The Fire (Hurricane Book 4)

by R. J. Prescott

  “He’s dealing drugs?” Con asked.

  “Looks like it. A few photos ain’t much to go on, but my guy will keep at it for a few more weeks, and when he’s gathered enough evidence together, we’ll take it to the police. I’ve asked him to install some CCTV in the gym and at each of your homes too. I don’t think that fecker is ballsy enough to come sniffing around this soon, but it ain’t never gonna be his word against one of our own again.” I knew he was talking about Evie, and I appreciated it. If there’d been CCTV inside the lobby of my building, Declan Murphy would be in prison for attempted rape now.

  “But seriously? What kind of jail time is he lookin’ at for possession? A few months? Maybe a year, if that?” Kieran pointed out.

  “The white bags are the exceptions rather than the rule. Most times when he meets up with people, he’s trading holdalls,” Danny explained.

  “Fuck!” Liam said. “I always knew he was into some dodgy shit, but supplying? How the fuck did he get into that?” I felt bad for him. Declan Murphy might be scum, but he was still Liam’s brother.

  There was silence in the room as we all contemplated this latest revelation. Then Liam spoke quietly.

  “Danny? Did you mean it about the apple not falling far from the tree?” he asked.

  “Kid, you may be an apple, but he ain’t your tree. I am. In every which way that matters, you’re my boy. Don’t ever let that shitty family make you feel anything but lucky that all you share with them is a name. Murphy is a good name. A strong name. It used to stand for something. Be proud of it, and make it mean something again.”

  I smiled at Liam encouragingly. He needed to hear that. Every time his arsehole family reared their ugly heads, it knocked him for six. Despite his size and strength, they took him back to a place in his head where he was a scared kid, beaten for being what he was born to be. No matter how hard he tried, it wasn’t easy to shake off the burden of their legacy.

  “Keep our heads down, carry on like normal, pretend you ain’t dyin’ and wait for Murphy to get arrested. Got it,” Kieran said, flippantly enough that Danny looked like he was about to rip him a new one.

  “Feckin smart arse,” Danny mumbled. “Now, have any of you lazy feckers got anything to add, or can we go back to actually doing some training today? Unless you want to see Con’s face plastered to the canvas, he’s gonna need it.” Con rolled his eyes, but smiled. He was built like a tank and never really stopped training. He could walk in the ring tomorrow and still keep his title.

  “I didn’t trick her,” I said.

  “Come again?” Danny asked.

  “Evelyn. You said I manage to trick myself a pretty girl, but I wooed her with my wood.”

  “He means he built her a bookcase,” Kier explained, chuckling along with the rest of the boys.

  “In my day we just bought flowers. Kids today just made everything so feckin’ complicated,” Danny said, mumbling away as he shuffled back to his office. We all looked at each other and laughed, and for one brief moment, everything felt normal again.

  Chapter Thirty

  EVELYN

  A few days had passed since I’d seen Mam and things were a little better. Tommy was far from his usual happy-go-lucky self, but he was making an effort to pretend everything was normal for Danny’s sake; they all were.

  “Glass of prosecco Ev?” Em asked, holding up the bottle. It had been a rough couple of weeks and Tommy was off shift, so we’d met up with the guys at Con and Em’s house for the evening. The boys were in the media room watching some pay-per-view fight on the big screen, and the girls and I were listening to music and catching up.

  “Yes please,” I replied, holding up my glass. Of all the drinks I’d tried since meeting Tommy, prosecco was the one I enjoyed the most. Unfortunately, it also went to my head. When I explained that to Tommy, he told me that cheap drunks were his favourite kind. Perhaps it wasn’t just the alcohol that went to my head. It was the freedom. Being intoxicated invited a level of vulnerability I wasn’t comfortable with. With Tommy, I always knew I was safe and taken care of. His love was like the cloak of invisibility. I didn’t need to see it to know it was there.

  “Where are the kids?” I asked as Em sat down to join Marie and I.

  “They’re upstairs,” she explained. “They sleep through the night now, so rather than disturb them or pay a babysitter, it’s easier for Marie, Kieran and Jack to stay here.”

