Playing With Fire

Banks heard the door open and felt a brief chill as the draft blew in. It revitalized him enough to make that one last attempt to move, but all he could manage was to roll off the sofa and bang his head on the sharp edge of the low coffee table. As he lay on the floor, the blood dripping in his eye, fast losing consciousness, he heard the door shut again and then the sloshing of petrol from the can. He could smell it now, the fumes overwhelming him, and all he wanted to do was hug the floor and fall asleep. The andante from “Death and the Maiden” was playing, and Banks’s final thought was that this was the last piece of music he was ever going to hear.

A

She slowed down as they passed through Fortford. A few lights showed behind drawn curtains, and here and there A

There were a few people out on Helmthorpe High Street, mostly heading for folk night at the Dog and Gun, A

Winsome turned sharp left, past the school, with only a slight screeching of rubber on Tarmac, and slipped smoothly down into second for the hill up to Gratly. Just before the village was a narrow laneway to the right, leading to Banks’s cottage, and as they approached, a car came out and turned right, heading away from them. It wasn’t Banks’s Renault.

“That looks like Phil’s car,” A

“Are you sure?” Winsome asked.

“It can’t be. He told me he was still in London.”

Winsome stopped before turning into Banks’s drive. “Shall I follow it?”

A

Winsome turned into Banks’s drive, and ahead she and A

“Call the fire brigade,” A

A

A

Winsome had her car door open by now, mobile still in her hand. “What are you doing, Guv?” she yelled. “You can’t go in there. You know you can’t.”

“Did you ring?”

“Yes. They’re coming. But you-”

A

Locked.

“Guv!”

Rearing back, she kicked at the area around the lock. It took her three tries, and it hurt her foot like hell, but she succeeded in the end. The door flew open and the fire surged, as she had expected. She heard Winsome shouting behind her against the roar of the flames, but she couldn’t stop now. She took a deep breath and rushed inside. She had only seconds, if that.

The smoke was thick and the petrol fumes seeped through the blanket she had wrapped around her mouth and nose. As soon as she was inside, A

The flames roared and smoke billowed. A painting fell off the wall and the glass smashed. A

Then she saw him, just a leg, through the smoke down on the floor near the table. She rushed over to him. No time for subtleties, now, A

Banks banged his head on the leg of the table as A

Then she felt herself bodily lifted and practically thrown across the lane. As she landed unceremoniously in the mud, she was able to rub her eyes and see Winsome finish the job, drag Banks’s body out of the doorway to safety. A

Winsome was outside the cottage now, and a few more feet would free Banks from the flames. His head bounced down the steps. A

Finally, Winsome set Banks down a few feet from the cottage and hurried over to A

“You all right, Guv?”

“I’m fine,” said A

“That was a bloody stupid thing to do, if you don’t mind my saying so.”

“Alan…?”

“I don’t know, Guv. It took all I had to get the two of you out of there.”

A