'Are you telling the truth? ' She jerked her hand away from his and
tried to get around him. 'There's something else you should know. '
'Yes? ' Daniel asked.
'The fire . . . it wasn't an accident, ' she blurted out. 'I remember
what happened, and I remember . . . apples.'
'Apples? ' he repeated, clearly not understanding.
She nodded. 'I was having trouble sleeping. That isn't unusual, ' she
thought to add. 'I never sleep through the night. I thought I heard a
peculiar noise coming from downstairs. It sounded like glasses
tinkling.'
'I don't understand.'
'You know . . . when you toast someone and your glass clinks against
another glass . . . It was that sound that I thought I heard.'
'So what did you do? ' 'Tilly wasn't feeling very well, and I didn't
want to disturb her, so I put on my robe and my slippers and went
downstairs to investigate. If someone was knocking on the front door,
I wasn't going to open it, of course.
I was going to tell whoever it was to come back in the morning.
When I reached the foyer, I noticed the dining room window was wide
open. The wind was making the curtains billow into the room. I became
alarmed because I remembered closing it before I went up to bed, and I
was the last one to go up the stairs.'
'What did you do then? ' Daniel asked.
'I went into the dining room to shut the window, and that's when I
smelled coal oil.'
'You mean kerosene? ' 'Yes, kerosene, ' she answered. 'I put my hand
on the windowsill and it was covered with oil. It was as though
someone had only just poured it there.' l s 'And then what happened?
' 'Tilly had placed a basket of apples on the kitchen table after
supper.
One of her daughters had given them to her.'
'What do apples have to do with the fire? ' 'I could smell apples. I
know it sounds crazy, but I think someone was eating one. I wanted to
run upstairs and wake Jessica and Tilly, but I was suddenly afraid to
move. I could feel the breeze on my arms from the swinging door that
