by Suki Fleet
It was a well-known fact that Loz’s family didn’t have a great relationship with the police, but it had been Detective Michaels’ quiet conversation with his colleague about arson that Loz had overheard near the bus stop earlier, and Loz wanted his help.
“I’ll call you back.” Detective Michaels ended his call and gave Loz a brief assessing gaze, as if he was working out how much trouble this conversation was going to cause him. “Wrong side of town for you, isn’t it? Have you just come to say hi?”
Loz kicked at the grass and shrugged.
“Let me guess. Aunt Patsy sent you?”
Suppressing the desire to roll their eyes, Loz smiled ruefully. Aunt Patsy liked to cause trouble. With everyone. Every time she came around to the house she made a point of calling Loz, Lauren. There was no love lost between them. Detective Michaels knew that.
“Patsy’s thinking about bringing misconduct charges against you,” Loz said instead.
“Is she now?” Michaels raised an eyebrow. He looked interested but not surprised.
“She thinks you should have used evidence from the other cases. She thinks there’s a definite link between Jordan, Nigel Commador, Grey Matthews and the dancer that went missing.” The dancer whose name Loz couldn’t remember and whose picture was never in the papers. Whoever their family was, they hadn’t made any sort of fuss.
“Surprise, surprise.” Michaels sighed tiredly and shook his head.
It wasn’t the reaction Loz was hoping for, so Loz pushed on. “It’s more than that.”
The link between the four murders had been broken when Nigel Commador’s murderer had been caught. Nigel had gone missing at the same time as Jordan, but in a different part of town. There had been more evidence for Nigel—his murderer had been seen by a witness. Someone who had inadvertently taken a picture of Nigel being shoved into a car.
With Nigel Commador’s case solved by a stroke of luck and put to bed so quickly, and his murderer cleared of the other murders, Loz could sometimes understand Aunt Patsy’s frustration. Jordan was her son and she wanted justice for him. Desperately.
In the beginning, Grey Matthews’ family had been almost as vocal as Loz’s, and just as devastated. Grey had gone missing a week after Jordan had. And like Jordan, Nigel and the dancer’s, his body had never been found. He’d worked in a club as a barman. His sister had been working there too, the night he went missing.
“Patsy’s been saying the same thing for two years. Are you telling me she has something new?”
Loz glanced over their shoulder at the still-smouldering fire. “Was it really arson?”
“What’s it to you?”
Loz shrugged and pressed their lips together. Keeping your mouth shut and playing it cool was really, really hard, especially when there was so much to be said!
“I can’t give you any info on an ongoing case. You know that.”
Loz nodded tightly. “You can tell me whether there is definite evidence that this was arson and if you have a suspect, though.”
“What does Patsy have?”
“You first.”
“Don’t play games, Loz.”
“Grey Matthews’ sister found something. I don’t know what but….” Loz sighed, knowing Aunt Patsy was going to go absolutely spare if she found out Loz had spoken to anyone about this, especially to Michaels, who she wanted strung up and off the case. “Patsy talks about her as if she’s turned into some sort of vigilante. She found something and then she went AWOL.”
Michaels ran his hand across his scalp and sighed heavily. “Stupid girl is going to get herself into trouble.” He paused before saying, “Have you met her, Grey Matthews’ sister?”
“No. I overheard Patsy talking about her on the phone. She got in touch with Patsy.”
“You’d do well to keep out of this, Loz.”
You think I don’t try? You think I want anything to do with any of them? With inhuman effort, Loz bit back the words and waited. Loz had given Michaels what he wanted. He needed to return the favour.
“CCTV from the pub fits the description of a known arsonist who lives in the area. Evidence so far suggests an accelerant.”
The words turned Loz’s chest to concrete, and Loz turned away, desperately trying to cover the reaction. “The pub is a long way from the shops.” It was two hundred metres at least.
“The CCTV is clear enough.”
Loz nodded and walked away, trying to look as nonchalant as possible.
