LITMIR.BIZ

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and things she hardly understood herself. There were piss stains on the lino round the loo. She sat on the edge of the bath and phoned Terry.

      He answered groggily. It was four in the morning.

      ‘Someone petrol-bombed the house.’ She voiced the words with contempt.

      ***

      For a moment Terry was back at war. This was one of those exhilarating half panics, an occasion for leaping into action, grabbing a gun or jumping from a window. But there was no need. There were times in the past when he had been laughed at by comrades for cocking a pistol at the sound of a cat, once for risking his life by attempting a shot at the back of an army vehicle when the gun had not been loaded, and luckily the soldiers hadn’t seen him.

      He had only to drive to Damascus Street, pick up Kathleen and bring her home. Yet his senses were keen and his heart frantic. It was past dawn now and the sky was light – the perfect time to drive. He could ignore traffic lights that flipped through their settings automatically, without regard to the clear roads around them. There were a few spacers around the university, staggering drunkenly or drugged out of their heads. They might be clients in a few years, or applicants for jobs with his firm.

      As he turned into University Square, his phone rang again and he punched the button on his steering to answer it, thinking the call would be from Kathleen again.

      ‘Yes?’

      ‘Mr Brankin, it’s Sally Leeson. Your tenant in Stranmillis Avenue.’

      ‘What is it, Sally? Don’t you know what time it is?’

      ‘Mr Brankin, our house is on fire.’ She was crying now. ‘I think it was a petrol bomb.’

      Oh fuck! For a moment he was tempted to turn around and rush to Stranmillis Avenue. One attack could have been a mistake, something intended for a neighbour or a previous tenant. Two meant targeting, and he started sorting his thoughts around who might be responsible for this: someone with the wherewithal, someone who saw him as a problem and resorted easily to this kind of solution. In Belfast, that could be a lot of people.

      ‘Sally, call the police. Do it now! I’ll get back to you.’

      Then, thinking this was all too dramatic and abrupt for a young woman he hardly knew, he said, ‘I have another house burning in Damascus Street. I have to deal with that first.’

      He smelled the smoke and petrol in Damascus Street before he saw the black scorch marks around the window. There were lights on in the houses on either side, and in several other houses in the street, so he had to phone Kathleen to find out where she was.

      ‘Did you bring me any clothes?’

      Fuck, he thought, of course he should have brought her some clothes.

      He found her looking like a kid in the woolly jumper and jeans, and he smiled without being able to help it. There were real kids standing around watching them and he was annoyed by a sense that they expected something from him.

      ‘Come on, Kathleen. Let’s go.’

      ‘Terry, you have to thank these people for helping me.’

      ‘Yes, thank you everybody. Now, we have to go. The Stranmillis house has been attacked too.’

      Kathleen got into the passenger seat of his car, leaving her own car on the street, and the house, for now, open to the winds and any burglar. Terry ripped out of the street towards home. He went up the Lisburn Road at 80mph.

      ‘Aren’t you going to ask how I am?’ she asked.

      A fire engine overtook them, its siren screeching. Then another. As they turned into the estate, they saw a huge rope of smoke twist over the rooftops and fray. He knew what it was before he was in the street, because he’d worked out how much damage could be inflicted on him in one night. He stopped the car behind a fire tender and they stared at the flames curling out of their own downstairs living-room window. Her favourite furnishings were burning. His computer and Joe McWilliams paintings were burning. The kitchen was burning. Thick stinking smoke wrung a stench out of all the things they loved.

      And his mobile phone was ringing again.

      ‘Yes?’ he barked.

      ‘Mr Terry Brankin. This is the police at Donegall Pass. I believe you are the landlord of two adjacent properties on Dunluce Avenue.’

      ‘I suppose they are both on fire too?’ he said.

      ***

      Standing in the street in their separate rages, Terry and Kathleen made mental audits of all they had left in the world. Terry had an office in Bedford Street, for now, or hoped he had. Perhaps the fire bombers would have stayed away from security cameras there. He had a car and he had the casual clothes he was standing in. He had his wallet and credit cards in his pocket. Thank fuck for that, he thought. He also had a little cottage in Donegal, near Ardara, with basic kitchenware and bedding. In the garden of the cottage he had buried a police issue Ruger .357 pistol. He also had thirty rounds of ammunition and he supposed that they were still there and that he might soon need them.

      Kathleen had a car, parked two miles away in the Holy Land, and that was about it. She had the key to a house. Her key had opened it for the last time. She had no clothes of her own, no credit cards or money. But she had a mobile phone.

      ‘What time is it?’ she asked.

      ‘Who cares what fucking time it is?’

      ‘I’m wondering if I could get into a hotel in this state.’

      Terry phoned the night porter at the Wellington Park Hotel and told him the problem.

      ‘Maybe you should stay here and talk to the police,’ said Kathleen.

      He made another call.

      ‘Jack, sorry to wake you up. All my houses, including the one I live in, have been petrol-bombed tonight. Yes, that’s what I said. You’ve done all the work on them before, so can you get round them now and see what can be saved and then seal them up? Yes, I know what time it is.’

      Kathleen said, ‘What insurance company do we use?’

      He ignored her and dialled another number.

      ‘This is Terry Brankin of Sallagh Crescent, Belfast 7. I have five properties insured with you and all are currently on fire. Thank you.’

      He said, ‘Kathleen, take the car and go up to the Welly Park. They have a room for you.’

      She didn’t move.

      He turned to her and tried to speak softly through his anger. ‘Go on, love. It’s best if you let me handle this – whatever this is.’

      Kathleen knew what she looked like walking into the hotel lobby but she was past caring. She had no plan yet for how she would get clothes in the morning, but she hadn’t the energy to think about that either. The night porter gave her a key and asked if he could help her in any other way.

      ‘Would you have a toothbrush, maybe?’ she asked.

      He opened a drawer and took out a little plastic toiletries bag. ‘You’ll find most of the essentials there.’

      At a glance she saw a toothbrush, toothpaste, skin lotion, a nail file, condoms and Alka-Seltzer. She thanked him and went to the lift.

      The room was an enormous bridal suite, more like three rooms than one. The sumptuous bed seemed almost a sarcastic comment on the state she was in. She undressed and buried herself in the comforting darkness. With the drapes closed, it could have been the darkest hour of night and not the advancing daylight of early morning. So she expected she might sleep. She’d give it a try.

Five

      Terry Brankin sat on the kerb watching firemen fight the blaze and waiting for the police. He looked at the house he had lived in for seven years, watched it burn and felt as if he had never really got to know it. He was thinking of the

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