Through the Flames by Tim Lahaye, Jerry B. Jenkins Page A

interview him about two mysterious deaths, and start working on getting him off the streets.”
    “I believe he’s already murdered the guy André told me about and, of course, André,” Lionel said.
    “Assuming you’re right on those, that makes at least four.”
    “Four?”
    “Didn’t you see the paper today? Two of the firemen who went into that building last night never made it out. If that was arson—and they found the source of the fire, a gas can, in an apartment rented under the name Cornelius Grey—deaths related to it can be considered homicides. Mr. Grey hasn’t been seen there for a long time, and we know he was not the murder victim. But Grey is a known associate of LeRoy Banks.”
    “Connie Grey is an associate of LeRoy’s all right,” Lionel said, sounding angry. “He’s livin’ in my house with his sister, Talia.”
    Fogarty was speedily taking notes. “So LeRoy Banks and Cornelius Grey are the two kingpins of the little group that moved into your house.”
    Lionel nodded.
    “And Talia is Grey’s sister.”
    Lionel nodded again.
    “Grey hasn’t been tied into any of this before,” Fogarty said. “Wonder what’s become of him?”
    “He’s the quiet one of those two,” Lionel said. “I don’t know if it means anything, but André always kind of liked him. André hated LeRoy. Said he was a bully, a big mouth, a know-it-all. Liked to intimidate people.”
    “Liked to do more than that to them,” Fogarty said. “Now let me just think out loud here about how I might encourage illegal squatters—you know what that means?”
    “People who move into a place they don’t own?”
    “Yeah. Here’s what a person might do to get them to move on. . . .”
    For the next hour, Judd took notes. Tom Fogarty told story after story of pranks, ruses, and tricks that had worked on stubborn cases. His favorite was the time the police sent notices to several known felons, informing them they had won expensive gifts, prizes, and trips in a special sweepstakes. All they had to do was come to the ballroom of a swanky downtown hotel to claim them. About 80 percent of the targets of the sting showed up and, at the appropriate and surprising instant, were arrested on their outstanding warrants.
    That wasn’t something Judd and his friends could pull off without a lot of money and help, but several others of Fogarty’s suggestions seemed right up their alley.

TEN
The Sting
    I T FELL to Judd, who believed he was the only one of the four kids who had never been seen by LeRoy Banks, to keep an eye on Lionel’s house. Fortunately, his mother’s minivan was also in the garage, and he was able to use that and not risk LeRoy recognizing the car that had backed into his brown and yellow monstrosity a few nights before.
    The first couple of days Judd tooled around the neighborhood, occasionally passing Lionel’s house. The only thing he noticed was that nothing seemed to be going on. He saw neither the old van nor the roadster Lionel had told him about. Maybe LeRoy was lying low for a while, more concerned about keeping out of sight than trying to eliminate the one person who could implicate him in the arson and murders: Lionel.
    Finally, though, Judd caught a break. He saw the old brown and yellow van, only it didn’t look so old anymore, and it wasn’t brown and yellow. It had been spruced up, the rust spots filled and the whole thing painted a muted cream. It looked pretty good. Judd checked in with Sergeant Fogarty, who found out that LeRoy had ordered new plates too. They were for an off-white van in Talia Grey’s name, but Fogarty said the van had the same vehicle ID number as LeRoy’s. What had not changed, however, were all the city stickers on the far right side of the front windshield. That was the one thing Judd remembered from the van that flashed so close to him in the alley the weekend before. At first all he had seen were the headlights. At the last moment that windshield came into view