  “Do the kids share a cot?” I asked.

  “Have you seen the size of our babies?” Marie replied, laughing. “They’d have crush injuries in the morning. No, Em has a travel cot, so we’ve put Jack in that, but he’s in the nursery with Little D. We’ve never done that before, so I’m hoping they don’t wake each other up.”

  Just then a snuffle and a muttering of gibberish sounded through the baby monitor. A second later, came an equally nonsensical response and then both babies went quiet. All we could hear was the sweet, rhythmic sound of their breathing.

  “That is the cutest thing ever,” Marie said, putting her hand over her heart.

  “Little D was talking in his sleep, and Jack answered him in his,” Em explained, and I had to agree with Marie that was pretty cute. It was my secret dream to one day be a mother, surrounded by a big family of my own.

  “You’re drinking?” Marie said, looking at Em in shock as she poured herself a glass.

  “Yep,” Em replied. “No more breast feeding. Dan’s moved completely on to the bottle. To be fair, I think he’s been ready for a while, but I’ve been hanging on because I’ll miss that closeness with him. Still, here’s to enjoying a guilt-free glass with good friends.” We all clinked our drinks together in a mini toast of female solidarity. When Tommy came into my life, I never imagined his friends would welcome me into their circle so freely. It was just another blessing among countless many.

  Chatting together over a bottle of wine was relaxing and effortless. Despite being the only one of the three of us without children, I never felt excluded. Mostly, they told me funny or heart-warming stories about Tommy, and I imagined what a little hellion a mini Tommy would be.

  “Excuse me,” Em said, as her phone buzzed. She picked it up and scrolled through, frowning immediately.

  “That’s odd. It’s an alert telling me the fire alarm is going off at the gym.” She stood and headed hurriedly towards the media room. Sharing a worried look with Marie, we put our glasses down and raced after her to the media room, where she was updating Con.

  “Don’t panic love. It’s a new system and it’s probably really sensitive,” Con reassured her, rubbing her back in comfort as she hunched over her phone.

  “You’re right. I’ll bet Danny forgot we’d had it installed and thought he’d sneak a cigarette,” she replied.

  “Danny’s there?” Con asked. He stopped rubbing and went stock still as he waited for her reply.

  “Yeah. I’d been falling behind with the books since Little D got that cold, and he was going to stay behind tonight to catch me up so I could run payroll tomorrow.” She was distracted as she spoke and I wondered what she was looking for.

  “Con!” she cried, looking from her screen to her husband, her white face a picture of terror.

  “Fuck! It’s not a false alarm,” Con said. He threw the phone to Kieran and looking over Tommy’s shoulder at it, I could see they’d been looking at a camera feed. All the boys jumped to their feet and Tommy pulled out his phone and started dialling.

  “I’m sure he got out, but me and the boys need to check.” Con said. “You stay here with the girls, lock the doors and set the alarm. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” His instructions gave me chills. The mere fact that he’d mentioned locks and alarms was testament to his belief that the fire was no accident.

  “Gav, you on your way to the Driscoll Gym fire?” Tommy said into his phone. I had no idea who he was talking to, but covering the mouthpiece he kissed me quickly and whispered a “stay here, I’ll be back soon,” before char
ging out of the door with the other guys. Engines gunned to life and tyres squealed on the driveway in a flurry of noise and activity, before we were left all alone. Marie and I looked at each in disbelief. Worried for Danny, our guys and Em, we were fish out of water.

  “I’ll put some tea on,” I suggested, and Marie nodded in agreement as she sat down next to Em, throwing a comforting arm around her shoulders. It felt rather intrusive, opening all the cabinets in their beautiful kitchen, but eventually I found what I was looking for. I made three cups of tea, added them to a tray with a sugar bowl and a spoon, and carried it back to the girls.

  “Why would you do that?” Em cried down the phone, as I walked into the room. Setting down the tray, I handed an anxious-looking Marie her drink and sat down opposite. Wrapping my cold hands around my own mug, I sent up a silent prayer for Danny’s safety and listened helplessly as Em fell apart.

