picture closer. ‘House of Foul Earth, House of Poison’d Air.’ He looked at the other two dwellings, the House of Conflagration and the House Curs’d By All Water, and knew that he not only had his four elements, but had located four sites in the street. He was still trying to pinpoint the positions with certainty when the interior light shorted out. The dashboard was streaming with water. Folding the map and the drawing together in his overcoat pocket, he clambered out into the thunderstorm.
Randall Ayson stood before Kallie with rain dripping from his fists. ‘I want you to tell me exactly what you told my wife.’ It smelled as if he had been drinking rum.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Kallie backed out of his reach.
‘Don’t lie to me, woman. You told her I was having an affair. You’ve screwed up my marriage.’
‘I did no such thing. You’ve got your wires crossed, Mr Ayson. And I didn’t invite you in.’ She wanted to push him back toward the door, but thought he might strike out at her.
He took a step closer. Behind him, rain fell from the porch in a silver sheet. ‘She told me that you rang her up to make trouble, and all you’ve done is hurt everyone involved. I’m sorry you’ve got domestic problems of your own, but my marriage is my own damned business.’
‘I have not spoken to your wife, not on the telephone or in person, do you understand?’ She spoke calmly and clearly, anxious to move him back to the door. ‘I promise you, I have no knowledge or interest in your personal affairs.’
He took another step forward into the darkness of the hall. ‘It’s one thing when a woman’s unhappy, but it’s pretty damned pathetic when she wants other people to be unhappy with her.’
‘I want you to get out of here right now,’ she shouted, shifting between him and the opened front door.
‘Not before you go over there and tell her you were lying. I’m not leaving without your promise.’
‘And I keep telling you, I haven’t spoken to her!’ She pushed at his chest, but he raised his hands to bat her away.
‘Do you need any help?’ asked Janice Longbright from the doorway.
‘John, wait a moment.’
Arthur Bryant hopped around the flooding gutter and grabbed his partner’s arm to stop himself from falling over. ‘It’s all making sense now. There are four houses. Or rather, there were. It’s what I always said about London homes, we rent them and buy them without knowing who lived there before, or who’ll live there after us. We’re merely curators. It’s not about who they are, Elliot, Jake, Ruth, it’s about where they chose to live. Four houses, four residents, four elements, three deaths, so I thought there would have to be a fourth—my tidy mind at work, you see, always having to align the facts neatly. But the death in the hostel wasn’t part of it. I was doing what you always accuse me of doing, making up behavioural patterns to fit the facts. He’d always known about the houses, there’s no question of that, because he’d watched his father working on them when he was a nipper.’
‘You’re talking about Tate?’
‘Of course, he was photographed with his father. Tate’s determination to save the houses tipped over into obsession, then madness. He started to tell me when I interviewed him at the hostel, but I didn’t get the full story.’
‘I still haven’t got it now,’ May admitted, perplexed.
‘It’s fine,’ said Kallie, raising her hands defensively as Randall stepped back into the rain. ‘Mr Ayson was just going.’
‘We’re calling on everyone to make sure they’re OK,’ Longbright explained. ‘What with the power being out.’
‘I’ve seen him again,’ Kallie told her. ‘Tate—he was in the garden and he had a knife. Just a few minutes ago. Then he disappeared. I was trying to call you but the lights went—’
‘Leave it with us.’ Longbright leaned back into the street and waved for Mangeshkar and Bimsley. ‘They’ll check your garden. They can’t get any wetter than they already are.’ She held the door open for Randall. ‘I think your wife is looking for you, Mr Ayson. You’d better get back there.’
‘Thanks,’ said Kallie as she admitted the officers. ‘He was really angry.’
‘Don’t worry, I can take care of him.’ Longbright smiled reassuringly. The detective constables trooped downstairs and removed the chair from the back door, stepping into the storm-battered garden.
‘You’ve noticed she gives us all the crap jobs,’ Meera