Sleepwalk (13 page)

‘Fire!’

‘What?’

‘Fire! Flicks house is on fire. Phone the fire brigade. Quick!’

‘Oh my God! Is she in there?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t think so; her car isn’t there. Phone, Mum…. For Christ’s sake. Quick! And phone her mother; make sure she’s there.’

Carol Baines ignored her son’s plea and went out into the garden muttering as she went, ‘This better not be one of your silly practical............’ then she saw a cloud of black smoke coming from Felicity’s bedroom window and a tell tale flickering light.

‘Oh my God! Tom, Quick. You need to tell Bob and his wife…. Get them out. I’ll phone the fire brigade.’

‘Halleluiah!’

Tom leapt over the small hedgerow into his neighbour’s front garden and banged his fist hard against their front door. It seemed like an eternity before he heard Bob approaching the door muttering ‘Alright alright, I’m coming.’

‘Bob, mate – you need to get Alison and your kids and you need to get out.…….now! The house next door is on fire. Mum’s phoning the fire brigade!’

Both Tom and his neighbour flinched as a small explosion could be heard next door and then glass shot from the big bay window across the garden in front of them, narrowly missing Tom and flames leapt from its frame and swept toward them, dangerously close.

‘Jesus is she…. Is she in there?’

‘We don’t think so. Her car is not here. Hopefully she’s at her parents or something.

Goes there on a weekend doesn’t she?’

‘Well let’s hope so eh? Ali? Get the kids down quick. There’s a fire next door!’

Sirens pierced through the night and Knapp’s quiet country lane became a hubbub of activity as firemen rushed here and there; generators pumping water into the tiny cottage and then there was the smell of the fire which lingered long into the night…..

‘Hello?’

‘Hi. I’m sorry to disturb you so late….. Is Felicity with you?’

‘Yes…… Who is this?’

‘Thank God! It’s Carol. I live next door but one. There’s been a fire….. at her cottage. I……. we thought she may be inside. Oh thank God she’s not.’

Margaret Breen woke her daughter from her slumber and brought her to the phone to speak to her neighbour. Half an hour later Felicity pulled into the gateway opposite her cottage. Two fire engines were parked in the middle of the road and she had to get past the police woman who was blocking her entry.

‘Sorry love you can’t come through. Where are you wanting to go?’

‘I’m Flick…… Felicity Breen. It…. It’s my house.’

‘You’d better come through.’

The police woman led her through the maize of police cars and fire engines and up the steps at the other end of the terrace. It seemed strange that in all the time Felicity had lived here she had never approached her little cottage from that end of the terrace. It seemed different….. wrong somehow; and now, she had no choice. Carol’s house was illuminated by the street light opposite and by the open door and strategically placed police spotlights where uniformed officers and firemen came and went. Felicity felt like she was in a dream.
She followed the young female officer and they moved toward the light but she couldn’t go beyond the dark boundary that was her home. And all the time there was that smell in the air; a dank, dark burning smell. The smell of destruction……….

The plain clothed officer that sat opposite her at the police station was very calm and matter of fact. He reached across the table and pressed a switch on the tape, setting it to record.

‘Is all this really necessary?’

‘So you were at the hospital until
quarter to eleven
last night Miss Breen? Rather late to be visiting?’

‘I told you, my father was rushed in with heart pains. He’d had a severe angina attack. He also suffers from Parkinson’s disease and……. we worry about him.’

‘Understandably so Miss Breen; Felicity. You don’t mind if I call you that?’

‘Flick; call me Flick. I didn’t hear from my mother until late and I went straight there. Look….. what exactly are you getting at here? Do you really think I would set fire to my home, all my things, my clothes………. everything? It…. It must have been an electrical fault or something. I’m very careful. I always switch everything off before I go out and at night. Surely the fire brigade will be able to find out what started it?’

‘I’m sorry Flick, but we have to question you in order to eliminate you from our enquiries. The fire investigation officer has confirmed that accelerants were used. The fire at your cottage was started deliberately.’

‘What? Oh my God!’

Felicity sank back in the hard chair and her face went a ghostly shade of pale.

David was right.
Someone was trying to kill her
. She pulled at her top as she felt suddenly overcome. The lights in this little room were too bright and it was unbearably hot with no air conditioning.

‘Are you ok Flick? Can I get you a drink of water?’ The little female officer who had remained silent in the shadows until now suddenly came forward.

‘Thanks, I…….. who would do something like that? I don’t understand.’

‘Do you always leave your key in the back door lock?’

‘Sorry?’

‘Your back door. That was how they gained entry. Smashed the little pane of glass above the door lock and the key was there waiting for them. QED.’

Felicity lowered her head and her face reddened as realisation dawned on her own stupidity. She
had
left the key in the back door. She had never expected this to happen.

‘Oh God. Stupid……. Stupid! David was right. He told me off for it last time when…… he changed the locks and everything and I still ….. God how could I be so stupid.’

‘Whoa. Slow down now Flick. Last time? What happened last time? Who’s David and why did he change the locks? We need to have a little chat now don’t we?’

Two hours later Felicity was released from ‘helping the police with their enquiries’ and then had to wait a further thirty minutes for the forensics department to release her car which had been taken into the pound for testing. She felt like a criminal as she signed her statement then was handed her car keys back and finally left the building and all she could think of was DI Carters insinuating words of suspicion…. ‘Strange don’t you think that after a relatively quiet life, all this seems to have happened since you met David Wilson?’

Abi woke up and glanced at the bedside clock. It was
6.30am
. She couldn’t remember a night when she had slept as well and woken this early feeling so refreshed. Ellie must have woken even earlier. She could hear her downstairs in the kitchen rattling cups; the kettle boiling away and even heard the gentle hum of the washing machine as it turned and stopped and turned and stopped. She pulled on her dressing gown, stepped into her slippers and went down to join her.

