BOILER

Chapter 34

He was exhausted. He was hot. He smelled like fire. He didn't want a cigarette. He damn near crawled back up to his desk at control where a phone one floor below him was being used to give up everything he knew. The captain and Bill were in the office and talking quite loudly. The secretary was typing away at something. Another part of the ceiling had come down where damp was flowering through the plaster. He watched the secretary a while longer and took his phone of the hook. He was discreet about it. He dialled the number for downstairs and let it ring a while. He hung up and left the handset resting off the hook. May called him from the front of the office.

'What?'

'Come on,' she said. 'It might be worth it.'

'Yeah?'

'I think so.'

She brought him into the records room almost by the hand. 'I got the file on Annabelle,' she said. Toland went back to shut the door and saw the secretary walking to the stairs.

'Where are you going?'

'Just going out for a sandwich.'

'With no coat?'

The secretary looked down at his ironed shirt. 'Oh yeah, I better get one.'

Toland shut the door and waited for the secretary to walk by again. He listened to him go down the stairs quickly, and then he heard one solid, deliberate step as the secretary hit on the landing below. He opened the door slowly and went to the top of the stars and heard a door open. He knew which one.

'What are you doing?' May asked. Toland didn't answer. He thought about the fact there was a man downstairs with at least some of Charlie's blood on his hands. Not all of it, though. Not enough. He came back and shut the door again. He took a seat and thought about what to do with the secretary.

'So, what is it?' he asked, trying to stir himself.

'Well, I had a little look through, just to be nosy, you know?'

She was walking around and turning through the file. 'Well, look what I found.'

She held the file open. Witness statements. 'Kyle Grant,' Toland read, and he read through a lot of question and answer. Kyle did most of the talking.

Kyle Grant: There's a guy called Pottinger who's been staying up at the park for a few months now. He works as a sort of ranger — he works with the mining companies, keeping their guys safe from the wildlife around here and all that. So, if there's a wolf or something that's getting brave, or causing trouble then he goes and takes care of it. But the guy is a creep. Annabelle has been scared of him ever since he got there. She used to call me crying because he'd send her these sick notes, telling her all the things he wanted to do to her. Any time he sees me and her together, he just — I can't explain it, but he's got this look that just turns you cold.

The interviewer spoke. Israel Pottinger, right?

Right.

You're not the first to mention him. And we have been looking for him, but nothing's turned up yet.

Well, look harder man. Cause I'm telling you, if anybody could've done this, I would bet my life it's him.

'Jesus,' Toland said. He found the file section marked Pottinger. There were a host of follow-ups that were all dead-ends and a footnote that read: Wanted for questioning.

He went back to Kyle's statement and got the plot number again. Forty-two.

He shut the file and looked at May. 'Thank you,' he said. 'That's good work.'