The fire roared throughout the apartments. The shrill sirens of fire trucks and ambulances mixed with the blood curdling screams of those still trapped inside could be heard from miles away. The flames grew tall and menacing as the dark smoke rose high into the night. The smell was strong, and the putrid scent of gasoline was overpowering. That was the first clue that this fire was not accidental.

Carrie Ford tried to get to the apartments, but the police stopped her. She was forced to stand with all the spectators. As she watched the fire, she saw a flash of movement out the corner of her eye. She was about to dismiss it as nothing, but immediately saw what had caught her eye. There was someone running away from the fire! She tried to get an officers attention, but they all ignored her. She realized that nobody was going to help her, so she took off after the person running herself. She had almost caught up to them when she heard someone behind her yell “Police! Stop!”

She realized that he was yelling at her, but she wasn’t about to give up catching this person. She finally caught up to the runner and tackled them. She heard someone coming up behind her, and she figured it was probably the police officer. That’s when she realized she had made a major mistake, one she could be arrested for. This officer was probably not going to care if she was trying to catch a possible arsonist, even if he did believe her. Despite the fact that she knew this, she had to know who it was that she was risking getting arrested for. She removed his hood and mask.

“Danny? What are you doing here?”

“Excuse me ma’am, I’m gonna need you to get up and take a step back please. Full cooperation is advised,” the officer said, startling Carrie.

She stood up, raised her hands to show she was unarmed and slowly turned to face him. “I’m sorry officer,” she looked at his name tag. “Brown. It’s just, I saw someone fleeing the crime scene, and I thought they may have set the fire or something, but I was wrong. I tried to get an officer's attention, but nobody even looked in my direction, so i figured i would just-”

She was cut off by officer Brown. “Okay, you’ve got the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a c-”

“I’m sorry to cut you off sir, but she didn’t do anything wrong. All she was trying to do was annoy me. That is, after all, a sister's job. Especially an older sister. She was just giving her little bro a hard time,” Daniel said.

“Well then she is lying to a law enforcement officer, and sibling rivalry or not, that could get her arrested, since she tried to pin it on a crime and throw the investigation. Unless of course, you did set fire to the house, and you’re just trying to cover it up. Or you are lying.”

“Of course I didn’t, my big sis was just trying to-”

“Danny, stop. I was telling the truth. I didn’t know it was you until after I had tackled you. You should know better than to lie to the police.”

“Alright, I'm letting you both off with a warning. However, ma’am, you should leave the mystery solving to the professionals.”

“Maybe I am a professional,” Carrie said. “You might want to stop making assumptions about people without proof or reason, otherwise you’re not going to make many friends here. Danny, remember to be nice to the new guy. He’s still got a lot to learn after such a short time living and working here,” Carrie said with a fake sweet smile.

Officer Brown barely reacted, but she could tell by his change in stance and slight widening then narrowing of his eyes that he was surprised and even more suspicious of her now. “How did you know that?”

“A detective never reveals her secrets,” she said with a smug smirk.

---LATER---

“I don’t get why you’re mad at me, I was just trying to help!”

“ Danny, you can’t just go around lying to the police. Or anyone really, even if it is to protect me. If you keep doing that, you could get arrested, or worse. Besides, you’re all the family I have left, so I don’t anything to happen to you,” Carrie said.

“Okay, I’m sorry, it’s just that the officer dude was really rude to you.”

“I know, but you are going to be a legal adult next week, and you should start acting like one.”

“But I don’t really want to. It’s just so boring!”

“DANIEL RAY GONZALES! If you don't start being responsible and respecting those around you, you’ll be doing the chores and have your electronic privileges taken away until you do.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “Fine, whatever.”

“Okay, one more thing. What were you doing at the apartment, and why did you run away?”

“Well, I was… um… visiting a friend, and I was running away because… I didn’t want to be burned by the fire?”

 The way he said it made it sound like a question. He was a terrible liar.

Just then her phone rang, interrupting her thoughts. She looked to see who it was, but didn’t recognize the number, so she ignored it. They called a couple more times, and she finally answered.

“Is this Carrie Ford?” the voice sounded annoyed… and familiar. 

“Yes, this is Carrie. Who is this?”

“This is officer Thomas Brown with the Brooklyn police department. We met earlier.

“Oh yeah, the one that makes way too many assumptions! What's up?”

“Well, I, um, I was told by my superior that you can work on the case. And that you are an amazing detective.”

“Oh, is that what he said? Just to clarify, you mean the arson case, right?”

