Jack jotted down the address on his phone as soon as he ended the call, then got back in his car and headed for Putney.

  When he got there, he wondered if Penny had given him the correct address. The house was part of a modern, upmarket estate and each identical property had a neat front lawn and an attached garage. All the curtains of Ridley’s house were drawn, but there was clearly a light on in the front room. Jack took out his mobile and was about to dial Ridley’s mobile number when the front door opened. Ridley stood there wearing a thick turtle-necked sweater, baggy cord trousers and old, worn slippers, along with a woollen hat. He pulled the front door partly closed and walked down the path.

  ‘We can talk in the car,’ he said.

  Jack unlocked the car and got in. Ridley opened the passenger door and joined him.

  ‘Not many CID officers would drive around in a pea-green contraption like this. I knew it was you as soon as you parked up.’

  ‘I’ve been worried – ’ Jack began, but Ridley cut him off.

  ‘I’m sure you mean well, son, but this situation is serious, I can’t discuss anything with you.’

  ‘Are you sick?’

  ‘No, I’m touched at your concern, but I told you months ago I was in complete remission; truth is, past few months I’ve felt better and fitter than I have for years. I’m sorry, Jack, I have to ask you to leave now.’

  Jack persisted. ‘I went to your previous address. You never mentioned to me that you’d moved. I’ve just been trying to find out if you’re OK.’

  ‘I don’t want to get into a lengthy conversation, Jack, but this was my mother’s place. She died a year or so ago and left it to me. I sold the flat; in fact, it went within a week, not only did I get a good price, but the chap bought all the furniture.’

  He gave a small shrug of his shoulders and smiled, almost like the old Ridley.

  ‘Remember you said to me when I thought I was on the way out that it’d be a hard sell as it didn’t have any redeeming features? Turns out you were wrong.’

  ‘Well, I’m glad about that,’ Jack said, beginning to lose his patience, ‘but I still don’t understand what the hell is going on. I’m relieved you’re not sick, but there are things I need to run by you. You put me on the Rodney Middleton case, remember? You said it was low priority with CID but you had an intuition that it shouldn’t be. I’m now having major concerns that something is not right but I’m not bloody sure what it is.’

  Ridley sighed. ‘Cross reference, cross reference – and if you can’t go forwards, go back. Answer your own questions, Jack. I can’t help you.’

  ‘But what was it that made you suspicious?’

  ‘Look,’ Ridley said, ‘it just didn’t make sense. He’s a very intelligent young man, so you can maybe excuse his first assault, but the second appeared to me to have some ulterior motive, that’s all.’

  Ridley looked back towards his house and reached for the door handle. Jack looked round too and saw it – just a momentary glimpse of a man wearing a dark uniform standing partly hidden by Ridley’s front door. Ridley got out of the car and leant back towards Jack.

  ‘I promise you, I will be in contact when I can, but please don’t come round to see me again. Give my fondest to Maggie, and to little Hannah. Goodnight, Jack.’

  Jack watched Ridley hurry back to his posh little house and saw the dark figure usher him inside before the front door closed.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Maggie was at home when Jack got back.

  ‘Let’s have a takeaway Chinese,’ she said. ‘Do you want to order, and see if Penny would like to join us?’

  ‘OK, is the number in the book by the phone?’

  ‘Yes, unless you’d prefer to have something else, like a burger or a curry?’

  ‘Chinese sounds good. I’ll order us the usual.’

  Maggie opened the freezer section of the fridge and took out a ‘cook in the bag’ chicken for the next evening. She then checked the fridge for vegetables and began making a shopping list of things for Penny to get the next day.

  Jack ordered the takeaway and went up to see his mother and daughter.

  ‘Thank you for taking her juice into the nursery today,’ Penny said, after declining Jack’s offer of a takeaway. ‘I left it in the kitchen.’

  ‘That’s OK. I met the new girl.’

  ‘Anna is very sweet and all the children love her.’

  ‘I thought she said her name was Carol?’

