Martin Edwards - I Remember You

Flames licked at the building, greedy as the tongues of teenage lovers. They curled out from the windows above the shopfront and up to the gutters, fierce in their hunger, intent on conquest.

The smell of burning filled Harry Devlin’s sinuses. Smoke stung his eyes and the back of his throat.

‘Don’t even think of going in there.’

‘For the love of Jases,’ said Finbar Rogan. ‘What d’you think I have for brains? I’d not try to force my way inside if the missus herself was trapped the other side of that door.’ He threw back his head and laughed. ‘Come to think of it, if she was — I’d be chucking in a match or two myself.’

A thunderous splintering of glass made them duck in a reflex of self-defence. Straightening up, Harry saw the first-floor panes disintegrate. He shielded his face as a thousand shards showered the paving all around.

Finbar cried out in pain and stumbled to the ground. Seeing blood trickle from a cut on the Irishman’s cheek, Harry didn’t hesitate. In a matter of seconds, he dragged Finbar back towards the shelter of a doorway on the other side of the street. There they leaned against each other for support, fighting for breath as the fumes leaked into their lungs.

The narrowness of Williamson Lane intensified the heat and Harry felt the skin of his face tingle. Finbar groaned and wiped the blood away with his sleeve.

‘Thanks for that, mate,’ he gasped. ‘So now we know what we’re in for when we go to Hell.’

‘Speak for yourself.’

‘Listen, you’re a solicitor. Even I have a better chance of Heaven.’

Harry couldn’t help grinning at his client. Even as his business blazed on this cold October night, Finbar showed no sign of fear or despair. He would always scoff at any unkindness of the Fates.

‘Are you all right?’

‘I’ll live to claim the insurance, don’t you fret.’

Never before had Harry witnessed at such close quarters the raging passion of a fire out of control. A dozen viewings of Mrs Danvers perishing in the ruins of Hitchcock’s Manderley had not prepared him for this; nor could he have imagined that the city centre could be so claustrophobic. He had a dizzy sense of everything closing in on him.

Disaster had begun to seduce late night Liverpool’s passers-by, excited by the sound and fury. ‘Better than Blackpool bloody illuminations!’ someone bellowed from the safety of the adjoining square.

The wail of a siren pierced the hubbub, growing louder as each second passed. Harry could hear the fire engines’ roar and saw people pressing back into the shadows, making way as first one, then another of the vehicles rounded the corner and pulled up with a shriek twenty yards away.

‘The cavalry,’ said Finbar.

Suddenly the place was teeming with firefighters. In their yellow headgear and drip pants, navy blue tunics with silvery reflective stripes and rubber boots with steel toe-caps, they might have been storm-troopers from a distant planet. They moved to a pre-ordained routine, running the hose along the ground, connecting it to a hydrant, waving the crowd back, roping off the end of the street. Harry and Finbar were the only spectators within fifty feet of the fire. A man whose white helmet marked his seniority hurried towards them.

‘Anyone left inside?’ His urgent tone held no hint of panic.

‘No one,’ Finbar called back. ‘Though I might have been in there doing my books if this feller hadn’t been due to buy the next round.’

The officer spoke into a walkie-talkie, ordering help from an appliance with a turntable ladder, keeping watch all the time on the spread of the fire.

‘You own the shop which sells leathers? Or the travel agents next door?’

‘No, I’m up above.’

The words on the blackened signboard at first-floor level were hard to decipher. The officer peered at them. ‘Tattooist’s studio, is that? You’re the feller I heard on Radio Liverpool this morning?’

‘The one and only. Liverpool’s Leonardo da Vinci.’ With boozy bravado, Finbar shrugged off his jacket and ripped open his shirt. On his chest was an extravagant, multicoloured image of a naked woman astride a horse. Her modesty was not quite saved by long dark tresses, and she seemed unaware of the exophthalmic scrutiny of a caricatured Peeping Tom.

‘I’ll gladly autograph you as a souvenir,’ he offered. ‘And if you can salvage the electric needles I keep up there, I’ll turn you into the Illustrated Man free of charge.’

The officer tipped his helmet back, a now-I’ve-seen-everything expression spreading across his face.

‘Thanks very much, but I’m pretty as a picture as it is.’

In the distance, a second siren howled its warning.

‘Here come the police,’ said Harry. Ruefully, he asked himself why, earlier that evening, he hadn’t refused Finbar’s invitation for a quick one. He knew the folly of becoming too closely involved with his clients and their misfortunes, yet it was a mistake he could never help making. If only he’d been taught at college the knack of remaining aloof, of concentrating on rules in books, instead of becoming fascinated by the people who broke them…

‘Anything combustible in there?’ demanded the fire officer.

Finbar bowed his head, momentarily abashed. ‘I had paint and thinners on the landing. Been planning to decorate. Early resolution for next New Year.’ He gazed up at the flame-lit heavens. ‘Sod’s law, eh? I should have left the dirt to hold the place together.’

‘What about the ceiling tiles?’

‘Polystyrene.’

‘Perfect. A fire trap, waiting for a spark. All right — wait here out of harm’s way while I take a gander.’

As the officer rejoined his men, a police car appeared, its lights flashing. One of its occupants raced towards the blaze, the other strode towards Harry and Finbar, waving his arms like a farmer directing sheep.

‘Move, will you? Don’t — hey, for Chrissake, it’s Harry Devlin! What are you doing here, pal? I thought you chased ambulances, not fire engines.’

Harry nodded a greeting. He knew Roy Gilfillan of old.

‘Where there’s a disaster, there’s sure to be a solicitor. Finbar’s a client. We were having a pint in the Dock Brief, putting the world to rights, when some bloke burst in and said a building in Williamson Lane had gone up in flames. We dashed over and it turns out to be — ’

Another siren interrupted him and he swung round to watch the arrival of the turntable while Roy Gilfillan marched over to his colleague, who was conferring with the fire officer outside the entrance to Finbar’s studio. Harry noticed the Irishman’s eyes slide away from the fire to a couple of girls in the crowd behind them, blondes en route for a nightclub who had paused to goggle at the inferno. Finbar winked at them and was rewarded by smirks of encouragement. Even at a time like this he was incorrigible.

‘Do you need to call Melissa?’ asked Harry, hoping to lead Finbar away from temptation. ‘Tell her what’s happened?’

‘No problem. She’s not neurotic, not like Sinead, doesn’t make a fuss when I tell her to expect me when she sees me. I’m not a train, I don’t run to timetables.’

‘Neither does InterCity, but at least it stays on the rails most of the time.’

Finbar chuckled. ‘Truth to tell, I’ve a lot on my plate already, so far as the fair sex are concerned — even leaving Sinead and her bloody alimony demands aside. I bumped into a girl I used to know only this morning. A lovely lady. I reckon I might be able to persuade her to rekindle the flame — ’scuse the phrase, in present circumstances. And then there’s Melissa … Jases!’