“Will you tell me what’s in the letters?” she asked, after he’d started the engine in order to turn on some heat.

He didn’t answer right away, instead he removed his glasses, wiped them with a cloth taken from the glove box and put them on again. “If I did,” he said in the end, “I’d be using my words, and I think it’s important for you to hear Archie’s.”

“Please tell me there’s nothing in them that’s going to upset Mum, or frighten her . . .”

“I wouldn’t let her read them if there was. You must know that.”

Yes, she did, but she still had to ask. He might not have handled this well, at least in her opinion, but he wasn’t a cruel man, far from it. “And where is it all supposed to lead?” she asked. “I know you think it’ll help us to know something about him, but is your real purpose to get his sentence reduced or even . . .”

Stopping her before her presumptions could run into territory that would hurt and anger her again, he said, “When I started this it wasn’t necessarily to help Archie, it was mostly about Marcy and you. It still is about you both, but I’m not going to deny that if some good comes from these letters and any subsequent communication you or Marcy might have with him, I will write a report for his defense team to use in any way they can.”

She sat with that for a while, imagining all kinds of scenarios that she wasn’t liking at all, until she said, “Is there a chance he’ll get off completely?” She wouldn’t be able to bear it if he did; it would feel as though Marcus had won and she simply couldn’t allow that to happen.

“No,” he replied. “He’s already admitted to the charge of arson and criminal damage, so he’ll serve a prison term for that, and it’s highly likely that when the attempted murder case goes to trial he’ll be found guilty.”

She swallowed dryly. “And you don’t think he’s guilty of attempted murder?”

“What I think doesn’t count, it’ll be up to a jury.”

She turned to him. “That doesn’t answer my question. I want to know what you think.”

Not taking his eyes from hers he said, “I don’t believe it was his intention to harm anyone. So I wouldn’t consider it wrong to reduce that particular charge to one that’s more fitting. As far as sentencing goes there won’t be much in it, and as he’ll go down anyway for arson you can be sure he won’t be back out on the streets this side of his thirtieth birthday.”