‘Wow!’ she said, stopping in her tracks and staring at the photographer. ‘Wow!’
‘I saw everything that happened,’ he said, adding with a slightly shamed face, ‘I snuck in through the gates when you left this afternoon and got myself a billet in one of the trees in your garden. OK, I’m not proud of that but …’
‘Never fucking mind. For once, your creepy ways have … oh God … saved lives. My life. Maybe … Do you have a car?’
‘Er, yes,’ he said. ‘But don’t you want to …?’
He indicated the police.
‘They’ve got their man,’ she said, watching the gate compulsively, waiting for Harville to be led away. ‘Now I need to get mine.’
With the sound of the cars leaving and sirens fading into the distance, Jenna and the photographer made their way out of the Hall unseen by the firefighters who had just arrived in the wake of the police.
She wished them a silent Good luck but saving the Hall was far from high on her list of priorities right now.
‘The police got here quickly,’ she remarked.
‘I called them as soon as I saw Harville and his friends breaking in.’
‘Thanks. Great work … sorry, I don’t know your name.’
‘It’s Greg.’
‘Right, great work, Greg. Well, you might as well come with me.’
She opened the car door.
‘Where are we going?’ Greg looked more than a little bemused.
Jenna stood still for a moment, hopping from one foot to the other on the pavement beside the car.
‘You know, I’m not sure. I think I’m going to call somebody.’
She opted for Parker, her heart contracting with dread at the sound of the dial tone. She almost ended the call before it was picked up, thinking that she couldn’t hear bad news here, on the pavement outside her burning house with no other company than an opportunistic paparazzo, but on the other hand, she had to know where she was heading.
Parker’s phone went straight to voicemail.
Jenna climbed into the car and sat for a silent moment of anguish with her head bowed and her hands over her face.
‘Do you … can I … help?’ said Greg.
‘No. I don’t know. No,’ said Jenna into her hands before removing them and looking at him with stricken eyes. ‘Before I came here,’ she said, slowly and with consideration, ‘I was at another burning building.’
‘Oh my God!’
‘I had good reason to believe that Deano – my ex, you know – was in there. But I left when I saw Harville and thought he might get away with it …’
‘He set that one on fire too?’ Greg was incredulous.
‘Almost certainly. So I followed him, because I couldn’t bear the thought of him getting away, but now I have to go back … and Harville said … implied … No
, he was pretty clear about it … that Jason and Kayley were in there too. And I ought to go back but, oh God, I’m so scared …’
She broke off, her breathing too hectic to continue.
Greg simply stared, shaking his head.
‘That’s …’ But he couldn’t finish.