Firebug, Chapter 2/7
Firebug 2
Title: Firebug
Characters: Ryan, Sandy, Kirsten, Seth and other season 1 characters
Timeframe: mid season 1
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to The O.C.. Not for profit.
Description: There is a fire at Harbor. Arson. Guess who is the prime suspect?
Author’s Note: Much thanks to my new beta fredsmith518 for all of her valuable input.
(Click on the "firebug" tag to see all chapters.)
Chapter 2
An hour later, Ryan was still lying on the pool house bed, staring at the ceiling, worrying about what might happen. He wasn’t too worried about the police. He didn’t start the fire, so he didn’t see how they could have any evidence against him to prove otherwise. Although he didn’t even want to think about the possibility that someone might be trying to frame him.
Harbor, though, was another matter. He knew that he was never wanted at the private prep school. Dr. Kim and the school board, and in particular the parents, never wanted him to get in. Especially that woman who was the head of the parents’ group. What was her name? Veronica something? God, what a bitch. He was sure that they were just waiting for an excuse to get rid of him. And if they tried to blame him for this...
Ryan sighed. He knew that he had gotten lucky after the whole Oliver thing not to get expelled. He figured that the board was just so embarrassed that they had let a psycho like Oliver into the school, that they just wanted to sweep the whole thing under the rug. Expelling him might have attracted attention, so that’s why they let him stay. This time, he would have no such safety net.
Ryan was relieved when Sandy finally came out to the pool house. Maybe now he’d get some answers.
“Hey, kid, got a minute?”
“Sure.” Ryan moved over to sit on the side of the bed.
Sandy sighed as he sat in the chair at the end of the bed. He had a pad of paper and a pen with him. Ryan couldn’t see the paper very well, but it looked like it had notes written on it.
“So. I called my contacts in the police department and the D.A.’s office.” Sandy gave Ryan a wry smile. “Let me tell you, Ryan, it is nice to have friends in the right places.”
Ryan gave Sandy a little smile back.
Sandy got serious again. “Okay, so, here’s the situation. The fire did start a little before 5:30, and according to the fire department, it was definitely set by someone intentionally.” Sandy checked his notes. “It looks like this someone went into the chemistry lab and broke into a cabinet that held various chemicals. They took a couple jugs of flammable liquids. From there, they went into a teacher’s office and apparently splashed the chemicals around and set them on fire.”
Ryan raised his eyebrows. “Wow.”
“Yeah, wow. Luckily, the school has a good smoke detector and sprinkler system, so it kept the fire from spreading too far. And the fire department was called automatically and they were there within minutes. They were able to get the fire out before it spread out of that office.”
Ryan nodded thoughtfully. “Well, that’s good anyway.”
“Uh-huh.”
Sandy cleared his throat and looked like he was gearing up to tell Ryan the rest. Ryan waited for the other shoe to drop.
Finally Sandy spoke. “Okay, Ryan, here’s the problem.”
Here we go, Ryan thought.
Sandy cleared his throat again. “The teacher whose office was torched was Mr. Schmidt.”
Ryan sat up straighter and blinked his eyes rapidly. “Oh.”
That wasn’t good. Ryan had Mr. Schmidt for pre-calculus. The guy was a jackass. All the kids hated him. He and Ryan had had a few run-ins during the school year.
“Yeah.” Sandy put down the pad of paper and leaned forward. “Look, the police are going to be looking at you anyway because of the model home, because of your arrest for arson -“ Ryan was about to interrupt, but Sandy put up his hand to stop him. “Even though the charges were dropped. And the fact that you’re on probation won’t help matters, either. And now, with this...”
Sandy paused to take a breath and sat back. “I know that you and Mr. Schmidt have clashed -“
Ryan quickly interrupted. “I didn’t do it. I swear. I would never -“
Sandy interrupted just as quickly. “I know that, Ryan. It never crossed my mind that you did it. Believe me. Kirsten and I, we know without a doubt that you would never have done anything like this. I know we’ve had our problems, but we’re behind you one hundred percent on this. Okay?”
Ryan was relieved. He gave Sandy a little smile. “Okay.”
Sandy gave Ryan a tired smile back. “Good. But unfortunately, the police won’t feel the same way. They’re sure to find out that you and Mr. Schmidt have had a few run-ins, and that you had detention yesterday so you were at the school until five o’clock at least, and that you’re taking chemistry this year, too.”
Ryan hung his head and fiddled with his wrist cuff. “It doesn’t look good, does it?” But then he thought of something. He looked up at Sandy. “But wait, what about witnesses? Evidence?”