‘Morning Ell. You’re up bright and early. I slept like an absolute log last night and it feels so good. I feel totally refreshed and ready to start the day. How about you?’

‘Mmm…… Yes I …… well I do feel like I’ve slept I suppose; just a bit of back ache that’s all; must have been lying funny. Coffee?’

‘Coffee sounds good. What’s on the agenda today then?’

‘Well I don’t have to work this afternoon so I’ve got the whole day free. I thought we could go down to the coast; maybe take a walk; have a swim if the weathers right, what d’you think?’

‘The coast sounds good to me. Therapeutic; great idea Ell.’

Ellie went upstairs for a shower and while she did so Abi hung out her washing and then went to join her, but as she reached the top of the stairs she could see that Ellie had got back into bed and was fast asleep. So she hadn’t slept well at all. Why didn’t she say? Abi left her and crept back down and it was clear on entering their small, dark sitting room that Ellie had slept, at some point that night on the little two seater sofa; hence the back ache. Although she didn’t like to admit it a part of her was thankful because she had slept so well herself. A good night’s sleep was a rare commodity these days. She poured herself another coffee and took it into the sitting room and then she saw the car keys on the floor. She picked them up and curiosity got the better of her so she went out into the street to check the car. It was perfectly parked in the same place she had left it and she cursed herself for doubting Ellie. She didn’t notice that part of the rear bumper was missing on the drivers’ side and the wheel arch was badly dented. It was almost eleven by the time Ellie emerged and came down to apologise.

‘God Abi I’m sorry I can’t believe how tired I was. I only got back in for a minute and I fell asleep. Can we still go out?’

‘Course we can. Its ok love. You must have needed it. Come on. We can have lunch out.’

Twenty minutes later Abi walked around to the drivers’ side of the car and saw the damage.

‘Oh great, someone’s hit the car.’ She looked at Ellie whose face was becoming redder by the second. ‘Have you been out in the car? You have, haven’t you? The keys were on the floor in the sitting room this morning.’

‘I……… No. I’m sure I haven’t. No Abi. I would remember, wouldn’t I?’

‘Would you Ell? I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore. Come on, let’s go. We’ve wasted enough time today. A walk on the coast is probably what we need right now. It’ll do us both good; clear our heads.’

Ellie climbed into the passenger seat and tried to remember. She had a vision of waking up in the car in the half light of daybreak, slumped over the cars hand brake. The car was parked on some wasteland by the river. But that was silly. What would she be doing there? It must have been a dream….. mustn’t it?

Ollie’s fortnightly visit with his mother had gone more smoothly than David had anticipated and the little man actually seemed quite settled this time. He hadn’t even cried when they’d said goodbye. Perhaps he was learning to accept that she was no longer a permanent fixture in his everyday life. They had met at Victory park as the weather was so nice and that in itself he supposed meant Oliver had other distractions to take his mind off the reality of it all. Ellie had seemed quiet and had spent all of the afternoon running about after her son while David watched from a little bench near the play area. There had only been one small incident where Ollie had been so eager to leave the roundabout and get to the slide that he had fallen and grazed his knee in the process. Ellie rushed to his side but the boy was already up and running to his Daddy where he stayed for the next few minutes.

‘Come on then Ollie. Go and play with Mummy because she has to go soon and she wants to play with you some more I think. Show her how fast you go down that slide eh?’ The child ran back to his mother who had been watching the two of them closely. She was still looking in David’s direction as Oliver climbed the steps to the slide then he sensed someone standing beside him and he knew why.

‘Loves his Daddy doesn’t he?’ Abi sat down on the bench next to him. ‘How’s she been this afternoon?’

‘Fine. We haven’t really spoken much. She’s been running about after Ollie.’

‘I’m worried about her David. She’s been going out at night sleepwalking. She came here the other night, to the park. I followed her. It was half three in the morning when we got home.’

David watched his beautiful estranged wife playing happily with their little boy and then looked at the ground. ‘Is she taking her medication?’

‘No. I was reading a magazine article the other day about people snoring and there’s this place you can go; some kind of medical centre where they study people with sleep problems. They film the person while they’re asleep.’

‘Sounds a good idea. But can they cure the problems? When Ellie was in hospital the Doctor she saw seemed quite clued up on sleep disorders. I’m sure he would have recommended it if would have done any good but his only advice was locking the windows and doors. Can’t you do that?’

‘I do. But she keeps finding my hiding places. There are only so many places you can hide a bunch of keys you know.’

Oliver had run up to them then closely followed by his mother.

‘Ice ceam Daddy.’

‘Ok mate. Ice ceam it is then.’

Ellie had given her little boy a kiss goodbye and held him close for a minute but this time, when her and Abi turned and walked away she did not make a scene; did not even shed a tear. Instead she gave him a big smile and waved goodbye.

David sighed and changed down a gear as he turned into
Rose Lane
. Perhaps things would work out okay after all. Perhaps Ellie had begun to accept the situation. If every future meeting could be as amicable as this it would be a huge relief to them all.
He opened the double gates and reversed his car into the drive and as he lifted Oliver out of his car seat he saw the unmistakable fluorescent stripe of a police car turning around at the bottom of his lane and thought
hello, someone’s in trouble
. What was it about police cars? Just the sight of one seemed to put the fear of God into you even though you had never broken the law or even done anything wrong. Oliver ran to his little toy truck in the garden and climbed awkwardly over its big yellow frame as David began to close the gates and then he froze as the car pulled up right outside his gates and two uniformed officers got out, one male; one female.