Destruction of Evidence Read Online Free PDF Page A

arm but as he was wearing protective clothing all he succeeded in doing was smearing black smuts over his face.
    ‘I did,’ Ken confirmed.
    ‘When was this?’
    ‘When I phoned the emergency services. Half an hour or so ago.’
    The fireman checked his watch. ‘Thirty three minutes ago according to the switchboard. I just contacted the boys at the back of the building. There was no one in the yard when they arrived and no one’s come out since they’ve been there.’
    ‘Are you sure?’ Ken was stunned.
    ‘The first thing we check is the location of residents who could be trapped in the building. The boys on this street are still trying to reach the first floor but it’s hopeless, fire’s spread down from the floor above at the back of the building and the stairs are ablaze. The cellar’s blazing too and flames are coming up through the floorboards to the ground floor.’
    ‘The fire escape…’ Ken began.
    ‘Is off limits. It’s red-hot.’
    ‘Could whoever I saw have fallen from it?’
    ‘If he’d landed in the yard we would have found him, or her. Do you know where the Pitchers sleep?’ the officer asked.
    ‘Alun and Gillian’s bedroom is on the second floor from this level, third from the back of the house,’ Ken answered.
    ‘Front or back windows?’ the fireman pressed.
    ‘Alun and his wife sleep at the front. Left-hand window, one of the boys is in the room to the right, another has the two rooms at the back, but I don’t know which son sleeps where, other than the eldest. Lee Pitcher has a room in the attic.’
    The fireman ran back shouting orders. A few minutes later a hydraulic platform was raised level with the second floor windows.
    ‘Alun’s sensible,’ Frank murmured. ‘Once he realised the house was on fire and the stairs impassable, he would have led Gillian and the boys up to the attic.’
    ‘It was on fire,’ Ken reminded him.
    ‘You only saw fire at the back of the building. The front is filled with smoke but it’s not blazing. There are skylights in the attic, aren’t there? The Pitchers are probably sitting on the roof right now wondering why it’s taking the firemen so long to reach them,’ Tim’s voice was sharp
    ‘The firemen at the back of the house should have seen the person I saw… unless…’ Ken faltered. He recalled the force of the explosion that had shattered the kitchen window. The fire escape was at the side of the house but it was within blast distance of the windows and the fireman had said it was “red hot”. Had another window blown out when he’d been walking back to town? Had the force thrown whoever he’d seen off the escape and a rush of air somehow sucked him back into the flames? He shuddered at the thought.
    Another fireman approached them. ‘You have evacuated the pub, Tim? All of your rented rooms and self-catering cottages?’
    ‘Been evacuated along with the whole street,’ Frank confirmed for the landlord. ‘The only bugger we couldn’t move is May Williams. She’s sitting above us in her window now, enjoying her grandstand view.’
    ‘She should be moved…’
    ‘She’s an invalid and a cantankerous one. You want to move her, you try.’ Frank folded his arms across his chest.
    ‘I spoke to one of the senior fire officers. He agreed the wind’s blowing away from this side of the street. Frank and his fellow police officers are monitoring the situation. If there’s a threat to Mrs Williams’s house we’ll try again to move her,’ Dr Edwards interposed.
    ‘You don’t think the fire’s going to spread to the pub, do you?’ Tim asked, suddenly concerned when a shower of sparks rocketed high into the night sky. ‘The accountant’s office is in between…’
    ‘All depends on what combustible materials are in the buildings. The wall the accountant’s shares with the Pitchers’ is hotter than hell. We got the keys from the manager and the boys have been in to check. I’ll get someone up on the roof of the