"He used to tell me bedtime stories.  'Don't go down to Monett or Pierce City.  They'll get you there.'  Friends would visit when I was a kid, trade warnings about what towns it wasn't safe to drive through.  Stories like that as a kid, I didn't need the boogey man."  Hayes leaned forward and stared at Bryan.  "So, yes, I do know it's a racial cleansing."

"You've been working the case.  Without telling the D.A." Bryan said.

"Of course I have.  It's my job.  If they'd succeeded last night, in burning that whole block, it wouldn't have just destroyed that neighborhood.  It would have been a lot worse than that."

"How?" Bryan asked.

"This city is already hemorrhaging people, black and white.  That neighborhood is one of the last that's stayed strong.  If it goes down, the whole city will die.  And why do you think they chose here, where whites are a minority?"

The answer was obvious.  Bryan should have realized it earlier.  "Because if they can do it here, they can do it anywhere."

"Exactly," Hayes said.  "What could it trigger?"

"It could spread across the country.  Couldn't it?" he asked.

Hayes nodded back.  "And why now?  Why are there more hate groups now than there were ten years ago?"

It took a moment for Bryan to answer this one, but it wasn't a complicated answer to realize.  "The economy.  When things get tough, people retreat back to their small group.  Get more ethnocentric."

"More racist," Hayes said.  "And if you'd said something to me or to Meyers, we might have been able to stop it last night."

"Meyers?" Bryan asked.

Another nod from Hayes.  "He's been working on it with me.  Quietly.  And he's pissed at you for not telling him."

Bryan looked away.  "I'm sorry."

"You know he comes in here, tells me to put you on the arson team.  Tells me how good you are, still."

That Meyers or anyone in the department might really be sticking up for him hadn't occurred to Bryan.  He'd had no idea.  And he had kept Meyers out of the loop last night.  But what could he have said about William?

A knock on the glass door jolted Bryan from his guilt.

Hayes shouted at the door.  "Yeah?"  Meyers poked his head in, two folders in his hands.  "Speak of the devil," Hayes said as he waved Meyers in.

"The D.A. is here." Meyers said.

Hayes nodded.  "Speak of the real devil."

Meyers held up one of the files to Hayes.  "And there's been another fire.  A bigger one."

All three were silent for a moment.

"Crap," Hayes said.

Bryan stood as Hayes did.  The lieutenant brushed past both detectives to the door.  "You two kiss and make up.  I'm gonna need you both."  Hayes left and Bryan glanced over at Meyers.

He spoke before Meyers could leave.  "Another fire?"

Meyers nodded.  "Looks like the vigilante was there.  There were hostages, he saved them."

"More racial violence?"

No answer from Meyers.

"Hayes told me," Bryan said.

Slowly, Meyers nodded.  "Yeah, and something more.  The older survivors said it looked like they were being used as bait for the vigilante."

"The older ones?" Bryan asked.

"They were all kids.  School age.  Teens and younger.  Kidnapped on their way to school this morning.  No time to even be reported missing."

Bryan took a deep breath.  His hand went to his watch and ran over the face.  More children in fires.  He tried to turn his mind away from it.  "Did...did he get them all out?"  He realized he had nearly said William's name.

Meyers nodded, turned to the door and started out.  Bryan stepped up and stopped him.

"I'm sorry.  I should have brought you in."

"Yeah, you should have," Meyers said, nodding.  He held up a sheet of paper.  "Got the report just now.  No accelerants in your car.  No explanation for the fire." 

There was obviously a question within Meyers' statement, but Bryan didn't have an answer.  He had become sure last night that William hadn't started any fires, but had hoped that someone had dropped something into his car, maybe even that the stuffed animal had been a bomb.   He had hoped he would finally get a simple explanation.  He hadn't.

William had said that morning that there was a real fire starter.  Bryan had held up the foolish hope that he had meant a man who had placed a bomb in his car.  William hadn't meant that at all.  Instead, there was someone else out there like him, whatever that was.

Someone even more dangerous than William, someone who had killed his wife and son.

He tried to put the implications aside.  He could worry about this later.  The important thing was to do what he could to protect Jess right now, and that meant getting help.

For the last two years, Meyers had been supporting him.  If there was anyone Bryan could talk to about what was going on, anyone who might help him, it was this man.  "We trust each other, right?"

Meyers chuckled.  "When you're not being a moron."

From the squad room, Bryan heard the boom of Hayes' voice.  "Huddle up!"

"You have any time, after this?" he asked Meyers.

"I'd leave now if Hayes'd let us."

Bryan nodded back.  "Then I've got a lot to tell you.  And I need your help."

*

(Author’s note:  Bryan sees Hayes and instead of being fired or sent to the department psychologist, he gets pulled into the investigation?  But what will Bryan figure out?  What will District Attorney Giles have to say?  And…what are Jared’s plans for Harold and how do they involve Jess?  Read on to find out the answers to these questions and more!

p.s.  I have one favor to ask…if you could take one moment to post a quick review of Schism on Amazon, that would be very much appreciated!  Just something short, sweet and glowing (with lots of stars on the side if you can!) would really help out a lot.  Thank you!)