‘Praise the Lord.’
‘Had to happen sooner or later, come and meet Maggie, she’s the one with the CCTV but she says everyone else has it too.’
‘Good job, Brookes.’
She smiled. ‘We can figure this out, Ben, find the monster that did this and lock them up so no one else gets hurt.’
He followed her to Maggie’s bungalow where Maggie was waiting for them.
‘Maggie, this is my boss, Ben Matthews. Ben, this is Maggie.’
Ben reached out his hand and shook Maggie’s hand. She gripped his back, shaking it hard.
‘Maggie is friends with Sally.’
‘I’m sorry for your loss, Maggie. Sally is, was, a lovely woman. She was an old friend of mine.’
‘Then we’re both grieving her loss, let’s do the right thing and find out who did this.’
She pointed to the television screen. ‘I’ll show you how to work it, take your time, do what you need, and I’ll make a fresh pot of tea.’
‘Fire was called by Luke at 19.57, they arrived on scene at 20.07. Maggie, do you know what time Sally got home?’
‘It was after half past seven. I had just come back from walking Roley, my pug, and was going in the front door when her car drove down the street.’ At the mention of the dog’s name a loud thump from a room down the hall was followed by the sound of paws tip tapping on the tiled floor, and a loud snorting sound met them before the dog appeared and began to bark at Morgan and Ben.
‘Shush, Roley, they’ve been here ages.’
The dog padded across the floor towards Maggie, and she laughed. ‘As you can see, he’s not the greatest guard dog, but he is very good company.’
Morgan bent down and scratched his ears. ‘Better late than never, Roley, eh?’
Maggie walked out of the room and the dog followed, and Morgan turned back to the television screen and began rewinding the recording.
‘Let’s see if our suspect leaves the street after setting the fire.’
Ben smiled at her. ‘You’re good at this, I miss working with you.’
She shrugged. ‘I’ve had a good teacher.’
She pressed play and they watched as Maggie began to walk up her drive with the dog, and a couple of seconds later a white Mercedes sports car drove past as Maggie went inside; the camera captured a good view of the Lawsons’ house, and they watched in real time as Sally got out of the car, leaned over to grab her bag and shut the door. The house was in darkness, apart from a single light. She walked to the end of the drive and looked around, then headed towards her house. When Sally opened her front door and went inside, Morgan paused it.
‘She must have been ambushed as soon as she stepped inside, because the time stamp on the screen is 19.37 and we know that Luke rang Fire twenty minutes later.’
She lowered her voice so Maggie couldn’t hear, but there was the sound of the kettle boiling in the background and Maggie was talking to her dog. ‘Could you kill someone and start a fire in that length of time?’
‘The evidence is saying yes.’
‘Not three people though, David and Tim must have already been dead.’
Ben pressed play and both of them held their breath waiting for someone to come out of the Lawsons’ house and walk away. Nobody emerged, and the sinking feeling that they weren’t going to catch a break made their shoulders sag. Eventually they saw flames and smoke billowing out of the front window and door, Luke and his wife coming out of their house at the same time. Luke began running towards the burning building whilst on the phone.
‘They must have left the back way, where does the garden lead to?’
Maggie walked in with a tray of tea and biscuits.
‘Where does Sally’s garden lead to?’
‘It leads onto the playing fields of the school, very handy for Tim and his friends when they used to be out playing football. Sally would chase them over the back hedge, so they didn’t ruin her roses. I don’t know what the school thought of them being in there, but as far as I know they only used to run riot on the playing field and not cause any damage.’
