‘The witness is entirely credible.’
‘So why wait till now to report it?’ she asks.
‘Because this person knows how much the Covey family are dealing with and didn’t want to add to their distress. But with the press accusations felt it was their duty to come forward.’
Sarah is more emotional than I’ve ever seen her.
‘Who is “this person”?’ she asks.
He looks at her with silent rebuke, and then he continues.
‘They have asked for their identity not to be revealed, which is a request I granted. There will be no trial so no need for identification. Neither we nor the school will be pressing charges.’
You look stunned. But also, I think, relieved. As I am. This wasn’t done maliciously. It can’t be, if there aren’t going to be any charges. It’s no longer necessary to have this ghastly hostile suspicion to the world. It isn’t the hate-mailer or Silas Hyman or Donald. Thank God.
But why is Sarah so upset?
DI Baker’s face shows no emotion. He pauses a moment, before he speaks to you.
‘Your son was seen leaving the school Art room moments before the automatic smoke detector went off. He was holding matches. There is no doubt in our mind that it was Adam who started the fire.’
Adam? For God’s sake, how can he say that? How?
‘Is this some kind of sick joke?’ you ask.
‘Whoever told you that is lying,’ Sarah says. ‘I’ve known Adam all his life and he’s the most gentle, kind child imaginable. There’s not an iota of violence in him.’
DI Baker looks irritated. ‘Sarah…’
‘He likes reading,’ Sarah continues. ‘He plays with his knights and he has two guinea pigs. They are the parameters of Adam’s world. He doesn’t play truant, he doesn’t graffiti, he doesn’t get into trouble. Reading, knights, two guinea pigs. Have you got that?’
Our gentle boy accused of this.
Madness.
‘It was Hyman, not a child,’ you say.
‘Mr Covey-’
‘How the hell did he persuade you?’
‘The witness is nothing to do with Mr Hyman.’
‘You’re saying that a child took white spirit into the Art room?’
‘I think we were too hasty to see certain occurrences as significant. The Art teacher may well have been mistaken about the quantity of white spirit kept in the Art room. After all, if she wasn’t following the regulations to the letter she was hardly going to tell us that, was she? I had a brief talk with her earlier and she admitted it was possible she’d been mistaken. She’s not one hundred per cent certain at all.’
I think of Miss Pearcy, sensitive, artistic Miss Pearcy, who’d be so easily intimidated by DI Baker.
‘Of course she’s not one hundred per cent certain,’ Sarah says. ‘Are you one hundred per cent certain when you go on holiday that you didn’t leave the oven on? Or when there’s a crash are you one hundred per cent certain you checked your mirror first before turning? It just means that this Art teacher has a conscience and the courage to admit to her fallibility. Especially when a policeman tells her she might have done something wrong.’
‘I understand your loyalty to your nephew but-’
She interrupts, sparks flying off her words.
‘You can’t think a child had the knowledge of fires and the premeditation to open the windows at the top of the school?’
‘It was a hot day,’ DI Baker replies. ‘A teacher or child could easily have opened the windows to let in the breeze, despite it being against the rules.’
You have been stunned into silence and stillness, but now you move towards DI Baker and I think you’re going to hit him.
‘Have you ever seen Adam?’ you ask, then gesture to beneath DI Baker’s breast pocket. ‘He’d come up to about here on you. He’s eight, for fuck’s sake, just eight. His birthday was yesterday. A little boy.’
‘Yes, we’re aware of his birthday.’
His words sounded menacing, but why?
‘Hyman’s lied about him,’ you say.
Sarah turns to you. ‘Silas Hyman can’t be the witness, Mike. It would look too strange if he was in the school at the time.’
‘So he must have had an accomplice and-’
‘I appreciate it’s hard to believe an eight-year-old child could do this,’ DI Baker interrupts. ‘But according to fire-brigade records, children were responsible for ninety-three per cent of all intentionally started school-time school fires. Just over a quarter were started by children younger than seven years old.’
But what have statistics to do with Adam?
‘We think it was most likely a prank, a bit of fooling around that went wrong,’ DI Baker says, as if this will appease you.
‘But Adam knows lighting a fire is wrong,’ Sarah says. ‘He’d think about the terrible consequences that may happen. For a child that age he’s extremely mature and thoughtful.’
I didn’t realise how well Sarah knows Adam. I’ve always thought she was critical of him, seeing him as wet, not like her tall, athletic sons.
‘And he knew Jenny was in the school,’ Sarah continues, desperately trying to convince him. ‘His own sister was in there, for God’s sake.’
‘Is there any animosity between the siblings?’ DI Baker asks.
‘What are you suggesting?’ you ask and there’s violence in your voice.
‘I’m sure he didn’t intend the fire to do the terrible damage-’
‘He didn’t do it.’ Yours and Sarah’s voices overlap with the same certainty.
‘What about the intruder?’ you ask. ‘The one who tampered with Jenny’s oxygen. You think that was a little boy too, do you?’
‘There is absolutely no evidence that there ever was an intruder,’ DI Baker responds impassively. ‘We have talked to the medical director and connections sometimes become faulty. It’s not significant.’
‘There was an intruder! I saw him!’ I shout, but no one hears me.
‘Jenny must have seen Hyman at the school,’ you say. ‘Maybe his accomplice. Something that implicated him. That’s why he came here, to-’
DI Baker interrupts you. ‘It really isn’t helpful to indulge in unsubstantiated theories.’
‘Adam wouldn’t do it,’ Sarah says again, with controlled fury. ‘Which means that someone else did.’
‘So you believe your brother’s theory now too?’ His tone is mocking her.
‘I think we should look at every possibility.’
His face shows contempt.
‘You told us Silas Hyman voluntarily gave a sample of his DNA?’ Sarah says and Baker looks irritated. ‘But have we actually got any DNA evidence from the scene of the fire?’
‘It’s really not productive to-’
‘I thought not. And now we won’t be looking for it, will we?’
‘Sarah-’
‘If it was Hyman behind this, he’d happily volunteer his DNA if he knew that within twenty-four hours his accomplice would nail a child for it, and the forensic search would stop. He could well have banked on nothing being found for the first twenty-four hours.’
DI Baker looks at her with doughy immovability.
‘The truth of the matter is that we have a reliable witness who saw Adam Covey coming out of the Art room, where we know the fire was started, holding matches. Just moments later the automatic heat detector and smoke detectors went off.
‘But as I said we won’t be pursuing it any further. We are satisfied that he didn’t intend the terrible consequences of his actions and that he’s been punished enough as it is. So we’ll just interview him and-’
‘No,’ you say vehemently.
They are not going to interview Adam. They can’t do that to him.
‘You can’t accuse him of this,’ Sarah says. ‘He can’t know people thought him capable of this.’