Soul Fire

even crossed their minds that one of us could be a killer.
    As we head back towards the beach, there’s still a party on the shore. People are laughing and jumping around in the warm waves, not drunk, but exhilarated by the fire run.
    No one speaks. Maybe everyone is planning what they’ll tell the police. Their ‘version of events’. How many of us are planning to lie?
    Cara didn’t attack Zoe, I am sure of that. But it’s not in her interests to tell the truth if she was with Ade during the Correfoc .
    Sahara seems to be in shock. But she could be pretending. If she was the one who killed my sister, then perhaps she realised Zoe was about to tell me everything she knew. That might have been
enough to push her into a third attack.
    And then there’s Ade: what if he knows Sahara’s secrets, or has secrets of his own to protect?
    Which only leaves Lewis. My friend. No. My ally . Yet I wonder if I can even trust him. The way he turned up at the airport seems a little weird. And is it natural that he was almost as
obsessed by Burning Truths as I was?
    I try not to let what’s happened drive me mad. But here, in the dark, the doubts keep coming, like a shower of firecrackers burning in my head.
    We’re back by the hostel.
    ‘I am so exhausted,’ Sahara says. ‘It’s the stress.’
    Ade nods. Even Cara’s yawning.
    ‘I don’t know how you can even think about sleeping,’ I say, not caring how snappy I sound. ‘Not with all that’s happened.’
    ‘I’m the same,’ Lewis says. ‘If you don’t think you’ll sleep, you can come back to the hotel. There’s a mini bar. TV. We might feel better, being
together.’
    It seems a weird thing to suggest. But then I look at his face. The way he’s staring at me, I realise he’s trying to tell me something.
    Ade shakes his head. ‘I’m not in the mood for drinking anymore. It doesn’t feel right.’
    Sahara grips his hand. ‘Exactly.’
    ‘Maybe I have had too much already,’ Cara says.
    I want to go. But should I leave Cara on her own with Sahara and Ade? Except the police are coming in just a few hours – even a truly desperate killer wouldn’t risk another
attack now.
    ‘It might help, you know, Alice,’ Lewis says, ‘to talk about what happened.’
    Not just to talk, but to plan our next move. This could be our last chance to get answers in Barcelona. ‘All right. I’ll come back later, if I do get tired. Or definitely in time for
when the police come in the morning.’
    Sahara and Ade kiss me goodnight, and Cara hugs me tightly. For once she doesn’t make any joke about me going off on my own with Lewis.
    The two of us walk towards his hotel, but after a few steps, I stop.
    ‘You’ve got a plan, haven’t you?’ I say.
    ‘I think we should go to Zoe’s flat and get whatever it was she was going to show you.’
    ‘You don’t think she fell, do you, Lewis?’
    ‘Do you , Ali?’
    ‘I can’t bear to think that I was only metres away when she was attacked.’
    Lewis nods. ‘So you do think she was attacked.’
    ‘What other explanation is there?’
    ‘That’s why we need to go to the flat. Not just because it could help you find information, but because it could help her too. You saw what the police were like. They want to keep
this quiet. Pissed tourist falls over. End of story. We’re the only ones who care enough to find out what really happened.’
    He seems so certain, even though the idea of going through her things makes me feel sick. Of all people, Zoe valued her privacy.
    Valued? Why am I thinking about her in the past tense? She’s still alive. And maybe there is some clue in the flat that might tell us more about why she’s fighting for her
life in hospital right now.
    ‘OK. Let’s do it.’
    Our walk takes us back down the bottom of Via Laietana. It’s only a couple of hours since the procession, but everything is normal again. The thousands of spent
firecrackers have been cleared up, the barriers and ambulances moved away. The only evidence that any of it happened is the occasional waft of gunpowder, and the odd group of revellers marching
down the street, still dressed in their red cloaks and satanic horns.
    I can’t bear to see where it happened. It makes it worse, somehow, that the signs of what happened to Zoe have been cleaned up so fast. Like erasing a shameful secret from history.
    Lewis says nothing, but he takes my hand and holds it firmly. I realise I’m cold again, and his hand warms me