Doubt everything. Find your own light.
Gautama Buddha
Next morning, despite a buzz-saw hangover, Karl phoned his best friend, forensic pathologist Tom Hicks.
‘Tom? How’re things?’ Karl stationed his mobile between shoulder and ear, attempting to read the obituary page in the morning newspaper, killing the myth that men can’t multitask, at least some of the time.
Hicks’ voice sounded tired and raw. ‘Apart from dying with flu, migraines and backache, I’m still breathing. I haven’t been able to get out of bed in days. I can’t even–’
‘Okay, enough about you. Time is money. I need a bit of info, on the fire last week in the New Lodge, where the entire family died.’
‘The Reilly family? What about it?’
‘I’ve a client seriously doubting the official version. He’s the father of one of the victims. Was there anything strange, anything out of the ordinary, about the case?’
Karl could hear Hicks move slightly, as if trying to get comfortable in the bed.
‘Apart from some irresponsible person stacking over fifty bottles of propane gas beside a wall and causing an explosion?’
‘Apart from that, yes.’
‘I haven’t read the full report. Barney Blaney is standing in for me. But from what I did read and was able to discern, the fire started in the kitchen, or in the proximity to it, and was probably caused by a cigarette that wasn’t fully extinguished.’
‘Could the fire have been started maliciously?’
‘All things are possible, but let me give you a few statistics before you start making assumptions and getting yourself into trouble. Kitchens are the principal area of origin for home fires, and smoking is a leading cause of fire deaths. Eighty percent of all fire-deaths occur when people are asleep. Put alcohol into the mix, and you’ve an invite for disaster. Those are the hard facts, and appear to be cohesive in this scenario, as well as backing up Blaney’s report.’
Karl thought for a moment. ‘Do you rate Blaney’s judgement?’
There was a slight pause. ‘Well…he’s a highly qualified and competent pathologist. He knows his stuff. Foul play was ruled out, more or less.’
‘More or less?’ Karl added a suspicious tone to his voice.
‘Nothing has been conclusively established, because of the sheer ferocity of the fire caused by the explosion. The house practically disintegrated, along with the adjacent building, a grocery shop. Not all the bodies were accounted for, or what was left of them.’
‘Instantaneously vaporised, is one appalling explanation. Or pure incineration. Coupled with this were the gale-force winds that morning, and throughout the day, creating extreme conditions that would have hindered finding all particles from the bodies.’
‘I see…’
‘When you say it like that, you clearly don’t see at all. Look, if it makes your client feel better, ninety-nine percent of the time, friends and family are wracked with guilt at not having been able to prevent the unpreventable. They end up conjuring conspiracy theories about fires being started deliberately. Ninety-nine percent of the time they are wrong, of course.’
‘What about the other one percent, who are proven right?’
There was a five-second stony silence before Hicks replied.
‘That’s why they hire people like you, Karl, hoping to prove people like me wrong.’