The Fire Man by Iain Adams Read Free Book Online Page A

said McRae, ‘you’re right. No sign of any container, but there is so much crap about that it could be anywhere. Anyway, when I went through the stock, some of the dresses at the bottom of the piles had a really strong odour of some form of accelerant. Anyway, Steve will be able to tell us what it was, no doubt. The other thing that bothered me was the quality of the stock. God knows I’m no expert, but some of it didn’t strike me as being quite as upmarket as Mr Kanelos implied. What do you reckon?’
    â€˜Not a clue,’ said Cairns, ‘I didn’t pay much attention to the stock, to be honest, but I can tell you that some of the forklifts seemed past their best. It was a bit hard to tell, with the extent of the smoke. Appeared to be a load of lock-stitch and other types of sewing machines in one corner of Bay A as well, which I couldn’t understand the necessity for.’
    â€˜So, what do you reckon for the reserves?’
    â€˜Mmm,’ Grim murmured, leafing quickly through his annoyingly neat site notes. ‘My first thoughts are about £1.5 million for the building and somewhere around half a million for the plant. What about the stock?’
    â€˜Well, if we believe Kanelos, the stock stood at £8 million last Friday and I don’t reckon there is more than a few hundred grand’s worth of salvageable material, if that. So effectively, we must be looking at an overall £10 million reserve, plus fees. So, let’s say £10.5 million to be on the safe side.’
    â€˜CFG are going to be sick.’
    â€˜Absolutely, but the main thing is how we tell them. It’s obvious to me that we need to fix an appointment with that claims manager, Smyth.’
    â€˜Smythson… Derek Smythson,’ interrupted Grim.
    â€˜Okay, Smythson… Anyway, we need a meeting with him mid-morning and it needs a decent report, plenty of photos and us looking totally on the ball.’
    â€˜Us?’
    â€˜Yes. Us, we have to look credible. If I show up alone, we may look a little lightweight, don’t you think? One man band? The sodding nobility usually roll up with a complete bloody army of techies on their major jobs.’
    â€˜Fair point, but it’s gone seven now and we haven’t even got back to the office – let alone started the report!’
    â€˜Best get cracking then,’ said McRae, draining the remains of his lager. ‘You’d better tell Moira not to expect any nookie c’est sois.’
    â€˜Actually, I think I’d better stay at your place tonight. We’re going to be seriously late and I may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb or whatever they say.’
    â€˜Fine, let’s get out of here.’
    By the time the pair had arrived back at Castle Street, it was 7.30pm. The basement car park had been secured for the night, so McRae took a chance and left his car on a side street where the parking limitation had ended. He was a little uneasy about leaving the Audi parked in this part of Birmingham late at night, but it couldn’t be helped. While he let himself into the main communal doors to the office block using his out-of-hours pin code, Grim wandered off out of hearing range to make his apologetic call to his wife.
Bet she’s as good as gold about it,
conjectured McRae enviously. Not for the first time, he envied his colleague. Moira was what he would consider a truly ideal wife. He wasn’t personally attracted to the woman, but he couldn’t help admiring what he considered to be her essential qualities. Of course, his view from the outside was flawed, but it seemed to him that she really was a domestic goddess. Sensuous, attractive, hard-working, good-humoured; she never, ever nagged and – was a great cook to boot. She definitely deserved someone better than Grim; someone more like himself, really. Strange that he always attracted the difficult type. He must, he concluded, be a masochist.