minutes.’
Without crossing the tape, Cooper moved to where he could see the compound and the scorched paintwork of the hearse. Curiously, only the front end of the vehicle had been damaged, leaving the rear compartment almost intact, though blackened inside by smoke.
‘What happened to the other vehicles?’ asked Fry. ‘There were several limousines in there, and another hearse, too.’
‘The staff were allowed to remove them,’ said Petty. ‘They had a funeral scheduled first thing this morning, so the uniforms let them get on with it. There was even a body in the fridge. That part of the building is undamaged, but the power’s off, so they could hardly leave the poor soul in there.’
‘I suppose it was the right decision,’ said Fry grudgingly. ‘Can we get inside, or are you still keeping the place to yourself?’ ‘Just walk on the stepping plates and stay close to the wall.’
Cooper hung back as Fry went inside. He looked at Petty. ‘Sorry about Diane. She’s been like that ever since I came on duty. I don’t know what’s up with her.’
The SOCO began to strip off her gloves. Her face was flushed and glittering with rain. T think I might know.’
‘Really? Has she talked to you?’
‘I can’t tell you, Ben.’ She looked at the window of the store room, protected by steel bars but with its glass shattered from the heat of the fire. ‘You’d better go, or you’ll be in trouble.’
Cooper began to move towards the doorway, but hesitated. ‘See you later?’
Petty nodded. ‘Yeah.’
Diane Fry stood in the burnt-out building, her nostrils filled with the stench of smoke and charred furniture. Water still
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sloshed around on the floor from the fire crew’s hoses, black and floating with ash. She was aware of Cooper talking to Liz Petty outside, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying, and she didn’t want to. She moved further away from the window, in case she overheard her name. Deep inside, she was holding on to a tide of anger. It felt too strong to resist for ever, or the dam would burst. She had to channel it in some way.
She looked around the storage area. A doorway straight ahead of her led into what she remembered as the staff room, used by the bearers and office staff for their lunch breaks. There were a couple of tables and some tubular steel chairs, a sink, a cooker, a fridge. Paper had been seared from the walls and hung in shreds, like burned skin. The vinyl flooring had melted and bubbled into twisted shapes, lunar contours that swallowed the shadows from the crime scene lights.
To the right, a second door stood open. Fry moved cautiously across the room, following the aluminium stepping plates. She was irrationally afraid of touching anything - not in case she left fingerprints, but for fear that the scorched surfaces would leave black marks on her skin and clothes. She felt as though they’d somehow contaminate her, bring out on her body the dark stains she could feel growing in her mind ever since she’d listened to those phone calls.
Everywhere she’d gone during the last few days, she’d been wondering if she was in the dead place. She’d been expecting to find a body at any moment, as if a decomposing bundle of bloodied sacking lay behind every door, or the rustling of feeding maggots waited somewhere on the edge of her hearing. But now she wasn’t even supposed to be looking. No more chasing around the countryside.
Hardly realizing she was still moving, Fry found herself in the next room. What place was this? At first, she couldn’t interpret the sea of black pulp at her feet, sodden heaps rising several inches out of the water. A row of grimy shapes ran
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along one wall, stained metal drawers gaping open. Filing cabinets. She was in the room behind the main office, where the records were kept.
‘Oh, God.’
Fry turned and saw Cooper behind her in the doorway. He reached out a hand to one of the filing cabinets and rubbed the soot off a laminated label.
‘Personnel files,’ he said. ‘They’ve burned the personnel files.’
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Later that morning, Cooper finally got a chance to catch up on the files filling his pending tray, refreshing his memory of them in case there was anything important he’d forgotten. He didn’t achieve much. But handling the files made him feel a bit better, as if touching them might keep an enquiry alive.
He looked up to make sure he could get Diane Fry’s attention. ‘I think some of Audrey Steele’s family were responsible for that arson attack,’ he said. ‘Revenge on Audrey’s behalf.’
‘Revenge for what? We don’t know what happened to her yet.’
‘It would be an emotional response, not a logical one. But they were understandably upset, and they had to find someone to blame. I think they heard all they really wanted to hear last time I visited Mrs Gill.’
‘I saw some of the family at the woodland burial,’ said Fry. ‘I bet a few of them are known to us. One of them was Micky Ellis’s brother, for a start. Let’s see if we can find any violent offences on their records.’
‘This is the Devonshire Estate we’re talking about,’ said Cooper. ‘If they didn’t carry out the arson attack themselves, they’re bound to know people who’d do it for a few quid.’
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‘You’re right. But we need to put some effort into it. I’d like to feel sure in my own mind that Audrey Steele’s family were responsible. Otherwise, I might start suspecting that someone at Hudson and Slack did it.’
Cooper nodded. ‘It could turn out to be very convenient for somebody that the personnel files were burned.’
‘Exactly. I’ve asked Forensics to recover as much as they can. But the fire and the firemen’s hoses did a pretty good job between them, from what I saw.’
‘That’s an odd thing, actually,’ said Cooper. ‘Those filing cabinets were steel. They’re designed to be fire resistant, as long as you keep the drawers closed.’
‘Those drawers looked as though they were open when the fire started.’
‘Yes, I think they must have been, for the contents to burn like that.’
Fry looked at him. ‘No, it means nothing. The arsonists probably opened the drawers and threw the files on the floor to get a better blaze going, that’s all.’
