Chapter 9 #2
The cellar stairs were still there, made of stone, now black with ash and charring. A wooden rail might’ve been there once, but now were just the remains of something, thick nails still embedded in the wall.
“Can we go down?” I looked at Ste.
He shook his head. “No. The chamber where we found the body down there is directly under the dining room. It was also a space where the owner kept his paperwork; some of what’s left suggests that anyway. We’ve salvaged what we can and taken photos. You should get them this afternoon.”
“Can I not just go to the bottom of the steps?” I really wanted to have a look down there. “You said you saw a computer when the robot was doing its thing. Did you find it when you went down there?”
“The remains of it. There’ll be no way of getting anything off it now if it worked in the first instance.” He started to point something out.
“Most cellars are too damp to store papers or electricals. Do you think this was the case here? I mean, it’s a huge house, there would’ve been better rooms to store paperwork in.” I chanced it, taking a couple of steps down.
“Mia, you’re not meant to be going down there,” Jenna sounded almost maternal.
“Just a quick look. It’s not taped off.” I ignored Ste, taking my time walking down the steps, aware that there was nothing to hold onto and the steps were slippery with all the ash that had accumulated on them.
I stopped at the bottom and peered around.
There were three chambers, but they definitely didn’t cover the full area of the ground floor.
Ash, debris and bits of all sorts covered the floor.
I left footprints as I walked, trying not to pay too much attention to the smell.
I checked a small chamber, seeing nothing recognisable in there.
The next chamber was the one under the dining room, and the space where Micky Mulligan had been tied to a chair.
This was taped off. The room had additional lighting because the floor above had collapsed, a deluge of scorched wood and ash across the whole chamber. There was an area where I figured the chair had been, part of the floor where there were more footprints and the area looked visited.
“Mia, you need to come back up.” Lachy yelled down. “Paul’s here.”
That was not going to make me rush, but I did head back up there. “The cellar is the least obvious place to hide paperwork. Did you recover any bit that we can get anything from?” I looked at Jenna, ignoring Paul and Ste.
“You have the impulsivity of a teenage girl in a hair accessory shop, or in my case, a bookshop. We got a few scraps. My team are sorting through them.” Jenna moved away from the cellar stairs, probably hoping I wouldn’t go down there again.
I had no intention of doing so. I’d seen enough. “So the fire started in the dining room, conveniently above where Micky Mulligan was tied to a chair, and conveniently below the room where Amanda Goodhew was dead. It’s like it was planned.”
“That’s pretty much what happened.” Ste moved closer to me.
He was surprisingly good looking when you saw past his perma-smile, a bit of a cheeky chappy that I found hard to take seriously but I at least needed to try.
“We can’t go upstairs because of the floor – it’s not stable enough even with the supports we’ve put in place, but there are the photos we took and I managed to go inside all of the bedrooms and get more photos as well.
I think Jenna’s team recovered some stuff too. ”
“We did. The rooms were very simple and uncluttered from what we could see, and I’d say the house hadn’t been redecorated for decades.
The other bedrooms looked unused, so I would say Micky didn’t have many guests, if any.
” Jenna stood at the bottom of the stairs, which were barricaded with a thin strip of tape.
“Was Amanda killed in Micky’s bedroom?” I couldn’t work out a scenario why Amanda would be upstairs unless her killer had lured her up there.
“Micky’s bedroom was at the front. There were gardening books on one of the bedside tables and the bed wasn’t made, so I suspect that’s where he slept.
We’ll have more results back for you soon.
I’ve asked the labs to prioritise them where they can – but everything’s behind the stabbings.
What else do you need Ste and Paul for?” She left the floor open for me.
“Ste, you said there was a trail of accelerant through the house. Is that because the fire laid a path?” I wanted the why behind this.
From my rather basic perspective, the killer had done enough to destroy evidence, kill Micky and make sure that Amanda was definitely dead.
Did they need to add more petrol through the house?
Ste nodded and pointed to the dining room. “The living room is just through the dining room, someone had added a door between them, probably back in the nineteen seventies. If you want, you can see into the living room from the hall.”
I went to the end of the hallway near the front door and waited for Ste to open it, not wanting to push my luck.
Inside was a charred area, everything was blackened and damp, the furniture ruined and the windows now boarded up to secure the site. Why would our killer have wanted to make sure this room was damaged as well? “Our fire starter knew what they were doing, didn’t they?”
“I’d say so.” Paul appeared next to me. “I think they knew how fires worked. If it had gone on for any longer, the whole place would’ve been ash.”
“How long was the fire going for before you got here?” I should already know that.
“I’d estimate thirty to forty minutes,” Paul said, ushering us back to the side door. “It was an anonymous call. The neighbours nearby were either away or elderly and didn’t realise it was happening. If it had gone on for much longer, the whole house would’ve been decimated.”
We were back outside, the brightness making me feel like I’d just come out of hibernation. “Could the caller have been our perp?”
“I’ll get the details and the recording sent to us.
” Lachy was staring back down to the bottom of the garden.
“This was well-planned. They’ve brought the petrol in from where it’s been stored in an abandoned building – risky, if the local youth had gotten hold of it.
We’ve no idea of how it got there though. ”
“Quad bike.” The thought came to me. “That field is used by quad bikes – I noticed the tracks the other day. Even if anyone saw them, they wouldn’t interfere.”
Lachy shrugged. “Maybe. It’s worth exploring.”
“It’s something.” I didn’t like how little we had, although I felt like it was more that we’d had yesterday. Some pieces of the jigsaw were exposing themselves. “We need to head back to the Fishbowl for briefing.”
Lachy smiled, rather wistfully. “I’ll be a few minutes behind you. I’m getting lunch for everyone on the way in.”
“That’s very generous of you.”
“I’m a very generous person.”
“What bet did you lose?”
He paused. “Best you don’t know.”