Though it was meant as a gentle tease, Archie looked so alarmed that it was as though he thought he’d already disgraced himself. “No, no, definitely not,” he promised, lifting his eyes to Marcy before quickly lowering them again.

Telling herself that this reluctance to fully engage could be as much about nerves as repulsion—or guilt—Marcy found herself saying, “I’ll do my best to hold it in too.”

She almost felt Claudia’s and Jasmine’s eyebrows rise.

Apparently amused, Dan said, “In these meetings it’s usually the person who’s caused harm that speaks first, so unless you, Marcy, or Claudia have anything you’d like to say upfront . . .”

They shook their heads.

“. . . I’ll help Archie to kick off by asking a few questions.” Turning to address Archie, he said, “We’re all aware that the reason we’re here today is because of the crime you committed, and that someone ordered you to do it. You’ve already explained to me, and to Marcy in your letters, why you don’t want to discuss a third-party involvement, so I won’t press you about it during this meeting. What I want you to do is talk us through the events of the night of the fire, from your perspective. I realize you’ve written this down, but I think it’ll help Marcy and her family to hear you tell it. Maybe you can start by describing what you were thinking as you prepared to set the fire.”

Marcy watched Archie’s Adam’s apple bob up and down in his muscular neck as if it were as eager to get out of here as he was. His cheeks bloomed with color and he was unable to look at anyone when he finally stumbled into an answer. “Uh, um . . . I guess I wasn’t thinking about very much really,” he said to his hands, “only what I had to do, and if the advice I’d been given was sound.”

Dan said, “We know you watched Marcy and her family get into the car; what were you thinking then?”

Archie’s eyes flicked tentatively to Marcy as he said, “I was thinking the same as I did when I was staking the place before the times I broke in, that it was a shame someone had it in for you because you looked like nice people.”

Marcy wanted to ask who had it in for them, but as she’d been advised not to interrupt, she held on to it for now.

“Even though they looked like nice people,” Dan prompted, “you still went ahead and carried out the instructions you’d been given. Maybe you can tell us what those instructions were?”