“See, that wasn’t so bad. Five minutes and it’s over,” Knock Knock said as they stepped out the door and onto the sidewalk. “So it’s over and we can put that behind us.”
“What now?” Holly asked.
“Now, you keep showing up for work. Early morning. And you keep training. Only now, if there is a call, you’re coming with us.” Knock Knock pulled out his pocketwatch from his jacket pocket, flipped it open, and had a look at it. “You know what, you’re going to get a crash course today. We’re not far from one of my investigations. Come with me, Holly, and let’s see if you got any brains between those perky little ears.”
Smiling, Holly could feel the cold air blowing over her hot cheeks. A light snow was falling now, the high winds had brought in a squall from the ocean. The flakes were dusting Knock Knock’s mustache.
“You’s a smart gal, I bet you’ll be more than some dumb hose or axe jockey. Follow me Holly, and show me what you are made of,” Knock Knock said as he took off, leaning forward into the wind, and tucking his watch back into his jacket pocket.
Laughing, Holly followed after the unicorn that was now, officially, her boss.
The brownstone building was burnt black. It was a short, squat structure, only three stories tall, rather wide, and had bright yellow caution tape all around the front. Beside the brownstone, there was a garage for a wagon, an almost unheard of luxury in the city, where space was at a premium. Most of the windows were broken.
Knock Knock ignored the yellow caution tape, ducking his head and going right under it, and then he made his way up the stairs, almost slipping only once. He stood in front of the door, watching as Holly also ducked under the yellow caution tape and made her way up the icy stairs. She did not slip coming up the steps and Knock Knock admired her steady hooves.
“I’ve only been here once, for a bit of a precursory look around, back when I picked up the key from the insurance agent. Watch out, this place is a mess and there is a lot of broken glass,” Knock Knock said.
Holly nodded and then looked at the front door. It had been smashed open and was now held shut by a padlock that had been bolted into place. She watched as Knock Knock inserted the key, turned it, and popped the lock open. He slid it free from the clasp, unhooked the clasp, and then pushed the door open.
“Lesson starts now. Holly, tell me what you see. Just have a look around, and tell me what you see.” Knock Knock made a gesture for Holly to go inside.
Holly stepped through the door, smelling smoke. The front room was burnt. She stood in the entranceway, looking around, trying to figure out what she was supposed to be looking at. The skeletal remains of furniture filled the room, there wasn’t much left of anything. The floor, covered in a carpet, was burned. The worst of the burn was in the middle of the room, the outer edges of the carpet wasn’t as damaged. Lifting her head, Holly looked up. The ceiling was burned; so much so that there was a gaping hole.
“How odd, the fire burned the middle of the room,” Holly said.
“Keep looking.”
There were paintings on the wall, the remains of paintings. The paint was blistered and the frames burnt. It seemed odd that the paintings even survived at all. Holly would have thought that the paintings would have burned away completely.
There was very little glass in this room, but every single window was broken. Feeling puzzled, Holly continued to look around, trying to figure out what it was that she was seeing. She began checking the floor again, studying the carpet. In the center of the room was a charred black mass.
“Carpet looks funny,” Holly said.
“You bet your ass it does,” Knock Knock replied. “Look over there, in that corner.”
Turning her head in the direction that Knock Knock had pointed, Holly noticed a long black streak leading to the charred mass in the middle. It didn’t make sense. Why had the fire burned in such an odd way?
“That don’t look right.” Holly shook her head.
“I’d bet bits to donuts that the fire started right there. Somepony flooded the middle of the room with accelerant of some kind, and then poured a little in that direction towards the corner. They lit the fire and then got out,” Knock Knock explained.
“That seems dumb… why the corner? I don’t get it.” Holly turned and awaited a further explanation from Knock Knock.
“We have ourselves a real genius at work here. A line of fire leading right to the front door would have been too obvious. So the ignition point was moved to the corner, cause somepony thought they had some kinda brains. The fire started, hit the big puddle of accelerant in the middle of the room, and exploded.”
“Is that why there is so little glass in the room? All the windows blew outwards?” Holly asked.
“Yeah, that’d be the reason.” Knock Knock scowled. “I hate stupid ponies that think they have some kinda brains. When the firefighters got here, the front door was locked—”
“Did the owner do this and lock up after himself?” Holly asked, her eyes going wide with shock and surprise.
“Not necessarily.” Knock Knock’s eyes narrowed. “There are other ways to unlock and lock a door. Locksmithing tools. Magical keys that change shape and size. Those things are unlikely, because they are as expensive as all get out, but they do exist. And then there are unicorns and magic.”
“If it was a unicorn, why use some flammable liquid and set that on fire? Why not just use magic?” Holly asked.
“A little bit of magic is undetectable. A whole lot of magic leaves behind a signature. That’s a good way to get caught,” Knock Knock replied.
Holly looked around the room once more, taking it all in. So the middle of the room was flooded with some kind of flammable liquid and a thin trail of liquid led off to the corner. It was ignited, the fire burned along the floor, hit the big puddle, exploded, blew out the windows, burned with a high heat that set the ceiling on fire, and then the floors above started burning.
