False fire Read online

  She went out to the hall and called up the stairs. ‘Girls!’ She clapped her hands. ‘Come on down. There’s someone to see you.’ William will have been briefing them, won’t he?

  The girls clattered down the stairs, Bernice carrying Teddy, with William following behind. Alicia and Bernice were wearing identical blue T-shirts with a sparkly design on them, over jeans – and their own shoes. They were holding pink phones. Also new. The tops and the phones would be the things William had bought for them. Those tops were definitely not from Marks & Spencer.

  Their hair was newly brushed, and they had removed all traces of Bea’s makeup. Good, thought Bea. The agency girl had been a good choice.

  Mel descended the stairs after the girls, smiling, at ease with the children.

  Bea said, ‘Mel, would you join us? The fire investigator wants a word with the girls, and I’d like you to be present.’

  The girls halted just inside the sitting-room door. They looked at the fire and froze.

  Bea gently urged them forward to sit side by side on the settee to the right of the fireplace. Mel took a seat near the door and made herself invisible. Bea congratulated herself on using Mel. The girl actually used her head in an emergency … and this was an emergency, wasn’t it?

  The fire investigator held up a form. ‘Mrs Abbot, if you will sign here, giving your permission for me to talk to the children?’ A slight baring of teeth, intended to represent a smile.

  The girls were sitting close to one another. Alicia’s thumb circled her mouth, but she was just about able to prevent herself from sucking it. Bernice was holding Teddy on her hip. He was still wearing Bea’s hankie round his neck.

  William took a chair at the back.

  The fire investigator said, ‘Well, girls; my name is Manisa, and I work for the fire service. I’ve been asked to find out what happened last night.’ She gestured to the fireplace. ‘Does this fire bother you?’

  ‘Sort of.’

  ‘No. Not really.’

  It was definitely a tape recorder at Manisa’s side. She was making notes in a notebook as well as recording everything the girls said. Bea supposed William had given permission.

  Manisa smiled. ‘Which is which? Alicia? You are Alicia? And so your friend is Bernice. Don’t you like an open fire?’

  Alicia shrugged. ‘We don’t have one in our house.’

  Bernice agreed. ‘We don’t have one, either.’

  ‘It’s pretty, don’t you think? Don’t you find bonfires exciting?’

  Bernice said, ‘You can’t have bonfires in towns.’

  ‘But you like fireworks?’

  ‘Not any more.’ That was Alicia.

  ‘Alicia, I heard you wanted to let off fireworks in your garden last night.’

  ‘We were, but Grandpa … that’s my other grandpa, not my granddad that’s here … he said no.’

  Manisa looked down at her notes. ‘But you were given a whole box of fireworks, just for yourselves.’

  Bernice said, ‘Those were indoor fireworks to go on a tray on a table. But we didn’t get the chance. Mrs Frost went to fetch us a hot drink and a tray and some matches and she didn’t come back before … before.’

  Manisa smiled. ‘Oh, I know how it was. You were so excited, you couldn’t wait. You just had a peep inside the box … right?’

  Both girls shook their heads. Alicia said, ‘No, Mrs Frost said that while she was gone we should start making out a list of the presents we’d been given so that we could write thank-you letters to people. But we didn’t want to bother. I got out my new iPhone, and Bernice tried on her new shoes that she’d just been given. So we didn’t open the box.’

  ‘Who gave you them?’

  The girls looked at one another and shrugged. ‘We don’t know,’ said Bernice. ‘We looked to see if there was a label—’

  ‘But there wasn’t,’ said Alicia. ‘We don’t even know which of us it was meant for.’

  ‘So you opened it up to see.’

  Bernice shook her head. ‘It was a big box and sellotaped up and we couldn’t find any scissors to open it up. So I put it on Lissy’s bed. I was trying on my new shoes and Lissy said she’d look to see what was on the telly and …’ She gulped. ‘The box exploded.’

  ‘The telly exploded, you mean?’ Manisa frowned.

