Liar Liar

133

He had never been in the basement before, which added to the thrill. He had seen it on the building’s plans, which he’d ‘borrowed’ from his mother’s home office, but he had been wary of scoping it in advance for fear of drawing attention to what he was up to. It was unheard of for him to turn up at his parents’ place of work unannounced.

It was pitch dark and no amount of fumbling could locate the light switches, so Ethan pulled the heavy torch from his rucksack and clicked it on. As he did so, a broad smile spread across his face. Sometimes the apples really did fall into your lap. There were several pieces of discarded office furniture – mostly desks and chairs – which would provide adequate fuel, but the real gift was the huge amount of shredded paper that lay on the floor in loose plastic sacks. They would help to get the fire going and after that…

Ethan quickly set about moving the old bits of furniture to the centre of the room, using his hips to shove the heavier pieces in the right direction. He knew from his mother’s plans that the base of the lift shaft was located here and that’s where he intended to make his fire. The flames would leap up the shaft, spreading quickly to upper floors while also taking the lift out of action as a means of escape. This fire would be the biggest one yet and he couldn’t wait to see it. He could feel his fingers tingle as the excitement grew.

When he’d first rehearsed this climax to their project with Naomie, she had raised objections. Too much collateral damage – meaning the seven other businesses that occupied this sizeable building. But that made it all the better in his view. By the time the dust settled, everybody would know that his parents were to blame. These deaths would be on their conscience and while his father mourned his mother, he would have plenty of time to contemplate that.

As planned, there would be no diversionary fires today. There would be no warning of this attack. Ethan walked back now to gather the shredded paper, then suddenly jumped like he’d been shot. A piercing alarm rang out, long and loud, echoing around the dingy brick basement.

‘What the fuck… ?’

This had to be a joke. It had to be. They couldn’t be having a fire drill today. He’d checked his mother’s diary. Fire drills were on the first of the month, regular as clockwork. What cosmic fuck-up could make them have one today… ?

Now a thought seized him. There was a chance, of course, that this alarm wasn’t a coincidence. That somehow they knew. Naomie wouldn’t have said anything – he was sure of that – and he had only posted his most recent offering an hour or two ago, but even so…

Now Ethan was on the move. Something told him that Helen Grace was here. That for the first time since this started she was ahead of him. And now he wasn’t thinking of fire.

He was thinking of flight.