A Nice Place to Die (16 page)

‘Are you all right?' Rachel asked her.

Terri seemed very calm, very efficient. She had already been talking to her insurance company, and to a firm of builders who were coming to secure the house and give her an estimate for repairing the damage.

Nicky was excited. Even, Rachel thought, thrilled.

‘The spare room's my room now,' she told Rachel. ‘Terri says I can do it as I want when the insurance money comes. I'll be able to get all new things.'

Helen alone looked devastated. Her hair, for some reason Rachel couldn't fathom, was dripping wet. She kept touching her face with her fingers, and there were black soot marks round her mouth and eyes.

‘It was Dave,' she said. Her voice was shrill with hysteria. ‘He always said he'd get me for leaving him, and this is what he's done. How could he do something like this to his own daughter?'

Rachel said, ‘But surely . . .' She hesitated, then, sounding unconvinced, added, ‘However bitter he was he wouldn't put his own daughter at risk. That's perverted.'

But Helen was certain. ‘He knew Nicky wasn't in her room. He could see us all in the living room. I suppose he was desperate, he was afraid of losing me.'

Terri put her arm on Helen's shoulder. ‘The man is mad,' she said. ‘He's dangerous. Isn't that what I've said all along?'

‘He's not really mad,' Helen said, ‘he's desperate.'

She sounded as if this was something she could be proud of.

DCI Moody asked, ‘Do you have any evidence that your ex-husband was involved?'

Helen quailed as though Rachel Moody had threatened her. ‘Who else would it be?' she whispered. ‘I've done everything I could to give him access to Nicky, but when he did see her, he was drunk and abusive and he terrified her with the scary things he said to me. She didn't want to see him ever again. She said so.'

‘Yes, she did,' Terri said.

Helen started to cry. She looked abject, like someone made up to play the part of a waif.

‘Then it all got messed up and suddenly he was saying I refused to give him access and it just got bitter.'

‘But why should he say that if you didn't refuse?' Rachel said.

‘The lawyer said it would be best if I refused to let him see her,' Helen said. ‘And then after my lawyer said that,
his
lawyer went for full custody.'

‘Why did his lawyer think he'd get that?'

‘She – it was a she – said I wasn't a fit mother because I was living with Terri. Terri and I just wanted to settle down and make a home for Nicky, but then they started to say Terri was a corrupting influence and things like that. They said I was a man-hater and I would make it difficult for Nicky to form normal relationships with boys and other kids her own age.'

Helen broke off to blow her nose noisily. Then she went on, ‘The lawyer also said Forester Close wasn't the right place to bring up a sensitive child. Dave would've done what he did to prove her right.'

Rachel found herself thinking that Dave had a point. The place gave her the willies. But of course ancient curses and silly superstition had no part to play in a police investigation.

She asked, ‘But why would setting fire to your house help your ex-husband's case?'

‘Well, of course no one would know it was him, would they?' Helen said. ‘He'd bank on that. He'd be able to say Nicky was in danger because Terri and I are being targeted because of our relationship. So this isn't a fit place for a child.'

Rachel nodded. Then she said gently, ‘But surely he'd know that if he was caught, he'd lose all chance of getting custody.'

Helen started to weep again. She ignored Terri and Nicky, in fact she gave no sign of knowing they were listening to her.

‘Dave was the one who wanted me to have a kid,' she said. ‘I wasn't ready to be pregnant; he made me have a baby. And once I'd had her, she was weird, you must see that? I don't feel Nicky and I belong together at all, I never did. She always seemed like someone else's child. She still does. In fact, Terri's closer to her than I am.'

‘She's very like you,' Terri said. She meant physically; the child's likeness to Terri's idea of how Helen must have been at that age was one of the reasons she wanted to protect Nicky.

‘She's nothing like me.' Helen was angry. ‘I was never like that. I was always a normal kid. She's not. She's on about something she reads called
Crime and Punishment
all the time, she's obsessed with it. I think it must be some sort of report on prison statistics. It's not natural for a girl her age to study government reports about such things.'

