DS Jessica Daniel series: Think of the Children / Playing with Fire / Thicker Than Water – Books 4–6 (67 page)

‘I think I remember that one.’

Jessica had made it up but, if it had been a real subject, she wasn’t surprised. ‘Anyway, that must be where you saw me. I was sat at the back.’

The woman’s mouth was open, staring at Jessica. ‘Can I have your autograph?’

‘Really? I was only at the back.’

‘Yeah but you were on TV.’

The woman held out her puzzle book and pen. Jessica dropped the newspaper in the bin next to the desk but the woman was so in awe, she didn’t notice. Jessica took the pen and signed
‘Davina Rowlands’ on the back of the book before handing it back.

‘I’ll get it framed,’ the woman said, staring wide-eyed at the signature.

‘You’re welcome,’ Jessica replied, before taking her seat, while thinking England really was a strange place.

Jessica’s attempts to involve herself in the investigation were not going well. Shortly after her conversation with Rowlands, Cole had called to tell her to take an extra
day off on top of the week he had already ordered. For most people, the time off work would be a blessing, but he knew Jessica wanted to get back as soon as she could. He said that each time he
heard a report of her speaking to anyone at the station he would make her take another day off. He also reiterated that the next phone call would come from the superintendent, the one after that
from the chief constable.

She knew there would be the offer of counselling sessions when she did return – but even so she wanted to get back as soon as possible. Even if they did force her to work on other cases,
she would still easily be able to catch up on the gossip.

The next morning, she put her focus on Adam, although what was going on at Longsight was constantly in the back of her mind. It hadn’t helped that the day’s news coverage, although
not entirely devoted to her, extensively recapped recent events. It linked all of the blazes and mentioned that Martin’s release from prison had preceded everything.

Outside the hospital, Adam was determined to get into the passenger seat of her car by himself but she saw him wince as he crouched. Aside from the coughing, she pretty much felt back to her old
self but Adam’s voice was still deeper and rougher than it should be.

‘You’re going to like Caroline’s flat,’ Jessica said. ‘There’s a great view.’

‘I’ll sort something out so we don’t have to burden her.’

‘Take it easy, you know what the doctor said.’

‘You’re one to talk.’

When she had first seen the flat, Jessica was relieved that her friend had good taste. Much of Caroline’s furniture was still there, which she suspected was because no one was too keen on
trying to get it back downstairs in the lift. Caroline said they could treat the place as their own and that, as yet, there were no offers so they would have a couple of months at least to sort
themselves out.

After they arrived, Jessica showed Adam around but, as much as she tried to talk up the benefits, she knew they would never be able to call it home. For Adam, the destruction of the house had
meant he’d lost many of the memories from his childhood and beyond.

As they settled into Caroline’s wide leather sofa, Jessica pulled a pair of boxes out from under the coffee table. ‘Look what I found.’

Inside were the photographs and certificates that had been in the attic. She heard Adam cough gently but he was grinning as he began to look through the items. She knew there were photographs of
his grandma from when she had been younger, as well as ones of Adam as a child too. ‘Aww, look at the little thing,’ Jessica said, pointing at a photo of a naked Adam as a baby.

Before Adam could reply, her phone began to ring, Rowlands’s name flashing up. Jessica stood and walked into the open-plan kitchen.

‘Look who it is, Judas Rowlands.’

‘Hey, I didn’t tell Jack you were calling me yesterday. I was in a meeting with him when you rang.’

Jessica thought his story sounded plausible but she wasn’t entirely convinced. ‘Adam was released today,’ she said. ‘You remember my friend Caroline? We’re staying
in her flat that’s up for sale over on the Quays.’

‘Did you get a call from Hugo?’

Jessica laughed. ‘Hugo’ was the stage name for a magician friend of Rowlands who she had come to know well. ‘He said me and Adam can go stay in his flat any time we
like.’

Dave snorted. ‘You know he’s still living above that bookies’?’

‘I know. I said we would let him know if we needed somewhere. For one, it’s just a one-bedroom place so who knows where he thought we’d all sleep. Secondly, he’s still
got all those stuffed animals and everything. There’s no way I’d be able to sleep there. I’d be terrified of one of the mice coming back to life or something. Nice of him to offer
though.’

