Close to Home (DI Adam Fawley #1)(45)

‘I just do,’ she says.

*

At 1.30 I give up trying to sleep and get up. As the weight in the bed shifts, Alex murmurs, then turns over. This time of year, the sky never seems to get fully dark. I go out on to the landing and into Jake’s room, the dark blue silence ringing in my ears. The window is slightly open and the pennant on the wall trembles in a current of air. I go over to close it and see next-door’s cat prowling across the grass. Jake loved that cat. He was always on at us to get a kitten, but I always said no. That’s only one of the many things I regret not doing now.

In his room, nothing has been changed, nothing moved. We’ll have to do that eventually, but neither of us can face it yet. We have a cleaner come in once a week, but it’s Alex who cleans in here. She does it when I’m out. She doesn’t want me to see how careful she is that everything goes back exactly where it was. I sit down on the bed and think about Leo, and how we’re going to have to talk to his GP. Because if I can see there’s something wrong, then his doctor sure as hell has. I lie down on the bed and then turn slowly to bury my face in Jake’s pillow. His smell is still there, but it’s going, and I panic for a moment, knowing that it won’t be long before I’ve lost that too.

I close my eyes and breathe him in.



* * *



—

‘Adam! Adam!’

I lurch upright, my heart pounding. Alex is standing there. I have no idea how long I’ve been asleep but it’s not yet light.

‘It’s ringing,’ she says in hollow tones, holding out my mobile. ‘And given that it’s two o’clock in the morning, I doubt it’s good news, do you?’

I swing my legs down on to the floor. The screen says it’s Gislingham.

‘What is it?’

The noise on the line is incredible. I can hear at least two sirens.

‘I’m at the house,’ he yells, over the din.

‘Did we get the warrant?’

‘Look – I think you’d better come.’

*

It’s like bloody Rebecca. I can see the lurid glow above the estate all the way along the ring road, and the smoke hits me long before I turn into the close. There are three squad cars, an ambulance and two fire engines. A couple of firemen are up a telescopic ladder, hosing down the flames at the upstairs windows. There’s ugly black soot spreading across the red brick. As I draw up, Gislingham detaches himself from the crowd and comes towards me.

‘What the fuck happened?’

‘Looks like arson. You can smell the petrol. There was a small group of troublemakers here earlier, apparently, shouting threats and making a lot of noise, but uniform came out and dealt with that. One yob chucked a brick, but he was too far away to do any damage. The fire officer I spoke to thinks whoever did this probably came along the towpath and lobbed something over the fence. Some sort of do-it-yourself Molotov cocktail.’

‘Where’s Sharon and the boy? Are they OK?’

I should have asked that first. I do know that.

Gislingham nods. ‘Everett’s with them in the car. They’re a bit shaken. Specially the boy. He’s gulped down a lot of smoke.’

I look over to the squad car. The passenger door is open and I can see Sharon with a blanket round her shoulders. I can’t see Leo.

‘We’re bloody lucky there were no other casualties. The family one side are away and the other lot got out when Sharon went and banged on the door. Media’s loving it, of course. The Sky lot were camped out in their van overnight. They can’t believe their luck – they got to film the whole bloody thing.’

‘Please tell me that was after they dialled 999.’

‘They said Sharon had already done it.’

‘OK, I want that footage. Before they broadcast it. And find the senior fire officer on site. I want to see him in the morning – as soon as the house is declared safe.’

I glance across at the hacks, pushed back further behind a cordon, but straining at it like attack dogs. There must be half a dozen outside-broadcast vans here now, gathered like sharks on blood. ‘The Super’s going to have my head on a pole for this. And the bloody IPCC will get their oar in too, I shouldn’t wonder.’

‘You couldn’t have known this would happen, boss.’

‘No, but I could have moved the family as soon as it got out they were being questioned. That’s no doubt the line the ACC will take. Well, we’re going to have to do it now. Have you got somewhere lined up?’

‘There’s that B&B we’ve used before off the Cowley Road. Thought it best to get them out of the immediate area. Just in case anyone’s still hanging around. We’re waiting for the paramedic to check the boy over, then Everett will take them. Sharon’s in no fit state, and in any case, her car’s a write-off – it was in the garage.’

‘Good work.’

He doesn’t look that happy. ‘I mean it. You’ve done well.’

‘It’s not that, boss. I was going to leave it to the morning, but since you’re here – ’

I take a deep breath. ‘More bad news? Not sure how much worse it can get, but spit it out.’

‘That pay-as-you-go mobile Mason has been using to text his lady loves? I ran it through the PNC and it came up. It’s on the CEOP database of phone numbers that downloaded material from a porn site hosted in Azerbaijan. It’s hard-core stuff, boss. Kiddies. Babies, some of them.’