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Truth Tellers begins at Part One HERE.
Previous episode Part Thirty-Six is HERE.

Part Thirty-Seven

Finney pulled up in the driveway and let out a sigh as he set the transmission in Park.  For once, he felt like a weight had been taken off his shoulders and he could relax this evening.  Taking out his house key, he then opened the door and stepped inside.

As he closed the door behind him, it latched with a sound that had a kind of echo behind him.  As he turned around and looked, he was stopped and felt like all of his blood had suddenly drained out of his body.  The whole house was empty.  Everything was gone.

Everything.

The End

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Truth Tellers begins at Part One HERE.
Previous episode Part Thiry-Five is HERE.

Part Thirty-Six

It was getting late in the afternoon and Finbar was ready to wrap things up.  The whole squad was there in the office with him, Dan, Lenny and Charley, and they had that collective feeling that it was just about over.  Once the various lab results confirmed their conclusions, and they sure hoped that they did, then it would be “Case Closed.”

“Let’s see how it looks so far,” Finney said to kick it off.  “I’ll go down the list and we’ll see if anything sounds amiss.” 

Looking around, he continued, “Ok, Tony’s fire started from chlorine crystals falling into a Vaseline jar.  When his nephew Willy saw the smoke coming from the kitchen, he jumped up from his whittling and ran in to see what was happening, stumbled and most likely fell on his own knife.  He was still there when the fire got him.  Same page so far?”

Everybody nodded and he continued, “Meanwhile, Joey was just a couple blocks away flirting with his girlfriend, the Waffle House waitress, and had no idea what was going on.  Now just by coincidence, the next day some hungry mouse in Tony’s pawnshop shorts out an extension cord and starts a small fire there.  While the mouse ate the wire, Mousey was unaware.”  They all groaned at that one, but Finney pressed on.

“It looks like we have an unfortunate set of circumstances, but no murder and no arson.”

“You mean no crimes at all?” Charley piped up.

“That’s right,” Finney responded. 

“What about Alderman Winters?” Len asked.

“No telling what he was up to, but his involvement with Spinoza is a police matter, not ours.  I’m sending them what we observed and be done with it.  Same thing with the burned money.  Tony probaby won’t claim it because it would bring too many new questions.  And don’t feel sorry for him, he’s still a crook.  But we’re done with him.”

“So they were all telling the truth after all?”  Danny added.

“Yep,” Finney answered, “Every one of them.”

And with that, he sent everybody home for the night and started out himself.  “Finally,” he thinks, “I’m going to make it home in time for dinner for a change.”  He wasn’t worried about what Mayrie would be saying this time.

Read the conclusion to Truth Tellers HERE.

Truth Tellers begins at Part One HERE.
Previous episode Part Thirty-Four is HERE.

Part Thirty-Five

“So how does an empty Vaseline jar stuffed with money start a fire?” Finney asked.

“Well, you see there was no lid on the jar,” Danny answered, “I looked all over for one, nothing.  Even though everthing’s burned up in the cabinet, I found some bits of a container that held a cleaning powder that has chlorine bits in it.  I’m surmising, for lack of any other indicators, that whoever was using the cleaner spilled part of it when they set it on the shelf and a couple of the chlorine bits fell below into the money jar. 

“Apparently, one or some of the bits ended up against the inner part of the Vaseline jar where they became stuck against the thin layer of Vaseline that lines it.”

“You mean an exothermic reaction,” Finney blurted out, almost reactively.

“That’s it,” Danny said, “It’s a slow starter anyway, and with this tiny amount it could have been hours before the heat built up enough to ignite the money, burn the oily jar, and then spread through the cabinet.  For the want of a lid, the house was lost.”

Read Part Thirty-Six HERE.

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Truth Tellers begins at Part One HERE.
Previous episode Part Thirty-Three is HERE.

Part Thirty-Four

Capt. Finbar Lonnigan parked again in the driveway of Antony Spinoza”s burned-out house, then walked around to the back door.  Stepping inside, he found Danny still digging and bagging debris piles in what was left of the kitchen cabinets.

“Hey, Finney… c’mere and take a look at this,” Dan said as he held up an evidence bag.  Inside the gallon-bag was some sort of black, gooey mess that had solidified and what looked like paper ashes.

“What I’ve got in here is what looks to be a huge wad of $100 bills.  I can only estimate, but it looks  way more than a hundred of ‘em.”

“That makes sense,” Finney replied.  “The guy is a loan shark so you woule expect him to have some stashes around the house.  What’s that hard plastic-lookin’ stuff, though?”

“That’s what make it really interesting,” Danny replied.  “It what led to starting the fire.  He kept his dough in a big, emptied-out Vaseline jar and put it in the wrong cabinet.”

