Nothing to Gain

by Claire Boston

  But it wasn’t.

  The only positive of the night was that Calypso was all right. Oscar had called to tell her he was fine but on oxygen and he would monitor him for the day. Mai wanted to cuddle her cat, to reassure herself he was really OK, but that would have to wait.

  First she had to answer questions from the Albany detectives who had arrived to investigate. They were the same two who’d come to investigate the containers she and Nicholas had found.

  “Do you want me to call your parents, or Fleur?” Nicholas asked her. “They can bring you something else to wear.”

  She had nothing left but the clothes she wore. She swallowed past the lump in her throat and shook her head. “Let’s not wake them yet.” The bad news could wait.

  “Are you ready to come to the station?” Lincoln asked.

  “Yes.” There was nothing left to do here.

  She and Nicholas sat in the back of the police car and Lincoln drove. Once inside the station, Lincoln put a hand on Nicholas’s chest to stop him from going into the office with Mai. “We need to interview you separately.”

  Mai frowned. Why? She wanted him with her.

  The male detective glanced down at his notepad. “Nicholas Shadbolt, you’re the owner of the building?”

  Mai jolted. That’s right, he was. And it had burned to the ground like his last development. She hadn’t even thought to ask how he felt.

  Nicholas nodded, his expression grim as he followed Lincoln into another room. He didn’t even look at Mai.

  Something was wrong.

  “Take a seat, Miss On,” the detective said.

  Mai sat in one of the hard plastic chairs in front of Lincoln’s desk. The whole office was so impersonal, grey and functional with a crappy desk, an ancient four-drawer filing cabinet and a couple of chairs. The man sat in Lincoln’s chair and the woman sat next to Mai.

  “I’m Detective Khan and this is my colleague, Detective Bosch,” the man said. “Can you tell us what happened last night?”

  Last night her whole world had burned to the ground, but that wasn’t what he wanted to hear. She swallowed hard and started from when the phone call had woken her up.

  “Nicholas was with you the whole night?” Bosch asked.

  “Yes.” She hesitated. That wasn’t right. He’d been awake and dressed when the phone call had come. Her skin prickled, not liking where her thoughts were headed. “Actually, I’m not sure.”

  Both detectives’ gazes sharpened on her.

  “What do you mean?” Khan asked.

  “When the phone woke me, Nicholas wasn’t in the bedroom. He walked in as I was talking to Lawrence and he was already dressed.”

  “You don’t know where he was?”

  “No, I didn’t hear him get out of bed.” But he couldn’t have driven to the cafe and back to light the fire. She would have heard the car start and woken up.

  Bosch looked up from where she wrote a note. “Was the back door locked when you left?”

  Her mind ran through what had happened. “I don’t know. Nicholas held it open for me.” They were thinking what she was thinking, but she wouldn’t vocalise it, wouldn’t believe it.

  “Did you notice the back door at all?”

  “No, I was more worried about getting to the cafe.” She hated the suspicion, hated that she could even consider Nicholas had done this. “It had to be Creepy Guy.”

  Khan raised an eyebrow.

  “Did Lincoln tell you about Creepy Guy? There was a police sketch.”

  Bosch reached for a file on the desk. “This man?” She held up the sketch.

  “Yes. He threatened to burn down my bakery if I told the police what I saw.”

  “Were you aware Nicholas has been suspected of arson before?” Khan asked.

  Didn’t they believe her? “Yes. He told me all about it. It wasn’t him.” He couldn’t have been lying to her – could he? He’d been so cut up, so distressed about Shane, about the whole situation.

  “Did he say who it was?”

  She swallowed. “He doesn’t know for sure.”

  Khan sat straighter. “But he suspects someone?”

  It wasn’t her secret to tell, but she didn’t have the loyalty to Shane that Nicholas did. She nodded.

  “Who?”

  “Ask him,” Mai said. “Can we forget about Nicholas and get back to Creepy Guy? He’s the one who threatened me. Nicholas knew I was moving out at the end of the month, he even helped me in the cafe yesterday – there’s no reason for him to burn the building down.” She had to believe it.

  “There’s always insurance,” Bosch said.

  “No.” She couldn’t believe Nicholas would do that. He knew how much her bakery meant to her.

  “How long have you known Mr Shadbolt?” Khan asked.

  “About two weeks.”

  “That’s not much time to get to know someone.” Bosch smiled at her sympathetically. “But it’s flattering when an attractive man pays us attention.”

  Mai glared at her. But there was a tiny niggle of doubt in her mind. She gritted her teeth and answered their questions until her phone rang. Scanning the display she saw it was already seven o’clock. “It’s my father, I need to get this.” She didn’t wait for their answer. “Dad.”

  “Oh, thank God you’re all right,” he breathed.

  She winced. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to call you too early.”

  “That’s nonsense! You should have called us straight away. What happened?”

  That was the question of the day. “I’m not sure. I was at a call-out when the blaze started. I’m at the police station answering some questions.”

  “Do you need us to come and pick you up?”

  “I don’t know how long I’ll be. I’ll call you later.”

  “All right. We’re here for you.”

