Page 12 of Glasshouses

“I think so.” If we got to Friday. It was only Tuesday and today felt like it had been the length of a month.

He paused, clearly wanting to say something but not sure if he should.

“What?” I had no time for him fluffing his way around me.

“Are you still seeing your trainer?”

“No, Vin, not going there, ever. So it doesn’t matter if I’m still seeing him or not.” Like most things, my love life was complicated and irrelevant. My trainer was slightly higher up than a friend with benefits with no drama other than we were both always cancelling on each other.

Vinny looked disappointed, or at least feigned it. I suspected he was secretly relieved. “You don’t know what you’re missing, Mac.”

“Chlamydia and a disappointing experience.” I patted his arm. “I need to go. Look after yourself and phone me if you need to.” Despite the banter and my continual rejections of his poor attempts to get in my pants, we did actually get along.

“Oh, recommendation - ”

“What?” I braced myself again.

“Don’t order pork.”

“Fucker.”

Nate was waiting for me when I arrived in his domain, arms folded, the body of second victim covered up on the mortuary slab.

“You look like you have news.”

“Yep. You’re in luck. I’ve confirmed these are the remains of Micky Mulligan. And I’ll also throw in that he died through smoke inhalation – fortunately the fumes got him before the flames.” He relaxed his arms and took off his gloves. “I’ll do his PM first thing in the morning and I’ll be able to tell you more after that. The robot and the team that removed the body managed to get some decent pics. It looks like he was chained to the chair he was on so I’d say someone really had it in for him.”

“Jesus. Those aren’t a good few hours.” Again, I’d choose the water.

“Not at all.”

“You know you could’ve told me that over the phone.” I pulled a face at my brother. ‘Why’ve you dragged me over for a meeting that could’ve been a phone call?”

“I need a lift home. Jenna’s car’s in for service and I’ve lent her mine, so can you drop me off?”

“Via the take out.”

“What are we having?”

I looked at the cover on the table, hiding the remains of what had once been a person with a history and dreams and friends. “Something vegetarian. I need to let Wrigley know we have an identity and we can find out who his next of kin is. They need to be informed.” The work truly never stopped.

“The dentist sent that detail over. It’s a daughter who lives in Dubai; her contact details are on the email I sent you. Meet you outside in fifteen minutes.” He disappeared, probably to get changed, and I made my way outside to my car, calling Wrigley and arranging for someone to get hold of the police force near to where Micky Mulligan’s daughter lived to give her the sad news.

Nate made me jump as he got in the car, making me question my career choices.

“What are your thoughts on this case then?” He fastened his seatbelt and then cracked open a drink. “What’s your theory?”

I started the car. “I don’t have one yet; there’s too much I don’t know.”

“But do you know what you don’t know?”

“That’s far too abstract for this time on a Tuesday. I need to start with how Amanda and Micky knew each other – why was she in his house? We have no idea of how long she’d been in there – the perp or perps could’ve been in their hours before setting the fire. Then we need to explore whether this has anything to do with what happened seventeen years ago.” I took a rogue right turn to get away from a crash that had happened on the motorway. We’d do more miles home, but it’d be quicker.

“What do you know about seventeen years ago?”

“I think the response to that has to be what do you know? You sound knowing.” I glanced at him and saw him smirking.

“The Goodhew fires were a textbook case when I was doing my training, and when Jenna was too. The evidence that it was Lily Goodhew was circumstantial, but they never looked at anyone else. She was found barefoot in a church graveyard a couple of miles from her house and had petrol on her hands, but nowhere else. She also had situational mutism and communicated through pictures and writing words down. The setting of the fire was interesting too as two different types of accelerant were used which impacted how the fire took hold and the speed at which it did so, which then resulted in the bodies showing differences at postmortem. It was a really good lesson in different accelerants and what to look for.” He sounded like he had fond memories of that part of his course, which was another reason my brother wasn’t like other people.