counter. Open. The Aga stove is cold.
Drury is still talking. “This is where we found the husband. Face down. Two blows to the back of the head. Something heavy, blunt-a hammer maybe or an axe. He dragged himself across the floor, trying to get away.”
The blood trail has dried into a dark smear.
“What about his wife?”
“She was upstairs tied to the bed. She was still alive when the assailant doused her with an accelerant, possibly lighter fluid.”
“The fire didn’t spread?”
“Damaged the room, but didn’t get into the ceiling.”
The smell of bleach is stronger here. A side door near the dishwasher leads to the laundry. Wellington boots are lined up-three pairs for mother, father and daughter. A soiled dress is soaking in the tub.
In the living room there are two mugs on a side table. Hot chocolate. Half-finished. A third mug lies in pieces in the fireplace. A bottle of Scotch rests on the mantelpiece. Opened. Single malt. Twenty years. A drop for special occasions.
Propped against a drying rack, a thin pair of leather shoes. Ballet flats. Charlie wears them.
The DCI continues. “It happened on Thursday night, during the blizzard. Half the county was blacked out. Roads closed. Phone lines down. Someone made a 999 call from William Heyman’s mobile at the height of the storm, but the emergency switchboard was swamped and they were put on hold.”
“How long?”
“Four, maybe five minutes. By the time the operator answered, the caller had gone.”
Drury gives me a baleful stare. “It was a hell of a night: dozens of accidents, people stranded in their cars; the M40 was like a car park.”
He leads me upstairs. Crossing duckboards on the floor, I reach the main bedroom and recognize the sickly sweet odor of burning flesh, human fat turned to liquid.
Snow swirls through the shattered window before gathering in a corner of the bedroom. Almost every other surface is covered in a fine layer of black soot. The blaze began on the mattress. Layers of bedding are peeled back to reveal the cross-like outline of undamaged fabric. The outline of a body-two arms, two legs, a torso; Patricia Heyman’s body had protected the mattress from the flames.
“Her hands were tied above her head,” says Drury.
“Was she clothed?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“Pajamas and a dressing gown.”
There is an en suite bathroom. The frosted glass window is broken, but not from the heat. Someone tried to force it open, cracking the paint that covers the hinges. Cold water fills the bath, coated in soap scum. Matching towels are folded side by side on the heated rail. A third towel-not from the same set-is resting on a wicker laundry basket.
Further along the corridor is Flora Heyman’s bedroom. Her wardrobe door is open. Clothes lie discarded on the bed. Someone has searched through them. I check the sizes.
“Does the daughter live at home?”
“She has digs in Oxford,” says Drury. “Comes home most weekends.”
“Tell me about the suspect.”
“Augie Shaw. Twenty-five. Local lad. Been in trouble before. He does odd jobs around the place-mowing lawns, cutting firewood, fixing fences, that sort of thing. He’s worked for the Heymans since they moved into the place, but he was fired two weeks ago.”
“Why?”
“Flora says her old man found Shaw inside the house going through her personal things.”
“Personal things?”
“Her underwear.”
“Who reported the fire?”
“A search and rescue volunteer was driving past the farmhouse and noticed the smoke. He called it in. We found Augie Shaw’s car in a snowdrift at the bottom of the hill.
“About an hour later his mother showed up at Abingdon Police Station and said Augie had something to tell us. He had burns on his hands.”
“What was he doing at the house?”
“He says he was collecting his wages. Termination pay.”
“In the middle of a blizzard?”
“Exactly. According to Shaw, the fire was already burning when he arrived. He went inside and tried to save Mrs. Heyman.”
“Why didn’t he raise the alarm?”
“He went for help but the roads were so icy he put his car into a ditch. He walked the rest of the way to Abingdon and went straight home. Went to bed. Forgot to tell us.”
“He forgot?”
“It gets better. He says his brother told him not to go to the police.”
“Where is the brother?”
“He doesn’t have one. Like I said, he’s not playing with the full deck. Either that or faking it.”
Retreating downstairs, I follow a side path to a rear terrace garden, where rose bushes, heavily pruned, push through the snow. My gaze sweeps from the gate to the barn and then the orchard, unsure of what I’m looking for.
Several times I walk to the fence and back again. How soon did a person become lost in the trees? How easy is it to watch a house like this and not be seen?
A psychologist views a crime scene differently from a detective. Police search for physical clues and witnesses. I look at the overall picture and the salience of certain landmarks and features. Some roads, for example, act as psychological barriers. People living on one side may almost never cross over to the other. The same applies to railway lines and rivers. Boundaries alter behavior.
Grievous joins me in the yard, knocking snow off his shoes.
“Some places are just unlucky,” he says.
“What do you mean?”
“This is where Tash McBain lived.”
“Who?”
“You remember her,” he says. “She was one of the Bingham Girls.”
I feel myself reaching for a memory and coming back with half a story, a headline and a photograph of two teenage girls.
“Her family was renting this place,” explains Grievous. “But after she went missing, they split up. Divorced. Couldn’t handle not knowing.”
“The girls didn’t turn up.”
“Never. It’s one of those mysteries that locals still talk about. I remember when it happened. This place was crawling with reporters and TV crews.”
“You worked the case?”
“I was still in uniform-a probationary constable.”
“What do you think happened to them?”
He shrugs. “Five thousand people are reported missing every year in Thames Valley. More than half are kids, twelve to eighteen, runaways most of them. They turn up eventually… or they don’t.”
Drury emerges from the house and tells Grievous to bring the Land Rover.
“What about the dog?” I ask.
“Pardon?”
“The family had a dog.”
“How do you know?”
“There was a water bowl in the laundry and an empty dog-food tin in the rubbish bin. Something short-