  ‘Oh yes, that’s right. Can you mention to Maggie that I’m going to bingo on Friday, so I won’t be here to babysit? But I can get Hannah ready for bed before I leave.’

  ‘Sure, I’ll be home early on Friday. Are sure you won’t join us?’

  ‘Yes, thank you, I’ve already eaten with Hannah. You have a nice evening together. Oh, was it the right address for Ridley?’

  ‘Yes. Thanks for that.’

  Jack kissed his mother on the cheek, then read a story to Hannah for a while before going downstairs to wait for the food to be delivered. Maggie met him in the hall and said she was going up to say goodnight to Hannah, then have a quick shower before they ate.

  Jack got the plates out to warm them, opened a bottle of wine and set the table. He had already drunk a glass before the doorbell rang and the food arrived. Maggie came downstairs in her dressing gown, just as he was opening up all the different cartons and placing them on the table.

  ‘Perfect timing!’ he said.

  ‘Is Penny joining us?’ Maggie asked.

  ‘Nope, she said she’d already eaten with Hannah. And she wanted us to know that she has her bingo on Friday night. Are you on late shift this week?’

  ‘No, next week. I might be on call this weekend though. We have two nurses off and it’s starting to have huge repercussions. We’re so tired out, and we’ve been having Covid cases lined up in corridors whilst we try to find beds. The A&E department is swamped and trying to make people adhere to the rules is very trying. Lots of us are beginning to lose patience.’

  Jack nodded sympathetically as he ate, using his chopsticks to shovel the food into his mouth as Maggie jabbed at the noodles with her fork. He poured her a glass of wine, sensing her exhaustion.

  ‘So, how was your day? Did you get to see Ridley?’ she asked, taking a large sip.

  ‘Yeah, it was the right place, but I didn’t go inside; he saw me parked and came out. He said he was still all clear with his cancer being in full remission, but there is something going on. He wouldn’t tell me what and he was on edge.’

  ‘You think he was lying?’

  ‘I don’t know . . . I mean, he said he felt fine, but he didn’t look it and just wanted me to leave and not to contact him again.’

  ‘No doubt he’ll tell you what’s going down when he’s ready. Maybe you just have to give him some space for a bit. How was it at the station?’

  ‘A few things cropped up. The kid that assaulted the shop assistant has quite a record for previous attacks, but I interviewed his girlfriend. She’s in a hostel, told me she had been with him since she was twelve. She was a runaway and he had virtually kept her prisoner.’

  ‘She was only twelve?’

  ‘Yeah, she’s seventeen now, but she’s very young for her age. I got a message from the carer at the hostel. They traced her parents to Liverpool, but I’m not sure if they’re coming down to collect her. Thing is, we found no record of her being a missing person. I’m going to do some leg work tomorrow and get a warrant to search the basement flat where they were living. I think he had other girls there, but when he was arrested no one took a look. It was almost a perfect arrest. He admitted assaulting the guy in the local shop and handed over the knife. I was just brought in to oversee the final investigation and tick all the boxes. But my gut instinct is that something isn’t right. I also spoke to the psychiatrist that his GP had referred him to a few years ago, when he had committed a similar offence. His secretary called him a “troubled soul”. Apparently there was a fire at his family home and his two sisters burnt to death.’

  ‘Did he do it? Was it arson?’

  ‘Not proved. They had fire investigators examine the scene who concluded it was an electrical fault. I’ve not seen the coroner’s report but reading between the lines there was some suspicion about the fire. Tomorrow I’m going to visit his father in prison.’

  ‘What about his mother?’

  ‘She died of a heroin overdose a few years ago.’

  ‘Gosh, no wonder he’s a lost soul!’

  Jack emptied the rest of the fried rice onto his plate. ‘I would really have liked to talk to Ridley about the case, but he just told me to stay away.’

  ‘Surely there will eventually be some information about why he’s been replaced.’

  ‘There was someone at the house. I didn’t see who it was, but I think he was in uniform. It was all a bit awkward.’

