He was asleep when the phone went, which was the first thing he held against himself, before he knew there was anything to hold.
“Aled. It’s Jas. Sorry.”
He was sitting up. The clock on the cooker across the room said six minutes past four; he could see it from the bed because the flat was one room and a bathroom, and he had never minded.
“Go on.”
“Her flat. Totterdown. Somebody put petrol through the letterbox about two and lit it.” Jas’s voice was flat and quick, the voice for giving things in order. “Next door’s smoke alarm went, then hers. Fire service had it out by half past. The hall’s gone. The rest’s smoke. Nobody in, nobody hurt. Next door were out on the pavement in five minutes. The address had a marker on it and it took them till quarter to four to get to us.”
He…
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