After the Fire Read Online Free PDF Page B

clouded around the windows on the top floors and smoke was still seeping out, dark against the orange-tinted clouds that passed for a night sky. Most of the windows were open or broken, holes in the building that reminded me of wounds. The remains of curtains fluttered inside and out, caught by the breeze that was stronger the higher you went. The movement was eerie. I couldn’t stop myself from seeing it as people waving, crying for help, but I knew the fire brigade would have rescued anyone up there by now. Water stained the concrete all the way down the outside of the tower. The whole building was glowing eerily, the emergency lighting shining with a greyish glare. It was a long way from the top of the tower to the ground. The remarkable thing wasn’t that three people had died. It was incredible that
only
three people had died.
    When Derwent spoke, I jumped. I hadn’t realised he was standing right beside me.
    ‘All right, Kerrigan?’
    ‘Fine.’
    ‘It’s just – well, this isn’t your favourite place, is it? Not after what happened here.’
    ‘I haven’t even thought about it,’ I lied. It was on the Maudling Estate that I’d been trapped for ten minutes in a stairwell with four teenage boys who wanted to hurt me, at the very least. Only ten minutes – but it had changed the course of my life. It had crossed my mind, once or twice.
    Derwent nodded. ‘Well, I have been thinking about it. And if you see any of the little shitbags who scared you, I want to know about it.’
    ‘Forget it,’ I said lightly. ‘I have.’
    He shook his head. ‘Not convincing.’
    ‘I’ll have to try harder.’
    ‘You do that.’ He stepped back and let me walk ahead of him. ‘Don’t worry, Kerrigan. I’ll be right behind you.’
    It was typical of Derwent that it sounded more like a threat than reassurance. I hunched my shoulders against the prickling unease that made me want to run away and stalked into the Maudling Estate ahead of him, hoping I looked as if I didn’t know what fear was.
    The first person I saw was Una Burt, deep in conversation with two men. One wore the black and yellow London Fire Brigade uniform. He carried a yellow helmet in one hand and sweat had plastered his hair to his head. He was middle-aged, obviously senior and just as obviously fed up to be talking to Una Burt. I could imagine he had more important things to do with his time, like managing the teams of firefighters who were swarming through the building. The other man was in a blue boiler suit with Fire Investigation written across the back and had a white hard hat on his head. Burt was nodding as he spoke. She glanced over his shoulder and noticed us. To say she looked pleased would be an exaggeration but she beckoned us over. The senior firefighter took the opportunity to disappear while Burt was distracted.
    ‘Here are two more of my team, at last. DI Josh Derwent, DC Maeve Kerrigan, this is Andrew Harper, the fire investigator.’
    Harper was tall, with very blue eyes under his white hard hat and a weathered complexion. He nodded to us, then turned back to Una Burt.
    ‘So I can’t take you up to the affected areas yet – it’s too hot and the structure could be unstable. The firefighters are still damping the building down in case the fire flares up again, and the rescue operation hasn’t officially ended. It’s too risky to have any untrained personnel up there, for everyone’s sake.’
    ‘I understand that. Let us know when you can show us the scenes. As soon as possible, obviously.’
    ‘Do we know if it was an accident or deliberate?’ Derwent asked.
    ‘Not yet. I’ll need to speak to the survivors. It could have been accidental.’ He sounded slightly dubious, though, and Derwent pounced.
    ‘But your instinct says it was deliberate.’
    ‘I don’t rely on instinct. I’ll do a thorough investigation and go from there.’ Harper had a slow way of speaking, measured and unflappable, like an air-traffic controller.