Hemlock and Roses

r. She was five foot nothing, with cropped black hair, a gold stud in one nostril, and the sleeves of her lab coat permanently shoved up past her elbows, as if she were

a crime

my kit

hey'd shared a terrible flat above a launderette in their second year at u

. Sedatives, hypnotics, benzodiazepines, anything that c

pipette. "Are you telling

y life in the last three days, and I would very

at her for

ver heard you say," she said quietly. "And you

a misunder

med it

ost. Priya saw the almos

onight. Now go and eat something. You

w Room Two, with his lawyer on one side of him, Morrow on the other, an

had gone a sallow yellow under the strip lights, and his hands kept moving on the table, s

pring of that year, we couldn't make payr

by whom?"

rm. Ashby swallowed and carr

the basement, right next to the electrical room. All the financial records. Every single one." His fingers smoothed the paper. "If there were an electr

our jo

knew the codes. I shut off the valves in the riser cupboard and disabled th

f the glass, Iris

someone came out of the

someone come out at 11:47. But Elias's car had been park

t said he left by

ked out of Linden Hall at 11:47. One by

one Elias coul

Crane?" Morr

es. "He didn't want to do it. He was a decent man. But his wife was ill then, and

didn't know any

rounds in the east wing. Liu was meant to have gone home at eleven. And the b

he fire, M

le

e given us conspiracy and fraud, and you've handed us

s nodding hard. "The DA has offered me immunity on the insurance fraud. Not on the manslaug

hing. Anything. Sho

sat with both hands flat

was already someone in the basement. In the archive room, next do

rd w

sted, as if the m

rked. Something classical. Piano music." He looked down

ass, the floor seemed to dr

Chopin nocturne. There were hundreds of them. Dozens. Twenty-one, in fact. She knew th

p-faced, ambitious young man called Shaw with a very expens

her head v

sitting in his

brother did? He tunes the bloody pianos. He'd have had keys. Maybe the kid

t's

ere That's not him, and she had no proof, none at all. Only a

or, at the place where he knew she was standing. His face showed nothing. But sh

exactly what S

d perjury, which means Crane had a reason to be silenced that has nothing to do with your piano t

her eyes.

've got a suspect who tunes pianos for a living, who had a key to that hall, who was on site when the fire started, and whose o

o the work

rself it was professional, and necessary, and had nothing whatsoever to do with h

against her ribs. He opened the door before she knocked. As if he'

dows under his eyes were the colour of bruises. He'

et her in. He didn'

, "that after the fire you became obsessed with me. That you waited outside our house. That you

e door very gen

rue?" sh

ught. Small questions. Closed qu

ait outsid

es

art dr

hours. Your bedroom light was off the whole time. At two in the morning, your father cam

ou rin

es

many

away. "About

efence. And she realised he wasn't going to soften a single word of it. He wasn't going to

ever

ng anyway." His voice was very quiet. "I don't know why. I suppose

u frigh

st time, he

e looked down at his hands. "I didn't know what else to do. You wer

owed. Her

e a key to L

worked on the ins

ilding before the fire

N

one prov

N

u hum,

at her,

sn't quite steady. "When you're tuning.

iel did. Constantly

did he

dder. "He'd sit at the back of the hall on Tuesdays while you practised, and then he'd

y quiet. Outside

heard the half-tone in a voice in a doorway. And not one of them helped him. Not one. A man who'd waited outside her house. A man who'd rung four hundred times. A man

of it. Without hesitating. K

iar would have m

now how to make it pretti

oom t

e the deck of a ship, and she thought, with a distant, academic sort of interest, O

augh

d her, one hand cradling the back of her head against his shoulder, the way you'd hold

," he said. "

was fine. It came o

recognise, under a coat that

d panic began to climb in her chest. Where am I. What time is it. What

them. No cu

ver beyond the arched windows had turned to beaten c

asleep for

e weight of his coat being laid over her, very carefully, from her shoulders to her feet. She remembered the scrape of a chair being pul

st time. No ta

n his knees. He hadn't moved. He hadn't picked up a tool. As far as she could tell,

t up, he lo

ept," h

hy that, of all things, was what made her want to cry.

h water, and brought it back to her. Not tea. He put it into her hands and folded her finger

ooked at him over t

door," she said.

es

hy

uiet for

e came for you,

that she was afraid of the answer, and that s

sitting in her car outside her own

s, no barbiturates, no GHB, no ketamine, no antihistamines, nothing. I ran it

osed he

nation sealed inside a freezer bag. Whatever was ha

. "Okay. Thank y

a pause on

bother. But you'd bagged it so nicely that I put it un

chen. My father s

e's a crest on the base. Very faint, worn almost smooth, u

ark and wet and empty. A

does i

, crazing, you get on old china. But it isn't age. The cracks are full of something. I scraped a sample." Priya

h the phone against her ear and the rain begi

ietly. "That cup has