‘Anthony?’

The man swiped the sleeves of his top across his face, trying to calm himself. He met Jessica’s eyes again. ‘Yes.’

‘Are you going to be okay?’

He didn’t speak, nodding instead. Jessica motioned to move her chair backwards but Anthony interrupted her. ‘I’ve never told anyone this before.’

Jessica had her hands resting on the desk but stopped. ‘What?’

‘That afternoon, I’d got home from work and Alfie was watching some rubbish on the TV. I’d wanted to put on the racing and we had this stupid argument. That’s when I told him he should get a job if he wanted to stay at our house. I said he could watch what he wanted when he started paying rent. He was so angry. He threw the remote at me and stormed out of the room. Just before he slammed the door, do you know what he shouted at me?’

Jessica thought it was a question he was asking himself but it was clear Anthony wanted her to respond. ‘No.’

Tears had begun to form around Anthony’s eyes again. He gulped before replying. ‘“Fuck off, Dad”. That was the last thing he ever said to me. I never got the chance to say I was sorry. Just “fuck off” and then he was gone.’

Jessica tried to think of something she could say but instead the sobs she had been trying to suppress were drowned out by Anthony’s eruption of tears.

23

Jessica sat alone in the interview room, directly underneath the security camera so that it couldn’t see her. The tears felt embarrassing but relieving at the same time. The ends of her sleeves were feeling pretty damp by the time Reynolds returned.

‘I thought you were going to listen, not talk,’ he said with a smile.

Jessica snorted and coughed. ‘You know me. I’ve got a big mouth.’

The inspector came close to Jessica and held his arms out. She allowed him to cradle her onto his shoulder. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked.

‘I’ll be fine. I don’t know what’s happening to me.’

‘It’s called being human, Jess. Welcome to the race – it’s taken you long enough.’

His arms were strong and Jessica felt as if a large weight had been lifted from her – even if she didn’t know what the burden had been in the first place.

‘I sorted out one of the cars giving Anthony a lift home,’ Reynolds said, releasing her.

‘Do you think he’ll be okay?’

He shrugged. ‘Who knows? I think he’s been waiting to tell someone about it for a long time.’

‘If he didn’t burn down Martin’s house, who did? And I believe him when he said the paint and petrol can weren’t his. So who left them at his house? And who attacked Martin? Plus someone poured petrol over his front door too.’

The inspector smiled weakly. ‘I’ll talk to Jack and we’ll meet upstairs.’

‘I’ll see you in five minutes,’ Jessica said. ‘I’ve got something to pick up first.’

Cole’s office was a little less crowded than it had been a few days before as Cornish was working on an armed robbery case. When Jessica arrived, the chief inspector was behind his desk as usual, Reynolds and Rowlands across from him.

As well as collecting the item she wanted, Jessica had visited the toilets to make sure it wasn’t too obvious she had been crying.

‘I’ve told Jack about the interview with Anthony Thompson,’ Reynolds said. ‘I don’t think either of us really suspect him but we have another problem too.’

Cole spun around his computer monitor so Jessica could see it. In large capital letters was the headline ‘ARSON MAN BEATEN’, with the same picture of Martin Chadwick that the media had used to report his release from prison.

‘Bloody Internet,’ Jessica said. ‘A few years ago, you’d at least manage to wait until the next day for these things to get out. How did they find the story?’

Cole shook his head. ‘I don’t know. Our press office were just working on a release when it broke. Someone at the hospital probably? Maybe even the hotel? There were plenty of bystanders too. Martin has been all over the news, so it’s not as if the doctors, nurses and receptionists would struggle to recognise him. I don’t know if they copied it off each other but it’s been on the news channels too. Everyone has the story.’

Jessica read the first few lines of the piece before sitting back in the seat. ‘I’ve got something to show you,’ she said, reaching into the cardboard folder she had been keeping in her office and handing Cole the papers with the doodles in the margins.

‘I know it isn’t proof of anything,’ she added. ‘But Ryan Chadwick’s form tutor gave me these. I don’t know all the data protection or privacy stuff but I’m guessing I probably shouldn’t have them. Either way, it’s too late now.’

Cole looked through the pages before passing them to Reynolds to scan. No one said anything as Rowlands flicked through the pages, before handing them back to Jessica.

‘What do you think they show?’ the DCI asked, but Jessica interrupted him.

‘There’s more. When I mentioned about that private investigator the other day, I know you told me not to but . . .’

She could feel the other two officers’ eyes on her but it was Cole she stared at. ‘Sorry,’ she offered, knowing it sounded pathetic.

Cole sat up straighter in his seat and glanced towards Reynolds before returning his gaze to Jessica. She couldn’t read his face. ‘Did you . . . ?’

‘Yes . . . well, sort of.’

Her supervisor rolled his eyes and shook his head but she still couldn’t tell if he was angry. ‘What have you got?’ he asked.

‘You’ve seen the drawings. It can’t just be me that’s concerned about the flames Ryan drew?’

From the moment Cole said ‘Jess’, she knew what was coming. ‘This is nothing,’ he stated. ‘You must know we could never use it as evidence.’

‘Of course I know. It’s just something to bear in mind along with everything else that’s going on.’

‘What about the investigator?’ the chief inspector asked.

‘I asked him to follow Ryan for me. I didn’t bring any of you into it. He saw Ryan giving money to this girl. She’s the same age as Sienna and Molly. It was all secretive and away from people.’

‘Do you know who the girl is?’

‘Yes. I spoke to her. I think she wanted to talk but got distracted.’ Jessica realised she was sounding desperate.

Cole didn’t look annoyed, just confused. ‘What are you saying he’s up to?’

‘I . . . I don’t know, just something. You have to admit it all looks bad. The link to the fires, the girls, the drawings, the money. There’s something going on there.’

There was a short pause and Jessica realised she had badly misjudged the mood of her colleagues. It was Rowlands who spoke which, in many ways, made her own desperation worse. If either of the other two had said something, they were her superiors. She not only outranked the constable but considered him one of her closest friends.

‘Jess,’ he said quietly.

‘What? I’m not saying all of this is down to him. I’m just saying we’re missing something.’

‘But this can be so easily explained. Most people draw, write and doodle when they’re bored. Just because his are flames, it doesn’t show anything. And as for the money? I don’t know, it could be for anything. Maybe he’d bought something from her?’

‘But what if it’s more?’

Cole interrupted. ‘We can’t keep having this conversation, Jess. We all love you here but . . .’

As Jessica was about to reply, Reynolds spoke. ‘Remember what you told Anthony about letting go? Whatever’s going on, you’ve got to get on and do the job. If we find any proper evidence to say Ryan is involved with either case – the fires or the suicides – then we’ll move on it. But we don’t have anything. No witnesses, no forensics . . .’

Jessica knew she was in an argument she wasn’t going to win. ‘I just wanted to tell you everything that was going on,’ she said. ‘We don’t have any other suspects or clues for either of the cases. Before they get dumped to one side as unsolved, I wanted to tell you what I had.’