Liar Liar: DI Helen Grace 4 (A DI Helen Grace Thriller) (5 page)

Blog post by firstpersonsingular.

Wednesday, 9 December, 07.00.

Winter sucks, right?

What else is there to say?

Ok, there is more. Let me try and explain it to you.

Everybody moans. As soon as the Christmas decorations appear in the shops everybody starts whinging: about the cold, how it gets dark early, about snow, about their relations, about their relationships, about how they fucking hate Christmas. But they’re lying. They love it. Otherwise they’d have nothing else to talk about, nothing else to
do
. It’s just an act – as predictable as it is false. They have no idea what winter really means. To people like me.

Imagine you’re standing on the beach, watching a huge black cloud coming towards you. It’s the darkest cloud you’ve ever seen – it’s huge – and it’s heading your way. It won’t rush – it wants you to know it’s coming, to anticipate its horror – but it’s moving. Inch by inch, mile by mile – it’s coming for
you
.

You feel the sun disappear as the storm blocks out the sun. Soon afterwards you feel the first flecks of rain, as the wind rises, whipping you again and again. Now you’re cold, really, really cold. It feels like … it feels like all the nice, kind, warm things in the world have been lost for ever. Now the cloud moves over you, surrounding you, stealing you. There’s no way out of it now. Even if you wanted to run you wouldn’t know which direction to go in. You are powerless. Unable to move. So you sit there. Doing nothing. Hoping for nothing.

It clings to you now, denying you light, hope, warmth. Day after day after day. But you never get used to it. Night and day – it’s hard to tell one from the other. Existence seems to stretch out far in front of you – long and pointless. You want to kill yourself but somehow can’t muster the energy. You are lost for ever, wandering around and around but always ending up at the same point. And there’s no one with you here, no one to guide you to safety. You are all alone. YOU ARE LOST.

THAT’S what winter feels like to me.

But this one is different. A good deal worse and a whole lot better. This year I am taking control of the situation – and the angels are on my side. I saw what people said online about the fire at the Millbrook – they said it was hideous, ugly, an abomination. But not to me. I thought it was beautiful.

‘Everyone’s here now, so let’s begin.’

It was only 8 a.m. but already the incident room was packed. Crime scene photos from the three fire sites adorned the walls and data officers were logging and labelling the many hours of footage – both police and amateur – that had been taken from last night’s incidents. Nearly everybody present had been up half the night, yet they had all assembled punctually, as Helen had requested.

‘I don’t have any detailed forensics for you yet,’ Helen continued, ‘but we are treating all three fires as arson. There was a strong smell of paraffin on the ground floor of the Simms house and at the timber yard. Both Thomas Simms and Dominic Travell have confirmed there was no paraffin stored on site. Presuming the same is true at Bertrand’s Emporium, then we can assume that all three fires were started deliberately by a person or persons unknown. CCTV was deactivated at Travell’s, Bertrand’s didn’t have any and of course there wasn’t any at the domestic property in Millbrook. We’ll see if street cameras picked up anything but it’s likely to have been busy at that time – it was kicking-out time from the pubs. The fires were extremely fierce and extensive so it’s very likely that any on-site traces of the perpetrator – DNA, hairs, fibres – were destroyed, plus the ground outside was frosty and hard, so we weren’t able to find any obvious tyre tracks or
footprints. Which means … we’re going to have to rely on some old-fashioned detective work. I’ll pull in as many uniformed officers as I can as we’ll need to be knocking on doors, seeing if anyone saw anything out of the ordinary, anything suspicious. DC Edwards, are you ok to coordinate this for me?’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘Anything comes up, feed it straight back in. Someone set three major fires last night and got away with it. They might be shocked by Karen Simms’s death or they might be feeling empowered and excited. I want whoever it is to know that we’re tearing the city apart, looking for them. So be visible, make some noise.’

‘I’ll try my best.’

‘DC Lucas, I’d like you to handle the PNC checks. See if any local arsonists have been active recently.’

‘On it.’

Helen put her file down and addressed the whole team.

‘Arson. What are the possible motives?’ she asked.

‘To cover up a crime?’ Charlie offered.

‘Good. Anything else?’

‘Property crime. To claim on the insurance,’ DC Edwards offered.

‘What else?’

‘Revenge. On a former partner or unfaithful spouse.’

‘For the thrill of the fire itself?’ Sanderson pitched in.

‘Fire gives some people a sexual charge, a feeling of being in control. So we have to put pyromania on the list,’ Helen added.

‘What if it’s something to do with the city itself?
Someone who feels let down in some way? By the people or the place?’

Helen nodded, but before she could reply DC McAndrew jumped in.

