Page 60 of Murder in Shades of Fire and Ash

“The explosion at Hassan’s takeaway?”

“Yes.” He looked decidedly smug about that, which made Charlie’s leg hurt.

“The fire in the empty shop on Llanfair High Street?”

Britton smiled. “You can’t prove it. All those coppers and you can’t prove I was even there.”

“Actually, I think we can,” Kent said. “One of my colleagues put out an appeal to the public for their phone photographs of that night. Photographs of the areas not covered by CCTV. You might have avoided CCTV, but you weren’t looking out for people with phones.”

Which was Kent essentially saying that he didn’t have any pictures of Britton at the scene, whilst implying that he did. The solicitor’s face showed that she knew what Kent was doing, but she wasn’t quick enough.

“So what if I did?” Britton shouted; his voice very loud in the small room. “I might have chucked a bit of petrol around, but that bloke on the top floor was dead when I found him.”

“Why go upstairs at all?” Kent asked, silkily. “You’d started a fire and made your escape, why go back?”

It took several other questions before Britton admitted to the dispiriting truth: he had simply wanted to see how far his fire had extended.

After far too long in the claustrophobic room, Kent explained that they would be asking the Crown Prosecution Service for a charging decision. “But I am confident that you will shortly be charged with all the offences we have discussed today,” he said. The solicitor looked as if she was confident about it as well.

“I’ll get my day in court,” Britton said, smiling. “People will have to listen.”

“You’ll probably be in court tomorrow,” Kent replied.

In the corridor outside, Kent blew out a breath. “Did we miss anything?” he asked Charlie. Charlie shook his head.

“After that lot, he’s going to have to plead guilty. There won’t be a trial. He won’t get to spout all his anti-immigrant rubbish. Tomorrow will only be a remand hearing.”

“As I’m sure his solicitor is explaining right now,” Kent said, and the satisfaction in his voice was almost visible.

Charlie’snext port of call was the hospital, if Tom was prepared to continue his chauffeur duties. Tom was. He’d been to get coffee and was listening to an audiobook on the car’s sound system. “At your service, guv’nor,” he said.

Charlie laughed. “You need a peaked cap.”

He wanted to check on Megan and ask someone in minor injuries for some more crutches. He could manage without them, but it was much more painful. He was surprised to meet Gavin, Ravensbourne’s Gavin, in the foyer.

“Is the boss OK?” Charlie asked, forgetting to move away from the reassuring ‘pat’ on his arm, which given his leg, almost knocked him over.

“She’s fine,” Gavin said. “Go and see for yourself, same place. She’ll be home tomorrow.”

Megan first, Charlie decided, then Freya Ravensbourne.

Enquiries about Megan sent him to Intensive Care, and the charge nurse who simply said he didn’t know. “Her parents are here, sitting with her. She hasn’t regained consciousness, but she isn’t getting any worse. All I can say is, don’t give up hope.”

Charlie had no intention of giving up hope and said so. Then he went to find Freya Ravensbourne.

His boss was sitting up on the same bed, in the same room, but she was dressed in what appeared to be a new pair of black polyester trousers, and an artist’s smock like the one Gavin had been wearing on Charlie’s last visit. Unlike on his last visit, Ravensbourne looked almost well. All the visible cuts and bruises turning from purple to yellow, and though she still had a turban of bandages around her head, it was a thinner, neater, turban.

“You’re looking better, boss,” Charlie said. “I thought you were going home yesterday.”

“Stupid, pointless fussing. I’m fine, but the doctors insisted. Home tomorrow. Now tell me about your murders.”

Charlie told his story. At the end, Ravensbourne had only one question.

“Why was Patsy there?”

“Because she’s been following me. Chief Superintendent Kent told her to keep away, put her on paid leave until further notice. But she couldn’t leave it alone.” Charlie blushed. “She, um, said I would catch whoever killed Unwin, and she wanted to be there. To, um, make them pay. She wouldn’t have hurt them obviously, and in the event, she didn’t, but I think she wanted to. That’s why she was at every crime scene.”

And I still don’t know if that’s why she pulled me away from Corrine.

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