In the morning, my whole body ached as if I’d spent an hour in the ring in Worx gym with one of Roy Chapman’s regular customers. I couldn’t quite believe what had happened, and the idea that Paul was still out there somewhere, and knew where I lived, terrified me.
There was a knock on my bedroom door, and Anna came in with a cup of tea. She sat on the end of my bed and gave me a searching look.
How are you feeling?
Shit, I replied, truthfully.
You look it.
Thanks. I laughed, which set off a coughing fit.
Anna handed me a piece of paper. Rav left this last night.
It was a note asking me to come into the police station to give a statement this afternoon. I was glad he hadn’t expected me to drag myself there this morning – it was already gone ten and I didn’t feel like I had the energy to move yet.
He was very attentive last night, she commented lightly, giving me a sly look.
Don’t, I signed with a firm shake of my head that made me wince. Rav and I hadn’t had the opportunity to talk much, but I was looking forward to sitting down with him sometime soon and letting him know my real feelings as well as exploring his. Still, I didn’t want to talk to Anna about it just yet; she didn’t even know about the kiss.
Anna shrugged, but I knew from her expression that I hadn’t heard the last of it.
So, tell me everything, she said, crossing her legs and settling herself at the foot of my bed.
Now the police knew what had happened, and would have enough evidence against Paul when it was coupled with my statement and Lukas’s, I didn’t see any harm in telling Anna. I was glad to be using sign language, because of the raging pain in my throat, and I kept having to stop to take sips of water to try and ease it.
What about the fires? she asked, once I’d finished explaining about Paul, and why he killed Nadia.
Singh told me about that while we were waiting at the hospital, I told her. I was right; Mariusz has confessed to setting the fires. He got involved with the gang at a time when he was struggling emotionally at school and at home, making him an easy target for grooming, but once he understood what they were doing he wanted to get out again. When he realised they’d been dealing from these houses, including his dad’s house, he tried to think up a way to stop them. Apparently one of the houses they’d used in the past had accidentally caught fire and the gang moved on immediately to avoid being caught. The tenant was moved to a different area, so was no longer at risk from the gang. Mariusz panicked and took it to the extreme, thinking another fire was the only way to stop the gang using his dad’s house. He was terrified the gang would find out it was him, so he set fire to another couple of houses to make it look like someone was targeting the drug dealer.
Couldn’t he have reported them to the police? she asked.
I think he was too scared of the main dealer. That’s one of the reasons he set fire to his dad’s house first – he knew they wouldn’t suspect him. Mariusz was recruited by the dealer and the other lads; he never realised that his mum’s boss was in charge of it all. Neither did Lukas – he knew the gang had targeted other people in the area, but Nadia convinced him they were connected to Roy, and begged him to keep quiet about it in case the gang did something worse. She knew Mariusz was involved, so she wanted to protect him while she decided what to do about Paul.
And Lukas just believed that? she asked, incredulous.
I know, I agreed. I can’t believe he didn’t push any further either, but I think he never had a reason to doubt Nadia, and he wasn’t surprised by the idea that Roy had gang contacts.
Anna rolled her eyes and I nodded.
So Mariusz set the other fires to try and stop the gang?
That’s what he said. At first he was terrified and thought he’d killed Nadia; he’d thought the house was empty. She’d known he was mixed up with the gang and had tried to talk to him about it; he said she seemed to be the only one who noticed when he was feeling low and she always did her best to look out for him. The idea that he might have killed her left him absolutely devastated.
After that, he always checked that there was nobody in, so they didn’t get hurt, and they were all council properties, so he thought the tenants would get somewhere else to live straight away. I shrugged. He’s only sixteen, and he’s not a bad kid. Paul got one of the other kids to tempt him in, and luckily for them they caught him at a time when he was feeling particularly vulnerable. I shook my head. I think he nearly told me and Sasha about it all, when he came to see her a week ago, but in the end he was too scared to say anything. Sasha brushed it off, and now I know about the affair I think she was probably worried that Mariusz might have seen her meeting his dad, and thought she had something to do with Nadia’s murder.
Poor kid. What’s going to happen to him?
I shook my head. Singh wasn’t sure. Hopefully nothing too bad, because he did come and hand himself in last night. When
