Polar (Book 2): Polar Day Read Online Free

quiet.
    While no one spoke, all watched in horror as the firefighters’ hoses snuffed out the flames, leaving a charred, blackened figure where the jogger had once been.
    The fire chief stepped forward and took charge of the crowd. “Folks, we’re going to need all of you to stay here. The arson investigators and the police are on their way and we’ll need to talk with all of you to see if we can figure out what happened here.” He scanned the crowd, stopping when he saw Tessa.
    “Detective Washington?” he said.
    Tessa managed a feeble smile and stepped forward. “Sure is, Chief. It’s been a long time.”
    “I’m glad to see you here,” the chief said. “I have a feeling our team may be requiring your assistance.”
    Tessa motioned towards Danny. “This is my partner, Detective Fitzpatrick. You’ve got two homicide detectives at your service.”
    The chief shook Danny’s offered hand and patted Sox’s nose. “Fitzpatrick, huh? I don’t think we’ve met.”
    “I haven’t lived in Fairbanks long,” Danny said. “I’m sure we haven’t.”
    The arrival of police cars and the arson investigation team interrupted the conversation.
    “Listen chief, Tessa and I are in for the duration on this. But as you can see I’ve got a friend with me,” Danny said, gesturing with his free hand toward Sox. “I need to take him home before I can work this.” He turned to Tessa. “Do you mind getting started without me?”
    “Not at all.” She reached out and nuzzled Sox. “Will you stop and feed Maya before you come back? I wasn’t planning to be here all night.”
    “Sure. I’ll put a call in to the captain on my way home too. He’s probably already been alerted but I’ll let him know we were right here the whole time.”
    Danny put Sox back on the ground and hastily walked to his car. If he hadn’t known it, he never would have guessed that a baseball game and a cherished annual tradition had been going on barely thirty minutes earlier. The stench of burning flesh and the horror of the fiery death had chased all sense of frivolity and celebration from the park.
    As he got to his car and opened the back door for Sox to hop inside, he glanced back at the crowd milling around the now dead man. He thought again of the shadowy figure he had seen prior to the start of the fire. He no longer thought it had been the setting sun playing tricks on his eyes. He knew someone had been in the jogger’s path right before he died.
    The identity of that someone, or something, wasn’t the only question Danny had as he drove away from the scene of the carnage. How could a man just burst into flames? And Danny had seen the man rolling in the grass in an attempt to smother the fire before it engulfed him. If anything, the movement had only caused the flames to intensify. How could fire become so hot and so intense so quickly?
    ****

Chapter 4
    “What do we have so far?” Danny asked Tessa.
    He had returned to the scene of the fire after dropping Sox off at home and checking in on her dog Maya as promised.
    “Not much. Rizzo’s here now,” Tessa said, pointing towards a paunchy, pale man who was leaning over the still smoldering remains of the jogger.
    Anthony Rizzo was the chief arson investigator in the Fairbanks police department and, as he had told everyone in the department more times than anyone could count, he was retiring in September. Danny could imagine how much he hated to have a case like this thrown at him when he only had a few months left on the job.
    Danny wandered over to Rizzo and the fire chief, who were now talking to Danny’s boss, Captain Jack Meyer. The three turned and nodded a greeting to him as he approached.
    “You want me to start canvassing?” Danny asked. “Have you started checking cell phones yet?”
    “Tessa told us you two saw this poor devil before the fire started,” Meyer said, ignoring Danny’s questions.
    “Yeah, I did. He was running along and it crossed my mind that I