Page 20 of Murder in Shades of Fire and Ash

He would put money on Patsy’s grief being genuine. Sure, a murderer could grieve for their victim, but Charlie didn’t think that was what he saw in Patsy. All he had to do was prove it, ideally by finding the real murderer.

“Anything else of interest in the statements?” he asked Mags when he got back to the office.

“Didn’t see anything, only saw the fire once it got started, dunno why I was watching, really, that kind of thing. Mostly, I think the fire was an excuse for people to stay out a bit longer and ogle the firefighters.”

“Yeah,” Charlie said. “They only started going home when we asked for names and addresses. What weshouldhave asked for was their pictures and videos, because I bet everyone hadtheir phone cameras out. Can we put some boards up in town appealing for photos, and a notice in the press?”

Mags made a note and reached for her keyboard.

“The thing is,” Charlie said before she started typing, “this Jeff Britton came across as absolutely the business. I never doubted for a second that he was exactly who he said he was. Eddy says the same. Both of us thought he was a bit weird about Unwin’s body — didn’t want to say whether he’d known it was there — but apart from that he was perfect. I’ve just read the statement from the actual fire investigator, and it’s almost word for word what this Britton told us. I think Britton’s a firefighter, and if we can put him at the scene, I think he might be our arsonist, too.”

“That’s why you want people’s photographs?”

“That’s why. All of us had our body cams, so Eddy and I need to look through those. I’ll start tonight. Can you start looking for firefighters called Jeff Britton? And probably suspected arsonists with the same name?”

Again, Mags made a note. “I’ll do the pictures appeal and then get started. Tell me what he looks like.”

Charlie described a man about six feet tall, in good shape, late thirties or early forties, brown hair and brown eyes. “He didn’t really stand out, to be honest. I’d recognise him if I saw him again, but there was nothing useful like a tattoo on his cheek.”

“Clothes?”

“Navy trousers, navy T-shirt, work boots.”

“Exactly what you’d expect,” Mags said.

Back in his office, Charlie began to download the footage from their body-worn cameras. He and Eddy had borrowed the ones usually used by the two special constables, but as a uniformed PC, Patsy had her own. It was the obvious place to start. If nothing else, it would show where she was standingwhen the fire started, except it didn’t. There were a few encounters with drunken passers-by, and then the screen went black.

“Mags,” Charlie called, “will you have a look at this?”

Mags came and looked over his shoulder at a few minutes of rewound footage before the screen went black again. “Keep going, speed it up.” They continued to watch the black screen with the time showing as a white blur, until suddenly the camera began to show images of the street again. This time with a clearly burning shop to Patsy’s left.

“That used to happen to me all the time,” Mags said. “It’s the clip on the camera. If you catch it the wrong way it starts recordingyou, instead of what you’re looking at. I used to come back with a lot of images of my jacket. I did show Patsy how to stop it happening. I guess with everything going on, she forgot.”

Charlie could hear the seeds of doubt in Mags’ voice. “She’s not part of this, Mags. Patsy is no more a murderer and an arsonist than you are. I trust her.”

“But do you trust Unwin?” Mags asked. “He was a strange one. I know Patsy was his official girlfriend, but I don’t think she was the only one. He did have a bit of a reputation, you know.”

If Charlie hadn’t known before, he surely knew now. “I do know Unwin had a boyfriend, Dylan. He and Patsy knew about each other. They liked each other. Everything was open and above board. Ethical non-monogamy Patsy called it.”

Mags shook her head. “That’s easy to say. But feelings get involved and people get jealous, and jealousy leads to insecurity, and it twists you up inside, makes you do things you wouldn’t normally do …”

Like sleep in the office, even though your own bed was ten minutes’ walk away.

“I know. It wouldn’t work for me. But what you see with Patsy is what you get. If she’d killed Unwin, she would have told us. No, I think we need to find this Jeff Britton.”

Mags stood up straight and stretched. “Nothing so far. Did I see you with a cool bag earlier?”

Charlie grinned. “Follow me,” he said, and they went down to the break room and ate cheese and crusty bread until they were ready to go back to work. Charlie watched the rest of the footage from all three cameras for a sighting of Britton but found nothing. There were any number of tall men in dark clothes, any one of whom could have been Britton. But only a few faces were visible; none of them were the fake fire officer. Maybe they would have better luck with photographs from the public. He took his aching bones into the big room. Mags had her head propped up on her hands and was yawning widely.

“Sorry,” she said, and yawned again.

“Time to pack it in,” Charlie said.

“I did find a firefighter from the West Midlands calledJeff Burton, but there’s no picture. I can ring them in the morning.” She yawned again.

“Home,” Charlie said. “And thanks for coming in.”

He escorted her to the door and watched until she was out of sight. In a town the size of Llanfair, nowhere was far from the police station, and the Jellicoe household was closer than most. But he would stay outside until he got her text to say she was safely indoors. When it arrived, he locked the door behind him and went back to the break room, where a few chairs pulled together made an adequate bed, with a pillow and sheet he had brought from home. The room was airless, and smelled of old coffee, and milk left too long in the fridge, but it was better than being at home. Mags’ words came back to him:jealousy leads to insecurity, and it twists you up inside, makes you do things you wouldn’t normally do …Hewouldtalk to Tom. But first hewould sort out his own feelings, and before that he would find whoever killed Unwin and clear Patsy’s name. They had leads to follow: this Jeff Burton, discovering who had access to the shop, Unwin’s phone records, whatever the crime scene team had uncovered, a timeline of Unwin’s movements … it was all written down and it would all wait until the morning.

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