The Investigation Part One

The federal agent, Lorina Dahl, arrives in Barbieville on a sunny Tuesday morning and sets to work immediately.  Her first order of business is a meeting with the mayor, fire chief, police chief, and the county's lead detective on the case.

Detective: I don't understand why the mayor felt the need for help from an outside agency.

Eddie: Might have something to do with the lack of interdepartmental cooperation.  

Detective: I have this handled. 

Lorina:  No, my agency has this handled.  Anyone who refuses to share information will meet federal consequences.  

Detective: Mayor Pike, are you really so insecure that you -- 

Rose-Grace: I nearly lost both the twins, as well as a dear friend, to this arsonist.  You'll have to forgive me a bit of insecurity.  

Detective: Your dear friend?  Albus?  That burn-out?   

Lorina: Ladies, please!  I'm not afraid to pull rank on any of you.

Eddie: Please, pull rank on them.  Pull rank on me.  Whatever it takes to track this pyromaniac down.

Lorina: Thank you, Chief Dean. (checks her computer)  It looks like I have everyone's files now, and I've got Miss Staulbahm waiting outside to be interviewed.  I'll contact you if I need anything more, and I expect to be notified if you learn anything pertaining to this case.

They leave Lorina to talk to Clara.  After the initial introductions, Lorina gets directly to the point. 

Lorina: Did you set these fires?

Clara (annoyed):  I've already told Spiro, no.  The only incident I don't have someone to vouch for me on is the one at the medical center.  All the others, I was in class with about 50 other people.  

Lorina: You've had a contentious history with the victims.  

Clara (rolls her eyes): I've got a history with this whole stupid town.  Me and another girl did a socio-political experiment last fall that people are still holding against me.  Us.  Mostly me, though, because they believed her apology.

Lorina: Yet they have you in protective custody.  Why?

Clara (shrugs): Same reason I've not set fire to anything.

Albus comes home from work to find Lorina waiting for him. She shows her identification.

Lorina: I'm here about the fires.  When I listened Detective Spiro's interviews with you, I noticed there were several times she cut you off when you were trying to make a point. 

Albus: She thinks this old hippie's got nothing upstairs.  (laughs) I didn't do that many drugs in the sixties.

Lorina: Would you mind going over those recordings and telling me what points you were trying to make?  

Albus: Only if we go inside.  I've been on my feet... well, on these crutches... all day.  

Albus: Okay, right here?  She kept saying the charges on the haunted house wall were placed professionally, but they aren't.  A pro would have put them about a foot higher that they were.  

Lorina: You've worked in demolition? 

Albus: Many years ago.  The technology has changed, but laws of physics haven't.   

Lorina:  Interesting.  (She leans across to fast-forward the recording.)  And here, she becomes angry when you say you can't remember?

Albus: I had a flashback to Vietnam and then passed out.  Or maybe it was the other way around.  (chuckles) I suspect she thinks it was an entirely different kind of flashback.

Lorina: Well, as poorly as you hide your weed...  

A few days later, Lorina calls a meeting with Chief Lynch and Detective Spiro.

Lorina: Why is Clara Staulbaum still a suspect?  She has an iron-clad alibi for most of the incidents. 

Detective: She spearheaded KBV, which targeted the same people.

Lynch: So why isn't Becky Weasley a suspect?  She was KBV, too. 

Lorina: You found blond hairs at one of the scenes, but never had it analyzed.  I've taken the liberty of doing that for you.  I've also got my team working on analysis of the video footage from Witch's Cove and the medical center. 

Detective: We have a backlog at our labs.  

Lynch: No wonder you didn't want to share information.  You didn't want us to know you were sitting on your hands while our town burned, one building at a time.

After Lynch and Spiro go, Lorina makes another call to her team.

Lorina: Check the background on the following individuals...