  ‘No, the box of fireworks. Things whizzed round the room and we were frightened—’

  ‘Lissy used her phone and asked for the fire brigade—’

  ‘But they said we were just kids making a hoax call—’

  ‘Mrs Frost didn’t come back and I threw the duvet from my bed over the fire but it didn’t work—’

  ‘I tried phoning Mummy downstairs and then there was all this black smoke—’

  ‘I fell down. I couldn’t breathe.’

  ‘And then they came to get us out, and carried us down the stairs in the dark and it was, like, really scary. Then we saw Faye under the table in the dining room, trying to find her pearls and we were going to help her only Grandpa said not to because of the broken glass—’

  ‘Then we asked about Mrs Frost and Lissy’s granddad went back up the stairs to find her, leaving us in the dark again, but it was all right because he found her and then we went outside into the cold—’

  ‘And the neighbours gave us a hot drink, and we fell asleep and came here and had a bath and fell asleep all over again.’

  Huge eyes. Tense little bodies, vibrating with the strain. Alicia whimpered. Bernice pushed Teddy into Alicia’s arms, saying, ‘Teddy needs a cuddle.’

  And not only Teddy.

  Bea got to her feet, caught Mel’s eye, and gave a hand to each of the girls. ‘That’s enough now. Darlings, why don’t you go out to the kitchen with Mel and see if you can make some hot chocolate for yourselves. You might even be able to find the biscuit tin, if you look hard enough. Whatever you do, don’t feed Winston. That cat’s had more than enough food for now.’

  Alicia obediently slid down to the floor and allowed herself to be handed over to Mel, but Bernice hung back. ‘Can Mel take us to the shops to change the trainers she bought us? We really only like Nike.’

  Bea checked with Mel, who nodded. ‘If you ask her nicely, yes. She can take back any of the clothes you don’t want at the same time. Don’t forget your jackets. It’s cold outside.’

  ‘Hold on,’ said William. He stuffed some notes into the girls’ hands. ‘Choose trainers you really like this time.’

  Nice man.

  Mel nodded, and shooed the children out of the room. A moment later Bea heard them chattering away in the kitchen next door. Bea reflected that the girls might be well behaved for the time being, but would recover and start thinking up some more mischief soon.

  Bea carefully closed the door so that the children shouldn’t hear what the adults had to say.

  Turning to the fire investigator, Bea said, ‘What the girls didn’t see, and don’t know about, are that two fires were timed to go off in the house after they’d gone upstairs. One started behind the floor-to-ceiling curtain over the window in the dining room. Something – possibly a rocket, some kind of firework? – shot up to the top of the curtain and burst into flames. That’s the one which caused Josh to have a heart attack, and Daphne to cut her arm open on a broken glass.’

  Manisa said, ‘I’ve seen the remains of that curtain. I was informed the girls set their own curtain alight.’

  Bea shivered. The supermodel Faye had got her story in first, hadn’t she? ‘You can’t get up the stairs to the top floor yet, can you?’

  ‘The top stairs have gone,’ said Manisa.

  ‘Ah. Well, shortly after the first fire started, I thought I heard a second explosion somewhere else in the house. William thought he’d heard it, too. He and I were concerned about the children and we went upstairs to check. On the top landing we came across Mrs Frost, who’d left the children in their room and been on her way downstairs when the curtain on the landing beside her went up in flame
s. Shocked, she tripped, fell and broke her leg. She begged us to leave her and get the girls out. We started her on her way down the stairs and went on to get the children. That’s when the lights in the house went out.’

  Manisa’s eyes narrowed. ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes. You can check with Faye. She was there and can confirm it.’

  ‘But … why?’

  ‘I don’t know. Perhaps the fire had reached …? No, that can’t be right. Have you looked at the fuse box? Where would it be? In the kitchen quarters? Can you find out if that’s been interfered with, or someone set a fire there, too?’

  ‘We’ll check. If I’ve understood you correctly, you’re saying someone set up timed explosions throughout the house and shut off the electricity, but that it wasn’t the girls?’

  Bea nodded. ‘Far too elaborate.’

  Manisa wasn’t sure about that. ‘They can get all sorts of information from the Internet nowadays, including how to make a timed firework. Their uncle and his fiancée are convinced the girls set the fires.’