  She hung up. The detectives were watching her, waiting for her. They could wait a little longer. She sent a text to the musketeers so they’d know she was all right. The response was immediate with a flurry of texts and then her phone rang with Kit on the line. She sent it to voice mail. “Are we finished?” she asked. “I need to call my staff and reassure my friends and family.”

  “We’re done for now.” Khan got to his feet. “We may need to ask you some more questions later.”

  “Lincoln has my contact details.” She walked out of the room. Lincoln sat at one of the desks. “Where’s Nicholas?”

  “We still need to question him,” Bosch told her.

  She didn’t want to leave him here, but she needed to call people, needed to get out of her smoky gear.

  The realisation crashed down around her. She had no clothes to change into, no home to go to, she had nothing.

  Mai squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath.

  “Do you want me to call someone to pick you up – Fleur, your parents?” Lincoln put his arm around her shoulders.

  She wasn’t ready to face anyone yet, she needed time to process what had happened and to call her staff. But she had little choice. She had to go somewhere. “I’ll call my parents.” She dutifully made the call as Lincoln turned to the detectives. “Nicholas is in the interview room.”

  Khan nodded and he and Bosch went into the room.

  She didn’t have the energy to worry about Nicholas now. If he was innocent, he’d be fine. She had to deal with her staff.

  Mai walked outside to wait for her father and Lincoln accompanied her. She yearned to lean up against the building wall and rest, but if she did, she might fall asleep. She couldn’t succumb to the fatigue yet.

  “Mai, this doesn’t look good for Nicholas,” Lincoln said.

  She glanced at him. “He didn’t do it.” Maybe if she said it enough times she could get rid of the tiny sliver of doubt.

  “You don’t know that. We barely know the guy. He was suspected of arson at his last development.”

  “I know.” She wanted to clamp her hand over his mouth to stop him from speaking. Fa
tigue was messing with her logical thought process.

  “I know you like him, but you need to be careful. You shouldn’t spend any more time alone with him.”

  Anger coursed through her and she placed her hands on her hips. “You’re the one who said I shouldn’t be alone, who told him to stay close to me. I don’t understand why he’s suddenly the suspect and not Creepy Guy.”

  “Because Creepy Guy is a man for hire.” Lincoln’s voice was soft.

  “What?”

  “We got a lead on him on Friday. He’s a guy who will do anything if you pay the right price … and Nicholas has a lot of money.” He placed a hand on her arm, his expression concerned.

  “No.” She shook him off. He was making her doubt Nicholas and she didn’t want to. She loved him.

  “I’m sorry, Mayday. We have to explore the possibility.” It was his gentle tone that got to her.

  “It can’t be him, Lincoln,” she whispered.

  He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. “I really hope it’s not, but you need to be prepared in case it is.”

  She dashed the tears from her eyes as her father pulled into the car park. “I’ve got to go.”

  He nodded. “Take care of yourself, and call me if you need anything.”

  “I will.” She walked over to where her father waited for her. He pulled her into his arms and squeezed her tightly. “I’m so glad you’re all right,” he whispered in Vietnamese.

  Mai hugged him back, trying her hardest not to cry. She couldn’t break down now. She had too much to do. There were staff to call, insurance to sort out, a life to rebuild. She swallowed hard. “I’m fine, Dad.” Or she would be eventually. Getting into the car, she closed her eyes and rested her head against the side window.

  “What did the police say?” her father asked. “What happened?”

  “Can we wait until we get home? Mum will want to know too.” She didn’t have enough energy to explain it repeatedly.

  He nodded.

  At the front door to the house she was swamped, her mother, sisters and Kim all crowding her, hugging her and demanding to know what happened. She wanted to disappear, wanted to sink into the floor and pretend it was all a bad dream.

  “Give her some space!” her father called, shooing them away. “First she needs a shower and clean clothes, then she needs food.”

  Her mother put an arm around Mai. “Come with me, Honey.”

  Mai let herself be led into the bathroom. Leanne handed her a pair of shorts and T-shirt to change into and then they left her alone.

  Bliss.

  She stripped off her clothes and ran the water, stepping under the warm, soothing spray. If only she could wash off her fatigue and worries as easily as she could wash off the sweat.

  She had staff who would be turning up to work soon, and she needed to tell them not to bother. Jodie and Sylvia were both single parents and would be equally devastated and there was nothing she could do to fix it.

  When she was dressed, she found her family in the kitchen. Her father had made banh mi and as she sat at the table, he pushed a roll over to her. “Have you eaten anything this morning?”

  She shook her head, and though she wasn’t hungry, she took a bite. The flavours were plentiful and tasty as always.

  “Can you tell us what happened?” Kim put a mug of coffee in front of her.

  “Where’s Calypso?” Eden asked.

  There was silence as her family looked at each other as if fearing the answer.

  “At the vet’s. Oscar says he’ll be all right.” She would need to pick him up this afternoon.

  “How did he get out?” Leanne asked.

  “I went in and got him.”

  Her mother gasped. “You went into a burning building to save a cat?”

  She didn’t have the energy to defend herself. “Calypso’s family, Mum. I’d do the same for any of you.”

