Smoke

Telephone

Calling me

Who put all that shit in your head?

Saying things

Telling things

Till you break

Filthy water

Bubbles up

Who put all that shit in your head?

Difficulty sleeping?

Nope.

Eating?

Like a horse.

How are you feeling about the incident?

I've processed it.

You shot a man armed with an assault rifle.

That's a traumatic event.

That's funny?

No, it's just… I don't know, the whole Stanton thing.

You know, for me, personally, it's not traumatic.

What is?

Combat.

IED explodes.

A guy you played poker with for six fucking months

hemorrhages through his goddamn stomach.

That's traumatic.

You want me to sign off on these papers, I need you to get real with me.

I'm being very real with you.

Look, I shot a criminal in self-defense.

That's the job.

You know, it's…

If I have a nervous breakdown every single time some dickhead pulls a gun on me,

I mean… I should go and check some parking meters.

I see you've worked undercover before.

Yeah. Vice.

Did you know that UCs are chosen for deficiencies in their psych profiles?

Manipulative tendencies, attachment disorders,

frequent dissociation.

Any of that sound familiar?

I know what I am.

And what is that?

Michelle?

I'm invincible.

No one can hurt you more than you've already been hurt.

That the narrative?

I do this one thing really well.

And I'm not looking to be…

hell, I can't be some well-rounded person.

I'm a job.

Job is me.

You will run out of road one day.

But not yet.

What? You're back today?

Psych cleared, board approved.

Did you miss me? I bet you missed me, huh?

I thought you'd ride the desk longer for blowing a guy's cock off.

I didn't blow his cock off!

His balls. Whatever.

I can't with you.

I got some domestic business this morning.

Think you can entertain yourself for a few hours?

Yeah. I got some work to do on D and C.

What work?

With Stanton out, we're fresh out of leads.

I'm not easily deterred.

Cool. See you later.

He knows our response times, the limits on our resources,

how much man power we put on a fire.

Then he cuts our effectiveness in half by splitting us.

He knows he's in our sights.

He's laying low.

Yep, it's Detective Calderone from Umberland Fire HQ.

You got those incident reports?

Last year, the northern wards.

False alarms.

Yeah, I want 'em all.

Some people call me that. I prefer "thorough."

Hey, I was clearing out my bookcase. Found something for you.

- What's it about? - War.

Growing up. Becoming a man, I guess.

I'll like it?

You will.

Yeah… I read it in college,

so apologies for all the self-important annotations.

Can I help with anything?

That trash is full.

You're throwing these out?

They're just plastic statues.

All your 5:00 a.m. runs, your strength training, your meets.

It's good to remind yourself of your accomplishments.

Okay, well if you care about them that much then you take 'em.

You're upset.

- That's fair. - Nothing about this is fair.

It's tenure track, man.

These positions come up once every five or ten years,

like… I can't…

It's like being an astronaut and getting called to the moon.

Yeah, Dad, you're exactly like an astronaut.

Take the book. You'll like it.

What are you doing?

Cleaning up for Emmett.

You probably shouldn't be in his room.

I was just trying to help.

Would you have wanted your dad going through your stuff when you were his age?

My dad always went through our stuff.

Said it was his house, his shit.

Been meaning to say I…

I want to be there for you.

For both of you.

Whatever that means.

Why don't you go work on the book?

- Okay. - I'll finish this up.

Yeah, okay.

All right, so call comes in at 7:43 a.m., you arrive in the area.

What did you see?

I mean, this was six months ago.

Yeah.

Not much in my notes, but flame probably caught hold of some debris,

coughed up a bunch of smoke and died before we even turned up.

No embers?

Burned brush?

I mean, I just need an approximate location.

So are we talkin' over here, are we more over--

Hey, ma'am, I'm sorry I didn't even get out of the truck.

Did you search for an incendiary device?

Yeah, we called in CSI, roped off the scene,

and me and 15 other government paid employees

grid searched the whole meadow for a device that didn't start a fire.

Looks a little something like this, but a little burned up.

Okay, so you're looking for a cigarette butt in a forest?

Yeah.

Do you obey stop signs?

You think they're gonna make you a manager?

They got socks they care more about than you.

What's overhead?

Uh-uh.

Not the ceiling. The fucking business concept.

Don't know yet.

You should know yet.

I guarantee you all the jagoffs going for the job know yet.

Can you stop scraping?

Just doing my best.

You think there's a guy who's staring at the monitor

with a bag full of gold stars

just slapping them on the board when you give 110%?

I don't think there are stars.

And those cameras aren't here to watch us do good.

They're here to catch us doin' shit.

Shit!

Shit.

Fucking put it out, dude.

Fuck. Okay…

Move then!

Fuck.

The fuck is wrong with you?

Hey. What are you doing with that milk?

You stole it!

Your milk looks weird.

Can I have a bag?

Hey, evidence locker, 230.

Yeah, I might have something.

Give me good news, Steven.

Well, Sacred Ginmill has a great French dip.

Shit.

Give me the bad news.

The lab won't touch your cancer stick.

They can't analyze evidence from an unprosecutable crime.

What are you talking about? I'm investigating a serial arsonist.

Yeah, but that cigarette didn't start a fire,

and you don't have anything connecting it to your pyro.

I found a goddamn device in the middle of a goddamn forest

in the middle of a goddamn county full of goddamn forests.

And we can't test this goddamn device?

Well…

Meet me for a goddamn drink.

And you can whine about it, and I can pretend to listen.

How about that?

Rain check.

I got an appointment.

- Hey. - Hey.

How goes D and C?

Umberland has over 200,000 people. And I've ruled out 6,000 of them.

Deceased?

Babies.

That's solid police work.

Okay, what's this?

Thought you said you had something new to show me.

Same evidence, new perspective.

Flip 'em over. Never tried that.

Yeah, what's on the bottom?

Recycle triangle code 2 high density polyethylene.

And this?

- Melted debris. - And this?

Yeah.

Code 4 low density polyethylene.

Shopping bags.

On all of them.

Okay.

Well, gotta be what, over 100 grocery stores

that use plastic shopping bags?