Deborah Crombie
In A Dark House
The tenth book in the Duncan Kincaid / Gemma James series, 2004
To the memory of Fleur Lombard
Who died in the line of duty
February 4, 1996
Avon Fire Brigade, England, U.K.
Why have you suffer’d me to be imprison’d,
Kept in a dark house…
– William Shakespeare,
Twelfth Night
1
London… Smoke lowering down from chimney-pots, making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snowflakes – gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun.
CHARLES DICKENS
Bleak House
It took no more than a match, nestled beneath the crumpled paper and foil crisp packets. The flame smoldered, then flared and crackled, and within seconds tongues reached out for the bottom layer of furniture stacked so conveniently on the ground floor of the old warehouse. Nothing burned like polyurethane foam, and the cheap chairs, sofas, and mattresses removed from the flats on the upper floors of the building were old enough not to have been treated with fire retardants.
A gift. It was a gift. He could hardly have asked for more if he had assembled the ingredients for a perfect fire himself. The furniture would generate enough heat for flashover, then the old wooden floorboards and ceiling joists would blaze with a beautiful fury. The fire would take on a life of its own, separate from its creator.