Page 47 of A Slow Fire Burning

“Please sit down, Laura,” Egg said gently.

She sat. “Why would I...?” She started again. “No, okay, say, say for the sake of argument—”

“Ms. Kilbride, I—” Nervous Guy had woken up at last.

“No, it’s all right, it’s all right. Say, for the sake of argument, it was in my flat. Why would I leave it there? Do you think I’m insane? A moron? Why would I just leave it lying around for you to find?”

“You left Daniel’s watch lying around,” Eyebrow pointed out.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, you don’t kill people with a watch!”

“But you do kill people with knives?”

Laura rolled her eyes. “You see this?” she said, turning to her solicitor. “You see? Trying to put words in my mouth, trying to trick me. Typical fucking rozzers. That knife is not mine. I don’t know where it comes from; it isn’t mine.”

“So... what?” Eyebrow prompted. “What are you saying? I don’t want toput words in your mouth, so tell me what you think happened.”

Laura opened her mouth and closed it again, like a fish. She threw her hands in the air. “I don’t fucking know, do I? Someone put it there. One of your lot, maybe. Trying to stitch me up. Desperate, aren’t you, because it’s been two weeks since he died and you’ve got fuck all.”

“Someone put it there,” Eyebrow repeated, very slowly. “You think someone placed the knife in your flat? Does anyone else have access to your flat, Laura? Anyone else have a key?”

“What, aside from the butler?” Laura snapped. “Aside from my cleaning lady, and my personal trainer, and... oh, hang about.Miriam!” It came to her, just like that. “Miriam had my key!” The detectives exchanged a quick glance. “She must have... fuckinghell. Look, I was joking about the butler, but there’s this woman, her name’s Miriam, she lives on the... oh, you know her, you’vespokento her, she said she found him, didn’t she? Well, she had my key.”

Another look passed between the detectives before Eyebrow leaned forward and prompted, “You’re saying Miriam Lewis had your key?”

“I don’t know her last name—she’s the one on the boat, who said she found him. How many Miriams can there be?”

“Only one, and that is definitely Miriam Lewis,” Egg replied. He looked genuinely, gratifyingly baffled. “Why would you believe that Miriam Lewis had put this knife in your flat?”

Laura’s breath was coming quick and shallow, she was seeing things as she hadn’t before, she was seeing a glimmer of light, she was feeling—what was this strange sensation?—hope. “My key,” Laura said. “You remember, I told you I lost it? I hurt my arm?” Egg nodded. “Well, it turns out she had it. She said she found it, in his boat, she didn’t say why she took it.... The point is she could have come into my flat, at any time since he died! And the thing is, you see, the thing is...” It was all becoming clear to her now, all of it. “The thing is, she has a grudge against the Myersons. Did you know that? Hates them, thinks they’re evil, not entirely sure why but she told me, right, she told me that she thought it was Carla—that’s Daniel’s aunt, yeah? She told me that she thought that Carla killed Daniel, which I thought was really weird at the time, but now I think it was because she was trying to deflect attention elsewhere. I mean, she says she found him, but how do you even know that’s true? Maybe she found him because she knew he was there to be found? Don’t they often say that it’s the person who found the body that did it? And I know it sounds maybe kind of far-fetched because she’s an old woman—”

“She’s fifty,” Egg said.

“Yeah, exactly, but just because she’s old, doesn’t mean she couldn’t have killed him. She’s... she’s seriously damaged, you know? I know, I know what you’re thinking, you’re looking at me like, look who’s talking, but sometimes it takes one to know one. Did you know she says she was abducted by a serial killer once? That she wrote a book about it? She’s”—Laura drew little circles in the air with her forefinger, pointing at her temple—“she’s fuckingnuts.”

The detectives, both of them, were leaning back in their chairs,their arms crossed. For a moment, Laura seemed to have stunned them into silence. Eyebrow was the first to recover. “This key you say she has, she—”

“Had, not has. I got it back from her.”

“You got it back from her? Yesterday, is that right? When you went to her boat, when you attacked her?”

“When Iwhat? No, I didn’tattackher, I didn’t—”

“Ms. Lewis made a complaint against you, Laura,” Eyebrow said. “She—”

“Oh, now this is bullshit. This is such bullshit. I did not attack her! She pushed me! Look!” Laura pointed to the bruise on the side of her face. “She pushed me, I fell, but... but that’s not even the point, is it?” Laura turned to Nervous Guy. “Shouldn’t you be doing something? Saying something?” She poked the plastic bag containing the knife with her finger. “Are my fingerprints on there? They’re not, are they?”

“We’re still carrying out tests.”

“Tests? For fingerprints?” She spluttered a derisive laugh. “You’ve found fuck all, haven’t you? Look, are you going to charge me with something or not? Because if you’re not—”

“We are going to charge you, Laura.”

Hopes, dashed. “But... but the key,” Laura said. “Doesn’t that say anything to you?”

“You had motive, means, and opportunity,” Eyebrow said firmly, ticking items off on her fingers. “You lied to us about the seriousness of your altercation with Daniel. His blood was found on your clothing. The murder weapon was found in your possession.”

“It wasn’t in my possession.” Laura started to cry. “The key, it must be...please.” She looked at Egg, who looked as though he might be about to cry too. He wouldn’t meet her eye; he looked down at the desk and then over at Nervous Guy.

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