A narrow boat doesn't go very fast, but it doesn't have brakes. The Lucky Lady eased round the bend in the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, where Witchmoor merges indecisively with the Shipley area of Bradford, and Joe Davis at once pushed the gear shift into reverse.
If you have any ideas of the Lucky Lady screeching to a halt, like an old time steam train, engineer in a panic at some obstacle on the line - forget it. The boat simply slowed from a quick walk to a slow walk, to an amble, and the craft drifted slowly towards the scene attracting Joe's attention.
Ahead firemen on the left bank were directing two jets of water across the canal at the burnt out shell of what appeared to have been a warehouse on the right bank. There were signs of activity on the other side too, behind the building. A jet of water could be seen arching through the morning sunlight, creating a little rainbow over the smoldering ruin. You couldn't see the source of the stream of water though.
More water was running from the smoking building, onto a small stone quay and thence into the canal. Close to the left bank, a ladder appeared to have fallen into the water and a fireman was vainly attempting to retrieve it. Joe shifted the engine into neutral and let the Lucky Lady drift idly towards the towpath at that point, and bump to a halt a few feet away.
He strolled to the bows and propelled the boat along by pushing on the bank with his hands until it was within an arm's length of the ladder, before he tied it to an unevenness in the towpath. Joe noticed that only one end of the ladder was floating and wondered why both ends hadn't either sunk or floated.
"Morning," he said.
"I dropped the ladder and it fell in the water," the fireman said unnecessarily. "Now it's just out of reach."
"Watch you don't drop your helmet in as well," Joe remarked , and leaned over the side to catch hold of the floating end of the ladder.
"Here," he said, passing the end of the ladder up to the man on the bank.
"Thanks," the fireman said and pulled. "Seems to be stuck," he added a moment later.
Joe reached down from the 'Lucky Lady' and pulled as well, grasping the ladder nearer the water. It did seem to be stuck.
"Together," Joe grunted. "One, two, three ..." They pulled together and the ladder came up, pulling with it a body, arm and shoulder stuck through one of the rungs.
"Well," Joe said ruminatively, "that's what were stopping it. Think yon body has anything to do wi' t' fire?"
"Maybe," the fireman answered. "Be quite a coincidence if there was no connection at all. I'd better notify the police. They might want to look for any more bodies if they've got the divers to spare."
"Nice day for a dive," Joe remarked and started to light up his pipe.
Joe was not old. He was barely 50, but he had the mannerisms of an older man, phlegmatic and unhurried. He had seen drowned men before and helped two of the firemen to get the body onto the towpath. The dead man was in his early 40s, of medium height, dressed in a formal shirt and tie and dark trousers. He looked like a casually but elegantly dressed professional man of some sort. He had a visible head wound where he had been hit with something hard and heavy. Joe didn't think he'd got that bang falling into the water, but he didn't comment on it.
When the man was laid out on the towpath and the police called, the fire brigade turned off one of the hoses and began packing their equipment away.
"When did it start?" Joe asked, standing a few feet from the bows of his narrow boat and leaning against the bank. He nodded towards the burned out shell.
"Someone called us about half past midnight this morning," the fireman said. "It was well alight by then. The fire must have started on the other side of the building, because it was all but gone when we got here. Woman over this side called us."
"I thought it was all empty and boarded up," Joe remarked. "It was due for demolition any time."
"Then it might have been workmen left something behind," the fireman suggested. "Anyway, the police might want to look into it and see if the body's connected."
The siren of a police car could be heard approaching. "Sounds like they're here now," Joe said, and took his pipe from his mouth to examine it. It had gone out, so he took a lighter from his pocket to relight it.