Short Crime Stories.

The arsonist.

It was a cold, dark night when the first fire broke out. The flames danced through the windows of a small clothing store, devouring everything in their path. Soon after, another fire started in a nearby office building, followed by a third at a restaurant across town. It was clear that someone was intentionally setting fires, but nobody knew who or why.

Detective Maria Louka was assigned to the case. She was a tough arson investigator with a sharp eye for detail and a gut instinct for sniffing out culprits. Over the course of several weeks, she pored over the evidence, interviewing witnesses and analyzing the patterns of the fires.

As the number of fires increased, the city was thrown into a panic. People were scared to leave their homes at night and business owners were afraid to go to work in the morning. It seemed like the arsonist was one step ahead of the police at every turn.

But Detective Maria Louka refused to give up. She knew that there had to be a connection between the places that were set on fire and the arsonist and she was determined to find it. One night, as she was reviewing surveillance footage from a nearby gas station, she saw something that made her heart race, a car that had been spotted at the scene of each fire.

The car belonged to a man named Peter, who had a history of mental illness and a grudge against the local government. Maria Louka and her team staked out his house, waiting for him to make a move. And sure enough, just after midnight, they saw him slip out of his back door and head towards the nearest building.