  Maggie had her eyes closed and was falling asleep at the table. Jack pushed his chair gently back, took her in his arms and kissed her. He then helped her up and guided her out of the kitchen, saying he would join her after he had cleared up. She hugged him before slowly making her way up the stairs. Jack gathered all the empty cartons and put them into the waste bin. He then put the plates and cutlery into the dishwasher and wiped the table and the surfaces. He didn’t feel like going to bed quite yet, so he poured himself another glass of wine and went up to his office.

  He decided he would make a list of what he intended to do the following day, including applying for a warrant. He was also going to do what Ridley had suggested and go back and cross reference everything again. He stopped and listened, as he could hear Penny chatting, just as he had done the previous night. He got up and went onto the landing. He heard her laughing, and then speaking so quietly he couldn’t make out what she was saying. He felt guilty as he listened, then he heard her saying goodbye to someone and the call ended.

  Maggie was sound asleep when Jack went in, and he crept around so as not to disturb her. He didn’t even put the lights on in the bathroom in case it woke her. He eased into bed beside her and gently drew the duvet up around himself as he rested his head back on the pillows. This was becoming their usual routine. Maggie was always so tired when she got home from the hospital and Jack was glad they had Penny. However, he decided that he would get Maggie to sit down and talk about the possibility of her taking some time off soon. She had been on the front line doing crazy hours for a long time, and he admired her for it, but if it was going to damage her health then he felt he needed to say something. They had spent very little quality time together recently, and tonight was the first time they had had a proper conversation in weeks.

  By the time Jack woke up the following morning, Maggie was already downstairs and about to leave for work whilst Penny was giving Hannah breakfast in her highchair. Jack hurried down into the hallway still in his pyjamas as Maggie was putting on her coat.

  ‘I didn’t wake you, darling . . . you were in a deep coma!’ she said, laughing.

  ‘What time is it?’

  ‘Almost eight. I have to get my skates on.’ She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him on the lips.

  ‘My God, I had better get showered and out as well. Will you be late tonight?’

  ‘No, I hope not. Have a good day. I love you.’

  Jack went into the kitchen. Penny was adding to Maggie’s shopping list of the things she needed to get on her way back from nursery. She asked him to get out some shopping bags for her and put them under the carriage of Hannah’s pushchair.

  ‘I can easily get everything Maggie wants and wheel it back home.’

  ‘Do you need some cash?’ he asked.

  She paused. ‘Well, I am a bit short.’

  Jack had to run back upstairs to get his wallet. He handed Penny a £50 note.

  ‘Thanks,’ she smiled. ‘I usually use my debit card, but I need a top-up on that if you can organise it for me. They still don’t like cash these days.’

  ‘Right, I’ll call the bank and sort it out when I get to the station.’

  ‘Thank you, dear. You have a good day.’

  Jack hurried back upstairs to shower and get dressed. He was pissed off at himself, as he had wanted to get an early start, and it now looked as if he would have to go straight to Wandsworth prison for his interview with Rodney Middleton’s father. He collected all his notes from his home office, stuffing them into his briefcase, and went out to the pea-green car he detested so much.

  Laura was working at her desk when Jack rang to say that he would be returning to the station as soon as his meeting was over. He asked if she could do him a favour, or get one of the secretaries to help with a further search into details about the fire that had occurred at Middleton’s home.

  ‘I got what I could yesterday, but I suppose I can do some further research,’ she said. ‘Lucky for you my case has been sorted, so I have some spare time. I should be able to pull up all you need on the Holmes/CRIS system.’

  ‘I also want the names of the officers who reported the incident.’

  ‘It was a few years ago, Jack,’ Laura said doubtfully.

  ‘Only six years ago, so you might find them, plus their contact details as well as the names of the officers who worked on Rodney Middleton’s first assault charge.’

  ‘Bloody hell, Jack, you don’t half push your luck.’

  Jack hung up and then made another call on his hands-free system, to the clinic that Angus Seymour had referred Rodney to. A receptionist answered and forwarded his call to Dr Natalie Burrows. By this time Jack was parking in a bay close to Wandsworth prison.

