‘We were trapped in the bedroom. The smoke alarm woke me up. The hall was full of it. I managed to open the window and a fire guy helped us both out. But you’d put the key in one of your drawers so I had to go looking for it.’

‘Sorry.’

Jessica smiled. ‘The only reason I know where to find it is because I know how your mind works. It’s probably a good job I didn’t go hunting under the mattress on your side of the bed, isn’t it?’

He still didn’t smile.

‘What about Grandma’s house?’

Jessica had forced Rowlands to give her the story. He said he had been called by Reynolds after someone had alerted the station that she was in trouble. Apparently, Cole, Reynolds, himself and everyone who was on duty and not otherwise occupied converged on her house.

‘I’m sorry, it’s almost all gone. Everything on the bottom floor was burned. The back bedroom collapsed. We might be able to salvage some things from our front bedroom but we won’t know about smoke damage until we get to see it.’

Adam said nothing for a few moments. Jessica passed him the oxygen but he waved her away. ‘What about the attic?’

‘I . . . I don’t know. Why?’

‘It’s where all the pictures of Nan are.’

Jessica smiled and stroked his face. ‘I love you too,’ she said, finally returning his declaration.

Adam reached out towards the glass of water. She helped him to hold it as he sipped slowly. She wondered how he knew that was the right way to drink, flashing back to the moment she had gulped and ended up coughing.

‘Am I allowed to leave?’ he asked.

‘Maybe in a day or two? Didn’t the doctor tell you?’

‘Yes but I want you to tell me.’

‘Why?’

‘Your voice is all husky and sexy.’

Jessica slapped him gently on the wrist. ‘Are you really coming on to me now?’

Adam took a deep breath from the mask before replying. ‘Always.’

Jessica couldn’t do anything but laugh. ‘The oxygen mask doesn’t do it for me, sorry.’

‘So can I leave?’

Jessica rolled her eyes but kept holding his hand. ‘Not yet. You weren’t breathing when they took you out of the room but they managed to get you going again fairly quickly. I don’t know what happened.’

‘Where were you?’

‘I don’t know. An ambulance I think. They say there’s no lasting damage but that’s probably because you had such a stupid pea brain before, there wasn’t anything left to harm.’

Adam finally broke into a smile.

‘See, I knew I could crack you.’

She felt his hand twitching again. ‘What happens now?’

‘Now? Now you get better.’

‘Where are we going to live?’

Jessica realised that, in all that had happened, it hadn’t crossed her mind.

‘Just get some sleep and leave the worrying to me.’

‘Jess, I . . .’

She leant in, kissing him on the forehead and whispering softly in his ear. ‘Sleep.’

Jessica made her way back to the small side room she had been offered. Rowlands was waiting with a carrier bag, which he held towards her. ‘Chloe says you can have these. She reckons you’re about the same size.’

Jessica didn’t want to seem ungrateful but she did have a peek inside before accepting it. She had met the constable’s girlfriend a few times and some of her clothes were more revealing than she herself might ever choose to wear. She was relieved to find a sensible-looking pair of jeans, a vest top and a jumper.

‘Thanks. I’m going to go back to the house tomorrow to see what’s left. I’ll need some work stuff too.’ She noticed Rowlands narrowing his eyes. ‘What?’

‘Jess, you can’t go back to work straight after this. Even if you did, there’s no way you can work on the case. Not now. You’re a victim, a witness. You can’t investigate it too.’

It was another thought that hadn’t registered. ‘Jack’s not going to stop me,’ she said aggressively.

Rowlands put a hand on her wrist and gently eased her into the seat next to him. ‘It’s not as if it’s his decision. That’s just it. I don’t think he’ll let you come back for a while but, even when he does, you’ll be on other things. It’s not about him stopping you. It’s just what’s allowed.’

Jessica knew he was right but it didn’t change the fact that, of anything she had ever worked on, this was the most important case she needed to solve herself.

‘They tried to kill me,’ she said.

‘I know.’

‘Burn me. Burn Adam.’

‘Jess, I know.’ She felt his hand grip her more tightly and realised she was shaking with a mixture of fear and fury. Rowlands raised himself up and reached into his pocket. ‘I found it on your lawn,’ he said, handing over her phone. ‘I don’t know if you dropped it but I knew it was yours because of the way it’s scuffed.’

Jessica took it from him and put it in the bag of clothes. She wanted to change out of the gown but didn’t want to finish the conversation. ‘I don’t remember . . . I . . . was anyone else hurt?’

‘No. Your neighbour’s house has a bit of damage but everyone got out.’

‘What have we got to go on?’

‘We?’

Jessica continued to glower at him, refusing to give ground.

‘Fine,’ he eventually said. ‘Currently, not much. Jack’s there with the investigating team but it looks the same as the others. The front door is almost entirely destroyed, as are the window frames – so probably petrol or diesel.’

‘But how did they know where I lived? Was I followed? Is it someone I know?’

Dave shook his head. ‘Jess . . .’

‘What?’

‘You’ve got to slow down and let us sort this out. You have to focus on getting better.’

‘I am better.’

Jessica could see he was torn about what to say but she couldn’t stop her mind from whirring. She knew Martin Chadwick was in hospital himself, so it definitely couldn’t be him. She didn’t think it would have anything to do with Anthony Thompson – which only left Ryan. She remembered slapping him and the way he looked at her as if to say he would get her. Had he really done this as revenge?

‘I’m going to get changed,’ Jessica said.

Rowlands nodded. ‘Okay.’

‘Er, do you want to leave?’

The constable stood up, having clearly missed the point before. ‘Oh right, sorry. I’ll wait outside.’

‘Can you help me with the back before you go?’ Jessica turned around, letting him loosen the ties at the rear of the gown. His hands felt reassuringly warm on her skin as he slid them down to the base of her back.

‘Is that okay?’

‘Yeah, ta.’

As he closed the door behind him, Jessica dropped the robe to the floor and pulled out the clothes Chloe had left. They were a tiny bit too tight but would do until she could get back to the house to see if anything was salvageable. Luckily, the battered pair of black trainers at the bottom of the bag fitted perfectly.

Before she was ready to leave, Jessica turned on her phone, ignoring the ‘Switch It Off’ signs. As it connected slowly to the network, Jessica began to think of the everyday things she had lost. She wondered how she would be able to charge her phone, where they would get mail delivered to, what would happen to all the burned items. Were they hers and Adam’s responsibility, or did the council help clean things up? She realised that, now she was the victim, she knew so little when it came to what happened after crimes had taken place.

The phone screen blurred into life and, one by one, the device buzzed to announce the arrival of messages and missed calls. Most of them came from people at the station although there were none from either Caroline or her parents, which was something of a relief as it meant she could contact them herself and say she was fine. There were text messages from both Sebastian and Garry.

Ignoring Sebastian’s, Jessica called Garry, who answered before she had even heard it ring.

‘Blimey, you’re keen,’ she said.

‘Jess?’

‘Who else?’

‘I heard about . . . well, we all did. Are you all right?’