A BURNING ISSUE

As the fire was finally brought under control, two firemen donned their protective suits, loaded their air tanks on their backs and pulled their masks over their faces. They charged into the smoke-filled house with large CO2 extinguishers, carefully feeling their way along the wall toward the bedroom. They stepped ahead cautiously to avoid any sudden cave-in of the floor, toppling of walls, or a collapsing roof.

Once inside they quickly surveyed the smoldering room. As the smoke cleared, they spotted a charred body on the burned out bed.

“Hey Chief, there’s a body on the bed!” one yelled.

Chief Stoker summoned Sheriff Jeff Copper who was busy directing traffic around the fire scene. Both men entered the house and made their way to the bedroom. They bent over the body on the bed. “It’s too badly burned to tell who it is,” Stoker noted. “Looks like a male, might be Mike. We better call Doc. Locum!”

The sheriff and fire chief made a good pair. Both middle aged, both were tall with muscular bodies. Copper was a cigar-smoking chap, and usually had one in his mouth, whether it was lit or not. Graying at the temples, his hair

was a tangled mass, but it was usually covered with the old gray felt hat he wore. Sweat and oil from his hair had worked its way through the crown just above the brim and this familiar stain became as much his trademark as the hat and the cigar. A pair of shinny handcuffs dangled from his belt loop and he sported a highly polished silver star pinned just above his left shirt pocket.

These two public servants were actually a study in contrast, though. Stoker carried a pipe in his mouth. A lot of the time it wasn’t even lit. Mostly because he smoked up the tobacco and just keep the pipe stem between his teeth. Once in a while, when he was under a little stress from his job or whatever, he would take out a plug of ‘chawin’ tobaccer’ and bite off a chunk. Then he would chew for hours on it, spitting at appropriate intervals, and letting the rest drool down his chin.

John Locum, M.D., was a local physician and the part-time coroner. When he was notified of the body discovered in the fire, he directed that the charred remains be taken to the Knell and Sons Funeral Parlor for autopsy. He then filed an order with the court, as coroner, to authorize the autopsy. With the assistance of Galen Tenens, a young med student home for the summer, Locum would perform the examination of the victim.

Sheriff Copper and Chief Stoker were making a cursory inspection of the burned out bedroom. They both noticed a faint odor in the air. They meticulously studied the burn patterns, first on the floor, then the bed, the walls and ceiling. Copper was suspicious that this fire might have been deliberately set, so he cordoned off the area as a crime scene.

“We’d better call in the State Fire Marshall on this one,” Stoker said. “I suspect there may be some foul play involved here.”

“Right, John. I’ll call the State Crime Lab. We don’t want to take any chances with this one. Could be some real trouble here before it’s all settled.”