“The police, right now, are canvassing for witnesses or anybody else that knows anything. Unfortunately, the school doesn’t have security cameras, so there’s no tape. I guess there were lots of fingerprints on the chem lab door and cabinet, and in the parts of Mr. Schmidt’s office that were not burned. They are running them now. Anything that was in the burned area, like fibers or whatever, would have been destroyed.”
Ryan nodded thoughtfully. “You know, my fingerprints are probably -“
“Yeah. I know. But so are a lot of other students’, so that shouldn’t mean anything.”
Ryan nodded.
After a moment, Sandy picked up his pad and pen again. “Okay, right now I need you to tell me everything that happened after you left school and before you got home. Maybe we can find you an alibi for the time of the fire and, if so, then all of these suspicions won’t go anywhere.”
Ryan took a deep breath. “I got out of detention at five -“
“What did you get detention for, again?”
“Um, well, Mr. Schmidt gave it to me.” Sandy looked up at Ryan. His expression indicated that wasn’t good. Ryan quickly explained. “He was yelling at this other kid for no reason and I couldn’t stand it any more, so I told him to knock it off.” Ryan shrugged. “Mr. Schmidt didn’t like that very much and gave us both detention.”
“Okay.” Sandy sighed and made a note on his pad. “So you got out of detention at five and left right away? What, like two or three minutes after the hour?”
“Yeah, probably, something like that. I stopped by my locker before heading out.”
“Did anybody see you leave campus?”
Ryan looked out the window and thought about it. He hadn’t seen where the rest of the kids from detention went. They’d probably left while he was at his locker. Sports practices were also out at five o’clock, but at just a couple minutes past the hour, all the athletes would have been in the locker room, or finishing up practice if it ran late. Although there were other after school activities that might have gotten out at five...
Ryan pictured the campus as he’d walked out of the building and through the parking lot on his way out. “Um... Yeah... There were a few people around. But I don’t think any of them were paying attention to me.”
“Okay.” Sandy nodded and made some more notes. “Well, unfortunately, even if somebody saw you, it wouldn’t really provide you with an alibi anyway, since there would have been plenty of time for you to circle around and come back twenty minutes later.” Sandy looked at Ryan and smiled. “Not that I’m saying that you did that...”
Ryan smiled back. He knew that.
Sandy continued. “So, you walked home... Hold on, you said you got home after six, right? The school is only, what, two miles away? Shouldn’t you have been home sooner than that?”
Ryan shook his head a little. “I didn’t come straight home. I took a little detour.”
Sandy made another note. “Where’d you go?”
“Over to Marissa’s.“
“Oh, good, so Marissa can say where you were?”
“She wasn’t home. Her dad wasn’t, either.”
Sandy frowned. “Did anybody see you during your walk home? I mean, probably people saw you, but anybody that would remember? Did you see anybody you knew? Did you talk to anybody?”
Ryan looked down. He went through his entire walk home in his mind. “No, sorry, nobody.”
“What about the guard at the gate?”
Ryan thought about it. “He was busy. He wasn’t even facing my way. I’m sure he didn’t see me.”
“What about when you got home? I know that Kirsten and I weren’t home yet...”
“I think Seth was here, but I guess he was up in his room or something because I didn’t see him.” Ryan stared out the window for a moment. “In fact, I don’t think I saw or talked to anybody until you came out here to tell me dinner was ready.”
“Which was about 6:30.” Sandy sighed and made a few notes. “So basically nobody saw you between 5:00 and 6:30?”
“I guess not.” Ryan looked at Sandy, worried. “Is that bad?”
“No, not bad.” Sandy sighed. “It’s just... it would have helped if you had an alibi, that’s all. They’d still need to have hard evidence against you to arrest and charge you, which they shouldn’t be able to get since you didn’t do anything.”
Ryan looked down and nodded. Crap, why did he have to decide to walk home? If only...
Sandy finished making his notes. “Okay, well, the police will certainly want to talk to you as soon as possible. Remember, don’t answer any questions without me present. If they come to you and want to talk, tell them you want a lawyer, and then they can’t ask you anything until I’m there. Got it?”
“Yeah, okay, got it.”
“Okay.” Sandy stood up. “Well, I have a few more calls to make. Oh, yeah, also, I’m going to call your probation officer to let him know what’s going on before the police call him. I’ll make sure to let him know that you didn’t do anything. Hopefully this will all blow over without any problems with your probation, which there shouldn’t be since you didn’t do anything.”
Ryan smiled at Sandy. “Okay, thanks.”
Sandy smiled back, then nodded to Ryan, and headed back into the main house.
Ryan flopped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling again. He sighed. Apparently he was a little hasty in dismissing any possible problems with the police. The possibility of getting expelled from Harbor didn’t seem so important, now...