As soon as the playing field was out of sight, Loz ran, not stopping until they reached the roundabout and saw Cai’s van parked up on a grassy verge.
Soph opened the door and Loz dived across her and into the back. “Think I just sold my soul to the devil,” Loz gasped breathlessly. “It isn’t good. The police have CCTV. Think it’s of you. Unless there are any other ‘known arsonists’ living in the area.”
“How can it be of me? The fire was already burning when I got there.”
“I don’t know. Maybe someone is trying to set you up? Or, you know, there is a chance that there are other ‘known arsonists’ in the area. You have an alibi, right? The mysterious person you work for?” A siren sounded further down the road. Cai’s hands tensed into fists in his lap. “Might be a good idea to drive now. The police are going to be on the lookout for you. They could arrest you.”
Soph turned to Cai. “Is there anyone out to get you? Someone from inside maybe?”
Loz had never seen Cai look so pale. “Why would anyone be out to get me? I… I don’t know,” he muttered quietly.
Please
Dusk fell as they drove through the town. The rush hour traffic made the journey three times too long, and Cai’s fingers ached from gripping the steering wheel so tightly. Loz had fallen silent again, which Cai was grateful for. Everything Loz had told them about the CCTV, about Cai being a suspect, had made him feel sick. A police car sped past them on the other side of the road and Cai shrank back against his seat.
This wasn’t how he wanted to do things. He didn’t want to run away. He wanted to go to the police station. He wanted them to know he was innocent—to look them in the eye and make them believe him somehow. Yes, he’d made a mistake, a stupid, stupid mistake one night nearly two years ago and he’d held his hands up to it—he’d never, ever denied it—but he hadn’t done this. Even the smallest hint of trouble could have him facing more time back inside—not to a young offenders’ institute this time. No. It would be prison. The real deal.
Needing to know Nicky would back him up if he was called upon gave Cai another reason to go to Thorn Hall, but the weight of the favours he needed to ask sat in his stomach like stones.
“Where are we going?” Soph whispered as Cai turned off the narrow country lane and up the dark gravelly driveway.
The drive had taken so long all the daylight had seeped out of the sky.
“This is the place I’ve been working.”
“The creepy house?”
“It’s not so creepy.”
But as they got closer, the dark shadow of the house seemed to swallow them, and Cai wasn’t sure what to say that was in any way reassuring. They slid to a halt. Leaving the headlights pointing at the front door, he turned the engine off and got out. It wasn’t late but all the windows in the house were dark. Even Nicky’s study. The place looked lifeless and deserted.
“Maybe your boss has gone out,” Loz suggested, reaching for Soph’s hand. They both stood in the shelter of the open van door, looking as though they wanted to jump back inside. “There’s no car in the driveway.”
“Nicky doesn’t go out.” Cai glanced around. Frowned. “Is it really that bad?”
“Just feels a bit… I don’t know… quiet?” Soph looked pale.
“Look. You two wait in the van. I’ll go see if I can find Nicky. Lock the doors if you want to. Here.” Cai threw the keys, mildly impressed as Loz snatched them out of the gloom one-handed. Which was certainly something Cai couldn’t have done. “If y
ou’re worried about anything, sound the horn. It’s the one thing on this piece of junk that works really well.”
Cai pressed his face against the glass in the study window, but it was hard to see anything but shadows inside. A few glowing embers flickered in the fireplace but that was all he could make out.
Cautiously, he headed around to the back of the house. The French doors were locked. Cai knocked, then gave the doors a shove. They were a little stronger than they looked, at least. He waited. Where the hell was Nicky? Had he passed out again? Cai’s heart constricted at the thought.
A cold wind whipped across the overgrown lawn. Cai shivered, his skin tingling.
Someone is watching me. The thought came unbidden but he could sense it. He spun around. And stopped. A long thin gun was pointed at his temple.
“You really should have stayed away.” The voice belonged to a woman.
