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Back I Know What I Saw
Chapters (59)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for I Know What I Saw
  3. By the Same Author
  4. Dedication Page
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  54. Now read on for a preview
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  59. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

‘You went back? To 42B? If Simon Conway was here, you’d have had your bail revoked and you’d be lying in one of those cells,’ she says, pointing along the corridor. She sits down again and looks at me.

‘Look. I don’t know how you ended up like this. But you seem to be getting yourself together now,’ she says, waving a hand at Seb’s clothes. ‘Don’t ruin it.’

‘Me, don’t ruin it? There’s a whole new alarm system in the house. Don’t you find that at all suspicious?’ I say.

‘No, Xander, it’s not. I think it would be more surprising if he hadn’t had a new alarm put in after the police turned up at his door, asking about a murder. And so what if he’s got an alarm? Why is it suspicious?’

I look at her in exasperation until her face gives way.

‘Look, I don’t know what you think you saw. I mean, I believe that you think you saw something. And maybe you did. Who knows? But you didn’t see it there, if you did. You’re mistaken.’

My heart starts racing and I can’t tell why. My throat begins to tighten.

‘I am not mistaken. It was there. I saw it happen there. A woman has been murdered and you aren’t doing anything about it!’ I am shouting now. ‘But if you won’t I will.’ I look down and see that I am standing up.

‘No, you won’t. You’re going to go home. And so am I. We’re both going to get some sleep, and I’m going to forget you came here. And then next week you’re going to answer your bail for a further interview in relation to the assault on Mr Squire. For most people that would be plenty to be getting on with. So please, let’s go now.’

I walk out of the room and don’t turn back until I am out of the station. Anger pushes blood through my veins at pressure. I don’t know what I can do to make them hear me. A woman died, horribly. I watched it happen. I worry about her decomposing somewhere cold. I worry for her family.

The light is brighter outside than it feels it ought to be. I shut my eyes against it as I walk and as I do, an image of that room slams into my head. The scent of woodsmoke from somewhere fills my nose and that forces the room in my head to drop into sharper focus. A fire burning in a grate, the crackle and hiss of the logs. And then that song.

There’s trouble on the uptrack

And trouble going back …

But the vision of a girl on my mind won’t go away …