Watch for Part Thirty-Five here tomrrow.

Truth Tellers begins at Part One HERE.
Previous episode Part Thirty-Two is HERE.

Part Thirty-Three

“Ok, Danny.  I’ll be over as quick as  I can,” Finney rang off.  Good things it’s a city car that’s getting all this mileage on it today.

“Where’s Mousey, Len?  I know he’s not gonna leave here with us poking around.”

“He’s up front somewhere trying to the place tidied up so he can open up.”

Finbar walked up to the front of the shop and found Mousey working a mop.  “Hey, Mousey.  Where’s Joey gone off to?  I’ve got a couple of questions for him.”

“Same place he’s at every afternoon and evening.  The Waffle Shop, spoonin’ with his girl friend.”

Finney put on a scowl and headed back out the rear door.  “At least it’s not far from Spinoza’s,” he muttered to himself as he set off in the car again.

Read Part Thirty-Four HERE.

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Truth Tellers begins at Part One HERE.
Previous episode Part Thirty-One is HERE.

Part Thirty-Two

Finbar got up from his desk again and started out to get in the car, deciding to go back to the pawnshop and see if Len can get things wrapped up there ok.  While he’s there, he thinks to himself, maybe he can chat up Mousey a little more.  Finney’s still not real comfortable with Joey’s dancing around town.

After he parked in the alley out back, Finney walked in through the back door to where Lenny was still canning samples to take back with him.

“How’s it going, Len?”

“Oh,  great.   I wish all of them were this easy,” he answered with a look of satisfaction on his face.

Just then, Finney’s phone rang.  Danny again.

“I think I found it, Boss….what started it.  And you’re not going to believe it!”

Read Part Thirty-Three HERE.

Truth Tellers begins at Part One HERE.
Previous episode Part Thirty is HERE.

Part Thirty-One

Capt. Finbar Lonnigan started to feel for the first time that progress was being made in this mudpit of a case.  The pawnshop fire seemed to be clearing up and the burned body at Antony Spinoza’s house was probably identified.  He’d know in a couple of days after the DNA comparisons were processed.

Danny was making some headway at Spinoza’s house, locating the area where it started, but the cause was elusive.  Charley was still in the office, doing his computer stuff.  So Finney spoke up, “Hey Charley…..zip on over to give Danny a hand, would you?  I wanna get this cause-of-fire wrapped up quick.”

“Sure, Cap.”  Charley got up and started out the door.

“Gosh,” Finney thought to himself, “I might even make it home for dinner on time tonight.”

Feeling confident, he picked up the phone and called Mayrie.  He let it ring 10 or 12 times….no answer.

Read Part Thirty-Two HERE.

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Truth Tellers begins at Part One HERE.
Previous episode Part Twenty-Nine is HERE.

Part Thirty

Finney thought about what he’ll do next.  Spinoza was on his way to the lab to be swabbed for his DNA and he appeared to be genuinely upset.  Doc Gimble was going to see if Finney’s theory about the boy falling on his knife was bonafide.  So he decided to see how Len Cousey was getting along at the pawnshop.  Picking up the phone, Finbar dialed Len’s number.

“Hey, Len…it’s me.  Just checking to see how it’s going for you down there.”

“You called at a good time, Cap.  I just found the cause of this little blaze.”

“Oh, good, Lenny.  Let’s hear it.”

“Well, under the ash and melted dvd’s I found a mouse…..with it’s teeth welded to an extension cord.  I can promise you that late lunch is what started this one.”

Watch for Part Thirty-One here tomorrow.

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Truth Tellers begins at Part One HERE.
Previous episode Part Twenty-Eight is HERE.

Part Twenty-Nine

Capt. Finbar Lonnigan sat back to let it all soak in.  After getting a few more details from Antony Spinoza, he easily got him to agree to stop by the police lab and let them take a DNA sample to confirm the victim’s identity.

“This isn’t quite turning out the way we thought,” Finney said to himself.  Why would anybody want to kill the kid?

And then he got an idea.  Picking up the phone, he called the forensics lab.  “Is Doc Gimble there?  Tell him it’s Finney Lonnigan.”

“Hold on, I’ll find him for you.”  And then a wait of about two or three minutes before the phone came alive again.

“Gimble here.  Izzat you Finney?  Whatcha’ need?”

“Doc, answer me this, if you can.  Could our teenager have been running with the knife in his hand, and then fallen down and accidently landed on the blade?”

“Good point, Finney.  Outwardly it’s very possible, but I’ll have to check the body and the cutting angles to be sure.  I’ll call you back in a couple of hours.”

Read Part Thirty HERE.

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