Alexis Montgomery meet Cheif Herbert Rich

>I get arsonist off the street so people like you don't wake up like a human torch,or at the very least, keep your personal effects at home and your degree-laden walls at the office from being an open barbeque pit~ Cheif Herbert Rich in Soon After

Alexis Montgomery, the special reporter for the Channel 7 news is not the only one trying to solve the crime. The investigative team under the leadership of Herbert Rich have learned that fire burns hot, but the trail of the arsonist goes cold very quickly. I describe Cheif Rich as a stocky, hard-nosed man with an unrelenting unibrow that demands complete cooperation or the threat of dire consequences.

You can imagine he and Alexis have their run-ins. They each have their own code of ethics governing their professions and are fueled by their own desire to uncover the truth first. I remember asking a friend of a friend who happens to be an ATF agent if reporters ever got in the way of a fire investigation she was working on. She remarked that once that barrier tape was down their site was secure for their investigation. She was more ticked off by the reporters that take that barrier as permission to embellish their own facts and feed it to the public. So while investigators are working their tails off to gather the real evidence the reporter with the least bit of forensic knowledge pieces together a story.
Sometimes an overzealous reporter will report things that give the arsonist the heads up and makes it that much harder to find.

I used a book( I got to find the title, Heat.. something or the other) to craft the cheif's character. It is the real life accounts from Fire Marshals and Fire Cheifs around the country. Most of these guys breath smoke and spit fire. They've been on engines most of their career and cite a personal vendetta with the all consuming fire itself as the reason for climbing the ladder to promotion. They've seen fellow fire fighters consumed and the most horrific crime scenes. Don't they have a right to be a little jaded? Cheif Rich is no exception. In Soon After, he has no problem strong- arming Pastors, seizing whatever he wants into evidence and even trying to silence any further news reports that might hinder his investigation.

Do you NCIS? Who are your favorite investigators from tv and movies past and present. I am still in the hunt for three more pople to comment and leave their email addy to receive the first novel, Soon and Very Soon. Soon After is available for pre-order now on Amazon.com