My heart quickened as the old man finished the question. Poppy turned to me as she answered. "Yes. He is one of us."

The panel was silent for several minutes before the old man spoke. "Let's take a short break."

"I want to know about the fire," the Egyptian said starting in again. "Is her story accurate? Were you at the fire she spoke of?"

I filled my water glass and took a drink as I weighed several different stories in my head. They were all underweight.

I thought better of lying by the time I finished the glass. If I got caught in a lie about the fire it could jeopardize this whole process. That's the trouble with lies, they have to propagate. They must procreate to cover each other. There is safety in numbers; one lie is never enough. "Yes, I was at the fire. I started it."

"Why did you start it?"

"I was paid to burn the building down." I saw the large man in the gallery come to attention again out of the corner of my eye.

"Paid by whom?"

"The building's owner, Martin Shelby."

"How much did he pay you?"

"Five thousand dollars."

"How did you encounter him initially?"

"He was referred to me."

"By whom," he asked impatiently.

"A former client named Tom Preston."

Silence.

"So may we assume by this that you're a professional arsonist?"

"It is what I do for money, yes."

"How many fires have you started?"

"That I've been paid for?"

"How many fires have you started?"

I took a smoke from the pack on the table and primed my lighter. The tiny sprite flared as the cigarette started to burn. "Hundreds," I said, closing the lid on the flame.

Silence again.

"How did you first get started doing it professionally?"

I chuckled to myself. "It's funny the way it got started. I was caught by the police, more specifically one cop, a crooked one. He caught me leaving an abandoned apartment building in Watts. He cuffed me and put me in the back of his squad car while he ran my ID for warrants. He didn't know then that I'd set a fire in one of the interior apartments. I had planned on watching the fire from across the street but ended up watching it from the back seat of a police car.