No, not a stranger exactly. He reminds her of his father, sneaking about and always so full of secrets. And his grandfather . . . the man in the greatcoat from the pub.

—

Tyler shivers and breaks from his reverie. The sun has dropped while he has been sitting in the graveyard. He stands up and stretches the kinks from his aching limbs. He takes one last look at his father’s headstone and heads back to the car.

On the way home he wonders who Sophie Denham told about Gerry Cartwright’s wandering hands. He thinks he knows. It explains Denham’s reaction when they spoke at his office, and it explains why Denham wouldn’t want his daughter involved with Oscar. He must have had some idea what Gerald got up to, even if he wasn’t involved himself. What stronger motive than a father protecting his child? And if so, it might go some way to explaining why the fire at Denham’s office seemed different, because he set it himself as a blind. Or maybe, as Enfield said, the solicitor’s office just felt different because it wasn’t in Castledene. And if Denham is the fire watcher, none of this explains why he’s setting fires in the first place.

Night has fallen by the time he arrives back at his apartment but it’s still as warm, the air thick and close. The roads are empty but for the orange glow of the streetlights. Something catches his eye as he gets out of the car, and he looks up at the abandoned office building opposite. There’s a crack in one of the windows on the first floor that resembles a large black candle flame, reaching up to the rooftop.

There’s a brief flash of light, the headlights of a car as it swings past on the ring road, and with it he sees a shape in the darkness. Someone in the building. There’s a jerk of movement, and the shape vanishes.

It could be anyone, of course. No reason to assume it’s Oscar, or the fire watcher, assuming those two are not one and the same. He locks the car and crosses the road to the empty building.