‘It's a book,' Terri said.

‘Well, there you are, I told you so, she has unhealthy interests.'

It wasn't often that Rachel Moody was embarrassed by someone she was questioning, but now she was appalled by what Helen was saying in front of her own child.

‘I think we'll leave it at that for now . . .' she said.

But Helen would not stop. ‘I keep telling her she's got to get more normal,' she said. ‘Like the other kids. What does she think's going to happen to her? She's got no interest in boys or the way she looks or anything normal. I've told her, she should watch out or she'll end up a lonely old freak like that Alice Bates up the road, but she takes no notice.'

Nicky suddenly shouted at her mother. ‘I have got a boyfriend, I have,' she yelled. ‘He loves me and I love him, but it's a secret.'

Terri said in a soft voice, ‘Be quiet, Nicky.'

Nicky looked at her. There were tears in her eyes. ‘I have,' she whispered.

Terri smiled at her. ‘Of course you have,' she said, ‘but that's your secret.'

Rachel got up to go. ‘Where can I find Dave?' she asked. ‘Whether or not he's involved in this attack, he should know it's happened. He is Nicky's father.'

Terri had already written Dave's telephone number on a scrap of paper. She handed it to Rachel.

‘If it wasn't him, it could have been the kids,' she said. Then she remembered who she was talking about and quickly back-pedalled. ‘Those Miller kids could've done it for a prank,' she said, and laughed as though trying to see the joke.

Nicky suddenly jumped to her feet. ‘No,' she screamed at Rachel, ‘no, it couldn't be them. You're a liar. Kevin wouldn't let them do this to me.'

Rachel looked at her with interest. Nicky was red-faced with passion or indignation, possibly both. Rachel was curious. She's not afraid of Kevin Miller, she thought, she's the only person I've met in this street who isn't. I wonder . . .

Jack was waiting by the car.

‘Anything useful?' she asked. ‘What does the Fire Chief think?'

‘Deliberate, all right. Could be kids.'

‘Or Helen's ex, according to the Odd Couple,' Rachel said. ‘There's a custody battle over the child, apparently.'

‘Even so, what kind of father would risk harming his own kid?' Jack said. He sounded doubtful.

‘This is a kid who appears to be a friend of Kevin Miller's,' Rachel said. ‘She seems to think he's protecting her.'

‘What kind of friend?' Jack asked. ‘Not the kind he picked up in a bar in Weston-super-Mare but he can't remember her name?'

Rachel laughed. ‘Not yet, anyway,' she said. ‘She reads
Crime and Punishment
. But let's see what Kevin has to say. He's at least nineteen, and she's about thirteen. You never know, we could get lucky.'

‘
Crime and Punishment
?' Jack said. ‘That's some kind of Russian story isn't it?'

‘That's right,' Rachel said, ‘I'm relieved to know someone in Somerset has heard of it at least. Most of the people in this street could be characters in it, as far as I'm concerned.'

TWENTY-ONE

K
evin was working on his motorbike on the concrete standing outside the Miller garage. He was concentrating on the intricacies of welding a split pipe on the exhaust system when Detective Chief Inspector Rachel Moody and Sergeant Reid parked across the driveway to Number Two.

‘I don't care how you do it,' Rachel Moody told Reid as they got out of the car, ‘but get him to resist arrest. That's the only way we're going to be able to hold him long enough to put the fear of God into him.'

Sergeant Reid nodded. He liked that about working with Rachel Moody, she wasn't afraid to take chances sometimes. This surprised him because she had come to them from the police force in Eastbourne and that wasn't a place he associated with the kind of crime and criminals you needed to take chances with.

He shut the car door and walked slowly to where Kevin was hunched over the red-hot blowlamp. Kevin didn't notice him coming, he was so intent on what he was doing.

‘Kevin Miller?' Sergeant Reid said in the sort of tone an army sergeant might use to call the roll of raw recruits.

Kevin almost fell backwards in shock. Instinctively he raised his arm to steady himself, and instead brandished the lighted blowlamp as though it was a weapon.