‘Could there be a financial motive? Two businesses were hit. Plus Thomas Simms runs an import/export business. Might that be a connection?’

‘It’s certainly possible and in the absence of any hard evidence guiding us towards the perpetrators’ motives, we’re going to have to focus our initial attention
on the victims
,’ Helen responded. ‘Why would someone want to attack them? What connects the three attacks? It’s not geographical, so there must be another reason why they were chosen. Look at the victims themselves, their spouses, family members, colleagues, lovers. Look at their business affairs, bank accounts, their successes, their failures. McAndrew, I’d like you to coordinate this, paying special attention to the Simms family – they could well be the principal targets of last night’s fires.’

Helen paused a second, before concluding:

‘Leave no stone unturned. There is a reason why these three sites were targeted. And it’s our job to find it.’

The Simmses’ ruined house was even more sinister in the daylight. It looked hollow – like a skull picked clean of eyeballs, skin and flesh. Deborah Parks, Hampshire Fire and Rescue’s most experienced Fire Investigation Officer, was already hard at work when Helen arrived. Helen had crossed paths with Deborah before and knew her to be a determined and incisive investigator. She was hoping Deborah would be able to give them something – anything – to work with in a case that was already extremely light on leads.

Deborah was an attractive and intelligent brunette, but encased in her sterile suit, goggles and mask, she looked like a robot, painstakingly picking over the wreckage, minutely sifting the ash for evidence. Pulling on her suit, Helen quickly joined her and they walked the fire site together, starting their journey at the back door of the house.

‘I’d agree that our intruder entered by the back door,’ Deborah began in her typically brisk and efficient way. ‘The damage to the glass was made by an implement or a fist, not by the fire. Has Meredith found anything useful on the exterior of the door?’

‘Nothing yet. We were hoping for a print or something but …’

‘I’m nearly done now, so I’m happy for her to try
her luck inside. It’s perfectly safe now that the struts are up.’

‘I’ll let her know.’

‘I would suggest,’ Deborah continued, ‘that our arsonist then made his or her way towards the stairs.’

They had reached the ruined stairwell and Deborah now gestured towards what had once been a small understairs cupboard. Helen bent down and was immediately assaulted by a strong scent of paraffin.

‘The fire started here, directly beneath the main stairwell. There’s no trace of paraffin anywhere else in the house and look there …’

Helen followed the line of Deborah’s index finger to see a small, black, crumpled box, lying amid the ash on the floor.

‘It’s a carbonized cigarette packet. It was used to ignite the fire, which then spread upwards – as fire always does – meaning that though the cigarette packet was burnt in the fire, it wasn’t destroyed.’

‘Why would you use a packet of cigarettes to start a fire, why not a match or a lighter?’ Helen responded.

‘Look closer.’

As Helen did so, Deborah continued:

‘The cigarette packet has something wrapped around it, something which melted in the heat and is now fused to it permanently. My guess is that it was a rubber band. It’s a common arsonist’s trick. You lay down your accelerant. Then you take a cigarette out and attach it to the packet with a rubber band, not forgetting to stick a few matches under the band for good measure. You lay the box on the accelerant, then light the cigarette. The
cigarette burns down until it hits the matches, sparking a fire flare –’

‘Which sets the accelerant alight.’

‘Exactly.’

‘And how long would the cigarette take to burn down to the matches?’

‘Ten to fifteen minutes.’

‘Leaving our arsonist plenty of time to get away
before
the fire ignites.’

Deborah Parks nodded. Helen digested this development – struck by the care and intelligence of the perpetrator – as the FIO continued:

‘There were old cardboard boxes, a couple of brooms, other detritus in the cupboard – plenty of fuel to help the fire grow. If the cupboard door was closed the temperature would have risen quickly. Hot gases would have built up above the flames and when the temperature in the cupboard reached a certain level, the gases themselves would have ignited, causing a flashover. And, of course, the stairs above are made of wood that’s over a hundred and fifty years old –’

‘So it would have gone up like a candle. And the fact that the stairs would be ablaze before anyone was the wiser, means there would be little chance of escape.’

This crime became more unpleasant the more Helen learnt about it. This was a calculated attempt to kill the Simms family.

‘Any room for doubt?’ Helen offered, more in hope than expectation.

‘No. There are no electrics under the stairs and clear
evidence of paraffin having been poured on the floor. This wasn’t accidental or vandalism, it was murder.’

Helen took this in, then:

‘What does such a calculated attempt on their lives suggest? In your experience?’

‘Well, if you’d wanted to make it look like an accident you would have started the blaze by the fuse box or in the kitchen perhaps, where there are plenty of appliances that could cause a fire. Your arsonist isn’t interested in that. He or she doesn’t care that people know it’s a deliberate act of arson. Perhaps they
want
people to know.’

