Playing With Fire

The landscape flattened out toward the canal, which was why the cha

It seemed an age before Hurst answered the doorbell, and when he did he looked surprised to find Banks standing there.

“You again,” he said.

“Afraid so,” said Banks. “You weren’t expecting me?”

Hurst avoided his eyes. “I told you everything I know.”

“You must think we’re stupid. Can I come in?”

“You will anyway.” Hurst opened the door and moved aside. The hallway was quite low, and he had to stoop a little as he stood there. Banks walked into the same room they had been in before, the one with Hurst’s extensive record collection. Helen Shapiro was singing “Lipstick on Your Collar.” Hurst turned off the record as soon as he followed Banks into the room, as if it were some sort of private experience or ritual he didn’t want to share.

He was fastidious in his movements. He lifted the needle off gently, then stopped the turntable, removed the disc and slipped it lovingly inside its i

Banks perched on the edge of an armchair. He didn’t take his leather jacket off because the house was cold, the elements of the electric fire dark. Hurst was wearing a thick gray, woolly polo-neck sweater. Banks wondered if he was too poor to pay the electricity bills.

“You should have told us you had a criminal record,” Banks said. “You could have saved us a lot of trouble. We find out things like that pretty quickly, and it looks a lot worse for you.”

“I didn’t go to jail. Besides, it wasn’t-”

“I don’t want to hear your excuses,” Banks said. “And I know you didn’t go to jail. You got a suspended sentence and probation. You were lucky. The judge took pity on you.”

“I can’t see what it has to do with present events.”

“Can’t you? I think you can,” said Banks. “You were charged with conspiracy to torch a warehouse. The only reason you got such a soft sentence was because the person who co-opted you was your boss, and he was the one who actually lit the match. But you helped him, you gave him a false alibi, and you lied for him throughout the subsequent investigation.”

“It was my job! He was my boss. What else was I supposed to do?”

“Don’t ask me to solve your moral dilemmas for you. In any situation, there are a number of possible choices. You made the wrong one. You lost your job, anyway, and all you gained was a criminal record. When the insurance company got suspicious and called the police in, the company went bankrupt. Since then you’ve had a couple of short-term jobs, but mostly you’ve been on the dole.” Banks looked around. “Lucky you’d paid off most of your mortgage. Was that with the cash your boss gave you for helping with the arson?”

Hurst said nothing. Banks assumed he was right.

“Was that where you got your taste for fire?”

“I don’t have any taste for fire. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The narrow boats, Andrew. The narrow boats.”

Hurst shot to his feet. “You can’t blame that on me.” He stabbed his chest with his thumb. “I was the one who called the fire brigade, remember?”

“When it was way too late. You’ve been seen skulking around in the woods, probably spying on Tina Aspern. You have no alibi. You washed your clothes before we could get a chance to test them. Come on, Andrew, how would it look to you? Why did you do it? Was it for the thrill?”

Hurst sat down again, deflated. “I didn’t do it,” he said. “Honest, I didn’t. Look, I know it looks bad, but I’m telling you the truth. I was here by myself all evening watching videos. It’s what I do most evenings. Or sit and read a book. I hardly have an active social life, and I don’t have a job. What else am I supposed to do?”

“Do you feel inadequate, Andrew? Is that what it’s all about? Do the anger and rage just build up in you until they get so strong that you just have to go out and burn something?”

“That’s ridiculous. You’re making out that I’m some sort of pyromaniac or something.”

“Aren’t you?”

“No. Of course I’m not. That other fire, which I didn’t start, by the way, was purely a business thing. Nobody got hurt. Nobody got any weird gratification in setting it. It was just a way of dealing with a financial problem.”

“Maybe this one was, too.”

“Oh? Now you’re changing your approach, are you? Now I’m not a drooling pyromaniac but a cold, practical businessman dealing with a problem.” He folded his arms. “And what problem might that have been?”

“Maybe Tina Aspern was your problem.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Perhaps she was going to tell on you. You used to spy on her, didn’t you?”

“No.”

“Where were you on Saturday evening?”

“Saturday? Same place as usual. Here.”

“Watching another war video?”

“Force Ten from Navarone, as a matter of fact. Very underrated film.”

“Andrew, get this clear: I don’t care about your fucking film reviews. All I care about is that three people are dead and that you might be responsible. Ever heard of a man called Gardiner? Roland Gardiner?”

“No.”

“Leslie Whitaker?”

“No.”

“What kind of car do you drive?”

“I don’t. I can’t afford to run a car, and I don’t need one.”

That would have made it very difficult for Hurst to have got to Je

“A few times. Yes.”

“What kind of car?”

“Different ones. Picnickers in summer, mostly.”

“And more recently?”

“Only once or twice.”

“What make, do you remember?”

“A van of some kind. You know, a Jeep Cherokee, Land Cruiser, or a Range Rover, that sort of thing. I’m not very well up on the latest models.”

“But it was definitely that kind of vehicle?”

“Yes.”

“Color?”

“Dark. Blue or black.”

“Ever see the driver?”

“No.”

“Okay. Let’s get back to the fires. Why did you hang around the boats so much? Was it the girl?”

Hurst looked away, sca

“Good work,” said Banks.

“It’s some bigwig in the City. Name’s Sir Laurence West. Merchant banker.”

“Can’t say I’ve heard of him,” said Banks, “but then I don’t exactly move in those kinds of circles.”

“Anyway,” Templeton went on, “I’ve already been on the phone to him, and he’s agreed to grant an audience at his office tomorrow, but you’ll need to make an appointment.”

“Good of him.”

“Yes,” said Templeton. “I think he also believed he was being magnanimous about it.”

“I see. Okay then, Kev, thanks. I’ll go down there myself tomorrow morning, seeing as he’s so important.” Besides, thought Banks, it would be nice to get away, if just for a day. He’d take the train, if the trains happened to be ru