LONDON'S BURNING
Home Movies
"I've got a job for you," Adam grinned as he entered the mess at Blackwall, where he found Hi-Ho and Recall.
"Oh yeah?" Recall looked a little apprehensive. "What's that?"
"We're going to make a movie," Adam announced, producing a small digital camcorder.
"A movie?" Hi-Ho wasn't too sure about the idea.
"There's a grand in it for you, well if we win!" Adam showed them a magazine article he had recently come across.
"Do we have to do anything stupid?" Hi-Ho wondered.
Adam shrugged. "That's up to you, unless we get stuck for ideas! And, if they play the tape on the show, that's another two hundred quid."
"Show? What show!" Hi-Ho took the article after Recall had quickly scanned through it.
"If there's two hundred quid and the chance of a grand then I'm in," Recall decided.
"Hi-Ho?" Adam asked.
They both looked at him.
"Er... well..." Hi-Ho paused. "Ok then."
Adam grinned. "Nice one."
Later that day, Blue Watch were called to deal with a rubbish fire on some waste ground outside an old building. The building itself looked like it had last seen life in about 1950.
"Adam, Hi-Ho," Pearce started as the pump ladder crew dealt with the bonfire. "Check inside and make sure it hasn't spread," he instructed them.
"Geoff," Adam retrieved a fire extinguisher from the appliance before he and Hi-Ho went to check the building.
A flimsy lock controlled the access on the steel door, which they were able to wedge open with a crow bar.
"Not exactly security conscious," Adam commented.
They ventured inside. Sunlight burst through the glass-less windows, casting shadows around what could have been a hotel lobby. Fifties decor still occupied parts of the walls, as a large spiral staircase twisted it's way towards the upper floors.
"Wow!" Adam exclaimed as he stood in the middle of the wide lobby, looking up at an old, broken, chandelier fastened to the high ceiling. "This would make a perfect setting for a movie," he thought aloud.
"Maybe a scary movie," Hi-Ho muttered. "What do you suppose this was for?" he had come across a strange room hidden behind an old reception desk.
"I'm surprised no one has nicked anything!" Adam got his video camera out as he joined Hi-Ho.
They both ventured into the room, which they found to contain several silver topped workbenches.
"A kitchen?" Adam suggested.
"This place is creepy," Hi-Ho shuddered. "What do you want that for?" he noticed the camera.
"To get some footage," Adam replied. "Go over there and do something scary!"
"I've got a better idea, why don't you go over there and do something scary!"
"Ok then," Adam passed the camera to Hi-Ho. "Don't break it!"
Adam disappeared into another section of the large kitchen, in search of some 'props'.
Hi-Ho was trying to figure out how to work the camera, when the heavy kitchen door slammed shut behind him. He jumped out of his skin, almost dropping the camera. He whirled round, but there was no one there.
"Adam?" he asked cautiously as he moved towards the kitchen door to find it locked.
On the other side of the kitchen, the remains of a plastic curtain fluttered over a door, which presumably led towards a restaurant area. He glanced back at the camera, the picture showed a number of people working in a busy kitchen. He double blinked and looked again. Then he looked up at the workbenches, they were empty and there was no one around.
"Adam!" he yelled.
"What?" Adam emerged from a refrigeration unit.
"You wanna take a look at this!" Hi-Ho crossed the room to hand him the camera.
"But I haven't done anything yet!" Adam protested. "What am I supposed to be looking at?"
The picture on the camera was now showing the empty workbenches as they could see them with their own eyes.
"Did you close the door?" Hi-Ho asked, beginning to feel a little freaked out.
"No," Adam replied. "I thought you did!"
"Uh... well I don't know about you, but I'm getting out of here!" Hi-Ho went back over to the door and attempted to open it.
Adam stepped back into the refrigeration unit and had another look through the camera, trying to see what had spooked Hi-Ho out.
Suddenly, noises echoed around the kitchen, like people talking to each other, calling out orders for food and table numbers as if they were working in a busy kitchen.
"Adam!" Hi-Ho yelled. "If that's you, this isn't funny!"
Adam didn't answer as he moved the camera around the freezer area. He stopped as he tried to believe what he was now seeing on the camera's small TV screen.
Three men, two in bellboy outfits and one in a chef's suit, were manhandling a large cumbersome package into one of the industrial freezers. The shape of the package immediately suggested it could contain a human body. Yet the naked eye showed an empty room as he moved the camera away.
He pressed the record button as the two bellboys dumped the body in the freezer, as instructed by the chef. Suddenly, the chef looked round, as if he was aware that someone was watching him.
"Hi-Ho!" Adam decided to call 'cut' as he made his escape towards Hi-Ho who had managed to open the kitchen door. "I think we've outstayed our welcome!"
"Yeah, uh, I could have told you that!"
They made their escape from the freaky hotel back outside where Geoff Pearce and the pump crew were waiting.
On the way to see his latest girlfriend, Jade, Adam made a detour to the local library to try a spot of investigating. It wasn't one of his usual haunts, but he did manage to locate the Local History section.
A study of events from 1952 revealed very little, until he came across an old newspaper cutting dated 8th October 1952. The bold heading read "BODY FOUND IN HOTEL FREEZER". It turned out to be the body of guest and, as far as he could tell, no one had been charged with the murder.
Then he wondered what had led him to investigate this... whatever it was. Was it curiosity? Or was it the fact that the murdered guest had been named as Francis Benjamin?
A relation? He questioned. Not that he was ever likely to find out, as drawing his family tree would be like constructing a map of the London Underground blindfolded.
He wondered what he should do with his video 'evidence' of the chef and the bellboys disposing of the body of Uncle Frank.