  “Please, please turn it back on,” she pleaded. “I can be patient, but I need to see what’s happening.”

  I guessed the deep voice on the other end of the line was Con’s, though I couldn’t hear what he was saying.

  “Fine! But be careful and promise you’ll call me as soon as you find him,” she said, belligerently. To hear any anger in Em’s voice was startling. She was one of the kindest, gentlest people I’d ever met and I guessed whatever Con had done must really have pissed her off. Hanging up the phone, she tossed it on the sofa next to her in absolute disgust.

  “He called the security company and had them cut the live feed from the security cameras to my phone,” she explained.

  “Why would he do that?” Marie asked. Con did everything he could to shield his wife from any kind of upset. He had to have known that cutting the security feed would drive her crazy.

  “If Danny is in there, he doesn’t want me seeing him stretchered out. Or worse I guess,” she replied quietly. It was hard trying not to imagine what the worse things could be. I wanted to comfort her, but I couldn’t find the words. In my head I was back at the library, surrounded by fire and suffocated by smoke. The only time I’d ever been more frightened, was when the man I loved had been in the same position. I could only pray that Danny had either left before the fire started, escaped, or had been knocked out by the smoke. The idea that he might be trapped, suffering and in pain was unbearable.

  “He wants to protect you, and I’m not sure he’s wrong.” Marie said. “Whether you see the footage or not, you’re going to worry. But there are some things you can’t un-see. You know the guys won’t leave us hanging needlessly. As soon as they have some news, we’ll be the first to know,” Marie reassured her.

  We drank our tea in silence. All of us ignoring Em’s shaking hands by unspoken agreement. It was hard not to worry about Tommy. I knew his instinct when he got there would be to rush in and look for Danny. If the firefighters were still searching the gym when he arrived, he’d feel helpless and frustrated having to watch from the side lines. I was just glad he wasn’t working that night. I couldn’t imagine he’d take orders or think objectively about his own safety when Danny was in danger. He reassured me constantly that a good part of a firefighter’s life was spent doing drills, prepping equipment and training. But since I’d known him, he’d gone from one dangerous fire to another.

  “It’s hard to believe there’s another fire in Canning Town,” I said, not really realising I’d spoken out loud.

  “This must be the fifth or sixth one,” Marie added. “There was an article in the paper the other day about how all these big fires were deliberate. They think the way they were started links them to one arsonist.”

  “Tommy told me the Fire Authority believes the information was leaked by a firefighter,” I added. “Only someone on scene would’ve known the kind of details that were in the article.”

  “Unless the journalist overheard something he shouldn’t have.” Marie replied. “You know reporters are always hovering around when something bad happens. Trying to be the first to get a juicy headline.”

  “How did they start?” Em asked, quietly. I shared another look with Marie. Neither of us wanted to add fuel to the fire of her imagination, but she was an adult. If she wanted to know, she deserved to be told.

  “A Molotov Cocktail started the fires, but the buildings were prepped first,” I explained, recounting what Tommy had told me. “Sprinkler systems de-activated, fire doors propped open. In the leisure centre fire, they even dragged mats into the office and main hall and dowsed them with an accelerant.”

  “Why do that?” Marie asked, confused.

  “Nothing much to burn there,” Em guessed, and I nodded. “I don’t understand why the same person would target Driscoll’s though?”

  “It can’t be the same person.” I said, grimly. “Tommy told me they caught the arsonist. It was some developer who had the contract for the reconstruction of those buildings under the Canning Town Restoration Project. He was going bankrupt and he needed to speed up the work to save his business. I don’t know why they didn’t mention in the article that they’d caught someone, but maybe the police were keeping it quiet until he’d been charged.”

  “Could it have been an electrical fault, or a heater that started the fire?” Marie asked.

  “No,” Em replied, vehemently. “We had all the electrics replaced and signed off when we did the re-fit. The decoration wasn’t changed, but the internal structure was all completely sound. New electrics, hard-wired smoke alarms, fire doors, the lot. Liam oversaw everything.”

