“What’s going on?” Rayna groggily asked, grabbing my lower back. I paused, trying to process what just happened.
“Supposedly a fire at one of my properties. I’m going to check it out.”
She gasped, “What? Oh, my god!”
I turned to her, patting her leg, “Go back to sleep, I’ll be back as soon as I get a handle on it.”
Rayna starts making her way out of the bed, causing Azna to jump from the edge to the center of the mattress. “No, this is awful. I’ll go with you!”
“Rayna, baby, it’s nearly three thirty in the morning. There’s no way I’ll have you out this late. If I need you, I’ll call. Rest,” I demanded.
She recoiled her legs back in the bed, making it clear that she caught on to my adamancy. I kissed her on the head and left for the john. From the bathroom, I called Petey who, in turn, called Kid. They both agreed to reporting there. I was dazed, still adjusting from our return from Tahiti the evening before.
When I pulled up, the firefighters were still out there, hosing down the rear of the house and a couple were walking through the front area, I guess making sure nothing was ignitable or combustible and possibly confirming there were no bodies in there.
The fire was pretty bad, all that seemed to have been left was the frame and my fireproof safes. My breathing hiked and I grabbed my head.
Petey walked up on me, “Shiiiiiiiieet! What the fuck is this?” He wore gray flannels, a hoodie, and his bedroom slippers. His face was still wrinkled from recent sleep.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “This is some bullshit,” I muttered, watching strangers walking all over and through my property.
“Tell Kid and them to get the tools needed to unbolt the safes and take them over to my warehouse down in the Watts. There’s storage space there for them.”
“Mr. Jacobs?” I heard my name being called and turned to find Detective Ames. I recognized his timid voice.
I turned to him and watched as he approached us. He looked at Petey, but we don’t do introductions, so I didn’t even acknowledge him and Ames quickly got the message.
“Errrr...is this your primary residence?”
“No.” I was interested in seeing where his question was leading.
“Do you rent this out to anyone or have someone living here?”
“No.”
He scratched his head contemplatively. Petey and I just watched, giving nothing away. “Errrrr...that was the fire chief that I was just talking to over there and he’s saying that he’ll need a couple of days to come to a full investigation, but he can say with little revelation that this was an act of arson. Some sort of explosive bottles were thrown into the front and rear of the house through the windows. This being said, do you have any idea who would want to harm you or your property?”
“I’ve no clue.”
“Well, here’s the plan. I’m going to let them conclude their investigation before I come in and do mine. In the meantime, I’ll need you to come by the station to answer a few preliminary questions that would help me discover the person or persons responsible for this. Here’s my card. I’ll look forward to your call.”
He handed me his business card. “How long do you think it took for this place to crumble? I’m curious about the level of malevolence here. Could they have been unoccupied kids who knew the house was vacant or do I need to hire a security team?” I asked in jest, but slightly sincere about wanting to know how badly someone wanted me dead.
“Considering the methods taken to burn it down, this is seriously malicious.”
“Indeed,” I nodded. “We’ll be in touch, detective.” He took my pro-offered hand and gave me a brief, but firm shake.
By this time Kid had walked up. Ames took off toward the back of the house and I turned to Petey and Kid. “What’s the streets saying?”
“It’s ya’ rapper boy,” Kid murmured. I knew right away he was referring to D-Struct.