Page 92 of Glasshouses

“Kernmantle rope. Specialist stuff. We’ve tried to get fingerprints off it and haven’t picked anything up. Whoever did it, knew how to not leave evidence.” She looked over at someone incoming.

Verity moved through the crowd, her hand dragging a tall man with dark hair and a grin that made him look like he’d just been told a really good piece of news.

“Mia, do you remember Lucas?” She looked like she’d had time to do something with her hair and at least get changed.

“I do. Nice to see you again.” We exchanged pleasantries and I tried to muster the enthusiasm and social skills to get through an interaction I didn’t really have the energy for.

“Mia’s renovating her house,” Verity said to Lucas. “You could help with the decorating.” She turned to me. “Lucas is a painter and decorator on the side.”

“That’s useful to know.” It was really; this case had highlighted how little time I had to do things myself. I had a fund to pay for contractors to come in, but I’d hoped to at least put some time into it myself.

“Yeah, just let Verity know if you need someone. I try to pick up a bit of work when I’m not on shift.” He gave me a nod and swigged from his bottle of beer.

“I will do. I’ve got someone in plastering at the moment.” At least I thought I did. I had no idea if Taz or any of his family were round there now. I wondered if I should be more bothered about not really caring who was in my house.

“Cool.” He waved a hand at someone, beckoning them over. “How’s the investigation into that fire going?”

“It’s coming along.” I saw Ste, the fire investigator heading over and I figured that was who Lucas had been waving at. He looked as chilled as he had the last couple of times I’d met him, but I still hoped he stayed off Vinny’s radar tonight.

“How’s it going?” He raised his bottle to me. “I didn’t know you two were friends?” He gestured between me and Jenna.

“I’m going out with Mia’s brother – Nate Venn,” Jenna said. “Small world.”

“It surely is,” Ste said, still watching me. “Any updates on the fires? I heard the boy is doing okay.”

“He’s conscious and doing okay. He’ll make a good recovery although I don’t think he’ll have great lungs.” We’d had an update from the hospital today.

Ste found a spare stool and sat down with us, leaning his forearms on his knees and nursing the bottle in his hands. “That’s good news. What was he doing there?”

“He’s into urban exploring, breaking into abandoned properties and filming tours of them. Roselea was one of his favourites because of the glasshouses; he was really into growing plants too.” Cade was lucky. The burns hadn’t been horrific because of the accelerant used; it was the smoke that’d caused the issue. I doubted that his gran would be letting him out of her sight for some time though.

“Urban explorers can be a real problem. Some are careful and literally just take film and photos; but some can be destructive. I’m glad he’s okay though. Are you linking it to the other fire or could this have been his mates or someone playing a joke on him?” Ste said.

A bartender dropped a glass and the whole pub cheered, because that was what you did when that happened.

Ste was one of the few who didn’t and for the first time I saw his placid expression fade, replaced with irritation. His fingers were moving around the neck of the bottle squeezing it and something about the movement disconcerted me.

“We’re still looking into it.” It was a non-answer and we both knew it.

“The fire patterns were very different. The latest fire at Roselea was someone who didn’t know what they were doing. My money would be on an urbex rival who’s being a bit territorial.” His cheeky chappy grin was back.

“Maybe,” I said. “I’ve not met you before this case. Have you just moved here?” His accent wasn’t quite northern.

“Relocated from Leicester a few months ago.”

“How come?”

He shrugged, looking animated. “I like it up here and a decent job came up, so it made sense. I didn’t have any ties to the area.”

“How are you liking it?”

“Yeah. It’s good. Settling in well. What are your thoughts on the fires? Do you think it was the same person? Verity said you’d done a degree in criminology.” He was trying to look impressed.

“She has a master’s degree.” Jenna jumped into the conversation. “And for what it’s worth, I think that both fires were started by the same person.”

“What about the first fire?” Ste said. “Is it still the same person?”

“You didn’t think so,” I recalled.