  “Maybe Tommy will have an idea when he talks to the guys he works with,” I suggested. “They’ll probably tell him stuff they wouldn’t tell us.”

  “Shit! My laptop,” Em said, and ran out the room. A few minutes later she rushed back in, sat down quickly and booted it up.

  “After you were attacked Ev, Danny wanted to up security, so O’Connell paid a security company to fast track the installation of a state of the art CCTV system at the gym and each of our homes. It records feeds from multiple cameras, and saves it for thirty days before deleting it. He might’ve cut my live feed, but I should be able to check back over the pre-recorded stuff,” she explained.

  “He had it installed at Tommy’s place too?” I asked, surprised.

  “Of course, didn’t Tommy tell you? They put it in the front of the building, the communal area and outside your front door. I imagine they were supposed to get permission from the Building Management Company, but Tommy told them to just do it.”

  “Thank you,” I replied. I hadn’t known about it, but I was grateful. It must’ve cost the O’Connells a small fortune to do that, but it would definitely make me feel safer.

  Em didn’t respond, but she was completely engrossed in what she was doing. Moving to sit next to her on either side, Marie and I stared at the screen while she pulled up the footage. Entering in the time and date she wanted to view, the screen took a couple of seconds to load before six boxes appeared showing separate camera feeds. She fast-forwarded through slowly until something appeared on the periphery of one of the camera views.

  “There!” Marie said, pointing out what I’d seen. Rewinding back a couple of minutes, we watched as a dark figure of a large man approached what was labelled on the screen as the back door. Leaving, he came back a few seconds later with a heavy looking battering ram, the type I’d seen police use on television shows to carry out raids. He stood there for so long, looking about as though he was searching for someone, I couldn’t help but wonder what he was waiting for.

  When the security light outside the gym and all of the lights inside went black, we knew. Whoever this was, they weren’t working alone. Immediately, the footage changed and you could see everything that would normally be invisible to the naked eye.

  “Night vision,” Em mumbled, though I didn’t know if she was talking to us or herself. “They cut the power to the building before they broke in.” Sure enough, seconds later the door burst open.

  “If they cut the power, it
explains why the burglar alarm didn’t go off,” Marie said.

  “The alarm is on a separate circuit. It wouldn’t have been affected. The reason why it didn’t go off is that it hadn’t been set yet. Danny was still there.”

  The two men used torches to find their way up to the second floor where the gym was located. When they both passed directly in front of a camera, I could see each of their faces clearly.

  “Oh my God,” I said, my hands flying to my mouth. “That’s Stuart and Declan Murphy!”

  The images we saw would stay with me for the rest of my life. As Danny tried to feel his way around the office in the dark, they shoved a wedge under the door, then pulled mats up against it and dowsed them in liquid from a petrol canister. Deep in the pit of my stomach, I knew what would happen next. Making a split second decision I slammed the laptop shut.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Em cried out in horror.

  “We need to call the police. NOW,” I replied. “They’re probably long gone from the gym, but you have evidence that the police can charge them with. The fire service is already on scene. There’s nothing you can do to help Danny. But you can stop these arseholes from getting away with it. Call the police and have them arrested, because if your husband and the rest of the boys find out about this before they’re taken into custody, the Murphys are as good as dead. Not that I care whether they live or die, but I do care about our boys.,”

  “You’re right,” she said, and passing the laptop to me, stood up, presumably to look for a phone.

  “Wait,” Marie said, holding up a hand. “Evelyn has a point, but if we call the police at this time of the evening, it will take ages for someone to get here. What about that police officer friend of Danny’s? The one who helped me when I had all that trouble?”

  “We’ll try him first, and if he doesn’t answer, we’ll call the police,” Em agreed. They walked hurriedly out of the room, but I didn’t follow. Instead, I opened up the laptop and pressed play. Holding back the bile rising in my throat, I watched as the monsters saturated everything flammable they could find, used fire extinguishers to prop open fire doors and then a Molotov Cocktail to set fire to the whole thing before fleeing.