For a second Cai froze, unable to take his eyes off the gun. The woman’s face was a dark blur behind it. A rush of panicked thoughts flittered through his brain. Soph and Loz were waiting in the van. Cai was the only thing between this gun and them. Where was Nicky? Where the hell was Nicky?
Instinct took over. With one swift move he thrust his right arm up, grabbed the barrel of the gun and pointed it at the sky, before wrenching the gun from the woman’s grasp with a sharp tug. She was ready for him with a kick to his ribs that almost had him doubled over. Any harder and she would have taken him down and it would have been over. Cai had zero desire to fight—all he wanted was to protect those he cared for. Moving too fast to give her the chance to dodge him, he twisted the gun around and brought the barrel down hard against the side of her skull.
She crumpled into a heap on the grass.
Breathing hard, Cai sank to his knees. The pain in his side was excruciating. He thought he’d heard something crack. He slid the gun away across the patio and crawled over to the woman. Her slight chest rose and fell evenly. Just unconscious. Relieved, Cai watched her for a moment, wondering who she was and what the hell was going on. The only sound was his panting breaths and the wind rushing through the trees. It was all too unnerving.
He needed to move. This woman could still be dangerous when she woke up, and calling the police was a last resort at that moment. He needed to restrain her and keep everyone safe until he figured out what was going on. Please be safe, Nicky.
There was some rope back in the van.
Cai struggled to his feet. Shock had made his movements slow and shaky, but he needed to deal with it and ignore his body’s pleas to lie down on the grass for a minute.
After picking the gun up again, Cai staggered around the side of the house. He glanced over his shoulder before he turned the corner to check she was still lying there. Everything felt unreal.
Soph leapt out the van almost as soon as Cai stepped onto the gravel. She must have been staring into the dark, looking out for him “What happened? You’re hurt! Oh my god, why are you carrying a gun!”
Loz pulled Soph back against the van. They both looked scared.
“I need to get some rope. There’s a woman…. She….” Cai didn’t have the energy to explain, even though he knew he should.
“I’ll help.” Loz stepped forwards and opened the back of the van. “Could you put the gun down, please?”
Cai glanced down at it, barely aware he was still holding it. “I need to put it somewhere safe.”
“Hide it in the back of the van? We’ll lock it in here.”
Soph reached past them both for the rope hanging in a loop on the wall and held it out. “Wherever you’re going, we’re coming with you.”
With the rope looped over his shoulder, Cai led the way to the back of the house. Soph and Loz followed close behind. The dreamlike feeling hadn’t faded and every step was a fight to go forwards. He’d felt like this in the police station after the warehouse fire. It was the feeling of events being out of control, of his brain fighting with him to surrender. But he couldn’t.
They turned the corner. The lawn expanded blackly in front of them. Cai stopped abruptly, staring into the night, trying to pick at the shadows, but it was pointless. The woman was no longer crumpled in the grass. She was gone.
Clutching his aching side, he hurried to the spot where she’d fallen. The grass was flattened. He hadn’t dreamed her up. He spun on his heel, searching.
Soph touched his arm. “What’s wrong?”
Cai took a deep breath. He was shaking. He needed stay calm. “She’s gone. We need to find Nicky.”
Every rush of wind through the trees, every distant whisper of sound seemed like a threat. He scanned the treeline, the lawn, the back of the house for movement. Nothing.
He gestured for Soph and Loz to move onto the patio near the door and whispered, “Stay here. Keep down.”
Dread about what he might find inside the house tried to overwhelm him. He needed to make this okay. And so far, it wasn’t. It so wasn’t. Pull it together.
Cai forced a small smile on his face. “It’s going to be okay.” But even as he said it he knew he didn’t sound convinced. “I’m going to get this door open, then you and Loz are going to come inside and stay in the kitchen while I go and try to find Nicky.”
“You’re going to break in?” Soph didn’t look shocked, just scared.
“Yeah.”
“You think something bad has happened to him, don’t you?”
