Meet Me at Wisteria Cottage. Teresa Morgan F.

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СКАЧАТЬ to get back in? She must be hungry now.’ Anxiety crept up Maddy’s back, stiffening her shoulders, but she tried to keep her hysterics in check. Did she have any more tears left to cry? ‘I should go and find her.’ She placed her glass on the counter, and as she moved, Harry held out his hand to stop her, blocking her way.

      ‘Wait!’ He clearly didn’t want her leaving the house. ‘Do you have a cat flap?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Well, hopefully she got out.’

      ‘But it’s in the kitchen! Oh, god, what will she do now? I usually keep her in at night.’

      ‘Shouldn’t cats be out at night?’

      This time Maddy rolled her eyes. ‘Everyone assumes this, but actually they’re more likely to get run over at night.’

      ‘Annadale Close is hardly the A30.’

      ‘And they do more damage to wildlife. Maybe I should go and look for her. She’ll be hungry.’

      ‘You are staying right here.’ His eyes glared, matching his firm tone. ‘I’ll go and look for her. And while I’m there I’ll have a chat to the fire brigade, to assess the damage to your house.’

      ‘She’s completely black, with one white paw.’

      ‘I know what she looks like.’ Harry sounded irked. He didn’t need to keep Maddy locked in his house, she was calmer now. The hysteria had ebbed away. Though she wanted to cry she was now holding it in around Harry. And the vodka was helping; he’d poured a very large measure.

      ***

      Harry locked Maddy in his house again, and went in search of her cat. He scratched his head, and rolled his shoulders, trying to relieve some of the tension out of his body. How had he managed to get involved with her problems?

      When he’d swept his neighbour off her feet, into a fireman’s carry, he really hadn’t thought things through. Maddy, now he knew her name, was not what he needed in his life. He wanted simplicity, quiet, solitude. Not a hysterical woman. Or house fires! Now he’d offered her a room for the night. It only has to be one night. What had he been thinking? For a start, he didn’t have a spare bed. Looks like you’re on the sofa tonight, mate.

      The look in his former colleague’s eyes, telling Harry to get the crazed woman out of the area and to let them work, had kicked his old firefighter instinct in. To help and protect, and calm the situation, that’s what led Harry to react the way he did – the only way he knew how. Grabbing her arms, and hoisting her, full firefighter carry, over his shoulder and into his house. It was almost prehistoric. It would have been if he’d hit her over the head with his club first. If he’d had one of course.

      Probably would have helped actually. She’d turned even more enraged by his actions. Kicking, screaming. Luckily he had the strength to hold her small frame though he probably was going to have a few bruises for his trouble. Fierce green eyes had glared at him when he’d set her down. Yep, definitely a witch.

      Now he was looking for her damn cat. Could his evening get any worse? Oh, the irony. The thing is, he’d seen the cat in the house when he’d left this morning. He hadn’t wanted to tell Maddy that piece of information. Had the thing had the sense to leave the house before the blaze caught? Cats had a sixth sense, didn’t they? Or was it just nine lives? However much he disliked cats, he hoped it was alive, and he would find it, because Maddy had been through enough tonight.

      With the smell of smoke still in the air, and firemen clearing up, reeling in the hoses, Harry could see the black scar of fire around Maddy’s kitchen window where the smoke had escaped. Some neighbours still milled around watching what was going on. Luckily, the small window at the top must have been left fractionally open on the safety latch. It had allowed the smoke to escape which had meant the fire was quickly detected, otherwise it might have gone on for longer without anyone realising. Guilt ate away at him. This was shit for Maddy. He’d seen the devastation over the years of people’s livelihoods and family possessions destroyed, never to be replaced. You couldn’t replace photos and memorabilia. He’d been the one to spot the fire and had called the emergency services. It looked like the kitchen had taken the worst of it, yet he feared her whole house would stink of smoke, and there would be a black layer of soot in places you wouldn’t dream of. Despite their differences, he knew he couldn’t have watched what was happening to Maddy from the sidelines and done nothing. What were neighbours for?

      And at least nobody had got hurt … unlike Karin …

      Don’t think about her now. He shook his head, unclenching his fists, shrugging off his dark thoughts.

      ‘Hey, Collins, what’s the damage?’ Harry called out to the fire officer in charge, jogging over to him. He wore a white helmet, while his colleagues wore yellow ones. His first name was Phil, but the guys of blue watch had nicknamed him Collins after the singer. He’d been caught singing in the kitchen while cooking for the watch one time and it had stuck.

      ‘Roses, good fellow.’ The two shook hands. ‘How are you doing? It’s good to see you.’

      ‘I’m good, thanks. Enjoying the landscape gardening.’

      ‘We were all sorry to see you go,’ Collins said. ‘But hey, you’ve got to do what’s right for you, huh?’ Harry smiled his agreement. ‘Did you get the damsel out of distress?’

      ‘Yeah, she’s a bit shook up but she’s safe in my house.’

      Collins chuckled. ‘It’s not like we haven’t seen it before. Anyway, the boys are surveying the damage and securing her back door and kitchen window. Tomorrow a team will be back to put our report together – you know the routine.’ Harry nodded. ‘But it looks like one for the police.’

      ‘Okay,’ Harry replied, frowning. Did he tell Collins what he’d seen? Would it get Maddy into trouble?

      ‘Did you see anything suspicious?’ Collins asked, as if reading Harry’s mind.

      ‘How do you mean?’ See what Collins had to say first.

      ‘I’m not supposed to say anything,’ Collins lowered his voice, ‘but it looks like it could have been arson. We could smell the mild scent of an accelerant. Do you think she …?’

      Harry shook his head. ‘No, no, she didn’t do this. She’s stressed about her paintings and her cat and all sorts. You saw how hysterical she was. Did you manage to contain the fire?’

      ‘Yes, most of the damage is in the kitchen. Good job we got the call as early as we did,’ Collins said. ‘Otherwise it might have been a different story.’

      ‘I made the call. I saw the smoke coming out of the gap in her kitchen window. In fact, I smelled it first.’ As quick as a Beagle could pick up a scent, Harry would always smell smoke at the slightest whiff. ‘Unfortunately I couldn’t get in, otherwise I’d have tried to stop it from spreading.’

      Collins nodded. ‘You did good calling when you did. Please don’t enter the house until the fire investigation officer has been. I suspect the police will leave someone outside all night to guard it as CSI won’t come till the morning now.’ Harry nodded back; he knew the procedure. ‘We’ll secure the back door for now the best we can, and tomorrow we’ll get it boarded up, so the house СКАЧАТЬ