  ‘Yes, you’ve been talking to Faye, haven’t you? All right; let’s look at what the arsonist had to do. He had to research how to make the timers. Presumably on the Internet? He had to buy the necessary bits and pieces and construct the timers. Where and when were these two girls supposed to do that? At boarding school? Presumably you can trace what use they made of the school computers? And wouldn’t questions have been asked at school if they’d had packets of chemicals delivered to them there?’

  Manisa looked down at her notes. ‘We’ll check.’

  ‘Very well. Suppose they had made timed explosive devices at school – which seems to me to be ridiculous, but yes, you have to check – then they had to smuggle them home, where Mrs Frost would be overseeing every movement of their lives.’

  ‘They could have made the timers at home.’

  ‘In the five days they had for half-term? That’s so unlikely it’s out of the question. Then they needed to set the rockets – or whatever they were – in place behind the curtains. When were the curtains drawn that day? Not until after dark. Let us suppose it was dark about four. What were the girls doing that afternoon? Running around the house setting explosive timers? I don’t think so, do you?’

  Manisa grimaced. ‘I will check.’

  ‘Of course. Then another timer had to be placed in the box of indoor fireworks which, judging from the description the girls gave, did not contain harmless indoor fireworks, but rockets or other fireworks which whizzed around the room and set fire to the bed. And why would the girls have wanted to set their room on fire? The smoke nearly killed them, remember. If we hadn’t got there in time, they’d have died.’

  Manisa winced. ‘They might have done it for a lark. They wouldn’t realize how quickly the smoke might kill them.’

  ‘Did they also arrange to knock out the electricity? And why would they do that?’

  ‘Their relatives are convinced that they did.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ said Bea, attempting to be charitable, ‘they are not thinking clearly. Remember that the shock has put Alicia’s mother in hospital, and helped her grandfather, Josh, to an early grave.’

  ‘Have you a better theory?’

  Bea shook her head. ‘I think the girls were speaking the truth. I don’t know Alicia well enough to judge, but I do know Bernice pretty well, and I think I’d know if she were lying. What they say happened sounds right to me.’

  Manisa produced a faint smile. ‘I’m afraid very few adults know when children lie. They swear blind that their children are pure as driven snow, even if we show them a video of them misbehaving.’

  ‘And adults never lie?’

  ‘Yes, of course they do. All I’m saying is that it’s hard to tell when children are lying.’

  Bea lifted her hands in a gesture of resignation. ‘All I’m asking is that you apply the same rules of evidence to the adults who were present. As far as I am concerned, I don’t know enough about the rest of the party – except for Leon – to suggest who might wish to throw the blame on the children.’

  William spoke up for the first time. ‘I can’t suggest who would benefit from what happened, but I think I can start to make out a timetable of events. It seems to me that the two curtains being set on fire were meant as distractions to the main event. The distractions worked far better than they had any right to do since two members of the party – Josh and Daphne – and later a third, Mrs Frost … were carted off to hospital. But none of those injuries could have been anticipated.’

  ‘So what were they meant to distract from?’

  ‘I get it,’ said Bea. ‘The main event was the box of indoor fireworks exploding …?’

  ‘Yes. The girls had been allowed to stay up long after their usual bedtime. Normally they’d have been in bed and probably already asleep when that box of tricks went up in flames. The smoke would have suffocated the girls as they slept.’

  Bea said, ‘But the electricity …?’

  ‘Perhaps it was planned to go off to hinder any possible rescue attempt.’

  Silence.

  ‘Hang about,’ said Manisa. ‘What would be the point of that?’

  William’s tone was bleak. ‘Alicia is a very wealthy little girl.’

  Bea drew in her breath. ‘Actually, so is Bernice. When her great-aunt dies, she’ll come into a lot of money.’

  Manisa was incredulous. ‘You think this was attempted murder?’

  ‘Yes,’ said William. ‘I don’t want to believe it. But, yes.’

  The front doorbell rang. And rang. Bea attended to the summons.

