‘Where will you spend the night?’ Dominick nodded towards the house. Some of the crew had entered it, checking for danger signs that could ignite another fire.
‘What?’ Karl tried to concentrate on what his friend was saying.
‘It’s obvious you can’t spend it here.’
‘But you said it was confined to the living-room.’
‘Look at the place, for Christ’s sake. You’d choke from the fumes.’
‘But I can’t leave the house. Those kids could come back…’
‘They won’t. They’ve done their worst and they’ll be lying low to avoid the police. Not that they’ll avoid them for long. That yob they arrested will sing like a canary.’
‘Let’s go, Dominick,’ one of the firemen shouted as the crew prepared to leave.
‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ Dominick sounded apologetic, aware that he’d been unable to disguise his involuntary shudder. ‘Phone me if you need to talk about anything… anything at all.’ His eagerness to go was painfully obvious as he hurried towards the crew.
Dominick was right. Breathing the air inside the house was impossible. He ignored Maria Barnes when she offered to keep an eye on it in case there was another attack. No one offered Karl a bed for the night.
He packed an overnight case in his bedroom, his breath shallow, his throat clamped against the charred air. His home felt like a shell, devoid of life and memory, when he locked the front door and booked into the Glenmoore Arms for the night.
Chapter Fourteen
He was arrested just before midnight. The night porter watched curiously as he crossed the foyer to the squad car parked outside the hotel entrance. Always one step ahead, Amanda Bowe was waiting for him at the police station. She shoved past one of the guards as Karl was led towards the entrance.
‘Are you being arrested on suspicion of the murder of Connie Lawson?’ She held her recorder towards him.
‘That’s enough now.’ The guard escorting Karl glared at her. ‘Out of the way, Miss. You’re hindering our progress.’
‘The public have a right to know.’ She stared defiantly at Karl. ‘Did you silence your nephew Matthew with threats to prevent him telling the guards that Connie was going to your house on the night she disappeared?’
She had abbreviated Constance’s name into a headline and had eviscerated Karl with the same callous indifference. His hatred had a raw energy, a clarity that shone through the muddied incomprehension of his grief. He would have struck her down if a second guard, sensing trouble, hadn’t guided him firmly into the station.
His solicitor had already arrived. Fionn Drury looked young enough to be smoking behind the bicycle shed in secondary school. A boy who would hardly be old enough to vote; but his voice was deep enough to reassure Karl that it had broken some time ago.
‘I keep reading about this “close relationship,”’ he said when Karl was ushered into the small meeting room before his interrogation. ‘What exactly is this journalist implying?’
‘Do you have nieces or nephews?’ Karl asked him.
‘Four,’ he replied. ‘Two of each.’
‘How would you describe your relationship with them?’
‘It’s close.’ He nodded. ‘But I’m not the one sitting where you are. Perception makes a lot of noise and the truth can get lost in the hubbub. Talk to me. I need to know everything that’s happened to you over the last seven days.’
Karl’s feet tapped against the floor as he struggled to piece his week together. Already, it was fragmenting into moments of clear recollection and long periods of incomprehension. The solicitor took notes, interrupting him occasionally to ask questions.
‘Did you coax your nephew to hide relevant information from the police?’ he asked.
‘No, I didn’t.’ What exactly had he said to Matthew that night when he found him in the attic? Something about angry talk not being true. ‘Matthew had some notion in his head that it would reflect badly on his parents if he told them Constance preferred living at my house. He’s only eight. A kid. He was frightened and bewildered. All I did was reassure him that Constance never came to my house and that he didn’t have to say anything about her “angry talk” to the guards.’
‘So, you did tell him not to pass that information to them. Your wife was correct in what she reported to the liaison officer.’
‘My wife… what do you mean?’
‘She believed the police should be notified about that conversation. Your nephew has now made a new statement, claiming that his sister left her house with the intention of going directly to yours.’
‘But Nicole knows that’s not true.’
‘She was working when Constance left home and can’t offer you an alibi.’
‘She knows—’
‘A CD of Blasted Glass was found in the pocket of Constance’s jacket. Your wife claims it was on a sideboard in the dining-room of your house when she left for work that night. Two days ago, you were seen by two detectives at four o’clock in the morning near the site where her body was found. And Arizona… you can see how they are building a case against you.’
‘None of it is true—’
‘I phoned Selina Lee before I came here,’ said Fionn. ‘She’s preparing a statement and emailing it to me. It should be with me shortly. I’ve been in touch with the police in Winding Falls. They’ve agreed to send on your file. It will establish the truth of that case.’
‘Do you believe me?’ Desperation cracked Karl’s voice. ‘I need to be believed.’
‘My personal belief never interferes with my ability to defend my clients.’
‘Someone has to believe me.’
Fionn nodded and shoved his notes into a file. ‘Stay calm when you’re being questioned. This is a fishing exercise. They’ve a long way to go before they can charge you with any involvement in Constance’s death.’
Confident words that followed Karl along the corridor as he walked towards the interrogation room.
Local Man Charged with Connie Murder
Amanda Bowe
Karl Lawson, 35, with an address at 22 Cherrywood Terrace, Glenmoore, has been charged with the murder of Connie Lawson and remanded in custody to await trial.
Flowers are being laid outside the site where Connie Lawson’s body lay undiscovered for seven days. Her friends are receiving counselling and the oratory at Queen of Angels Secondary School has been opened and turned into a shrine of remembrance for a popular and much-loved pupil and friend. A date for Connie’s funeral has yet to be decided.
Connie’s parents remain in Cherrywood House under the care of their solicitor, Olga Nicholls. They are being comforted by their sister-in-law Nicole Lawson, 33, who will remain in the Nicholls family home until she can return to her own house, which was damaged last night in an arson attack. Her husband, Karl Lawson, was at home at the time of the fire and narrowly avoided serious injury. A local youth, who cannot be named because of his age, has been charged with arson.
Part II
Chapter Fifteen