“Yeah.” He sounded so defeated.

“Yeah, I’ll help out.”

She could practically hear his eye roll. He hung up without a word.

--LATER--

Carrie listened to the officers talk about the case. Her heart was filled with sadness and grief for those families who just lost their loved ones.

“Any casualties?”

“Yes sir. Three. Pat Ashou, Mason Jerse, and Paul Floriss.”

The chief of police said “Wait, did you say Paul Floress?” 

“Yes. Why?”

“There was a murder at Brookside apartments. The victim was Paul Floress.”

“How do you spell his name?”

“Paul, P-A-U-L. Floress, F-L-O-R-E-S-S”

“Our victim’s name is spelled F-L-O-R-I-S-S.”

The room got silent until Carrie spoke up. “That doesn’t quite sound like a coincidence. Do you have any suspects yet?”

“That isn’t your case,” the chief said. “Your job is to help with the arson case. Please try not to interfere with the murder case.”

She nodded, so everyone moved on, and Carrie kept the murder case at the back of her mind for the time being. They continued to talk about the arson case, and Carrie was just sitting back listening and taking mental notes until officer Brown decided to pipe in when suspects were being discussed.

“I think that Daniel Gonzales should be added to the suspect list. He was spotted running away from the fire in a suspicious manner. He was also very defensive when he was being talked to, and he was definitely hiding something big.”

“Now hold on a minute,” Carrie said. “Danny would not set fire to any building, and he was running away because the building was on fire. He was inside, and he said it was because he was visiting a friend.”

“Yeah, the way you said that he was visiting a friend, you obviously don’t believe that. So maybe your brother was there to start a fire.”

“No chance. He would never do anything like that.”

“I don’t know if we should trust the word of the suspect's sister. In fact, maybe she shouldn’t even be working on this case.”

The room got so silent you could hear the silence, and you could almost hear the anger boiling up in Carrie. “He didn’t do it. You have no real reason to suspect him other than the fact that he lied to protect me.”

“I’m not even completely sure he lied. Maybe you were just afraid to get in trouble with your parents, so you tried to throw us off of our investigation to protect yourself.”

The room went deathly silent again. “I would never throw off an investigation, even to protect my own brother.”

“Whatever, I just think he should be kept in the list.”

Everyone kept on discussing the case, but there was an awkward tension in the room now. 

Carrie couldn’t stop thinking about Danny and the fact that it actually almost made sense that he might have set the fire. She wanted to keep denying it, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. The meeting ended, and she went home. When she got home, she decided to come in quietly and see if Danny was home, and if he was she would leave him alone for now, but if he wasn’t, she would investigate a little and see if she could find anything.

She went in, and Danny wasn’t home, so she looked around a little. She checked his drawers, nothing but clothes and shoes. She checked under his bed, and instantly regretted it, but didn’t find anything incriminating to the case. She checked his trash can, but there was nothing to suggest he did it. She checked his closet, and she didn’t find anything. She thought to herself This is crazy. Of course he didn’t do anything! She was about to leave his room when she heard Danny come in, so she panicked and closed the closet door with her still inside. He came into his room and she realized he was talking on his phone. 

“No dude, there’s nobody home to hear me talking. I checked all over.”

Carrie had no idea who Danny was talking to or what the other person was saying, but honestly, what Danny said in the way he said it scared her.

“No, I hid it. It’s in the neighbor’s garbage. Nobody has any real reason to suspect me, and even if they did, they wouldn’t find anything. At least not to incriminate me.” there was a pause, then he continued to talk. “Okay, I’m sorry! They had pretty much the same name, and I couldn’t remember what the name of the apartment was. I knew it was either brookside or sky creek, and either 135 or 235, I just mixed them up, and it was stupid, I’m sorry.”

When Carrie heard all this, she remembered the police talking about the murder of Paul Floress, and how one of the arson victims was Paul Floriss. She realized that Danny probably was the arsonist, and he was supposed to cover up a murder by setting the building on fire. She kept trying to convince herself that she was just being too suspicious, Danny was probably talking about something else, and his timing was bad, but before she had fully convinced herself of that, she registered the smell of another gasoline fire. She looked at the tiny crack between the closet door and the wall, and she saw dark smoke rising from the neighbors house. Before she could stop herself, she gasped, and Danny heard her. When she realized there was no way out of this, she opened the door and walked out. Danny went paler than a ghost. Then he said “this is not what it sounds like.'' Then she heard the person on the other side of the phone yell “WHAT DID YOU DO!!!” and she recognized the voice, but she just couldn't place it.

