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The four divided and searched in different directions. Mike stepped over boards, split timber and thousands of pieces he could only assume were bits of the walls and flooring. He’d been on a few scenes where a house had exploded from a leak in a gas line. This scene resembled the same destruction. No ordinary flame or procedures of a controlled burn could do this damage. The only thing that could rip the guts out of a building and leave this kind of wreckage would be a gas line, some source of fuel, or a substance charge.
Forty yards away, a mound of ruins lay where the house had been. From there to where Mike stood, fragments of wood, pipe, and glass were strewn across the ground. Bits of frames that had once been windows were the only recognizable items. Nothing was left of the walls or main structure. The old house had more than likely existed of wood and not much more. Four by four posts and a few pillars were detectable—bits of a tin roof, everything else lay in shambles or hung in the trees.
He made his way through the ruins. Singed wood everywhere—some black, some clear as though not burned at all. More evidence. The blast had shattered the structure and sent pieces soaring before it could catch fire.
Again, Mike saw Ryan, airborne, jetting in slow motion. Black smoke swallowing his body. Mike shook his head to clear the image.
He strode forward, moving a few pieces here and there with the toe of his boot. A far different scene than the one expected at the end of a training exercise. An answer needed to be found. An explanation, so this could never happen again.
After an hour of drifting in and out of the tree line and poking through the rubble, Mike was ready to give up.
“Hey! Over here!” Laredo stood at the section where Ryan had thrown the torch.
“You find something?”
“I’m not sure,” he answered Jared. “Look at that.”
“What did you find?” Cooper hurried over and stopped next to Mike.
“I don’t see anything.”
“Study this spot right here for a minute. It doesn’t look right.”
Hell, there was nothing there. Mike studied the ground and the burnt cinder blocks.
Wait a minute.
“Something has been moved.” Jared took a step closer. “See here? Something was here and now it’s gone.”
Laredo nodded his head. “Yep. That’s what I think.”
“What do you figure it was?”
“No idea. But all these boot prints were after the fire was put out. Look at this. It’s a different color. Heat got here but no flames.”
“Hooley,” Mike said. “Hooley must have found whatever and took it for his investigation.”
“That means he found something,” Jared said.
“Something important,” Cooper agreed.
“Which means this was no accident.”
“We don’t know that,” Mike quickly interjected.
“He took it. It’s essential.”
“Maybe.”
“There’s no maybe to it, Mike. You know that explosion was no accident.”
“Calm down, Coop. We can’t play guessing games. That’s why we have investigators.”
Cooper mumbled, but Mike couldn’t distinguish what he said. He wasn’t meant to hear anyway, so he ignored it.
“The rest of you find anything?”
“Not a damn thing,” Jared grumbled.