‘He’s got a one-night-a-week residency at this comedy club in town. He does tricks and stuff. We should go some time.’

‘I’ll see what Adam says. I’m not sure either of us are in the mood for much comedy at the moment. Anyway, what’s going on?’

‘Jess . . .’

‘Just tell me, you’ve called anyway.’

Dave sighed. ‘All right, fine, but don’t tell Jack. We’re trying our best. We have been going as far into Martin’s background as we can but there’s nothing there
that couldn’t be explained away through coincidence.’

If they delved deeply enough, Jessica knew they would find most people could be linked to a crime simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just because a person was in a town when
there was a robbery or a fire, that didn’t mean they had anything to do with it – but when the police looked into histories as thoroughly as they were examining Martin’s,
something would come up.

‘Did you link him to the fire at his old school?’

‘Nothing that would stick. He was released from hospital today. I wasn’t there but apparently it’s mainly cuts and bruises. They did all the brain scans and everything and
he’s fine.’

‘What about Ryan?’

‘We found a little about him – a couple of fights while he was in care but nothing serious.’

‘What about anything found at the house?’

‘Nothing. Because you have a lawn at the front, anything, such as footprints or something, would have been destroyed as they needed the ladder to get you out. People would have walked on
it. Your neighbours were all sleeping, as you’d expect.’

‘What about Sienna and Molly?’

‘It’s sort of been sidetracked. Apparently calls to those helplines are up, so the media coverage has had one good effect. There haven’t been any other deaths.’

‘So the world’s still turning without me in the centre of it?’

She heard Rowlands sniggering. ‘We’re all missing you, Jess. Get better and then come back.’

Jessica hung up and rejoined Adam in the living room. She wasn’t used to being off work during the day and, although it was barely lunchtime, she felt at a loss. ‘There was something
else which survived the fire,’ she told Adam, kissing him on the forehead before taking his hand.

‘What?’

Jessica led him towards the bedroom. Caroline had come by the previous day with clean sheets and helped her change everything because Jessica knew neither she nor Adam would feel comfortable in
someone else’s bed.

‘You know most of our clothes were okay?’ she said.

‘Yes.’

‘There’s a certain dress I’ve been promising to try on for quite some time . . .’

The bedroom curtains were wide open as Jessica and Adam lay watching the sky slowly darken.

‘It’s better when it’s sunny,’ Jessica said. ‘Caroline reckons that you can see mist forming underneath you on the water on the cloudy mornings. Her exact words
were, “It’s beautiful, just bloody cold”.’

‘What are we going to do?’ Adam said, wrapping an arm around Jessica and pulling her closer to him on the bed.

‘We’ll get a place of our own and start again.’

‘What about getting married? We can’t do that and then come back here. Everything’s going to take so long to sort out with the insurance and so on.’

‘You don’t know that,’ Jessica said.

‘Neither do you. I just . . . I want you to be happy.’

Jessica moved her head further onto his chest, being careful not to press too hard. ‘I’m going to be. We will be. At least we both got out.’

‘Do you remember it?’

‘Bits.’

‘I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.’

Jessica wriggled up and straddled herself across Adam’s stomach. ‘It doesn’t matter. If you hadn’t tested those bloody smoke alarms once a week when I was trying to watch
TV, neither of us would have got out. It’s as much down to you as me.’

‘It doesn’t feel like that.’

Jessica rested her hands on his chest and began to smooth down the hairs. ‘Ad, what matters is that we’re both out. You don’t have to be a knight in shining armour. You’d
piss me right off if you were. You’re just you.’

Adam put his hands on her hips and pulled her into an embrace. ‘You’re so cool,’ he whispered before dissolving into laughter which inevitably became a very unsexy chesty
cough.

As Jessica tried to stop herself from joining in, her phone rang, Andrew’s name flashing on the screen. Adam was doubled over and unable to protest, so Jessica answered.

‘What’s up?’

‘You told me to call if I saw Ryan and Lara together again?’

‘Where?’

‘The pub next to the hotel he’s staying in.’

‘I’ll be right there.’

