Кара Хантер - No Way Out

At 01.15 WM Rigby was appointed Fire Investigation Officer. At 02.45 SM Lowe reported back to Control as follows: `њSevere fire in right-hand rear ground floor, leading to significant structural collapse above. Fire and smoke damage to rest of property. One child fatality, and one casualty. One firefighter suffering slight smoke inhalation treated at scene. Eight breathing apparatus wearers, four hose-reels, one strike jet and PPV fan in use. Incident remains Offensive and to be left open `“ cause currently unknown `“ awaiting SOCO.`ќ

Casualty / Fatality Information Name Age Type of Injury / Treatment at Scene / Receiving Hospital Treatment or Check-upZachary Esmond 3 Fatality Matthew Esmond 10 Casualty. Hospitalised at JR. Subsequently deceased CONSTRUCTION AND OCCUPANCY DETAILS Type of PremisesSingle-occupancy house Use of PremisesFamily home Construction `“ External wallsBrick Construction `“ RoofPitched tiled Internal wallsBrick No. of Floors3 Age of Construction1909 Occupied at time of fire ✓ Yes By whom and by how many?

Two children discovered during course of fire, one deceased.

Remains of two adults discovered during excavation

Lifestyle of occupier Evidence of: Details: ✓Smoking Time of Last Cigarette:

Not known

Non-Smoking ✓Alcohol Consumption Drug use Address / Occupant(s) known to PoliceNo В GROUND FLOOR В SITTING ROOM (not to scale) FIRE SCENE EXAMINATION `“ EXCAVATION Date and time started Date and time Complete In attendance (add names) ◾ FIO

Paul Rigby

◾ CSI/SOCO

M Paice, D Thatcher (FRS), C Conway (TVP)

Excavation descriptionThe excavation process began approx 32 hours after the site was pronounced safe. Two floors had collapsed on the right-hand side of the building, which required the careful removal of debris and construction materials, in order to preserve forensic evidence. The remains of Mrs Samantha Esmond were discovered at approx 16:30 on 5/1/2018. The position of the body suggested she had been asleep in one of the smaller bedrooms on the top (2nd) floor, immediately above the seat of the fire. On the morning of 18/1/2018, the remains of an adult male were discovered in the sitting room (see floor plan). The body was badly charred and visual identification at the scene was not possible. Further excavation and investigation in this room revealed evidence of accelerant and the presence of a cigarette lighter belonging to Mr Michael Esmond. The burn patterns detected on the flooring and what remained of the furniture in the room indicated that the accelerant had been deployed by a single individual, moving across the room towards the door to the hallway. It was not possible to determine why the individual found in this room had not been able to exit safely. When the main front door was located there were no signs of forced entry (as was also the case in the rest of the house). How the fire spreadIgnition

The fire was started by the deliberate ignition of petrol accelerant on the floor, rug and adjacent furniture in the ground-floor sitting room.

Development

Due to the combustible rug materials on the floor and the dry and highly combustible Christmas decorations in the room, the fire development would have been swift and significant. The fire quickly spread through the ground floor and up the stairs, gaining in energy from the Christmas garlands used to decorate the wooden stair banisters.

No smoke detectors were fitted anywhere within the house.

Signed:Paul J RigbyDate:18/1/2018 Copies to:DSupt J Harrison (Thames Valley) DI A Fawley***

Baxter is the only one who wasn't at the post-mortem, but he did have a good excuse.

`Cracked that password, boss,' he says as soon as I get to the incident room. `The one for the email account. And the one for the home PC.'

A cheer goes up behind me and Baxter blushes, but he's chuffed all the same. `I leant on the Anthropology department IT guys and they eventually gave me the password he was using for his university emails. That turned out to be Xfile9781. The one for the private account is a variation of exactly the same letters and numbers.'

`So, what `“ he was some sort of sci-fi fan?' asks one of the DCs.

`More likely a Gillian Anderson fan,' says another with a nudge. `I mean, aren't we all.'

`Good try, lads,' smiles Baxter. `But it's actually an anagram. Xfile is an anagram of Felix. The name of the house.'

`And the number?' I ask.

`I'm guessing it refers to 1978,' says Baxter. `The year he was born. Just like with his phone.'

The house and him, locked together. Passwords can be so revealing.

`But the bad news,' continues Baxter, `is that there was sod all on the personal emails either. No evidence of a dodgy relationship, female or male.'

`No messages to Harry? None at all?'

He shakes his head. `Nowt. Esmond seemed to use it mainly for ordering stuff from Amazon and doing his Tesco order.'

God, this man is dull. Nothing about his life was as interesting as his leaving of it.

But Baxter's not done yet. `I went back and looked at his old passwords and turns out it's always the same `“ a different combination of Felix and 1978. Though he only put a password on the home PC for the first time in November. The last time he updated that was 2 January. Judging by the time, it must have been just before he left the house that morning.'

On his way to the meeting with Jordan, and the conference in London, and `“ as we know now `“ someone or some thing in Brighton. The timing can't be insignificant.

`So what's the password now?'

`Xlife9718. As in `њex-life`ќ. As in dead.'

It could just be a coincidence. But as I'm sure you know by now, I don't believe in coincidences.

29 October 2017, 2.48 p.m.

67 days before the fire

23 Southey Road, Oxford

`Everything OK?'

It's Sam, standing in the door of the study. Behind her, the wind is whipping through the bare branches. One is creaking against the roof above like a rusty violin.

Michael looks up and frowns. `It's the bill from the care home.'

Sam comes further in and goes to stand at his shoulder, staring at the screen.

`It's the extras that are doing it,' he says. `Hairdressing, chiropodists, eye tests. Where does it end?'

`Perhaps we should think about somewhere cheaper?' she says, tentatively. `Philip said `“'

`Philip said what?'

She flushes. `Only that she'd probably be happy anywhere where they were kind and she was warm and well fed. It's not as if she really knows where she is.'

She expects him to blow up at that, but he just sits there, staring at the screen.

`I know she's settled there, but if it's becoming a problem `“'

Her husband sits back in his chair. There are dark circles under his eyes. She wonders, suddenly, how much sleep he's been getting.

`There's enough in the savings account for this month, but after that `“'

He looks up; she's biting her lip.

`I was going to tell you,' she says.

`You were going to tell me what?'

`I've taken some money out of the savings account. Sorry. I should have said.'