Midnight Fugue (41 page)

Drugi carefully wraps Gidman’s fingers around the glass. For a moment he summons enough strength to hold it, then it slips out of his grasp and the contents spill over the duvet. Now the Pole moves away from the bed and takes out a lighter.

‘Matches, Drugi. Don’t you know a good cigar should always be lit with a match — isn’t that right, Goldie?’

‘I don’t have matches, Magda,’ says the Pole.

‘Oh well. Can’t have everything, can we? The lighter then.’

The young man flicks on the lighter and puts the flame to the cigar.

‘One last thing, Goldie,’ says Maggie. ‘About Dave. Fortunately I think he’s got more of Flo in him than you. Time will tell. Anyway, I’ll take more care of him than you took of Mr and Mrs Janowski’s child. I might even be able to help him fulfil all the aspirations you had for him. If he can keep his dick in his pants, that is. But I’ll do my best, I promise.’

Gidman’s eyes close. Maggie nods at Drugi.

He draws on the cigar till the end glows red, then he tosses it on to the duvet.

For a moment nothing happens. Then there is a gentle swoosh and a blue flame plays around the cigar, turning to yellow as the duvet catches fire.

The woman and two men open the door, drag in Slingsby’s unconscious body, and drape it over the end of the bed. Already the duvet stuffing is producing a choking grey smoke.

The trio walk down the stairs and out of the house.

‘Magda, we should not hang about,’ says Kuba.

‘Go, go. You don’t want to meet the fire engines coming in.’

‘We will see you tomorrow?’

‘Oh yes. I expect I’ll be round at Dave’s flat, seeing you do a decent job this time. Dave’s going to be busy looking after his mom.’

In turn the two men kiss her on the cheek. Then they get into their old white van and drive away. Maggie returns to the house, goes into the control room and opens the gate for them. When the white van has passed through, she resets the DVR which she disabled before Drugi and Kuba arrived. The gate she leaves open for the fire engines.

The smoke is drifting down the stairs. Smoke alarms are going off all over the place.

She walks up the stairs, dialling 999. When she speaks, it’s an effort to make her voice sound agitated. As she talks, she is running her fingers through her hair, dishevelling her clothes. She wants to stink of smoke when the firemen and the police get here.

Gidman’s bedroom is an inferno. She stands and looks into the flames till the heat on her face becomes unbearable. Part of her mind is asking, does this make sense? Are you thinking straight? Is this the only way?

Too late now. She turns away and descends once more.

Outside, she breathes in deeply, letting the cool night air wash the taste of smoke out of her mouth. She looks up. In the black autumn sky, the crowding stars are shining so brightly that not even the undying electric glow of the great city stretching southwards for ever can put them out. Yet the astronomers assure us that many of them have been extinguished thousands of years ago.

Like our pasts, she thinks. The light is always behind, meaning that even the few steps we can see ahead into our dark futures are obscured by our own shadows.

She wonders how she’ll feel in the morning. She tries to peer into the darkness but the harder she looks, the darker it gets.

It doesn’t matter. At the moment she feels completely at peace with the universe.

She can hear sirens now. Soon in an oscillation of blue and silver light, with a glory like chrysanthemums, the great crimson engines will come sailing up the drive, casting bow-waves of gravel over Goldie’s precious lawns.

She moves forward to greet them.

REGINALD HILL
has been widely published both in England and the United States. He received Britain’s most coveted mystery writers award, the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, as well as the Golden Dagger for his Dalziel/Pascoe series. He lives with his wife in Cumbria, England.

The Stranger House

Fell of Dark

The Long Kill

Death of a Dormouse

Dream of Darkness

The Only Game

The Roar of the Butterflies

DALZIEL AND PASCOE NOVELS

A Clubbable Woman

An Advancement of Learning

Ruling Passion

An April Shroud

A Pinch of Snuff

A Killing Kindness

Deadheads

Exit Lines

Child’s Play

Underworld

Bones and Silence

One Small Step

Recalled to Life

Pictures of Perfection

Asking for the Moon

The Wood Beyond

On Beulah Height

Arms and the Women

Dialogues of the Dead

Death’s Jest-Book

Good Morning, Midnight

Death Comes for the Fat Man

The Price of Butcher’s Meat

JOE SIXSMITH NOVELS

Blood Sympathy

Born Guilty

Killing the Lawyers

Singing the Sadness