“This room became a suckhole. Lots of air came in through the broken windows. The heat caused the air to rise through the hole in the floor, sucking in more air from the outside, and feeding the fire on the floor above. Everything on the next floor is an utter ruin, but we can’t go up the stairs. Not structurally safe.” Knock Knock watched Holly as she took everything in.
“So this was arson,” Holly said.
“I knew that it was the first time I was here and noticed the burn pattern on the floor,” Knock Knock replied. He smiled. “Follow me out into the garage. We need to go have a look around.”
The garage, unburnt, had no wagon inside. There was a woodworking bench, some shelves, and a large number of paint cans on the shelves. There were also chemical cleaners and solvents. Tools lined the walls and the floor was covered in sawdust.
“I suspect that the accelerant came from here. Many of those chemicals are flammable and become even more so if certain things are mixed together,” Knock Knock said as he gestured at the metal shelves.
“So this arsonist, he cases the joint, has a look around, doesn’t want to look suspicious as he’s doing what he’s doing, so he uses whatever is available to him to get the job done?” Holly looked around the garage and then walked over to the shelves.
“That’s the long and the short of it,” Knock Knock replied.
“I guess that brings us to the next question… why…” Holly began to peer around the shelves, poking her head between paint cans.
“The house was insured for a lot of money. That’s the obvious one. The owners happened to be out of town and on vacation in some place warmer, so that can look pretty suspicious right there. They have a good alibi. This whole neighborhood is being eyed for ‘revitalisation’ by the city, it is close to the city center and plenty of wealthy real estate types want to buy these houses. A number of them have already been sold. They want to build more high rises here, pack in more ponies, get more rent money, make a fortune. The owners did turn down a very generous offer on their home, so there is plenty of suspicion there as well. Some shady real estate types have been behind arson in the past. This one is going to be a big mess, I can feel it. It’s almost perfect. It’s an obvious arson that almost anypony can see right away, either some idiot was hired or somepony didn’t want to hide it, so they could send a message. Hard to tell. The suspicion goes in all directions, and I has this feeling in my bones that this case ain’t gonna be solved no time soon.”
“Sounds like we can’t win. The management has left the heels in charge.” Holly lifted her head to look on a higher shelf and noticed there was something missing. “Hey, Knock Knock, there is a rusty circle here on the metal shelf. Something was just sitting here… ain’t no dust right here, but there is dust all around it. Looks like somepony picked up a can of something and took off.”
Moving at a swift trot, Knock Knock went to Holly’s side, stretched out his neck, and had a look. There had been a can here recently, something large, rectangular, like a jerry can. The rust was visible, and inside the rust, there was a clean spot on the shelf. All around it was thick, heavy dust.
“Probably a big two and a half gallon cannister of turpentine,” Knock Knock muttered more to himself than to Holly. “Makes sense, highly flammable, explosive, burns hot as the blazes.” Knock looked at the paint and the rest of the woodworking supplies. “Might have been some kinda varnish too.”
“Where did the can go?” Holly asked.
“That… that…” Knock Knock looked Holly in the eye. “That is a damn good question. I didn’t see anything in the living room, and walking away with something like that would have been suspicious. It wasn’t put back in the garage, so let’s go have a look around, shall we?”
Beaming, Holly felt a growing sense of pride. Not only was she pretty, but Holly felt that she was a bit smarter than average. “Let’s go have that look around.”
As Knock Knock checked the shrubbery around the house, Holly checked the window wells that allowed light to shine into the basement. She had checked several and had seen nothing, nothing at all. She moved around the house, going from window well to window well, finding only some snow and old, dead, half rotten leaves.
She paused, lifted her head, and had a look around, trying to think of hiding places that weren’t so obvious. She had already peeked inside of the trash can. It was half full. She watched as Knock Knock almost slipped and fell on some ice. She choked back her giggles and kept looking, moving towards the front of the house.
Standing on the front sidewalk, Holly looked at the brick fence that existed on each side of the property. Her hoof kicked the metal lid covering the storm drain below. Holly froze, had an idea, and stepped off the sidewalk and onto the street. There was a big opening here, a gap between the sidewalk and the street that opened into the storm drain. It was a large opening, large enough to allow leaves and water to drain away from the streets and not get clogged.
Not caring about a little dirt, Holly kneeled down in the street, and with a great deal of caution, she stuck her head into the storm drain opening, a real tight fit. She looked around, trying to see if she saw anything. She saw the glint of metal in the faint light.
Pulling her head out, Holly regained her hooves, gave herself a shake to remove snow as well as old leaves, and then gave Knock Knock a holler. “Hey, there’s something metal down here in the storm drain!”
Hearing Holly’s words, Knock Knock came over in a hurry, almost slipping, and he let out a string of expletives so foul that Holly remained silent for a good ten seconds before exploding into laughter. More snow was falling now, large white flakes, and Knock Knock peered down into the drain.
His horn flared with light and a second later, a large rectangular metal can that had been stomped flat was lifted out of the drain. He set it down upon the sidewalk to have a look. It was a turpentine can. His gaze lifted and focused on Holly.
“Good work… at least we know what caused it. Nice job, Holly.”