Page 43 of Glasshouses

“I didn’t like how I was little more than a servant. I wanted to be somewhere I mattered for who I was rather than what skills I had, although I haven’t succeeded with that really, have I?”

“You’re doing very well in your business. People will choose you because of how you are as a person. You seemed to be getting on well with your client from today.” He was older than Lily, granted, but for some reason I wanted her to have something more than just working.

Although I didn’t have much more than that myself.

“Thank you. He’s been kind to me.” There was that smile again, the forced one.

“Can you tell me about the night of the fire at your childhood home?” This was what I’d been waiting to ask.

There was a pause, an unfilled beat. “I was at home. I’d gotten in late because I’d been out. I didn’t want to wake my dad because he would’ve been angry and I was fed up with him being angry, so I slept in the laundry room. I put an old nightie on that was in there, one of my mum’s that was like something from the Victorian era, and made a bed out of towels. I was drunk and the room was spinning and I realised something else was wrong. When I opened the door I saw fire, so I opened the sash window in the laundry room and got out that way, then I just ran.”

“How did you get petrol on you?”

“I don’t remember. I remember climbing out of the window and the next thing I can remember was being in the graveyard and so cold I thought I was going to die.”

“Did you suspect anyone? Who do you think did it?”

“My dad wasn’t a nice man, Detective. He was very driven to make The Holding become more than what it was. He wanted to lead it and then change the world, bring others to his way of thinking. He would have made enemies.” She folded her arms. “I wasn’t sorry about my parents; but I was sorry about my brothers.” She closed her eyes and I thought she was holding back tears. “I’ll have a think about names, but I didn’t pay too much attention. I was more caught up in trying to get away from them whenever I could.”

“Thank you. That could be helpful.” I waited, glancing at Lachy who’d remained silent for the duration. “Do you have any idea why someone might have wanted to kill Amanda?”

“Wasn’t it an accident? Someone set a fire?” She looked from me to Lachy.

“Lily, your mother was dead before the fire started. Someone strangled her.” Wrigley had agreed that we should share this detail, see how she reacted.

She bit her lips together, her hands frozen still. She was holding everything in.

“I didn’t know.” Her stare landed on me. “But I didn’t do it. Amanda wasn’t a good person, but she didn’t deserve that.” She stood up. “Am I okay to go?”

I nodded. “You can leave at any time. You’re not under caution,” I reminded her. “Do you remember Micky Mulligan?”

She shook her head.

“He was found in the cellar of his house. He’d been tied to a chair and died in the fire.”

“That’s horrible.”

“It is. We really want to find their killer, so if you can think of anyone, you must tell us.”

“I will do, Detective, but I need to go now.”

“Will you be okay?” I stayed seated.

“I’m not sure I’ll ever be okay. I’ll call you if I think of anything.” She left, Lachy following her to see her out of the building.

He returned five minutes later with two cans of fizzy mango juice that he’d probably pilfered from one of the women on reception. “She’s loony tunes, isn’t she?” He sat down on the chair Lily had been in.

“I’m not sure.”

“You think she’s playing us?” He swung back slightly.

“You know I long for the day when you fall off a chair. I just hope I’m videoing it.” I was tempted to reach over and push him.

“Such a supportive boss. Do you think she’s playing us?” He managed to get the chair back on four legs.

I stood up, needing to stretch my legs. “I don’t think so. I’m going to the secure hospital where she was tomorrow; I’ve managed to get a meeting with her psychiatrist.” She’d given us written permission earlier, when the FLO had been with her.

“I think she set the original fire,” Lachy said, standing and knocking his chair flying in the process. “She might not remember doing it, especially if she was drunk.”