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“The college girls on the second floor — you know them?” Hanni asked

“Just to wave hi”

“Okay, well, apparently they’ve been blowing fuses every other day with their hair dryers and air conditioner and irons and whatnot And your super got tired of running over here to change the fuse, so he put this penny in here”

“Which does what?”

Chuck explained everything that happened, how the copper penny overrode the fuse so that the circuit didn’t trip Instead the electricity went through the penny andat its weakest point In this case, the ceiling lights on the second floor and the electric sockets in my apartment

I visualized flaet it — so Chuck took his ti, like a lot of old buildings, had “balloon construction,” that is, the fra without any fire stops in between

“The fire just races up through the walls,” Hanni said “Those spaces between the timbers act like chimneys And so when the fire reached your apartment, it caoing Took out the roof and burned itself out”

“So you’re telling me this was an accident?”

“I was suspicious, too,” Chuck told me

He said that he’d questioned everyone hiirls downstairs, and in particular our aging handyel Fernandez, who admitted he’d put the penny behind the fuse to save himself another trip up the hill

“If anyone had died in this fire, I’d be charging Angel Fernandez with negligent ho this an accidental fire, Lindsay You file an insurance claih”

I’d been trained to read a lie in a person’s face, and all I saas the truth in Chuck Hanni’s frankly honest features But I was ju out to Joe’s car I asked for his point of view as a guy who’d spent a couple of decades in law enforcement

“Hanni didn’t do it, honey I think he’s suffering almost as much as you are And I think he likes you”

“That’s your professional opinion?”

“Yep Hanni’s on your side”