Marianne’s face turns white as she leaps up, then puts a hand out to steady herself on the counter. ‘A fire? What? I had no idea… Was anybody hurt? Oh my word… Daisy, I’m so sorry! I know how much you put into that place. What happened?’
‘That’s what we’re trying to establish,’ says Jonathan. ‘With your help of course.’
‘Of course! Any way we can. Do you need somewhere to stay?’
Jonathan shakes his head. ‘Thank you, Marianne, that’s very kind. But we’re trying to get to the bottom of what happened in terms of how the fire started… You see, the police have reason to believe that it was started intentionally.’
Gus, Stephen and Grace all gasp. A barrage of questions follows.
‘But who would do that?’
‘Why would someone set fire to The Lake House?’
‘Are they sure?’
Stephen slams a hand down in front of Grace. ‘No big mystery, is it, Grace? It’ll be the usual suspects. Your misfit friends from the forest.’
Grace lunges forward. ‘Stephen, would you just shut up! You have no idea what you’re talking about!’
Gus stands, rubbing his chin. ‘Any clues as to who may have done it?’ he asks.
‘Well,’ says James, ‘as it happens, a Fiat 500, like your little run-around, was spotted in the vicinity of The Lake House, around the time of the fire.’
‘What? No! That’s not true!’ says Marianne, shaking her head.
‘I’m afraid it is,’ replies Jonathan. ‘The police are taking the matter very seriously. It would of course be helpful to eliminate you from the inquiries so we can proceed with the investigation.’
Marianne looks to Stephen, who just shrugs and looks away.
‘I was at home all night!’ Marianne exclaims.
‘We have multiple witnesses who saw a Fiat 500 drive away from the crime scene. Now we can do this here or down at the station – the choice is yours…’ Jonathan speaks to her with the technical parlance of his profession, lending a sense of gravitas as if he were a top-ranking officer himself. Or else he’s watched a lot of Line of Duty. Either way, it’s working.
‘Multiple witnesses?’ she asks, looking around the room, as if seeking help from her family, but they all just stare back at her. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she says, her voice trembling. ‘Unless…’ She looks to Stephen.
He baulks, nearly choking on his tea. ‘Oh, I get it – you think because James here hit me that I went over to The Lake House and set fire to the place?’ Stephen remarks, his voice booming.
‘It’s a possibility we have to consider,’ replies Jonathan.
Stephen rises and squares up to Jonathan, his fists clenched by his side. ‘You have no right to come in here and accuse us ofsomething we know nothing about! Just because James hit me doesn’t mean I went out and burned down a house!’
‘Stephen would never do something like that.’ Gus says, standing between them. ‘You have to believe me. We didn’t even know anything about it until you just told us. He’s far from perfect, but he’s not an arsonist.’
‘We’ll have to hand this over to the police. We thought we’d try to figure out whether there had been any misunderstanding, something we could iron out before that…’ Jonathan replies calmly.
‘Stephen,’ says Marianne as she turns to him and lowers her voice, grabbing his elbow. ‘Your behaviour lately has been quite… unpredictable, shall we say… is there any way that, maybe in a blind fit of rage, you may have taken the car and drove out to The Lake House?’
Gus and Grace’s eyes widen.
‘Mum!’ Grace says. ‘What are you saying?’
‘I’m just saying that if there are witnesses who saw the car out there, and we know it wasn’t any of us… well, then the finger does point to Stephen. He has motive, means… the car keys are hanging there for anyone to take. And, well, he’s not been himself. He may not have realised what he was doing.’
Stephen shakes his head and glares at her. ‘Oh no you don’t… don’t you dare try to pin this on me! Whatever happened out there hasnothingto do with me… I went to The Tap House, I came home, I fell asleep.’ He looks at Grace.
‘It’s true. I was playing all night, and Stephen was holding up the bar. And then I watched him shadow-box his way home and fall asleep in the chair like he does every night of the week. He was too pissed to stand, never mind get into a car, drive it and set a place alight without killing himself. I told Dad he was in, and Dad steered him up to bed.’
‘And after that, I sat up chatting with guests. Regulars – the Robinsons. They’re upstairs now – I can call them down if you like?’ says Gus.
