Kate left and Kelly turned to her main computer and began to read. She opened the attached file sent to her by the chief fire inspector for north Cumbria. The case had been passed from the regular fire department due to the nature of the crime, and Kelly was expected to present the findings as part of her inquiry. She read that the fire had been started with an accelerant in the backyard and had spread rapidly through the animal pens and crates, which had been locked. The fire was intense and brief, but hot enough to produce enough smoke to kill the animals, and heat and flame to finish them off, if they survived the smoke. The report stated that it appeared this act of arson was a sadistically motivated crime and one which was deliberate and destructive. The animals stood no chance of escape. Traces of the chemical accelerant had been sent to the lab, as well as the remains of a few rags used to start the blaze. The results showed that the accelerant was a standard product purchasable anywhere in the country, and the rags were towels probably already in the animals’ shelters, given the amount of hair and mud on them. In short, whoever started the fire had reached into the cages and coops and removed the towels without disturbing the animals, indicating that either the person was known to the animals or they gave off a calm demeanour, which was unusual. Kelly read that deliberate fires involving the death of animals are rare, given the fact that Britain was a nation of animal lovers, but also because animals have an acute sense of danger and often escape under such circumstances. In this case, the animals trusted their killer enough to allow themselves to be locked away. The state of the yard indicated that the animals were free to roam, if not all the time, then most of the time.

Kelly tapped her chin and moved on to the vet’s report. The photographs were graphic and sickening. She’d seen victims of intense fires before, but this fire hadn’t been particularly long lasting, and yet it had still caused hideous damage. The vet had concluded from the autopsies she’d carried out that the animals were mostly conscious at the time of burning.