Destruction of Evidence Read Online Free PDF

accountant’s to check the Pitchers’ roof in case they made it up there.’
    ‘See, I told you that’s what Alun would do.’ Tim seized on the conjecture.
    ‘Alun wouldn’t go up there if the fire escape was all right…’
    ‘But it’s not, is it?’ Tim interrupted Ken.
    ‘Now. It was when I first saw the fire.’ Sure of his facts Ken was more insistent than he had been earlier.
    ‘No one could stand on the escape at the moment without full protective gear, that’s for sure.’ The fireman returned to his colleagues.
    Ken watched the firemen on the platform adjust their breathing apparatus before axing their way through the window into Alun and Gillian’s bedroom.
    Frank moved between Tim and Ken. ‘There’s nothing you two can do here, so how about setting up a rest centre in your pub kitchen for the fire officers, Tim? It’s time some of them took a break and your kitchen is at the furthest point from the accountant’s before crossing the yard, so it should be safe enough.’
    ‘If you want me to.’ Tim was clearly reluctant to leave the scene. ‘You’ll let me know…’
    ‘The minute I have any news on the Pitchers,’ Frank promised.
    ‘Do you want to come with me, Ken, or do you want to look in on Phyllis in the church hall?’ Tim asked drily.
    ‘I’ll come with you.’ Ken tugged on Mars’s lead.
    ‘Remember to serve coffee not beer, Tim.’ Frank shouted after them. ‘The men are on duty.’
    ‘Once a copper always a copper.’
    ‘You should know,’ Frank called back.
    Tim eyed the dripping, bulging plastic bag Ken was carrying. ‘You struck lucky?’
    ‘A few trout. Your lodger’s left.’
    ‘Lodger?’ Tim looked at him quizzically.
    ‘Larry Jones,’ Ken indicated the archway where they’d dumped him. The only sign that anyone had been there was a pool of vomit and another of liquid.
    ‘No doubt those are his calling cards, filthy beggar.’
    A fireman shouted. A blood curdling cry that cut through the hot, smoke laden air. Ken froze before running back in time to see one officer drag another out of Alun’s bedroom window and on to the hydraulic platform. Tearing their masks from their faces, both officers leaned forward and retched.
    Superintendent Regina “Reggie” Moore stepped out of her car, locked it, dropped her keys into the pocket of her lightweight coat and walked briskly towards Frank Howell. He waited for her in front of the safety barriers that had been erected around the burning house.
    ‘Update me, Sergeant Howell?’
    Frank knew better than to give Superintendent Moore anything other than a factual reply. But he cautiously incorporated an element of doubt. ‘Too early to pinpoint cause, but arson can’t be ruled out, Super.’
    ‘It can’t?’ She raised one finely plucked eyebrow.
    A senior officer joined them. ‘Superintendent Moore.’
    ‘Chief Fire Officer Thomas.’
    Frank knew that his Super and Huw Thomas were friends who moved in the same circles but no one would have guessed from the formal approach they adopted on the rare occasions their professional lives crossed.
    ‘We’ve found one body, Superintendent, and, in accordance with the directives for deaths in suspicious circumstances left it in situ. I’ve called the pathologist but fires are still burning in the cellar, attic and kitchen areas of the building. Even when they’re brought under control – and that could take some time – the shell will be too unstable to admit anyone intent on carrying out an investigative search without securing and shoring.’ Huw Thomas led Regina out of earshot of Frank Howell and the rest of the officers.
    She looked enquiringly at him.
    ‘Two officers saw a corpse on the floor in the doorway of one of the bedrooms. Burned, but not so badly burned they couldn’t see the skull had been shattered.’
    ‘Are you telling me it was murder?’
    ‘The room was full of smoke. But the only fires in the room were in a heap of furniture that had been