My head is spinning from the fumes. I can hear Solly barking, Warren shouting, feet on stairs and then, to my surprise, four uniformed officers burst into the kitchen. They swarm around Warren, simultaneously removing the petrol can from his hand as another snaps handcuffs on his wrists and leads him from the room. Annette just stands there, watching it all unfold with a neutral expression. She presumably thinks she can talk her way out of this, but then I see DI Shirley appear at the bottom of the stairs. She flicks her eyes to me, still lying on the floor, and then promptly reads Annette her rights.
‘You’ve made a mistake,’ Annette calls over her shoulder as she’s led away by another officer. ‘This is all a terrible misunderstanding,’ but the officer ignores her and ushers her out of the kitchen.
I don’t understand. How did they know? How did they get here so quickly?
‘Are you okay?’ DI Shirley says as she helps me up from the floor. All the other officers have left and it’s just the two of us. ‘Come on, let’s get you out of here.’ She takes my arm and gently steers me upstairs to the living room. Solly follows us.
‘Who rang you?’
‘Josh,’ she says. ‘He seemed very well informed. He said your life was in danger.’
‘What? But how? How would he know that?’
And then I remember.
The hidden cameras he’d set up in the house. The ones I hadn’t been able to find. They must still be working.
Josh would have caught, not only my conversation with Annette, but her confession, on film.
For once I’m thankful that Josh was watching me.
Forty-five minutes later Josh has turned up looking ashen and breathless. He instantly relaxes when he sees I’m alive and well and sitting drinking coffee in the living room with DI Shirley. I don’t know whether to swear at him or to thank him.
‘Thank goodness you’re okay,’ he says somewhat sheepishly.
DI Shirley gives him a disapproving look. I’d filled her in on everything before Josh arrived, asking her if what Josh had done was illegal and she said it was a grey area. Apparently you are allowed to install cameras in your home if you own it. But Josh doesn’t own this house. I do.
Josh notices DI Shirley’s hard stare because he reddens.
‘I understand you have cameras set up inside Imogen’s house,’ she says to him as he stands there holding some kind of gadget in his hand. ‘While you’ve helped us out on this occasion, it is most irregular …’
He hangs his head.
‘… and I’d like you to remove every single one of them while I’m here, otherwise I’ll arrest you, is that clear?’
I can see Josh squirming. He hates being told off, especially by someone in power. I flash DI Shirley a grateful smile.
‘I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, Ims.’ He unfurls his fingers to show a small black device in his palm. ‘I’ve got it all on a USB stick. Annette’s confession. Everything.’ He pushes the USB stick across the coffee table to DI Shirley with an eager expression. Does he expect a pat on the back? Although, of course, I am grateful. It would have been her word against mine otherwise.
DI Shirley picks up the USB stick. ‘Right, I’ll take this down to the station.’ She addresses me as she leans forward to put down her coffee cup. ‘And thanks for the statement, Imogen. I’ll speak to Aiden Hill as well, although, thanks to this,’ she brandishes the USB stick, ‘we’ve got her confession about what she did to Maisie as well.’
And then she instructs Josh to show her where he’s hidden all the cameras and I follow them around, watching in shock as he removes them from places I never thought to look: a glass vase in the living room, a picture frame in the dining room, a small hole in the wardrobe in the bedroom and in the Aga’s hood in the kitchen.
‘I trust that’s all of them?’ DI Shirley fixes her piercing gaze on Josh.
‘Yes, I promise.’
‘I think you should also hand over your key to Imogen.’
Josh looks at me questioningly and I nod. I can see how reluctant he is to part with it, but with a detective watching he has no choice.
He burns with humiliation, and I can sense the lack of control is killing him.
‘Thank you,’ I say as I take the key.
‘I’ll come and collect my stuff at the weekend,’ he mumbles. ‘If that’s okay?’
I tell him that it is but I make a mental note to ask Alison or Rachel to come over when he does.
