The firefighter stepped through the wrought-iron gates and then turned back towards him.
“Don’t go poking around too much, especially in the places marked by tape. Not unless you want the whole place to come crashing down on your head.”
“Understood.”
She slipped away, and he stepped towards the front door.
The uniformed officer came forward to meet him. She too had a hard hat on, and her dark hair hung down in loose strands, giving her a slightly dishevelled appearance. Aware of how she must look, she grinned sheepishly. “Inspector Van Dijk?”
Pieter nodded. He thought he recognized her as one of the new intakes down at HQ.
“Kaatje Groot isn’t it?” Her eyebrows went up, pleasantly surprised. “I’ve seen you around, working with Floris in the files section,” he explained.
She beamed back at him.
“Is this a temporary assignment?”
“Not sure really Inspector. I think they sent me over because there was nobody else available from the night-shift.”
“Same here actually.”
“But I’m hoping it might be permanent,” she added quickly.
“Paperwork not your thing?”
She shrugged and pulled a face.
“Ok, let’s see how tonight goes then.”
He tilted the nib of his helmet back and looked up at the scorched doorway and carport.
“So tell me, why have we been summoned to a house fire?”
“A number of reasons sir. First of all, the firefighters think it might be arson. They say an accelerant – probably petrol from the smell of it – was used to start the fire, just in the hallway here. Also, we have at least two bodies inside. It’s hard to tell for sure, but they look like an adult male and an adult female. And thirdly, the family who lived here, two parents and their daughter, have recently received several death threats. Which they had reported to the police.”
“Two bodies you say? What about the daughter? How old is she?”
Officer Groot studied her notebook. “Twelve years old sir.”
“Do they know her whereabouts?”
“Not at the moment, although the general opinion is that they will probably find her body soon, maybe upstairs.”
Pieter nodded. From the ferocity of the blaze it seemed very unlikely anyone could survive, especially if they had fled upstairs away from the flames and smoke, as children were wont to do. “Who exactly were the occupants? This street is for the mega-rich, almost as posh as Hooftstraat.”
“The homeowner was a Doctor Christiaan Bakker, and his wife Elise and their daughter Nina.”
“A doctor? I presume not your average quack then, unless the wife was a woman of means?”
“No, he had a private clinic. He specialized in eye surgery. Had quite a few famous clients in fact, politicians, footballers, that kind of people. Quite well known in exclusive social circles, he and his wife liked to mix with movie stars. They were very well respected.”
“Not by everybody, apparently.”
With Pieter leading the way they both stepped over the threshold and into the hallway.
Inside, the atmosphere was still hot even though the fire had been extinguished. It was like opening an oven door and Pieter immediately felt a claustrophobic-like heat pushing down on him and sapping his strength. The air was thick with charcoal dust, which not only clogged up his throat but instantly set his eyes off itching, and he rubbed at them vigorously. He saw beside him officer Groot similarly affected, and her eyes were already red-rimmed. She coughed loudly.
“Let’s make this quick eh?” he croaked, and she nodded emphatically.
In the hallway, two separate teams were already at work. As with all arson cases, the procedure was the same, and Pieter knew the basics. If it were suspected that a fire had been started deliberately, then the fire officer in charge of the incident would put out a call to the Fire, Police and Forensic Science Service, who would send out teams of specially trained fire investigation personnel. One would be made up of fire officers, and their job was to locate the seat of the blaze as well as ascertain how the fire had spread, and also to determine whether it had been started by an incendiary device or an accelerant. The second team, this one containing police officers, would gather evidence and take samples similar to a normal crime scene investigation, and send this off to the NFI forensic lab in The Hague.
The next phase was to decide the reason for the act of arson. There are two main categories of arson fires: arson without a motive, and arson with a motive.
The vast majority of fires that are started deliberately without any obvious motive are generally the result of vandalism. This might be kids burning down their school, yobs setting fire to cars, or a pyromaniac setting fires for the thrill of it.
Where a fire has been started deliberately then there may be a motive. This might be financial in the form of an insurance claim, emotional where the arsonist has a grudge or a grievance against the owner of the property, or to cover-up another serious crime that has been committed.
Of course the presence of two, and probably three, bodies in this case did not necessarily mean that the culprit intended for the occupants of the house to die in the blaze. He – and most arsonists were male – may have thought the house was empty at the time, or that the young family living here would have time to escape. Perhaps they had only intended to scare them and the fire had quickly got
