. "Foster, get the victim from the other side, will you?"

"Yep." Foster videotaped the scene from several more angles. "What else?"

Reed had moved to the wall. "Get a shot of this entire wail, then close-ups of all these marks." He leaned closer with a frown. "What the hell?"

"Narrow "V," Ben noted, steadier now. "The fire started down at the baseboard then moved up the wall fast." He looked over at Reed. "Really fast. Like with a fuse?"

Reed nodded. "Yeah." He ran the sniffer across the wall and once again they heard its high-pitched whine. "Accelerant up the wall. A chemical fuse." Unsettled, he studied the wall. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before."

"He used gas from the stove," Foster commented, turning the camera toward what was left of the appliances. He leaned closer, capturing the area between the stove and the wall. "The bolt's been removed. Had to have been deliberate."

"I thought so," Reed murmured, then brought his recorder back to his mouth. "The gas was flowing into the room, rising to the ceiling. The fire was ignited low to the floor, then traveled up this line of accelerant. We'll take samples here. But what about this?" He stepped back and took in the pock-marks that mottled the width of the wall.

"Something exploded," Ben said.

"You're right." Reed ran the sniffer along the wall. Short screeching bursts emerged, but no long whine as before. "It's like napalm, the way it sticks to the wall."

"Look." Ben was crouching near the door that connected the kitchen to the laundry room. "Plastic pieces." He looked up, puzzled. "They're blue "

Reed bent down to look. They did look blue. Quickly his eyes took in a several more pieces scattered across the floor and a picture formed in his mind. It was a photo in a book. An arson investigation manual, at least fifteen years old. "Plastic eggs."

Ben blinked. "Eggs?"

"I've seen this before. I bet if we can get enough pieces, the lab will be able to put them together like a plastic egg, like kids hunt at Easter. The arsonist fills it with accelerant, either solid or a viscous liquid like polyurethane, runs a fuse through a hole in one end. He lights the fuse and the pressure from the blast blows the egg apart, spewing the accelerant all over."

Ben looked impressed. "That explains the burn patterns."

"It does. It also goes to show if you do this job long enough, you'll see it all. Foster, get all the pieces and their location on tape, then close-up stills of everything in the room. I'm going to call in for a warrant to cover us on the origin and source samples, too. I don't want any lawyer telling us we can use the search samples for the arson, but not for the assault on that poor girl."

"Cover your ass," Foster muttered. "Damn lawyers."

"We'll get the plastic pieces after Larramie and the dog are finished. Maybe there's a piece big enough for Latent to get a print."

"You optimist, you," Foster said, still muttering.

"Just take the pictures. Also get pictures of the doors and first floor windows, especially the locks. I want to know how he got in here."

Foster moved his camera away from his face long enough to stare at Reed. "You know if that girl's a homicide, they're going to yank this case right out from under you "

He'd already thought of that. "I don't think so. I'll have to share, but there's plenty enough arson here for us to keep our hands in the pot. For now, we're here. We've got the ball. So move it into field goal territory, okay"?"

Foster lolled his eyes. He wasn't a sports fan. "Fine."

"Ben, there are two cars in the garage. The old ladies said the Doughertys had the Buick. Find out who owned the other one. And, Foster, at first light, I want you out there snapping pictures of the ground. With all this mud, he's bound to leave us something."

"Optimist," Foster muttered once again.

Sunday, November 26, 2:55 p.m.

His thoughts had cleared after a good night's sleep and now he could consider exactly what he had accomplished. And what he had not. He sat with his hands neatly folded on his desk, staring out the window, analyzing the events of the night. This was the time to determine what went well so that he could do those things again. Conversely, he needed to decide what had not gone well and whether to fix or eliminate those things. Or perhaps even add something new. He'd take it point by point. Keeping it in order. It was the best way.

The first point was the explosion. His mouth curved. That had gone very well, art and science all rolled into one. His little firebomb worked perfectly, the design easy to implement. Not a single moving part. Elegant in its simplicity.

And very successful. He grimaced a little as he tested his sore knee. Maybe a little too successful, he thought, remembering the force of the blast. It had knocked him off his feet, throwing him to his hands and knees as he'd run down the Doughertys' front walk. He guessed he'd cut that fuse a little too close. He'd wanted ten seconds to get out of the house and down to the street. Mentally he counted it out. It had been more like seven seconds. He needed ten. Ten was very important.