Chapter 48
THE QUESTION
Gus appears on the scene before we reach the gate, hollering and flailing his arms.
‘You here to intimidate my poor brother again?’ he fires off at James. ‘I was all night with him at Doctor O’Toole’s the other night, thanks to you! His stitches burst and we had to get him patched up… I’m calling the police on you if you touch him again – assault charges.’
Jonathan shoots James a look.
James sighs and rubs his temples. ‘Gus, please calm down,’ he says calmly. ‘I am sorry about that… but Stephen was well out of order – I didn’t punch him for no reason.’
‘Oh yeah? What was your reason then?’ asks Gus, getting right up in James’ face.
‘He was… heavily intoxicated. I’m sure he wouldn’t want me to repeat it,’ replies James quietly.
Gus’s face softens a little at that and he steps back. ‘He’s a good lad – just gets a bit rowdy when he’s had a few drinks,’ Gus says, more to himself than anyone else.
‘I understand,’ says Jonathan. ‘But we’re here on a separate matter. Would it be all right if we came in and spoke to you, Gus, off the street?’
Gus takes a moment before replying. ‘I suppose so…’ He opens the door and gestures for us to follow him inside.
Marianne gasps and grabs her chest in surprise when she sees us in the hallway. ‘Oh my gosh! You just gave me such a fright!’ she exclaims, still wearing her robe and slippers as she speaks.
‘I’m sorry,’ I say quickly. ‘We didn’t mean to startle you.’
‘It’s okay,’ she replies, her voice shaking a little. ‘I’m just a bit jumpy at the moment.’
‘She’s been a bit on edge since… well, since Stephen came in again this morning looking like he’d done rounds with Tyson Fury,’ says Gus. ‘He’s been on a bit of a bender the last few weeks, truth be told.’
Marianne huffs and stomps off into the kitchen.
Gus leads us in, gesturing for us to take a seat.
‘So, what can we do for you?’ he asks, folding his arms and leaning against the sink.
Stephen is seated, looking puffy and hung-over.
He simply groans when he sees us. Grace is texting on her phone, a half-eaten cooked breakfast in front of her.
James and Jonathan sit down, while I remain standing by the counter.
‘What is it now? More earache?’ mutters Stephen, who’s looking sullen.
‘No,’ says James. ‘Stephen, I’m sorry for the punch. I should have dealt with the situation better.’
‘Ha!’ he snorts. ‘You think a simple sorry is going to make up for what you did?’
‘Stephen!’ scolds Gus. ‘That’s enough now. We don’t want trouble. We’re running a family guest house here – it’s not good for our guests to see people traipsing in and out of here at all hours.’ He puts a hand on his brother’s shoulder. ‘So please, can we just put all this behind us?’
Stephen nods and glares at the floor. ‘I’m sorry too.’ He looks up at me. ‘I’m especially sorry to you, Daisy. What I said. I didn’t mean it… drink, you know.’
I give a slight nod to acknowledge his apology. But I’m done thinking about his antics the other night; it actually gave me the answers I needed from Moya. Right now, I’m here solely to learn more about The Lake House fire, and nothing else is going to distract me from that task.
‘Right, so…’ continues Gus, turning his attention back to us. ‘What can we do for you?’
‘We need to ask you all some questions,’ says James.
‘Questions? What about?’ Marianne’s brow furrows in confusion and she looks to Jonathan.
‘About the fire last night at The Lake House,’ replies Jonathan.
Marianne’s face turns white as she leaps up, then puts a hand out to steady herself on the counter. ‘A fire? What? I had no idea… Was anybody hurt? Oh my word… Daisy, I’m so sorry! I know how much you put into that place. What happened?’
‘That’s what we’re trying to establish,’ says Jonathan. ‘With your help of course.’
‘Of course! Any way we can. Do you need somewhere to stay?’
Jonathan shakes his head. ‘Thank you, Marianne, that’s very kind. But we’re trying to get to the bottom of what happened in terms of how the fire started… You see, the police have reason to believe that it was started intentionally.’
Gus, Stephen and Grace all gasp. A barrage of questions follows.
‘But who would do that?’
‘Why would someone set fire to The Lake House?’
‘Are they sure?’
Stephen slams a hand down in front of Grace. ‘No big mystery, is it, Grace? It’ll be the usual suspects. Your misfit friends from the forest.’
Grace lunges forward. ‘Stephen, would you just shut up! You have no idea what you’re talking about!’
Gus stands, rubbing his chin. ‘Any clues as to who may have done it?’ he asks.
‘Well,’ says James, ‘as it happens, a Fiat 500, like your little run-around, was spotted in the vicinity of The Lake House, around the time of the fire.’