‘So it’s an act of hatred? Revenge of some kind?’

‘Could be. If I was a betting woman I would wager that the arsonist was known to them. Someone they’d crossed swords with, wronged in some way perhaps.’

Deborah Parks paused before concluding her train of thought.

‘This was
personal
.’

Luke Simms looked broken in every way. He was putting a brave face on things for his dad’s sake, answering Charlie’s questions patiently and politely, but his eyes gave the lie to his performance. As he lay with his legs suspended in his hospital bed, he seemed to stare past Charlie to some unspecified spot on the wall, as if he was still struggling to take in what had happened.

By all accounts, Luke was a bright lad with a promising future. He was a pupil at St Michael’s Secondary, a prestigious fee-paying school in Millbrook. He was studying for his A-Levels – Maths, Biology and Sports Science – but his real dream was to play football. He practised five times a week and was a key player for a semi-professional team. He had twice been scouted by the Saints and like many local boys harboured hopes of playing for his hometown club. But that seemed a very distant possibility now.

Luke had sustained compound fractures to his legs – both were now encased in plaster and raised on hoists, making it virtually impossible for him to sit up. A dislocated shoulder made matters even more awkward, meaning Luke lay flat on his back hour after hour, supine and defeated. He had a digital radio and a packet of his favourite Percy Pig sweets to cheer him up, but both remained untouched. This young man was thinking only
of his mother, his sister and his own broken body. Charlie’s instinct was to reach out and comfort him – she couldn’t bear the fact that his hopes and dreams had been so brutally shattered – but that wasn’t her place, nor her priority. She was here to do a job.

‘I’m sorry to have to ask you this, Luke, when you have so much else on your plate, but can you think of anyone who might have wanted to harm you or your family?’

Luke looked at her blankly. For a moment, Charlie thought he hadn’t heard the question, but then something changed in his expression. A look of utter incomprehension settled across his features.

‘No, of course not.’

‘Is there anyone you’ve argued with? Anyone you’ve seen threatening your mum or your sister? Do you remember anything that worried you or made you suspicious?’

‘No. I … I don’t pick fights with people. And even if I did, they wouldn’t do
this
.’

It was a fair point and the boy’s protestations seemed genuine, so Charlie asked a couple more questions, before moving the conversation on. Luke’s dad, Thomas, had been present throughout, keeping a watchful eye over his son. He divided his time now between Luke’s bedside and the burns unit, where his daughter Alice continued to defy her injuries. There seemed to be no time in this punishing schedule for sleep and Charlie decided to keep her preliminary questions to the point, such was Thomas Simms’s exhaustion and desperation.

‘So you were heading home around midnight last night, Mr Simms?’

‘Yes.’

‘Is that normal?’

‘It shouldn’t be, but it is’ was the swift response. ‘I import clothes and sell them on. Teenage fashion from China, Hong Kong, Asia. Margins have always been tight but since the recession …’

Charlie nodded, but said nothing. The deep worry lines on Thomas Simms’s face told their own story.

‘I’ve had to lay off a lot of staff, so most nights I’m there late. I hadn’t planned to be packing and unpacking stock at my time of life, but I’ve invested too much in this business to let it fail.’

‘And you had no inkling that there would be trouble last night?’

‘No. It was just another day. I’d spoken to Karen earlier in the day and she seemed fine. She was just about to put Alice in the bath when I spoke to her and … and she was happy.’

Thomas Simms wept now, holding his face in his hands, as his grief ambushed him once more. Charlie turned away from him only to find that Luke was also crying, tears running down cheeks that were already livid and raw. Charlie felt the emotion rise in her throat and she stared hard at the floor, determined not to give into the tears now pricking
her
eyes. After a moment, Thomas’s silent sobbing subsided and Charlie looked up once more, determined not to be weak. She was pleased that her voice didn’t betray her as she resumed her questioning:

‘And Karen hadn’t confided in you about anything – or anyone – that she had concerns about?’

‘No.’

‘And Alice had seemed ok? Nothing worrying her?’

‘Nothing at all.’

Some of the vigour seemed to be returning to Thomas now, as he gathered himself.

‘And what about you, Thomas? Can you think of anyone who might have wanted to do this to you and your family?’

For the first time Thomas paused, before replying.

‘No. I’ve no idea who might have done this to us.’

Charlie nodded and moved the conversation on. But she had seen the pause – that brief moment where something might have been said and wasn’t – and it left her wondering. What was he about to say? What did he know? And, most importantly, why was he lying to her?