Page 108 of Fire Must Burn

‘There’s another possibility,’ said Sparks. ‘A rather insane idea, which is why I came up with it, yet I’m liking it better. But I need to know more before I bring it to you.’

‘How soon will you know?’ asked Parham.

‘That I cannot tell you until I’m done investigating,’ said Sparks.

‘Why not tell me the idea and let me investigate it?’

‘Because it involves areas that you shouldn’t be stepping into officially,’ said Sparks. ‘Not to mention things I’m not allowed to mention.’

‘I see,’ said Parham. ‘Someday, Miss Sparks, I am going to learn everything about you just to satisfy my curiosity.’

‘When you do, please explain me to me,’ said Sparks. ‘My therapist is taking too long.’

THIRTEEN

‘On to the Great North Road we go,’ said Sally as they left London. ‘I am renaming my Hornet Black Bess in honour of the occasion.’

‘That was Dick Turpin’s horse?’ asked Gwen.

‘Correct. According to legend, he rode all the way from London to York in fifteen hours. We could do it in five.’

‘That poor horse,’ said Gwen.

‘Turpin was ultimately hanged for being a horse thief, so maybe there was some equine vengeance exacted.’

‘I’ve grown quite weary of vengeance of late,’ said Gwen. ‘Let’s talk about anything else for a while.’

‘Gladly. How is Ronnie doing? Did you have a good visit this weekend while I was toiling away in the broadcast mines?’

‘I didn’t see him this weekend,’ said Gwen guiltily. ‘Iris and I were off tracking down a possible witness.’

‘And we’re already back to the vengeance,’ he said. ‘You’d better bring me up to speed.’

By the time she was done, he was shaking his head sadly.

‘Poor Sauce,’ he said. ‘She died alone and in shame. I don’t even know if bringing out the truth about what happened would serve to reclaim her reputation.’

‘You know, I’ve never even thought about that as a goal,’ said Gwen. ‘The entire time I’ve been thinking about catching whoever did this to Tony. But he wasn’t the first victim in this story, was he?’

‘From what that Mrs Dorter told you, there may have been many victims whose stories never saw the light of day,’ said Sally. ‘Their predators may have been punished by other means, but one could hardly say those girls got any form of justice for what happened to them. And they never will.’

She was silent for a long while. He glanced over to see tearsrunning down her cheek. He reached over and squeezed her hand for a moment.

‘At least the world is safe from those two wolves now,’ he said.

‘That’s not why—’ she began. Then she shook her head. ‘Sorry. A bad memory. Nothing to do with any of this. Could we stop for a quick lunch? I’m famished, and I need to fix my face.’

‘Of course.’

He pulled off the road in Biggleswade and found a small tea shop where they had sandwiches. When they got back on the road he stopped the car at a junction for a moment, looking at the fingerposts pointing towards different towns. Cambridge was to the right.

‘Do you want to pay your alma mater a quick visit on the way back?’ she asked, noticing him looking at it. ‘I’ve never been there. You could show me where you and Iris were moulded.’

‘You’ve never seen Cambridge?’

‘The Bainbridges were Oxonians,’ she said. ‘So were the Brewsters. I went to and from Oxford many times with my parents when they were either dropping off Thurmond or collecting him, and I now associate the place with my resentment for not being allowed to go. Plus, those rides were usually filled with Thurmond and me punching each other in the biceps in the back seat, despite his supposedly being too mature and me being too ladylike for that behaviour. But we had no close Cambridge connections back then, so I’ve never been. Have you been back?’

‘Not since the war,’ he said. ‘I really haven’t had the … not the desire to go. What would it be? The courage.’