Jessica didn’t spot Ryan on her first sweep of the pub but on the second she saw him sitting with Lara in a booth towards the back. Andrew had met her outside and said he
would wait around the front in case she needed him.

The booths were circular with an entrance only just wide enough for one person to walk through. A soft seat took up the rest of the circumference with a similarly round table in the centre.
Jessica walked directly up to the booth she had seen the pair in, squeezed herself through the gap, and sat next to Lara across the table from Ryan.

‘This is cosy,’ she said as both teenagers eyed her with a mixture of shock and, in Ryan’s case, outright anger.

‘You?’ Lara said, recognising Jessica from the time she was door-stepped.

‘You know each other?’ Ryan exclaimed furiously, seemingly trying to address both women at the same time.

‘Old pals, me and Lara,’ Jessica said with a grin. ‘We have lovely little chinwags all about you, Ryan.’

‘Fuck off, do we,’ the girl replied angrily. ‘What do you want?’

‘Just a little chat.’

Jessica could see Ryan was livid, his arms tense, his fists no doubt balled under the table. ‘How did you know where I was?’ He barely moved his mouth as he spoke.

‘Lucky guess. Your hotel is next door, so I thought I’d drop in and see if you were around.’

‘Weren’t you in the papers yesterday?’

Ryan didn’t exactly sound as if he was gloating but he certainly knew he had something over her.

Jessica didn’t want to let him get under her skin. ‘Don’t go telling me you can read? Or did you just look at the pictures?’

Ryan glanced towards Lara. ‘Can you give us a few minutes?’

The girl leant forward. ‘Seriously? Just tell her to piss off.’

‘Wait over there. I need a few minutes.’

Jessica realised she had never heard Ryan sound assertive until he addressed the woman a second time. He’d been angry and aggressive but now his voice was lower and more serious with a
tone she hadn’t recognised before. Jessica slid out to let Lara pass as the teenager gave her the dirtiest of looks and muttered a very audible ‘bitch’ as she walked towards the
tables Ryan had indicated.

‘She’s a lovely girl,’ Jessica said, sliding back into the booth.

‘How did you know where I was?’ Ryan asked again. ‘Do you have someone following and taking pictures like before?’

‘Should I? Have you got something to hide?’

Ryan sighed. His arms were no longer tense and he seemed more frustrated than angry. ‘Just tell me what you want.’

‘I want to know who Lara is to you and why you’re giving her money.’

The man’s mouth fell open. ‘How do you know about that?’

‘I just do. Now let’s stop all the bollocks and tell me.’

‘I didn’t nick it.’

Jessica swore. ‘I never said you did. I’m here because I’m sick of everything that’s going on. The fires, the girls dying. All of it. Yes I was in the paper yesterday
because someone set fire to my house and tried to kill me and my fiancé. I’m here because I want it to stop before someone else gets hurt.’

Jessica was shaking as she finished speaking. She hadn’t thought any of her words through but something about how Ryan had spoken to Lara made him sound less hostile. She was seeing him in
a way she hadn’t before.

‘You think it was me?’ he said, eyebrows raised.

‘Just tell me what the money was about.’

Ryan shook his head and sighed. ‘It was for my little boy. Lara and me, we . . . we have a kid. It wasn’t planned or anything, it just happened. We’re not even going out. She
was going on about going to the child-support people and all that, so I gave her some money to shut her up. I don’t know how you know.’

Jessica stared at him, thinking he at least appeared to be telling the truth. She figured there was little point in him lying considering she could just ask Lara anyway.

‘Where did you get it?’

‘I work in a garage.’

‘I know but they can’t pay that much.’

‘No but it’s not as if I spend it, is it? My college is free, I buy a bus pass once a month, the house was mine and the hotel’s paid for by the insurance.’

When she thought about it, Jessica realised he was right. Apart from food and transport, he would have nothing to spend his money on. The stupidest thing was that she and Adam had been in the
exact same situation, because he had inherited the house with no mortgage from his grandmother. Somehow she had failed to see the parallel.

‘So why were you meeting again tonight?’ Jessica asked.

Ryan was scowling. ‘Nothing. None of your business.’

‘No, you’re right, sorry. It’s just . . . those other girls.’

‘Who?’