Over the sound of the house burning, Adrian could hear a siren approaching. It was a fire engine. His phone was still inside the house and so he couldn’t call this in and he was still too out of breath to move. He fell back on the grass and tried to focus on breathing enough to get himself moving again. The lack of oxygen was making him dizzy. He just had to calm down and try to breathe slowly. They had had training for this, although he couldn’t remember it, all he could think of was Parker trapped inside the house. There was no way in or out now; the most they could hope for was to be able to extinguish the fire before all the evidence completely disappeared and that hope was disappearing quickly.

Dizziness was taking over and Adrian could feel himself slipping. He needed to get further away from the house; as the flames grew, it was getting harder to breathe as the fire stole the oxygen. He heard his name, distant and desperate.

‘Adrian!’

‘Imogen,’ he said, his voice raspy and low. He needed to get someone’s attention.

‘I’m here!’ Imogen said and he could feel her hands on his face, but his eyes were hurting too much and he felt foggy.

The next thing he knew he was being lifted onto a stretcher and then carried into a vehicle. The paramedics were there and when they put the oxygen mask on his face, he started to feel immediately more lucid. He opened his eyes and felt a squeeze on his fingers. Imogen was sitting next to him, holding his hand.

‘Just nod yes or no. Was Finn Blackwell in that house?’

Adrian nodded.

He grabbed at his mask to pull it away, so he could speak.

‘He’s dead. Did you find anyone else?’ he managed to whisper.

‘No, just you. Don’t talk right now, just rest. The firefighters are doing everything they can to stop the fire and if there is anyone else there they will find them.’

‘Parker …’ he said, coughing, the pain in his chest immense.

‘Adrian, none of that matters right now, just put the bloody oxygen mask back on will you. You can tell me everything later. We found Russ Beacham’s body. He’s been dead several days; we don’t have a definite TOD yet. We know he couldn’t have killed Caitlin though.’

As much as Adrian wanted to talk, he was just so damn tired; he needed to close his eyes for a moment, it was getting too hard to stay awake. He decided just to accept defeat and get the sleeping over with. He was useless until he had regained at least a little energy. Finn was dead and so no one was in any imminent danger. He could explain everything when he woke up. Well, maybe not everything.

Chapter Fifty-Two

Imogen watched Adrian in the hospital bed. She had been here for several hours now and had offered to stay until Adrian woke up, under the guise of being there to question him when he finally re-emerged. She didn’t want anyone else to question him, particularly not DI Walsh. As much as she liked Matt, knowing that he had seen through all their personnel files was more than annoying, it was upsetting.