Eoin Miller 01 - Faithless Street Read Online Free PDF

coloured bedrooms. At the
rear of the hallway was a modern fitted kitchen, and a flimsy red wooden door
opened out onto the back patio.
    The concrete slabs
were still dark with absorbed water and muddy boot prints showed where the
firemen had gone to work. The extension was still warm, a blackened timber
frame filled in with plaster. There were lumps of solid back plastic running
around the timber, melted into a shriveled trail. I guessed that the extension
hadn’t been finished, with sheets of black plastic covering the spaces that
hadn’t been filled in yet.
    “How far from
finishing were you?”
    Bennett paused,
wondering how I’d known, then said, “About halfway done.”
    “Now it’s well done,”
Becker smirked before realizing what he’d said, then rambled to cover it, “So
they climbed over this wall here, lit it and climbed back?”
    Bennett nodded again.
“Like I said last night, yeah.”
    I looked at the
garden fence. It would have been difficult but not impossible. I’d gotten over
higher walls than that when I was garden hopping with my brother. I heard a
laugh, and looked up to the first floor window where a child was watching us.
Bennett smiled up at his son then waved him away.
    “How long you lived
here?”
    Bennett scratched his
chin and shrugged, “About five years. Moved in just before Matty was born.”
    “And has anything
like this happened before?”
    “They torched my car
a while back, you know that? Brand new Alfa Romeo, it was. Loved that fucking
car. Fucking Gypos.”
    “Did you see them?”
    “No, didn’t need to.
Heard them.”
    “Heard them climb
over?”
    “No, heard them
running back to their bit, through the gap in the fence.” I turned back to look
at the garden fence, but Bennett shook his head, “Not that one. I’ll show you.”
    He lead us back
through the house and up the driveway. Across the road, in a gap between two
houses, I could see a high metal fence. We walked over to it, and it became
more imposing the closer we got. The original fence was made of thin strips of
grey metal, rising up about ten or twelve feet off the ground. Sheets of metal
had been bolted over that frame, keeping the world beyond hidden from view.
    Ten feet further
down, where the fence ran behind the garden of another house, the metal had
been pulled back, creating a gap to the other side.
    “Is there any reason
they’d target you? I mean, it would be quicker to burn one of these houses,
wouldn’t it?”
    “What reason do you
want? They’re scum. Don’t pay taxes, don’t have jobs. They just sit there and
expect to be treated like the rest of us.”
    Becker nodded, a
sympathetic touch. “Must be tough. Don’t know how you stick it out, to be
honest, I think I’d move away.”
    Bennett looked at
Becker like he was insane.
    “Move? And give in to
them? No way, mate. This is our home. I bought this house, and I work 6 days a
week to pay the bloody mortgage, which is more than they do.”
    We both nodded our
thanks and Bennett turned back towards his house. He was still talking as he
walked away, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.   I ran my fingers over the tear in the
metal, marveling at the sheer force of will it would have taken to break
through.
    “We need to put a lid
on this one quick,” Becker said. “Once the media comes sniffing? Shit, it’s
stoked enough as it is.”
    “The camp’s under an
eviction notice, right?”
    “Yeah. The council
haven’t issued the 28 day notice yet because there’s an appeal, but they’ve
been told the land isn’t theirs and to prepare to leave.” He made to turn away.
“I’ll go get the car, we’ll drive round to the camp.”
    “Yeah, you do that.”
    I climbed trough the
hole in the fence.
    ***
    The other side of the
fence was covered in graffiti. At the top of the fence was a coil if barbed
wire, which hadn’t been visible from the other side.
    On the other side,
the fence had said security.
    On this side it said,