‘What? No! That’s not true!’ says Marianne, shaking her head.
‘I’m afraid it is,’ replies Jonathan. ‘The police are taking the matter very seriously. It would of course be helpful to eliminate you from the inquiries so we can proceed with the investigation.’
Marianne looks to Stephen, who just shrugs and looks away.
‘I was at home all night!’ Marianne exclaims.
‘We have multiple witnesses who saw a Fiat 500 drive away from the crime scene. Now we can do this here or down at the station – the choice is yours…’ Jonathan speaks to her with the technical parlance of his profession, lending a sense of gravitas as if he were a top-ranking officer himself.
Or else he’s watched a lot of Line of Duty. Either way, it’s working.
‘Multiple witnesses?’ she asks, looking around the room, as if seeking help from her family, but they all just stare back at her. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she says, her voice trembling. ‘Unless…’ She looks to Stephen.
He baulks, nearly choking on his tea. ‘Oh, I get it – you think because James here hit me that I went over to The Lake House and set fire to the place?’ Stephen remarks, his voice booming.
‘It’s a possibility we have to consider,’ replies Jonathan.
Stephen rises and squares up to Jonathan, his fists clenched by his side. ‘You have no right to come in here and accuse us of something we know nothing about! Just because James hit me doesn’t mean I went out and burned down a house!’
‘Stephen would never do something like that.’ Gus says, standing between them. ‘You have to believe me. We didn’t even know anything about it until you just told us. He’s far from perfect, but he’s not an arsonist.’
‘We’ll have to hand this over to the police. We thought we’d try to figure out whether there had been any misunderstanding, something we could iron out before that…’ Jonathan replies calmly.
‘Stephen,’ says Marianne as she turns to him and lowers her voice, grabbing his elbow. ‘Your behaviour lately has been quite… unpredictable, shall we say… is there any way that, maybe in a blind fit of rage, you may have taken the car and drove out to The Lake House?’
Gus and Grace’s eyes widen.
‘Mum!’ Grace says. ‘What are you saying?’
‘I’m just saying that if there are witnesses who saw the car out there, and we know it wasn’t any of us…
well, then the finger does point to Stephen.
He has motive, means… the car keys are hanging there for anyone to take.
And, well, he’s not been himself. He may not have realised what he was doing. ’
Stephen shakes his head and glares at her. ‘Oh no you don’t… don’t you dare try to pin this on me! Whatever happened out there has nothing to do with me… I went to The Tap House, I came home, I fell asleep.’ He looks at Grace.
‘It’s true. I was playing all night, and Stephen was holding up the bar.
And then I watched him shadow-box his way home and fall asleep in the chair like he does every night of the week.
He was too pissed to stand, never mind get into a car, drive it and set a place alight without killing himself.
I told Dad he was in, and Dad steered him up to bed. ’
‘And after that, I sat up chatting with guests. Regulars – the Robinsons. They’re upstairs now – I can call them down if you like?’ says Gus.
‘And I was with them too,’ says Marianne quickly.
Gus blinks. ‘What?’
‘You know what I mean! I was here, with you all. Present and correct,’ she hisses at him.
Grace’s eye shift across the room. ‘Mum? You weren’t here last night…’
‘Where were you, Marianne?’ asks James.
‘Right here, safe at home. I may not have been in the same room as everyone the whole time, but I was here. Of course I was. I mean where else would I be?’ she replies quickly.
Gus just stares at her, his brow furrowed, then he looks around the room, as if he’s trying to figure out what’s really going on.
‘I think you should leave now,’ says Marianne, her voice trembling. ‘We have nothing more to say to you.’
The room stills with anticipation.
‘This is so hard… especially as I so loved my time staying here, our chats over tea,’ I say, holding up my hands in a placating manner.
‘We’re not here to accuse anyone; we’re just trying to get to the bottom of this.
If you can think of any reason why someone might want to set fire to The Lake House… ’
‘It’ll be the ragtag, free-spirited vagabonds living up by The Lake House in the woods,’ says Marianne.
‘At least one of them has fingers like a thief, matted, unkempt dreadlocks, not a word of English. Mick’s house should have been put up for auction immediately – these vacant homes are a breeding ground for troublemakers. ’
Grace’s eye glare. ‘Mum, how can you say that?’ Her eyes flash with rage as she turns towards her mother. ‘His name is Jose, not “vagabond with the long hair” not “misfit”. It’s Jose and we’re in love.’ Her words are like steel, the force of her conviction ringing through the air.
Marianne doubles over, like she’s been hit in the stomach, reaching out to grasp at Grace’s arm. ‘You are breaking my heart – I’m not changing my mind. I said what I said last night and I meant it,’ she says, her voice straining.