“I'll handle this later, but I need to go take care of the fire next door.” she didn’t think it was possible, but when Danny realized what she was talking about, he went even paler.

Carrie grabbed a few blankets and went outside to stop the fire. She put the fire out and saw the gas can in the neighbors garbage. She realized that there was no way Danny didn’t set the apartment building on fire. She couldn’t believe he would do something like this, and yet she couldn’t deny the overwhelming evidence. She didn’t know what to do. All that talk about being able to turn him in if he really had done something came back to her, and she knew it was the right thing to do. She typed in detective Brown’s number, but she just couldn’t bring herself to press the call button. She saw her neighbors come out of their house, and she assured them everything was okay, the fire had been put out. After that, she went back inside, only to discover that Danny was gone.. A piece of paper on the table caught her eye, and she went over and picked it up. It was a note from Danny confessing everything, and apologizing, but he didn’t want to go to jail, so he was going to run where he could never be found by anyone who knew him. 

Carrie heard someone in the kitchen, and she immediately ran to see what was happening. When she saw Danny trying to leave, she ran over to him and gave him a hug.

“I don’t know why you did this, but no matter what happens, I want you to know that I love you, and nothing can change that.”

She continued to hug him, and he hugged her back. “I’m sorry, but I have to go sis.”

“Wait, before you do, can you tell me why you did this?”

“Fine. I was stupid. I listened to him when he told me that it would be justice for mom and dad. He told me that if I didn't help, they would be disappointed in me. He said that if I didn't help, an innocent man would die.”

“Well, an innocent man did die. This is what happens when you do something wrong, it always goes wrong for the wrongdoer.” she paused for a second. “Wait, who’s he?”

“I-” he was interrupted by a knock on the door, and fear filled his eyes when the knock was followed by “this is the police! Please open the door!”

“Danny, this is your last chance. If you do the right thing, it could pay off. Turn yourself in.”

“NO! I can’t afford to go to jail!”

“Well, you shoulda thought about that before you decided to commit a crime. If you won’t turn yourself in, I will.”

“But-”

“No buts. Those are your only options.”

“Fine.”

They went to the door and opened it. When Carrie saw the person next to officer Brown, she got super excited, until she saw that she was in cuffs.

“Wait, why is world famous legendary detective Beth Harper, my idol, in cuffs?”

“Well, let’s just say there’s a reason they say never meet your heroes. She was involved in stealing money from a charity. Anyways, the reason I'm here is because there was another gas fire. In your neighbor's trash.”

“Yeah, I know. I was the one who put it out,” Carrie said.

“And I, um…” Danny looked over at Carrie, and she nodded. “I was the reason it started.”

“What? What do you mean you…” detective Brown trailed off.

“I was also the one who, um, who caused the fire that killed paul what’s-his-last-name. Intentionally. Sort of. I thought it was someone else though… I know you have to arrest me, but you should know that I was not the one who planned it. I was just the stupid idiot who went along with it.”

“Don’t call yourself stupid. Or an idiot. You had a lapse in judgment. You were manipulated. You did something wrong, but you’re owning up to it,” Carrie said. 

“She’s not wrong,” detective Brown said reluctantly. “Ms. Harper explained almost everything to us. She told us that she discovered you only went along with it because you were manipulated. The only thing she wouldn’t tell us was who the so-called ‘boss’ is. Would you tell us?”

“Um, it was my best friend. He was only doing it because he was protecting his dad.”

“Okay, but who was it? We’ll ask him about motivation when we catch him.”

“If i tell you, can you maybe not tell him that I was the one who ratted him out?” when detective Brown nodded, Danny said “okay. Um, it was Xander Quinn. He’s probably at the hospital with his family right now. His dad is really sick, and he’s trying to spend as much time with him as he can.”

“Thank you. And since you admitted all this pretty much willingly, I'll put in a good word with the judge and see if your prison sentence can be reduced.”

“Thank you, but I think I deserve to be there longer since I did it willingly.”

“I’ll still try. I think you still deserve to go to prison, but I also think you deserve some leeway, since you were manipulated by a psychopath. At least that’s what the profiler said when he did a profile on the murderer of Paul Floress. He also did the profile on the arsonist, and he said you were just misguided, and you felt bad about doing it, even as you did it. The way you placed the can or something like that, I don’t know, I don't understand psychology.”

“Okay, thank you.”

Carrie hugged her brother and told him she forgave him, and then detective Brown arrested him.