To Be Continued
Title: Firebug
Characters: Ryan, Sandy, Kirsten, Seth and other season 1 characters
Timeframe: mid season 1
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to The O.C.. Not for profit.
Description: There is a fire at Harbor. Arson. Guess who is the prime suspect?
Author’s Note: Much thanks to my new beta fredsmith518 for all of her valuable input.
(Click on the "firebug" tag to see all chapters.)
Chapter 2
An hour later, Ryan was still lying on the pool house bed, staring at the ceiling, worrying about what might happen. He wasn’t too worried about the police. He didn’t start the fire, so he didn’t see how they could have any evidence against him to prove otherwise. Although he didn’t even want to think about the possibility that someone might be trying to frame him.
Harbor, though, was another matter. He knew that he was never wanted at the private prep school. Dr. Kim and the school board, and in particular the parents, never wanted him to get in. Especially that woman who was the head of the parents’ group. What was her name? Veronica something? God, what a bitch. He was sure that they were just waiting for an excuse to get rid of him. And if they tried to blame him for this...
Ryan sighed. He knew that he had gotten lucky after the whole Oliver thing not to get expelled. He figured that the board was just so embarrassed that they had let a psycho like Oliver into the school, that they just wanted to sweep the whole thing under the rug. Expelling him might have attracted attention, so that’s why they let him stay. This time, he would have no such safety net.
Ryan was relieved when Sandy finally came out to the pool house. Maybe now he’d get some answers.
“Hey, kid, got a minute?”
“Sure.” Ryan moved over to sit on the side of the bed.
Sandy sighed as he sat in the chair at the end of the bed. He had a pad of paper and a pen with him. Ryan couldn’t see the paper very well, but it looked like it had notes written on it.
“So. I called my contacts in the police department and the D.A.’s office.” Sandy gave Ryan a wry smile. “Let me tell you, Ryan, it is nice to have friends in the right places.”
Ryan gave Sandy a little smile back.
Sandy got serious again. “Okay, so, here’s the situation. The fire did start a little before 5:30, and according to the fire department, it was definitely set by someone intentionally.” Sandy checked his notes. “It looks like this someone went into the chemistry lab and broke into a cabinet that held various chemicals. They took a couple jugs of flammable liquids. From there, they went into a teacher’s office and apparently splashed the chemicals around and set them on fire.”
Ryan raised his eyebrows. “Wow.”
“Yeah, wow. Luckily, the school has a good smoke detector and sprinkler system, so it kept the fire from spreading too far. And the fire department was called automatically and they were there within minutes. They were able to get the fire out before it spread out of that office.”
Ryan nodded thoughtfully. “Well, that’s good anyway.”
“Uh-huh.”
Sandy cleared his throat and looked like he was gearing up to tell Ryan the rest. Ryan waited for the other shoe to drop.
Finally Sandy spoke. “Okay, Ryan, here’s the problem.”
Here we go, Ryan thought.
Sandy cleared his throat again. “The teacher whose office was torched was Mr. Schmidt.”
Ryan sat up straighter and blinked his eyes rapidly. “Oh.”
That wasn’t good. Ryan had Mr. Schmidt for pre-calculus. The guy was a jackass. All the kids hated him. He and Ryan had had a few run-ins during the school year.
“Yeah.” Sandy put down the pad of paper and leaned forward. “Look, the police are going to be looking at you anyway because of the model home, because of your arrest for arson -“ Ryan was about to interrupt, but Sandy put up his hand to stop him. “Even though the charges were dropped. And the fact that you’re on probation won’t help matters, either. And now, with this...”
Sandy paused to take a breath and sat back. “I know that you and Mr. Schmidt have clashed -“
Ryan quickly interrupted. “I didn’t do it. I swear. I would never -“
Sandy interrupted just as quickly. “I know that, Ryan. It never crossed my mind that you did it. Believe me. Kirsten and I, we know without a doubt that you would never have done anything like this. I know we’ve had our problems, but we’re behind you one hundred percent on this. Okay?”
Ryan was relieved. He gave Sandy a little smile. “Okay.”
Sandy gave Ryan a tired smile back. “Good. But unfortunately, the police won’t feel the same way. They’re sure to find out that you and Mr. Schmidt have had a few run-ins, and that you had detention yesterday so you were at the school until five o’clock at least, and that you’re taking chemistry this year, too.”
Ryan hung his head and fiddled with his wrist cuff. “It doesn’t look good, does it?” But then he thought of something. He looked up at Sandy. “But wait, what about witnesses? Evidence?”