  At first Bea didn’t recognize the woman standing in the porch. And then she did. At dinner the previous night, she’d been sitting opposite Bea on their host’s left. A stick insect in designer clothes. A fake blonde with a head too big for her long, thin neck. Last night she’d been wearing diamonds and a skimpy emerald green dress which had been designed for someone with fuller curves. Today she was wearing a pseudo-fur jacket over skinny jeans and stiletto shoes.

  ‘I’m Ninette, remember? William rang us to say you were looking after Alicia for a while. Good of you. We’re here to take her off your hands. Her father’s outside in the car, waiting for her.’

  SIX

  As if on cue, the two girls came clattering down the stairs wearing their new jackets, with Mel carrying bags of rejected clothing to be returned to the shop. All three were animated, almost pink-cheeked, though Bernice was carrying Teddy in a sling on her back. Teddy bear as safety blanket?

  ‘Ah, there you are,’ said Ninette, beckoning to Alicia. ‘Your father’s outside. Say “thank you” to the lady for looking after you, and we’ll be off.’

  The two girls lost all their vivacity.

  ‘Aunty Ninette,’ said Alicia. ‘We were just going shopping for some trainers.’

  ‘You won’t need them. You’re going straight back to school.’

  ‘But it’s half-term!’

  ‘They’re making an exception. Come along, do! We haven’t all day and I have a hair appointment this afternoon.’

  Alicia hung back. ‘We’ll have to pack. Grandpa and Mrs Abbot bought us some new clothes to wear. And we haven’t any school uniforms.’

  ‘The school will provide everything you need. Bernice will not be returning.’

  The two girls froze.

  ‘Why not?’ said Alicia. ‘She’s my best friend.’

  ‘A bad choice. If they’d known her father was a criminal, the school would never have accepted her in the first place.’

  Alicia’s healthy colour faded to a greenish-white.

  A stir in the doorway, and there was Manisa, holding up her ID. She announced her name and said, ‘Do you have the right to remove the child?’

  ‘William can give you any information you require. My fiancé adopted Alicia and has the right to remove her from contact with a pernicious influence.’

  Bea said, ‘Ninette, I hardly think you should—’r />
  ‘Don’t tell me what I should or should not do. It’s a thorough disgrace that Bernice should ever have been allowed into such a prestigious school. Under false pretences, no doubt. If we had only known what Alicia was to be exposed to!’

  Alicia struggled to keep calm. ‘Bernice is my best friend. I don’t want to go back to school without her. You don’t understand what it’s like. You never listen to anything I say!’

  Ninette was not to be stopped. ‘Did you think we wouldn’t find out? How dare these people foist a felon’s child on to—’

  William loomed in the doorway. ‘Enough, Ninette. You’ve made your point. I’m sorry, chicken,’ he said to Alicia. ‘While your mummy is so poorly, I’m afraid Alaric has the right to decide who looks after you. Be brave.’ He bent down to give her a hug.

  Alicia sobbed, ‘I can’t, Grandpa! Don’t make me!’

  He looked as if he were on the verge of tears himself. ‘I’ll ring you later, all right? You’ve got your new phone, haven’t you? Maybe we can get permission for me to take you out next weekend.’

  Tears stood out on Alicia’s pale cheeks. She kissed her grandfather, and released him only to hug Bernice.

  Bernice was not crying. She was beyond tears. She held out Teddy to Alicia in a gesture that said: You need him more than I do.

  Alicia took the bear from Bernice and, sobbing, wrapped her arms around him.

  Ninette snatched the bear from Alicia and threw him across the hall. ‘Ugh. You’re not taking that horrid, dirty thing with you. Come along, now!’ She seized Alicia’s arm, and towed her out of the front door and down the steps.

  A car was waiting below, double-parked. There was a man at the wheel whom Bea recognized. He’d been introduced to her last night as ‘One of Daphne’s exes’. The second husband? The one who’d adopted Alicia?

  Bernice watched as Alicia was pushed into the back of the car and the door shut. The car was driven away with Alicia’s white face in the window as she looked back, keeping Bernice in sight as long as she could.

  Bea shut the front door on the cold weather outside.