“I was still there when the fire engines turned up. I watched them rolling out the hoses, breaking in through the door, spraying the roof . . . It was only when I heard someone shouting . . .” He lost his breath and after a tense moment he stole a quick glance at Jasmine. “I heard you shouting,” he told her. “As you got out of the car, I heard . . . and that’s when I realized someone was inside the house.”

As he fell silent Marcy wondered if he had any idea of the terrible impact his words were having on her and her family, being told that he’d been there watching the tragedy he’d caused to unfold. In truth, she wasn’t entirely sure how she did feel about it. Would it have been better if he’d just run away? Or did it make it worse that he hadn’t?

Realizing that there were no easy answers, and probably still wouldn’t be even after today, she took a sip of her coffee, now cold, and waited for him to continue.

Assisting him, Dan said, “At what point did you leave the scene, Archie?”

Archie frowned as he thought. “Just before, just after the air ambulance turned up. I can’t really remember now. I know it landed on the moor. My van was there, hidden in a layby. I got to it, but there was no way I could get into town through all the fire engines and stuff, so I went in the opposite direction.”

“To where?”

“I went home eventually. I took the long way round.”

“Did you call anyone to let them know you’d completed your task?”

He nodded. “I texted. I admitted I’d screwed up, that someone had been inside . . . I knew it was going to be the end for me. I thought about running, taking my ma with me, but then a message came back . . .” He glanced awkwardly at Marcy.

Guessing he didn’t want to repeat the words that had told him it was OK that someone had been inside, and knowing that she didn’t want to hear them, she said, “What happened next? Were you paid?”

His head fell forward as he nodded.

“Can I ask how much?”

“Five grand,” he mumbled.

She felt strangely dizzied by that. She hadn’t considered the price of burning down their home before, wouldn’t have had any idea of the going rate for such a monstrous crime, but that it was so little . . . But not little to him. To him, as he’d told her in his letters, it had opened up a small world of possibilities.

Moving them on, Dan said, “Then what happened?”