‘Back off, man,' Kevin yelled in protest.

Maybe it was a warning, but Reid needed no further excuse. ‘Put down your weapon and kneel on the ground,' he said.

‘I said back off,' Kevin said, waving the blowlamp to keep the policeman at bay. This time there was no room for doubt, it was a threat.

Rachel Moody had got behind Kevin and she grabbed his free arm and twisted it behind his back. Kevin dropped the blowlamp and once his hand was off the trigger, the flame went out.

Jack Reid handcuffed Kevin and dragged him to the car. Rachel got into the driving seat. ‘Resisting arrest, threatening behaviour, assault with a deadly weapon,' she recited. ‘That'll do for a start. We're taking you down to the station to question you about an arson attack on Number Five Forester Close.'

‘
What?
' Kevin yelled. ‘You can't pin that on me. I've got an alibi for that. I didn't have anything to do with it. You can't do this.'

‘Yes I can,' Rachel said coldly. ‘We're taking you in for questioning.'

‘I was with a girl in Weston,' Kevin said. ‘She'll tell you. I was with her all night.'

Rachel laughed. ‘Oh, yes, you picked her up in a bar and went home with her but you don't know her name or where she lives. Don't tell me, I've heard it all before.'

At the station, the DCI and Sergeant Reid left Kevin Miller in the interview room before they talked to him.

‘Give him time to cool his heels,' Rachel Moody said.

‘What's our line?' Reid asked. ‘Do we actually have anything against him?'

‘We'll think of something,' Rachel Moody said.

‘But we don't have anything concrete, do we?' the Sergeant insisted. ‘We couldn't make anything stick then and we can't now on this arson charge.'

‘Wrong attitude,' Rachel Moody said. ‘This is what the Super wants. A fishing expedition.'

‘It won't work,' Sergeant Reid said. ‘I'll put money on it.'

‘No dice,' Rachel said. ‘We've got to go through the motions.'

The two of them went into the interview room and sat down opposite Kevin Miller.

‘If you're going to fit me up I want a solicitor before I say anything,' Kevin said.

‘Sure, when the time comes,' Rachel Moody said, smiling at him. ‘This is just helping us with our enquiries.'

Kevin gave her a look which made Sergeant Reid start to get up from his chair to defend his boss.

‘If that old witch at Number Three is the one who's trying to fit me up with this,' Kevin said, ‘she's dead meat.'

Rachel Moody smiled again, very calm. ‘Who do you mean, Kevin? Who do you think has told us about you?'

‘That weirdo, Alice Bates,' Kevin shouted. ‘She'd do anything to get me in trouble.'

‘You mean because she sees what goes on in your street and you're afraid she saw you murder the vicar?' Rachel asked. She made it sound as if she were talking about the weather.

‘She spies on everyone all the time,' Kevin said. ‘But she didn't see me kill that vicar. She told you she didn't, isn't that right?'

Kevin realized he had made a mistake. He knew enough about the police to see that they would interpret what he'd said as some kind of admission of involvement in the vicar's death.

He laughed. ‘Are you trying to make me think she's pretending she did see me murder him? Well, she didn't because she can't have seen me do something I didn't do, can she?'

Rachel said, ‘This isn't about the vicar's death, Kevin. We're looking into the fire at Terri Kent's house. You say Alice Bates sees everything that goes on. Perhaps she saw you start the fire? What do you say to that?'

Rachel thought she detected a flicker of fear in Kevin's eyes.

He shouted ‘No. She's lying.'

‘Why should she lie, Kevin?' Rachel said.

‘She's getting back at me because I killed her cat. I had nothing to do with that fire.' Kevin banged the table with his closed fist.

Jack Reid started to get to his feet again, but Kevin leaned back in his chair. Between gritted teeth he said, ‘I swear, if she's fixed me up with this, I'll kill her.'

‘Like you killed the vicar, Kevin?' Rachel Moody said.

‘I want my brief,' Kevin Miller said.

Some time later, outside in the corridor, DCI Moody and Sergeant Reid watched Kevin Miller walk away with his solicitor.