Cai swallowed, then shook his head. “I just want to find him.”
For all the French doors’ flimsy appearance, it took Cai six attempts of ramming into them with his shoulder before the bolts gave way and he stumbled inside. He peered around the kitchen in shock. He’d just broken into Thorn Hall. The immense weight of the place pressed down around him, everywhere deathly quiet.
It was ridiculous but if he hadn’t been trying to evade the police for something that he was innocent of, he never would have dreamed of doing anything like this.
Cai tugged the kitchen door closed as best he could, then pointed to an alcove at the back of the kitchen. “Wait for me there. If you see anything, shout. I won’t go far.”
“No. We’re going with you.” Soph looked panicked.
Cai glanced at Loz and saw Loz understood. If anything had happened to Nicky, he didn’t want Soph to see it.
Please be okay, Nicky.
Loz nodded at him. “Soph, we’ll wait here. It’ll be okay.”
Cai stumbled down the dark corridor he knew led to the study. Now he was inside the house, it didn’t feel as though there was enough time. It felt too late.
The study door was locked. Bracing his hands on the door frame, Cai kicked at the lock as hard as he could, over and over, shattering the quiet. The lock broke with a dull crack and the door swung open.
Cai stepped into the room.
“Thank you so much for breaking my door down.”
Cai clutched the back of the nearest chair, his heart careening painfully in his chest.
Sitting on the floor in front of the mostly dead fire, Nicky picked at the thick silvery-looking tape wrapped tightly around his calves and ankles. The logs Cai had piled up earlier were scattered around him.
It was hard to see clearly in the gloom, but if Nicky’s icy demeanour was anything to go by, then he was fine. He was fine.
“I’m sorry. I thought….” Cai tried but he had no more words. He’d been more worried about Nicky than he’d let himself believe. The relief he now felt shocked him almost as much as the woman pointing a gun at him had. He took a step forwards, fell into the nearest chair and tried again to speak. “There was a woman with a gun outside. I was worried she’d hurt you.”
Nicky paused in his unwrapping. “Where is she?” he asked without looking up.
Something was going on that Cai didn’t understand. He didn’t quite have the capacity to understand it right now, but certain things that had happened were taking on more significance. “When I found you the other day, you hadn’t just fai
nted, had you? It was her. She’d done something to you.”
“Where is she?” Nicky asked again. He pulled the last of the tape off his ankles, turned and threw the whole lot of it in the fire.
The fire spat and flared hungrily, and Cai dug his nails into his palm until he looked away. “I don’t know.”
Nicky made as if to stand, but his legs gave way and collapsed heavily against the hearth. Without thinking, Cai rushed to help him.
“Don’t,” Nicky said sharply, speaking through gritted teeth.
Cai stopped. “You’re bleeding… your head.” His wrists too—the skin of his inner arms was raw and glistening in the firelight. “She tied you up. You burned the tape off your arms,” he said in shock.
Nicky huffed out a breath. “If only I’d managed to knock myself out when I hit my head.”
“She pointed a gun at me. I knocked her out, but I went to get some rope and by the time I came back she was gone.”
Nicky just stared at him. In the dark Nicky’s eyes had seemed blank and fathomless, but now, in the firelight, Cai could see there was a barely contained wildness within their icy depths. The look of someone pushed far beyond their boundaries. A look Cai recognised.
And Cai knew what that look meant. Nicky wasn’t going to help him. Nicky didn’t want him here. Nicky had his own fucked-up mess to manage. Something broke deep inside him. Soph and Loz were waiting for him to decide what to do now, and he couldn’t. He just couldn’t. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to be mixed up in all this trouble and yet here he was. Again.
He leaned forwards, his head in his hands, his ribs aching. “My flat burned down. We’ve lost everything,” he murmured, not expecting a response, not even sure why he was saying anything at all.
“Today?” Nicky asked. The way he said it, Cai wasn’t sure Nicky believed him.
