Read Online Dead Man's Footsteps by Peter James - Free Book Online Page A

handle twisted in his hand and his briefcase fell off.
    Shit! Don’t do this to me.
    Then, just as he ducked down and grabbed the handle of his briefcase, he heard the scream of a jet aircraft.
    He looked up again. And could not believe his eyes. A split second later, before he had time to register intelligibly what he was seeing, came an explosion. A metallic thunderclap boom, like two cosmic dustbins colliding. A sound that seemed to echo in his brain and to go on echoing, rumbling around out of control inside his skull until he wanted to stick his fingers in his ears to stop it, to choke it. Then he felt the shockwave. Felt it shuffling every single atom in his body.
    A massive ball of orange flames, showering diamanté sparks and black smoke, erupted from near the top of the South Tower. For one fleeting instant he was struck dumb by the sheer beauty of that sight: the contrast of colours – the orange, the black – stark against the rich blue of the sky.
    It seemed as if a million, billion feathers were floating in the air around the flames, drifting unhurriedly towards the ground. All in slow motion.
    Then the reality slammed into him.
    Slabs of wood, glass, chairs, desks, phones, filing cabinets were bouncing, shattering, on the ground in front of him. A police car pulled up, just past him, doors opening before it had even stopped. A mere hundred yards or so to his right, along Vesey Street, what at first looked like a burning flying saucer dropped with a massive clanging sound, smashing a deep crater, then bounced, shedding parts of its covering and innards, spraying out flames. When it finally lay still it continued to burn fiercely.
    To his utter numb horror, Ronnie realized that it was a jet aircraft engine.
    That this was the South Tower.
    Donald Hatcook’s office was here. The eighty-seventh floor. He tried to count upwards.
    Two planes.
    Donald’s office. By his quick estimate, Donald’s office was right where it hit.
    What the hell is happening? Oh, Jesus Christ, what the hell is going on?
    He stared at the burning engine. Could feel the heat. Saw the cops run forward from their car.
    Ronnie’s brain was telling him there wasn’t going to be any meeting. But he tried to ignore it. His brain was wrong. His eyes were wrong. Somehow he would still make that meeting. He needed to keep going.  Keep going. You can make the meeting. You can still make the meeting. YOU NEED THAT FUCKING MEETING!
    And another part of his brain was telling him that while one plane hitting the Twin Towers was an accident, two was something else. Two was badly not right.
    Propelled by absolute desperation, he gripped his bag handle and walked forward determinedly.
    Seconds later he heard a dull thud, like a sack of potatoes falling. He felt a wet slap on his face. Then he saw something white and ragged roll across the ground towards him and stop inches from his feet. It was a human arm. Something wet was sliding down his cheek. He shot his hand up to his face and his fingers touched liquid. He looked at them and saw they were smeared in blood.
    His stomach heaved liked wet cement in a mixer. He turned away and threw up his breakfast where he stood, almost oblivious to another thud only a few feet away. Sirens wailed, sirens from the pit of hell. Sirens from all around. Everywhere. Then another thud, another spatter on his face and hands.
    He looked up. Flames and smoke and ant-like figures and sheet glass and a man, in shirtsleeves and trousers, tumbling in free fall from the sky. One shoe came away, flipping over and over. He watched it all the way down, end-over-end-over-end-over-end. People the size of toy soldiers and debris, indistinguishable from each other at first, were raining from the sky.
    He just stood and stared. A set of postage stamps he had once traded, commemorating the Dutch painter Bosch’s vision of death and hell, came into his mind. That’s what this was. Hell.
    The foul choking air was thick with noise now.