“That is… weird.”
“Aye, and it started in April, for some reason.” I turned the screen back towards me, taking a screenshot of the page and saving it.
“So they’re not isolated incidents? Is that what you’re thinking?”
“It doesn’t look like it.”
“But the fire set at Roberts, and the one a few days back in York, they were set by groups of teens, weren’t they?” he said. I gave a nod, and he went on. “A whole gang is perpetuating these, then? Setting fires together every fortnight or so? That’s, well, that’s disturbing.”
I’d come to the same conclusion myself and gave a slow nod. “It is, I know.”
“And you think this Jules kid, a so-called friend of Alistair Pumphrey’s, is tangled up in it too.”
“I do,” I muttered, rubbing my chin as I thought. “I need to show this to Sedgwick, I think. He hasn’t emailed, but maybe he’s heard something. Keep at the CCTV, mate.” I gave him a pat on the shoulder and stood up.
“He might not take kindly to us muscling into this, you know,” Stephen pointed out, his gaze staying focused on his computer screen.
“We’re not muscling in.” I waved my hand in dismissal of the idea. “His case might have some correlation with ours, that’s all.”
“Yeah?” Stephen turned to raise his eyebrows at me. “And how’d it work out last time our case got mixed up with his? That student case, you remember that?”
“Of course I do.” I sobered. “Look, I get the concern, Steph. We don’t want to get on his wrong side while we still need him to work with us, but I’m just going to ask politely for updates. And, besides, he did work with us on the student case eventually, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, true. Reluctantly, though.”
I exhaled in exasperation. “Well, that’s not my fault, is it?” I said before heading off to find the man. It would’ve been nice if he could manage basic civility, but I’d settle for grudging cooperation if I had to.
I found him at his desk, his partner sitting beside him as they both poured over Sedgwick’s computer screen. Greene was the first to notice my presence, and she looked surprised to see me. She gave her partner a nudge to get his attention, and Sedgwick looked up, his expression becoming disgruntled when he saw me standing there.
“What d’you want?”
I resisted the urge to say something snarky and instead gave him a neutral smile which might have turned out more like a grimace.
“I wanted to ask if there had been any updates with the Alistair Pumphrey case?”
“One,” he said after a long pause, making clear his disinclination to tell me.
“What was that?” I prompted when it didn’t seem like he was going to continue.
“We had witnesses claiming to have seen him in town,” Sedgwick said, turning his gaze back to his computer screen like he was already bored with me.
“Today? Are they credible?”
Sedgwick turned to give me a cold look. “Not your case, Mitchell.”
“I know, I know.” I put up my hands. “But look, Sedgwick, Stephen and me have been looking into these fires that have been happening recently. You heard about them.”
“Is this relevant?”
“Yes,” I said sharply. “Hear me out, okay?” He gave a hand wave, telling me to go on, I guessed. I dragged up a chair from a nearby empty desk, which made Sedgwick frown and began to explain what I’d found related to Jules and the series of fires.
Apparently, against his best intentions, he ended up paying close attention to me by the time I was finishing up.
“Now, this doesn’t help us- you find Alistair, I know, but if we can track down this Jules kid, I think he’ll have something useful to tell us.”
“You’ve no proof that he had anything to do with Alistair going missing.”
“Other than what his father said, no. But it’s suspicious, isn’t it? The timings?”
“I suppose so,” Sedgwick relented after a beat of silence. “Alright, keep me updated. I’m not convinced, but there might be something in it.”
“Okay.” I gave a mental shrug, knowing that I couldn’t expect anything more encouraging. Sedgwick didn’t like me, and he only worked on solid facts. He was a good detective, sure, with his steady thoroughness, but he wasn’t the most imaginative. “If there’s news, I’ll email you. And you’ll keep me in the loop too?” I said as I stood up and wheeled the chair I’d borrowed back into its place.
Sedgwick gave a grunt and turned away from me, effectively dismissing me. His partner, who’d been listening attentively, gave me a slightly apologetic smile and went back to her work, too. I headed back towards Stephen, pleased that there was some good news with Alistair’s case and that Sedgwick had at least heard me out.
“If they really did see Alistair, that’s a relief,” Stephen said when I told him Sedgwick’s news. “It would reinforce the idea that he’s not been kidnapped or hurt.”
“Exactly. His face has been on the local news, too, so I hope there’ll be more calls about his whereabouts if he is just up and wandering about.”
“Let’s hope he is. It’d make him easier to find.”
“So, how’s the CCTV coming?” I asked as I sat down, jogging my idle computer back to life and taking a sip of my now lukewarm coffee.
“No different from when you asked five minutes ago.”
“Okay, okay.”
The afternoon had begun to cool off as we headed towards evening, and a light, fresh draft drifted in through the cracked-open windows. I looked longingly out at the still-bright sky, the blue fading to cornflower as time wore on, but there were still no clouds to mar the summer evening.
I continued my research dive into the fires, tracking down the officers who’d be on each of the scenes, but they could tell me little more than what was on the system. I talked to one of the more senior officers, too, but though she’d noticed
