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Back The Counterfeit Candidate Save as PDF
Chapters (61)
  1. Prologue
  2. Chapter One
  3. Chapter Two
  4. Chapter Three
  5. Chapter Four
  6. Chapter Five
  7. Chapter Six
  8. Chapter Seven
  9. Chapter Eight
  10. Chapter Nine
  11. Chapter Ten
  12. Chapter Eleven
  13. Chapter Twelve
  14. Chapter Thirteen
  15. Chapter Fourteen
  16. Chapter Fifteen
  17. Chapter Sixteen
  18. Chapter Seventeen
  19. Chapter Eighteen
  20. Chapter Nineteen
  21. Chapter Twenty
  22. Chapter Twenty-One
  23. Chapter Twenty-Two
  24. Chapter Twenty-Three
  25. Chapter Twenty-Four
  26. Chapter Twenty-Five
  27. Chapter Twenty-Six
  28. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  29. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  30. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  31. Chapter Thirty
  32. Chapter Thirty-One
  33. Chapter Thirty-Two
  34. Chapter Thirty-Three
  35. Chapter Thirty-Four
  36. Chapter Thirty-Five
  37. Chapter Thirty-Six
  38. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  39. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  40. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  41. Chapter Forty
  42. Chapter Forty-One
  43. Chapter Forty-Two
  44. Chapter Forty-Three
  45. Chapter Forty-Four
  46. Chapter Forty-Five
  47. Chapter Forty-Six
  48. Chapter Forty-Seven
  49. Chapter Forty-Eight
  50. Chapter Forty-Nine
  51. Chapter Fifty
  52. Chapter Fifty-One
  53. Chapter Fifty-Two
  54. Chapter Fifty-Three
  55. Chapter Fifty-Four
  56. Chapter Fifty-Five
  57. Chapter Fifty-Six
  58. Epilogue
  59. Author’s Note
  60. Acknowledgements
  61. About the Author

Once her props were ready, Bianchi walked back into the corridor and headed for the main open-plan office area where Vargas’s team was based. It was almost midnight and no one was around. She quickly located the door to Vargas’s office, which was positioned just off to the side. Bianchi tried the door handle just in case, but, as she’d expected, it was locked. From about ten feet away, she secured the final piece of her jigsaw: a small metal rubbish bin, stuffed with paper, sandwich wrappings and a few empty polystyrene coffee cups. Next, she held the filter end of the cigarette to her lips, which was quite tricky to do because it was now attached to the book of matches. She lit the end and took a long drag. Finally, she carefully placed the gasoline sodden cloth into the bin and positioned the lit cigarette on top. Thirty seconds later, she left through the back entrance of the station, which she knew would be unmanned after midnight.

* * *

Vargas and Hembury were still in the kitchen, discussing the case, when a call came in informing the chief inspector that a fire had broken out at the station. Vargas grabbed his car keys and headed for the door. Hembury shouted after him.

“Jesus, Nic, I hope that safe is fireproof.”

By the time Vargas arrived at the station, the blaze was well under control. Two large fire engines were parked at the front and firefighters were working both inside and outside the building. There was a great deal of smoke bellowing out of the windows, but no sign of flames.

Vargas spotted the fire chief, who was standing on the pavement barking instructions to two of his men. He introduced himself and asked for the state of play.

“It’s not too bad, chief inspector. The internal alarm system kicked in and sent an automatic alert to our station which, fortunately, is only three minutes away. We’ve already put the fire out but obviously there’s still going to be a lot of damage inside.”

“Chief Carizzo, I urgently need to retrieve some items from the safe in my office. It’s crucial evidence in a multiple-murder case. I have to get it right now.”

The fire chief instinctively shook his head and was about to rule it out, but could hear the desperate sense of urgency in Vargas’s appeal. “Grab a safety helmet and an oxygen mask from one of the trucks and come with me.”