  Natalie Burrows was abrupt but listened as Jack requested a meeting with her. She said that she could free a ‘window’ at twelve that morning, but if that was no good it would have to be the following day. Jack said he would be able to see her at midday and hung up. He finished manoeuvring into a tight parking bay where the vehicles on either side were over their lines. Sometimes the small pea-green car was useful, and he didn’t really care if the bumper acquired a few more dents.

  As expected, Jack had to go through lengthy security procedures to enter the prison. After completing all the relevant forms and having his ID verified, he left his briefcase and mobile phone with the duty officers and was led to the section used by prisoners for meetings with their legal teams.

  It was a small, airless room with a table and two chairs under a high, cobweb-covered window that faced the outside wall. The floor was covered in worn lino and the door had square frosted glass in the top half. Jack sat and waited for over ten minutes before a uniformed officer opened the door and stood back to allow Anthony Middleton to enter.

  He was a huge man with heavily muscled arms covered in tattoos from his hands to his shoulders. He was in his late forties with thick black hair and equally thick eyebrows, and his pock-marked face was covered in dark stubble. He had a stubby nose, and his mouth was pursed in a thin-lipped snarl. His only redeeming features were his striking blue eyes.

  Jack stood up to introduce himself and shake Middleton’s hand, thanking him for agreeing to talk to him. The officer looked at Jack then indicated that he would be outside the door. Middleton sat down.

  ‘I don’t know if you are aware that your son was recently arrested?’ Jack began.

  ‘I know. My sister wrote to me . . . said someone had told her.’

  ‘I’m part of the investigation, and I just wanted to ask you a few questions.’

  ‘I can’t help you . . . I don’t speak to him. I’ve not seen him in years.’

  Jack nodded. ‘I just need a bit of background from you. I’m sorry if it distresses you but . . .’

  Middleton leant forwards. ‘I hope they lock the little bastard up . . . ideally in here. I’d like to get my hands on him.’

  Jack kept his tone neutral. ‘It’s about the fire. Can you tell me what happened?’

  Middleton leaned back and shook his head. ‘I been asked about that, over and over. Karen never got over it. It broke her . . . nearly broke me. She went back on the drugs, and I went and done a few stupid things and ended up in here. Not that there’s anything for me on the outside now anyway.’

  ‘Can you talk me through the night it happened?’

  He nodded and let out a long sigh. ‘I was in the pub. Karen and me had been rowing a lot. She had just come out of rehab, and was stressed out, and the two little ones were playing up a lot. She said she was going to see some friends. I didn’t like it, because she had some friends that I didn’t approve of, and I was worried she’d start using again. We had a big argument and she flounced out. So I told him, Rodney, to take care of the girls.’

  ‘How old was he?’

  ‘Seventeen. He was working at a local supermarket, stacking shelves. He agreed to stay home that night. He’d been in a bit of trouble, thieving, but he was going to try to get back on track and take some exams. He was quite clever . . . well, he thought he was. I was always at logger-heads with him, and Karen wasn’t happy with him either. Kept saying he was messing around with the girls.’

  Jack leaned forward. ‘What did she mean by that?’

  He shrugged. ‘Said he was too touchy-feely with them, but I didn’t really believe her. They were only five and seven years old. He was good with them, and they liked him playing with them.’

  ‘So, on the night of the fire?’

  ‘I was drinking and had a right skinful. Then someone come into the pub and yells that there’s a fire in my street. It was my bloody house, and it was completely ablaze by the time I got there. Fire engines were already dowsing it with hose pipes, but the upstairs windows had smoke billowing out and the flames were blazing downstairs. Rodney come out with a steaming blanket over him. He’d tried to get up the stairs . . . well, that’s what they told me. They wouldn’t let us get near. I bloody tried . . . but it was burning so fierce. The windows were blowing out and this horrible thick black smoke was everywhere. My two little girls didn’t stand a chance.’

  Jack remained silent as Middleton bowed his head, twisting his big hands.