A Question of Guilt(96)

‘Paul and Lisa were desperate to get their hands on the shop to start a business of their own,’ Josh went on. ‘But it was on a long lease. They knew the shopkeeper was struggling and wasn’t insured, and came up with the idea that if he lost everything and couldn’t afford to start again they’d be able to step in. Paul was friendly with Jason Barlow – he enlisted his help, and through him, Lewis Crighton got to hear of what they were planning. It was he who suggested they frame Brian Jennings. He had become something of a danger to Lewis and Jeremy – Lewis thought he knew too much about what was going on at the warehouse and couldn’t be trusted. Seeing him charged with arson seemed a good way of getting him out of the way. Not only was he locked up, he’d been portrayed as a complete nutter – if he did ever start talking about what he’d seen no one would pay him any credence. Framing him was easy. It was already well known that he was obsessed with Dawn – she’d actually gone to the police about him stalking her. Jason Barlow came forward to say he’d seen him hanging about outside on the night of the fire, and just to make sure he would be charged and convicted, managed to plant a handkerchief with traces of petrol on it in the pocket of the jacket he always wore.’

‘How on earth do you know all this?’ I asked incredulously.

‘From Dawn. At the time of the fire, she had no idea what Lisa and Paul were planning, and although she knew by then that Lewis was involved with Jeremy Winstanley in his international art and curio robberies, and was worried about it, there was no way she’d have given him away. She was still completely under Lewis Crighton’s spell, though he was tiring of her and the affair was past its heady heights. But afterwards, when she went home, she began to wonder. She came back to Stoke Compton to see Lisa, and discovered the truth – that she had been implicit in sending an innocent man to jail. That was something she couldn’t stomach. Whereas she had been prepared to keep what she knew about Lewis to herself so long as it was only about stolen property, now her conscience wouldn’t allow her to keep silent. And the last straw, I think, was when Lisa told her that Lewis had a new love – Dawn’s replacement at the estate agency, a girl called Sarah.’

‘Sarah. Yes.’ I nodded. ‘I knew they were carrying on. So in the end it was Lewis’s wandering eye that was his undoing.’

‘That certainly had a part in it, though I don’t think Dawn’s conscience would have allowed her to leave Brian Jennings in prison for something he didn’t do for very long. Lewis must have thought so too. He contacted Jeremy Winstanley and told him there was a problem, and Jeremy organized the accident to silence her. Not knowing, of course, that he was too late. Dawn had gone straight to the police, handing over her diaries as evidence, and it was passed to the regional crime squad. Which is where I came in.’

‘How did you manage that, though?’ I asked. ‘I’ve heard of undercover officers posing as all kinds of things, but a newspaper photographer! I don’t know how you pulled that off.’

Josh grinned. ‘It came as second nature really. That’s exactly what I was before I joined the force. When a vacancy occurred on the Gazette it was the perfect cover. I could nose about without arousing anyone’s suspicion. Strings were pulled in high places – and I got a new persona. So I’m afraid we’re not actually in the same line of business at all, Sally. Though if you fancied a change of career, I reckon we still could be. You’d make a better detective than some I know.’

‘I’m perfectly happy as I am, thank you!’ I retorted. ‘And while we’re on the subject of deceit, I suppose you didn’t walk the Cotswold Way either.’

Josh held up his hands in surrender.

‘Not last week, no, though I did do it a couple of years ago. In actual fact, I was at headquarters, reporting on the latest developments. I am really sorry about keeping you in the dark, but I had no choice. I couldn’t risk being unmasked.’

‘You could have trusted me,’ I said. I was feeling a little miffed, actually, that Josh had kept me in the dark.

‘It’s the nature of the job, I’m afraid. Living and breathing the assumed identity, and getting enough evidence to secure a conviction.’

‘And so you cultivated me in case I found out anything useful to you, or did something that threatened to upset your operation.’

Mum got up and excused herself. She was a bit uncomfortable with the personal way the conversation was going, I guessed.

‘Well?’ I said bluntly when she was out of earshot. ‘Is that how it was?’