Up in Flames Read Online Free Page B

voice took on that irritating lecturing tone that Casey knew so well ‘Such injuries can be caused by fire. Intense heat, such as occurred here, can subject the soft tissue to splitting. The skull is particularly vulnerable to such damage as the bone is so closely underlying the skin.’ In an aside presumably not intended to sound macabre but nonetheless managing to make Casey’s skin crawl, he added. ‘I’ve seen corpses where the heat build-up in the head causes the skull to explode.’
                  Casey grimaced. Catt, too, looked a bit green. He pulled a face as they exchanged glances. The pathologist went on to tell them that, as usual, any definitive answers would have to wait till the post mortems.
                  Dr Merriman directed the photographer to take more pictures of the cadaver on the floor. Just then, Casey and Catt were called away by Constable Anderson, one of the uniformed officers he had directed to search for discarded accelerant containers.
                  As he led them through the rear entrance and out of the back gate, Anderson told them, ‘We’ve found a vacuum flask chucked amongst the rubbish in the alleyway. It still contains a small amount of what smells like petrol.’
                  Something positive, thought Casey as he quickened his step. ‘You didn’t touch it?’ he questioned.
                  Anderson shook his head. ‘No, sir. Besides, I had my gloves on.’ The young officer held white-gloved hands in the air as if looking for approval.
                  Casey nodded. ‘Good man. Get a photographer and one of the fingerprint team here.’ As Anderson  hurried away, Casey lowered his head and sniffed the contents of the red vacuum flask where it lay nestled within the open folds of a black, plastic bin liner. His nostrils flared as he caught the distinctive and pungent odour of petrol.
     

Chapter Three
    After the flask had been shot and tested for prints, it was bagged and tagged ready to be sent to the lab.
                  Casey commented quietly to Catt, ‘With Mrs Neerey’s claim that she smelt petrol shortly before she noticed the fire, plus Andy Simmonds’ conclusions, this is the clincher. Our arsonist is now a double murderer.’
                  Casey told a hovering Anderson to contact Sergeant Imry at the station and get an Incident Room set up. ‘And find a few spare bodies and start a house-to-house. Someone must have seen something.’
                  Casey paused for several seconds after the young officer, speaking into his shoulder radio, had hurried away up the alley. He gazed up at the warm, blue sky with its few cumulus clouds wafted by the soft breeze. His nostrils flared as he sniffed the air. The light breeze had changed direction and was blowing the smoke from the fire away from them, towards the centre of town. It smelled fresh and clean now, faintly scented with lavender — no doubt from Angela Neerey’s well-stocked garden. He sighed, then asked sadly, ‘What sort of person can set out, on such a day as this, armed with petrol and deliberately, callously, wantonly, destroy two young lives? What kind of creature could decide to kill on a day that should make you think only of the joys of life and its free and simple pleasures?’
                  Catt glanced up at Casey’s set face, noted the sooty-lashed eyes were at their most vivid green and attempted an answer. ‘Somebody mad. Somebody bad. Somebody dangerous to know.’
                  ‘Perhaps whoever did this was all three.’ Casey paused for a few seconds to absorb the horror. ‘While we’ve got a minute, tell me. I gather you managed to obtain the details of the victims’ family?’
                  Catt nodded. ‘The father’s name is Mr Rathi Khan. His wife’s Savitri Khan. They live about half-a-mile from here, in Great