But, if that was the plan, why not actually light the house on fire? A gallon of gas isn’t that hard to pack in and wouldn’t make the house an inferno immediately. Plus, if Barron is small enough to have a volunteer fire department, it effectively doubles response time to a fire. That way, instead of having a few minutes head start (the police knew right away it was double homicide/missing child), you could get a day or more (depending on the fire), before they figure out someone is missing. It’s a better plan.