***

Fire trucks, ambulances, and police vehicles were all crowded outside Jones’s office when Smith showed up. Smoke broke through the windows of the building as politicians, aides, and interns who had escaped the fire stood looking back at their ruined offices. All of them were dripping wet and stinking of sulfur. The water from the sprinkler systems was treated water from the sewage plant.

Smith grabbed the attention of one of the officers. “What happened here?”

“A fire started in one of the office buildings. My guess is one of these big-shot congressmen had a little too much to drink and passed out with a cigar in his hand. But we won’t know for sure until the report comes out. That could take a while.”

“What office was it?”

The officer called over to his partner a few police cars over. “Hey, Dom! Whose office did we think started the fire?”

“Jones!”

The officer turned back to Smith, “Yeah. Jones. The fire department said that the scorch burns in his office definitely pointed toward that location as the source.”

Smith was caught in the spectacle, looking at the massive plumes of smoke rising into the night sky and feeling the shock from the words coming out of the officer’s mouth. “Did they… find a body?”

“I don’t know if you could call it a body, but yeah, we found a piece of charred meat. Hey, you’re Congressman Smith, aren’t you? You’re the guy that’s getting the fresh-water projects started. Sir, it’s an honor to meet you.”

The officer stuck out his hand, and Smith shook it halfheartedly, still processing everything that was happening. “Thank-thank you.”

If Jones was dead, then there wasn’t any way for him to stop the hit on Daniel and save his family. Whatever Jones had put in motion was going to stay that way until it was done.