What I needed most urgently, though, was a run. My ribs still twinged when I pulled them wrong, but they felt solid enough to cope with me going for a short, careful run. Sam managed to get off work at the same time as me, for once, and we ran home together, with her making sure that I didn’t push myself too hard and tear anything. Still, running felt incredible after what felt like forever being stuck sitting around, so I couldn’t help but do a sprint near the end, letting out a whoop of victory as I reached her front door. Behind me, she laughed.
We took it easy that evening, relaxing in each other’s company and eating a meal we cooked together. Later, as I was falling asleep on the sofa, some nonsense on the TV and my arm around her shoulders, I was reminded again that we wouldn’t be able to have this for much longer.
“I’ll come and visit you if you want,” I said quietly.
We’d been avoiding talking about it, other than in passing, casual mentions. We’d not made any specific plans or promises. Other than that, we’d try to make it work. I still had that stubborn kernel of doubt that said that we wouldn’t be able to survive the distance, for whatever reason, and I’d lose her. I’d held off on talking about how I could drive down every fortnight or that we could video call every night because I didn’t want her to feel trapped.
“And I’ll come up here,” she said, wrapping her arms around me and holding me tight. “I know you’re not sure about whether we can make it, but I really want to try.”
“Aye? Me too.” I kissed the top of her head.
“Distance makes the heart grow fonder,” she said wryly.
“Impossible,” I told her. “My heart couldn’t get any fonder.”
“Oh, you sap,” she laughed.
The conversation relaxed and lightened, and we went to bed soon after. I didn’t know whether our promise to give the relationship our best shot, despite her moving away, was going to keep us going or just make it hurt more if it ended. With her in my arms, I tried to savour the moment and fell asleep thinking about how lucky I was.
I wasn’t at the station long the next morning before Keira came over to talk to me. Stephen wasn’t in yet. His son had had some stomach trouble overnight, so Keira pulled up his chair and sat down.
“There’s nothing useful on the laptop,” she told me, looking genuinely apologetic.
I gritted my teeth at the news, holding back a curse.
“And the USBs?”
“Nothing there either, I double-checked. It’s schoolwork, mostly. And the laptop seems barely used, except for a bit of gaming, school sites, watching movies. Normal teenage things.”
“So we’ve got nothing to link him to the fires, great.” I rubbed a hand over my hair.
I’d done a short run into work this morning, and my ribs ached slightly when I lifted my arms, but the discomfort had been worth the exercise.
“Sorry to disappoint.”
“The ICT teacher had said he was talented at tech. Are you sure he didn’t bury something on there or delete it?”
“As sure as I can be. It’s very difficult to leave absolutely no traces, online or on a laptop. I did check thoroughly, Mitchell.”
“No, no, of course. I know you did.” I sighed. “Alright, thanks.”
“Maybe he used a school computer?” she offered as she stood up.
“Aye, it’s a possibility,” I agreed.
She gave me a sympathetic look and left to get back to her own work. Stephen arrived not long later, apologising that he’d been delayed.
“You sure you didn’t need to stay with him?” I asked, waving away his apologies.
“No, it’s alright. Annie’s mum came over to keep an eye on the kiddo. Annie just needed to rush off this morning, so I stayed with him till his Gran came over, y’know.”
“Alright, mate. But tell me if you need to hoof it anytime, okay?”
“I will. What’ve I missed?”
I filled him in on what Keira had said, and he looked as disappointed as I’d been.
“Damn, I was really banking on that having something incriminating on it, something solid.”
“I know, so was I. Alistair knew as well, didn’t he? When he was taunting us in the car.” I grimaced.
“So what now?”
I turned on my computer and pulled up the tracking website for the petrol canisters.
“Now we go and check these out and hope to god that they’ve got some evidence on them.”
“We might need back-up. I’ll see if anyone’s free to come with us.”
“And I’ll talk to Rashford,” I agreed.
We knew that the petrol was stolen, so that was plenty enough reason to do a search of the address where the canisters were being stored, but it never hurt to keep Rashford in the loop. She agreed with me that it was the logical next step, especially since the laptop and the search of Alistair’s house had turned up zilch.
“We probably should’ve expected it,” I muttered to Stephen when we were in the car as we drove over to the address. Another police car followed with two junior officers in it, ready to back us up if anything unexpected happened.
“Expected what?”
“That there’d be nothing in the house or on the laptop. Alistair’s too smart to do that, to leave a mess where he eats, so to speak.”
Stephen made a noise of agreement, his hands tight around the steering wheel.
We arrived at the house where the tracking site told us the canisters were being kept.
