“It’s just my thing, innit? I just like tofeel.”
“Where do you do it?”
“In my room. Mum never comes in, so what’s to stop me?”
Naomie’s defiance had returned, but her eyes were glistening, and despite everything, Helen felt a sharp stab of sympathy for their fire-starter. Naomie had been belittled, ignored, assaulted, and as Helen looked at the slumped teenager she was gripped by a strong sense of the crushing loneliness this young woman must have felt day after day. While it didn’t excuse her actions, it certainly made sense of them. When the world offers you absolutely nothing, is it any surprise that you turn on it?
“Did you want your dad to come home? It seems you didn’t get on that well.”
“Still my dad, though. And she was much nicer when he was around. There were some times that were okay, y’know? But it would never last—she knew he would never stay.”
“Is that why you burned down Denise Roberts’s house? To deny your father that bolt-hole?”
“Maybe,” Naomie answered in noncommittal fashion.
“And Mandy Blayne? Did you want her off the scene too?”
“You tell me.”
“Naomie, please. Do yourself a favor here. We’re testing the clothes we picked you up in, but I’m reliably informed that the sleeves and the pockets stink of paraffin. We also have a box of matches among your possessions. We can place you at the scene of at least two fires—the Simms house and the Harris house—and probably more besides. You have motive, opportunity and means and I note for the tape that you’ve notoncedenied your involvement in these crimes. Now, you’re not a stupid girl, so start talking to me, because despite appearances I’m your only friend here.”
Naomie looked up once more, hurt and anger playing out in her expression.
“I just wanted my dad back,” she said eventually, despite the advice of her brief to say nothing. “That’s not a crime.”
“No, it isn’t. And what about the Simms house? And the Harris family? Why did you target them?”
This was what Helen really wanted to know, the question she’d been building up to over the last two hours.
“No reason.”
“Don’t take me for a fool, Naomie. Everything you’ve done has been planned down to the last detail.”
Naomie looked directly at Helen once more, seeming to size her up before she replied:
“I just wanted what they had.”
“Which was?”
Naomie breathed out heavily, the fight seeming to go out of her at last, before she muttered:
“A happy family.”
121
“So, do we charge her?”
Gardam dispensed with the formalities, getting straight to the point.
Helen could tell he was wound up, so she forgave him his unusually brusque manner. There was a lot riding on this call. “I don’t think we’ve got enough yet.”
“I’m not going to teach you to suck eggs, Helen, but if we press charges, then maybe she’ll realize there’s no virtue in continuing to hold out on us.”
“But if we go too early we might lose her. Too many people have had their lives ruined by these attacks to let the perpetrator escape justice. We owe it to them to proceed carefully.”
“I accept we don’t have chapter and verse, but she hasconfessed. The interview was handled in exemplary fashion with a thumbs-up from both the attending brief and the social worker. There can be no question that she was coerced. Sheconfessed.”
“So why the urgency to charge her? She’s not going anywhere. Let’s take the time we’ve got to continue questioning her and see if we can find more robust connections to the two fires she called in.”
