A Donation of Murder Read Online Free PDF Page A

of time for self-reproach once he’d got the last of those murdering bastards.
    Pike raised his hand in acknowledgment to his second in command, grateful for his grounding influence, and ran back in the direction of the tenement.
    â€˜Any more signs of life inside?’ Pike asked the most senior man flattened against the wall, holding a rifle.
    â€˜Not a thing, sir.’
    â€˜Hum, maybe that cowardly attack was a last hurrah.’
    Pike ordered one of the men to call the fire brigade over. So far the fire had been contained to one room in the fifth storey. The snow had helped, but he could not risk it spreading to the buildings standing cheek by jowl on either side. He made his waythrough the evacuated tenement next door, into the backyard and across to the yard of the building where the villains were holed up.
    A group of police was lounging against an outhouse wall — the privies, if the smell was any indication. The snow had ceased falling and visibility had improved. Frozen washing creaked in the wind from lines hung but a few feet away from a stinking midden.
    The men straightened when Pike made his appearance.
    â€˜Report,’ he said to a red-faced sergeant.
    â€˜Nothing to report, not even a rat,’ the sergeant said, tossing his cigarette into the slush beneath his boots.
    â€˜Straighten up, be on your guard. Once the fire is under control we’ll be going in through the front top window. If there’s any of them left, they’ll probably attempt to bolt off this way.’
    â€˜Shoot to kill, sir?’ the sergeant asked with a disconcerting gleam to his eye. Pike’s mind flashed to the dead shop girl, the injured child. It was tempting.
    â€˜No.’ He paused. ‘Aim at the legs.’
    Pike returned to the front of the building. The crews from two fire engines were setting up their equipment. The men moved with caution, every now and then glancing towards the top window. The fire did not seem as ferocious as before, more of a gentle glow than a raging inferno.
    â€˜Are they dead, sir?’ one of the brass helmeted men asked him.
    â€˜Not all of them,’ Pike replied. ‘I think at least one might be alive somewhere between the fifth and first floor. We’ll have to drive him from the top and push him down. Armed police will climb the ladder and enter the window first. When we confirm it’s safe we will give you the signal to commence your work. What is your assessment of the fire?’
    â€˜It could have been a lot worse, sir. If this was summer I reckon the whole street would’ve been up by now. The weather’s been on our side at least.’
    Thank God something was on their side, Pike thought as he climbed aboard the fire engine and tested the rigidity of the long extendable ladder.
    *
    Pike put one foot on the window ledge and eased the other over the frame of jagged glass. He knew what he should be doing: using the element of surprise. He should dive through the window, somersault across the floor and then leap into a firingposition. But a defective knee — sturdy enough to walk on, thanks to Dody, yet decidedly not strong enough for acrobatics — limited what he could do these days.
    He picked his way as rapidly as he could over the glass and pushed through a handy smokescreen into the one-roomed flat. A wall of heat forced him back. He ordered the fireman, who’d been behind him on the ladder, to do his best from where he stood. Pike could not risk allowing the firemen into the building until he was sure the villains could cause them no harm.
    The fireman called down to his mate manning the steam pump. The pump engaged with an explosive force that would have knocked an inexperienced man off the ladder. The man held his ground and dowsed the flames with his brass fitted hosepipe.
    Pike lifted his hand to indicate ‘pump off’, and made his way through the steam that had now replaced most of the smoke, one hand