The custody sergeant takes my details and we weave our way through the long corridors of Queensbeach Police Station. They lead me to an interview room – the very same one I was in the last time I was here. That same dark, dingy room with no windows and no natural light. All the time we’re waiting for the duty solicitor, I am begging them to look for Holly. But I don’t think they believe me. I’m not sure they’re even listening. They’ve got their own agenda. I don’t get to ask the questions, least of all make any demands.
I am given a cup of water, which I drink in a single gulp – my throat is still raw from the fire. I long for a cigarette to calm my nerves, though I know that’s the last thing my body needs. My head aches. Everything aches and oh, how I long to be curled up in bed with Fluffy beside me.
My lawyer arrives – not the woman I had last time, but a bald, freckly man with a ginger beard and glasses. We talk in private for a few minutes and I give him an abridged version of what happened. The more detail I go into, the madder it sounds. He raises his eyebrows but nods and acts like he hears this kind of thing every day.
“I think your best course of action is just to tell the truth,” he advises.
I nod my head in agreement. Nervous as I am, I am keen to get it all off my chest.
Penney’s colleague presses the record button, and the interview begins.
“I’m DCI Millrose,” she introduces herself. “And I think you know DS Penney?”
“Yes.”
She waits for me to finish coughing before she continues.
“You have been arrested because you were caught on camera trying to set light to Robertson’s Superstore.”
I shake my head. “You don’t understand. It’s not how it looks.”
“Isn’t it? We pulled this off Ustream.”
She places a laptop in front of me and clicks on a video. It’s a clip of me about to set light to the warehouse – the clip I filmed myself. I glance at my lawyer. He’s doesn’t say anything, but I can see he’s biting his lip. This does not look good.
Millrose leans forward and presses her point. “If it wasn’t for the arrival of your friend at the crucial moment, you would have done it, wouldn’t you?”
“But I didn’t do it, did I? You can see for yourself. And I didn’t have a choice. I told you, they’ve got Holly.”
“And who’s Holly?”
“My brother’s fiancée. I already told you all this in the car.”
“Well, once again for the tape, please. Who is it you say has taken her?”
“Alicia McBride and her sister, Jody.”
Penney screws up his forehead. “Your friend Alicia? The same one who recently gave you an alibi?”
I colour at the memory. How stupid was I, accepting Alicia’s help?
“She’s not my friend. She just pretends to be. She’s got some strange vendetta against me – she and her sister.”
“And why would that be?”
“I don’t know exactly. I think it might have something to do with my brother Julio. Jody used to go out with him – a long time ago. I think… I think she might be the one who started the fire at Rose Cottage. It happened just after Julio broke up with her.”
“Let’s just stick with the fire at Robertson’s for now. Are you saying that you were blackmailed into starting that fire?”
“Yes, except I didn’t succeed, as you saw on the tape.”
“Why did the place catch fire then? You can’t expect us to believe that was a coincidence?”
“No, Alicia must have done it. She must have known I might not go through with it. She might even have sent Deacon the text message that made him come rushing over and catch me in the act.”
“So you’re saying they blackmailed you into starting a fire, then sabotaged your attempt to do so?”
“Yes. I know it sounds strange, but that’s exactly how it happened. It wasn’t just about starting a fire. It was about tormenting me.”
Millrose shakes her head. “Congratulations, Isabel. I think that’s just about the most convoluted story I’ve ever heard and I’ve heard a few in my time. Couldn’t you come up with anything simpler?”
“But it’s the truth! You’ve got to believe me! I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I made sure the place was empty first. And I was going to put it out straight away – as soon as I’d filmed it. But I didn’t even get that far. I certainly didn’t set any more fires. Why would I? Deacon and I were trapped in the warehouse!” My voice wobbles a little. “We nearly died in there, and I think Alicia and Jody planned it that way. I think they meant to kill us. Or rather, I don’t think they cared if we lived or died. It’s all the same to them.”
Millrose folds her arms in front of her. “I’ll tell you why this is so difficult for me to believe, Isabel. First, you made threats, then you were caught on camera trying to set a fire, with the strangest of explanations I’ve ever heard.”
“Threats?” I say, in confusion. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never made any threats!”
“Didn’t you? Well, someone rang the police station yesterday to say that there would be a fire at Robertson’s. The call was traced to a phone box in the precinct next to the supermarket. We are just checking the CCTV pictures now, but I’m betting we’re going to find that it was you.”
“But it wasn’t a threat! I was trying to warn you!”
“How did you know?” she challenges. “This happened some hours before you were supposedly blackmailed.”
“They left a huge can of petrol in my locker. I knew it had to mean something.”
“The same can of petrol you were going to use to set fire to the warehouse? How did they know to put it there? How did they know Holly was going to follow Jody home that night? I thought you said it was a spontaneous decision?”
“It was… I… I don’t know exactly how they planned it. If it hadn’t been Holly they’d kidnapped, maybe it would have been someone else. Julio, or my friend Kate or Rhett… or Deacon. I don’t know how their warped minds work.”
Penney clears his throat. “There were quite a few fires in Queensbeach last night. Shame you didn’t try to warn us about any of the others.”
I look at him blankly. “There were?”
Is that why the fire brigade took so long to get to us?
“Yes, in fact, we’ve had more than our fair share of them over the last few months, wouldn’t you say?”
“Well, yes, there do seem to have been quite a number.”
“Does the word ‘FRY’ mean anything to you, Isabel?” Millrose cuts in.
“What?” I sit up sharply.
“You heard me. FRY. F.R.Y. Does it mean anything to you?”
“It… yes. That’s the word Alicia has branded onto her back. The word she uses to taunt me. I see it everywhere I go but I have no idea what it actually means.”
“Really?”
She places a piece of paper in front of me.
“What’s this?”
“Read it.”
Puzzled, my eyes scan the page.
I shake my head. “I don’t understand.”
Millrose leans closer, as though she’s about to share an important secret with me. “This is from the bank statement of a local businessman called Dan Jones. It shows a money transfer from Mr Jones to an organisation called FRY.”
She looks me right in the eye as she continues. “For a while, we’ve suspected that this organisation, FRY, is involved with illegal activities – arson, money laundering and racketeering.”
What? Is that why they set the fires? For money?
“But what has all this got to do with me?”
“We’ve obtained a document from Companies House registry, which names you, Isabel, as the legal owner of FRY.”