  Her mother opened her mouth to say something else, but her father put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. “Tell us what happened.”

  So she did. She went through the whole nightmare of a night again, sticking to the facts, not letting her emotion rise to the surface. If she thought about everything she’d lost she wouldn’t be able to continue talking. When she’d finished she stood up. “I need to call my staff.”

  “Use my office,” her father said.

  “Thanks.” She closed the door on the room and sat behind his desk. This would be hard. She braced herself and called Jodie.

  It took her twenty minutes to calm Jodie down. When Mai finally got her off the phone she dumped it on the desk and closed her eyes. She desperately wanted to handball the task to someone else, but there was no one else. It was her business, her staff, her responsibility.

  Her life.

  She continued down her list.

  Mai hung up from the last person and sighed. She was done. Her body was so heavy, her mind so tired that she was tempted to go to sleep right here. But she needed to call the insurance company, and find out whether her safe had survived the fire. Her phone rang. She groaned. She couldn’t handle any more conversations.

  But the caller ID caught her attention.

  It was Nicholas.

  She reached for it, needing answers, needing to convince herself Lincoln and the detectives were wrong.

  “How are you?” His voice soothed her.

  “Exhausted.”

  “Where are you?”

  “My parents’.”

  He was quiet a moment before he said, “Can I come and see you?”

  She did want to see him, did want to talk about where he was last night. “Yeah.”

  “I’ll be right over.”

  Mai left the office and returned to the kitchen. Only her mother was there.

  “How did it go?” she asked.

  “As well as you could expect. They’re all now unemployed until I can figure out what to do.”

  Her mother frowned. “What do you mean? Won’t you just wait until the new development is built?”

  Mai gaped at her mother. “That’s six months away.”

  “Yes, but what else can you do?”

  She had no clue, but giving up wasn’t an option. “I don’t know yet.”

  “Mai, be sensible. There weren’t any other suitable premises available to you. You should take a break from work.”

  Fatigue and anger surged together in a wave that rolled through Mai. She’d had enough of her mother’s negative attitude towards her work. “You never wanted me to be a baker, but I won’t go to university to make you happy. It’s my decision, my life. I will continue to bake and nothing you say will stop me.” Her lungs hurt and her skin was so tight. She wanted to cry, but she wouldn’t – not here, not now. She wouldn’t show her mother how much it hurt.

  “Mai, no.” Her mother shook her head. “I wasn’t against you becoming a baker because I wanted you to go to university. It was because I knew the hours you would need to work. I understand how hard it is to run a small business, how stressful it can be. Your father and I had been consumed by our jobs in Perth and I didn’t want that for you.” She placed a hand over Mai’s. “I’m so incredibly proud of what you’ve done, of all of your hard work. I hope the rest of my children are as successful and as happy as you are. It grieves me that you’ve lost everything.”

  Mai stared at her mother, the lump in her throat growing larger. She blinked rapidly. If she started crying now, she wasn’t going to stop. She swallowed hard. “I never realised.”

  “I should have told you.”

  Mai sniffed, and the doorbell rang. “That will be Nicholas.” She got to her feet. She needed to move, needed to focus on something else. Her eyes burned but she couldn’t give in.

  “I love you, Honey,” her mother said.

  Mai nodded, unable to speak, and hurried down the hallway, stopping for a moment before she opened the door to get her emotions under control. Her mother was proud of her, believed she was successful. It soot
hed some of the pain inside. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door.

  Nicholas still wore his fire-fighting gear, his eyes shadowed. She stood back to let him in.

  “Some night, huh?”

  “Yeah.” She led him into her father’s office. Now she needed to deal with where Nicholas was when the call came in. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle any more bad news today. “Were you with the police all this time?”

  He sighed. “I was. They had a lot of questions.”

  So did she.

  Nicholas pulled her into his arms. “You scared the shit out of me when you went in after Calypso.”

  His arms were strong, warm and comforting. He smelled like smoke, sweat and Nicholas. She wanted to forget about what had happened, about her suspicions and be with him, but she couldn’t. She gently pushed him away. “I couldn’t have left him there.”

  “Just don’t scare me like that anytime soon.”

  “I’ll try not to.” She closed the door. She had questions.

  She just hoped he had the right answers.

  “We need to talk.”

  Chapter 17

  Nicholas’s heart thumped hard in his chest. He’d known this was coming. It was only a matter of time. But he didn’t want to do this now, with Mai looking as if she could barely keep her eyes open. “We should both get some rest first. It’s been a long night.”

  She straightened, lost some of the fatigue in her eyes. “No. I need to know. Where were you when Lawrence called?”

  For the first time since he’d met her, she appeared uncertain. He had put that look on her face. And her expression when she found out the truth would be far worse.

  “You were dressed.”

  He nodded. “I heard something downstairs and went to check.”

  She frowned at him. “Was there anything?”

  He hesitated. How could he tell her that he might have interrupted Shane in the middle of setting the fire and then had left him to it?

  “Nicholas?”

  If he didn’t tell her, Lincoln would. He’d told the police everything when he’d been questioned, including his suspicions about the Baldivis fire. Bracing himself, he said, “It was Shane.”