“The police, right now, are canvassing for witnesses or anybody else that knows anything. Unfortunately, the school doesn’t have security cameras, so there’s no tape. I guess there were lots of fingerprints on the chem lab door and cabinet, and in the parts of Mr. Schmidt’s office that were not burned. They are running them now. Anything that was in the burned area, like fibers or whatever, would have been destroyed.”
Ryan nodded thoughtfully. “You know, my fingerprints are probably -“
“Yeah. I know. But so are a lot of other students’, so that shouldn’t mean anything.”
Ryan nodded.
After a moment, Sandy picked up his pad and pen again. “Okay, right now I need you to tell me everything that happened after you left school and before you got home. Maybe we can find you an alibi for the time of the fire and, if so, then all of these suspicions won’t go anywhere.”
Ryan took a deep breath. “I got out of detention at five -“
“What did you get detention for, again?”
“Um, well, Mr. Schmidt gave it to me.” Sandy looked up at Ryan. His expression indicated that wasn’t good. Ryan quickly explained. “He was yelling at this other kid for no reason and I couldn’t stand it any more, so I told him to knock it off.” Ryan shrugged. “Mr. Schmidt didn’t like that very much and gave us both detention.”
“Okay.” Sandy sighed and made a note on his pad. “So you got out of detention at five and left right away? What, like two or three minutes after the hour?”
“Yeah, probably, something like that. I stopped by my locker before heading out.”
“Did anybody see you leave campus?”
Ryan looked out the window and thought about it. He hadn’t seen where the rest of the kids from detention went. They’d probably left while he was at his locker. Sports practices were also out at five o’clock, but at just a couple minutes past the hour, all the athletes would have been in the locker room, or finishing up practice if it ran late. Although there were other after school activities that might have gotten out at five...
Ryan pictured the campus as he’d walked out of the building and through the parking lot on his way out. “Um... Yeah... There were a few people around. But I don’t think any of them were paying attention to me.”
“Okay.” Sandy nodded and made some more notes. “Well, unfortunately, even if somebody saw you, it wouldn’t really provide you with an alibi anyway, since there would have been plenty of time for you to circle around and come back twenty minutes later.” Sandy looked at Ryan and smiled. “Not that I’m saying that you did that...”
Ryan smiled back. He knew that.
Sandy continued. “So, you walked home... Hold on, you said you got home after six, right? The school is only, what, two miles away? Shouldn’t you have been home sooner than that?”
Ryan shook his head a little. “I didn’t come straight home. I took a little detour.”
Sandy made another note. “Where’d you go?”
“Over to Marissa’s.“
“Oh, good, so Marissa can say where you were?”
“She wasn’t home. Her dad wasn’t, either.”
Sandy frowned. “Did anybody see you during your walk home? I mean, probably people saw you, but anybody that would remember? Did you see anybody you knew? Did you talk to anybody?”
Ryan looked down. He went through his entire walk home in his mind. “No, sorry, nobody.”
“What about the guard at the gate?”
Ryan thought about it. “He was busy. He wasn’t even facing my way. I’m sure he didn’t see me.”
“What about when you got home? I know that Kirsten and I weren’t home yet...”
“I think Seth was here, but I guess he was up in his room or something because I didn’t see him.” Ryan stared out the window for a moment. “In fact, I don’t think I saw or talked to anybody until you came out here to tell me dinner was ready.”
“Which was about 6:30.” Sandy sighed and made a few notes. “So basically nobody saw you between 5:00 and 6:30?”
“I guess not.” Ryan looked at Sandy, worried. “Is that bad?”
“No, not bad.” Sandy sighed. “It’s just... it would have helped if you had an alibi, that’s all. They’d still need to have hard evidence against you to arrest and charge you, which they shouldn’t be able to get since you didn’t do anything.”
Ryan looked down and nodded. Crap, why did he have to decide to walk home? If only...
Sandy finished making his notes. “Okay, well, the police will certainly want to talk to you as soon as possible. Remember, don’t answer any questions without me present. If they come to you and want to talk, tell them you want a lawyer, and then they can’t ask you anything until I’m there. Got it?”
“Yeah, okay, got it.”
“Okay.” Sandy stood up. “Well, I have a few more calls to make. Oh, yeah, also, I’m going to call your probation officer to let him know what’s going on before the police call him. I’ll make sure to let him know that you didn’t do anything. Hopefully this will all blow over without any problems with your probation, which there shouldn’t be since you didn’t do anything.”
Ryan smiled at Sandy. “Okay, thanks.”
Sandy smiled back, then nodded to Ryan, and headed back into the main house.
Ryan flopped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling again. He sighed. Apparently he was a little hasty in dismissing any possible problems with the police. The possibility of getting expelled from Harbor didn’t seem so important, now...
To Be Continued