a narrow racer back that left her shoulders exposed. It let Hanson see the amount of muscle that the woman carried.
She looked a lot younger than she was, despite her hours in the sun. She had a healthy, outdoorsy, left-field look to her that was appealing, even to Hanson. And acknowledging that only made her feel angrier at the DCI. Was all his apparent logic a huge sham? Did he just follow his libido around the place?
Sheens didn’t take long to follow them. He said nothing as he inserted a fresh tape into the machine. Jojo watched him do it with her elbows propped on the table. Hanson thought she looked anxious, and she wondered whether the DCI had primed her for this somehow.
Jonah ran the tape, and made all the necessary introductions. And then he thanked Jojo for coming in to speak with them.
“So we’ve asked you here to ask a few questions about the vandalism and arson at your property,” Jonah said, in what was a surprisingly cold tone as far as Hanson was concerned. “We’ve looked into a previous fire on your property. There was a strong suggestion that it was not, in fact, accidental.”
“Yes,” Jojo said a little hoarsely. “I don’t think either of them was accidental.”
“The insurance investigations suggested that it had been started intentionally, using an accelerant,” Jonah said, rotating a piece of paper to show it to Jojo. “Your own petrol was used, and a petrol-splashed set of your overalls was found hidden. And here we have another blaze, this time clearly deliberate.”
Jojo’s lips parted slightly, and for a moment she just stared at Sheens. “I don’t…What are you talking about?”
“Why were you outside when I arrived at the scene of the fire?” the DCI asked.
Jojo focused on him slowly. “Because I saw the fire.”
“And yet you weren’t doing anything about it?”
“I didn’t…I was so shocked. I’d just woken up.”
The DCI raised an eyebrow. “When I first arrived, I believed that you must be unconscious in the house. Receiving no response from you, I went to your room. The bed had not been slept in, and you were still wearing clothes.”
Jojo looked startled. “That’s because I hadn’t gone to bed. I’d passed out on the sofa. Everything’s been…exhausting. I went to the sofa to read and I passed out. And I woke up, and saw a fire, and a person. I was sure I saw someone out there. And the first thing I tried to do was find them, but they weren’t there. Just this petrol can. And by the time you arrived, I was just looking at the fire thinking that everything was going to go.”
“The petrol can was next to you,” the DCI pointed out.
“I know,” she said, frustration sounding in her voice. “I went over to it when I saw it. I knew it was deliberate. And I thought about before…”
“I believe Aleksy was alone at the house last time there was a fire,” Sheens said.
“Yes,” Jojo said. “He was bloody lucky not to get caught up in it. I was late back from a pub night with the climbers, and he was asleep.”
“And can the climbers confirm what time you left?” the DCI asked her. “That you didn’t, in fact, arrive home, smash up the greenhouses and start the fire?”
Jojo shook her head, looking between Sheens and Hanson as if this might just be some kind of a wind-up.
“Why the hell would I want to burn what I care about most? My garden, my tools, my house…Aleksy…”
“Perhaps because your boyfriend had found out something he shouldn’t have about your involvement in Aurora’s murder.”
Jojo looked as if she had been struck. Hanson felt a strange surge of sympathy for her. Sheens’s harshness was raising a reaction even in her.
“That’s bullshit,” Jojo said finally. “I had nothing to do with Aurora, and I would never have hurt Aleksy. Not in a million years. And you can fuck off if you’re going to pretend I would.”
The DCI shrugged as if this wasn’t a problem. “Have you changed your phone number in the last few years?” he asked, and Hanson could see that Jojo was wrong-footed again.
“What? No. No, I’ve always ported my number. It’s been the same…I don’t know. For fifteen years. Maybe more.”
“Do you have a second phone?” he asked.
“No.”
“Not for work?”
“It’s enough of an arse remembering where I’ve put one phone, never mind two,” Jojo replied with an attempt at humor. “Why do you want to know?”
“On the