Page 4 of Their Burning Graves
He shook his head.
‘They had bloody stumps where their hands should be. I didn’t know what I was seeing or what to do, but I knew enough that this wasn’t because of the fire and that they were clearly dead. I couldn’t see their hands anywhere, but I didn’t really look. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I backed out and waited on the street for Fire to arrive. I took…’ He broke off again and lowered his head, his cheeks turning a deep shade of red.
‘You took?’ Morgan was smiling at him.
‘I took a couple of photos, to show you. I’m sorry, I know it sounds like I was being a right weirdo, but I wanted the police to see them in case the fire took hold of them. I should have dragged them out, I know that, but I was a bit scared in case I got caught up in the fire and, well, there wasn’t anything I could do to save them. They were already dead.’
Morgan wanted to high five the guy for using his initiative but knew that it would look totally inappropriate. ‘There was nothing you could do, but taking the photos is really helpful. Could we see them, please?’
He stood up and, pulling a shiny new iPhone out of his pocket, he passed it to them.
Ben took it from him, while Morgan looked at the screen and felt a stab of fear squeeze her heart. She leaned over, pinching two fingers on the screen to zoom in, and looked in horror at the people sitting around the table, their faces distorted by the plastic bags. She was sitting so close to Ben that she felt his body stiffen as she moved the picture along the screen to see an auburn-haired woman, who he clearly knew, her face contorted in fear or pain, more than likely both. She swiped to get to the next picture, a close-up of the table, which was covered in blood, and noticed that they were all missing their right hands.
‘Where are their hands?’
Ben passed her the phone, and she looked up at Luke. ‘Did you take any more, and can you confirm who these people are?’
He shook his head. ‘No, the smoke was beginning to seep under the door, and I’ve got to admit I was panicking a lot. I’ve never felt so scared and helpless in my life. As you can see their faces are distorted and not very clear underneath the plastic bags, but I’ve been friends with David for years. That is definitely David Lawson, his wife, Sally, and their son, Tim.’
Morgan would have been panicking too. Ben had turned his face away from them and was staring out of the window across at the house.
‘Luke, I’m so sorry, I’m going to have to seize your phone because it has evidence on it, and we’re going to have to get it downloaded so we don’t compromise it.’
She expected him to put up an argument, say absolutely not, they couldn’t have it. Phones were the thing people were the most protective of. He nodded his head docilely though.
‘Of course, I understand. I only got this yesterday so I still have my old one I can use. I’m afraid it’s not very exciting, it’s just full of family pics, food, nights out, you know the stuff.’
She smiled at him. ‘We only need to download the evidential photos, nothing else. You can have it back when we’re done. We really appreciate it, don’t we, Ben?’ Morgan had no idea if this was true or if they would have to keep hold of it indefinitely, but she couldn’t tell Luke that.
Ben turned to look at her. ‘Ah, yes, of course we do. Appreciate your assistance.’
‘What if the person who did this comes back? What if they start picking off families one by one? This is a nice street and, oh God, I don’t want to sound as if I think I’m better than anyone. But we all paid a lot of money for these houses because it’s a nice street, because we don’t have neighbours who are partying and dealing drugs from the front garden, if you get my drift. We have street parties, summer barbeques, Christmas drinks, fundraising events. These are good people; I don’t know why someone would want to do this. To come into David’s home and kill his family then try to burn it to the ground; obviously they’re mentally ill, deranged. What if they decide to come after my family next? How do I keep them safe?’
Luke wasn’t shouting but his voice had risen significantly. Morgan understood completely, this was scary stuff. Someone had come into their nice middle-class community and ripped the heart out of it whilst they were all at home eating their evening meals. Luke’s questions snapped Ben out of his thoughts.
‘These are all valid questions, and we will do our best to answer them, but right now, at this moment, I can’t give you the answers you need because we know very little about the circumstances of what’s happened tonight. There will be officers on scene guard for the next few days, there will also be plainclothes officers on surveillance, and uniformed patrols paying close attention to the whole area. If you so much as see anyone loitering around who you think doesn’t belong, then you ring 999.’
‘So, you think they might come back?’
Ben shrugged. Morgan knew that arsonists liked to watch buildings burn and if the person who had done this was one, they could well have hung around or even come back once firefighters arrived. They didn’t know if their suspect was an arsonist though, or whether they had set the fire to cover their tracks. Either way whoever had done this had put a lot of thought into the crime, because it wasn’t easy to kill an entire family and chop off their hands.
FOUR
‘Luke, have you found out what’s happened?’
The woman’s voice called out from the front door.
A teenage girl burst into the room. ‘Dad, what’s happening to Tim’s house? Where’s Tim, is he okay?’
Luke looked at Morgan and she felt the weight of the world behind his expression. She stood up and nodded her head gently.
‘We’ll leave you to it, thank you for your help tonight, and we’ll be in touch as soon as we know anything more.’
The teenager was staring at the boot on Morgan’s foot, her ripped jeans and black bubble coat. Her eyes moved to Ben who looked a lot more like a detective than she ever would, with his smart suit and tie.
‘Who are you?’
‘Detectives, we’ve just been talking to your dad about the fire.’
