Katerina Diamond - The Angel

‘In the bin, yeah, but it burnt out before we left. Who told you that?’

‘Where are your friends now? Are they here?’

‘There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?’ Gabriel’s pale face looked even more ghostly than before as the gravity of the situation started to dawn on him. ‘I’m not implicating anyone else until I know what’s going on.’

‘We’re going to need you to come to the station with us,’ Adrian said gravely. He made eye contact with Imogen, and she knew what he was thinking. They were potentially about to ruin this kid’s life.

‘I’m going to have to call some officers to come and interview the people here if you won’t tell me who was with you,’ Imogen said, knowing that the girls in the video’s heads were obscured and their clothes generic; if they were here the chance of identifying them was quite small.

‘I can’t tell you who I was with, I’ll come with you but I’m not saying anything about anyone else.’

Imogen felt a weight in her stomach as Gabriel went to tell the girl on the front door where he was going; she was clearly a friend of his. Imogen watched him as he spoke. She didn’t want to tell this kid the truth. Yeah, he was a tall guy, but underneath the black eyeliner and sinister-looking clothing he was probably quite insecure. She had known guys like this when she was a teenager herself; it was war paint, a mask, a way to be a part of a world you don’t feel like you fit into.

Gabriel Webb sat in the interrogation room facing Adrian. He looked a little less confident than he had before, but he clearly still had no idea what had happened.

‘We’re not sure if you know this,’ Adrian began, ‘but earlier tonight, Friday the twenty-sixth of June, after you left the signal box, a fire broke out. It took the firefighters a long time to put it out.’

‘Oh, my God!’ he said, shifting nervously in his seat.

Adrian tried to read Gabriel; he didn’t seem to be hiding anything, but then sometimes the people they had in these rooms were just very good at lying. Adrian wondered if he could trust his own instincts about this young man; was he reading him right or was he being manipulated?

Imogen walked into the room with a glass of water and put it in front of Gabriel before sitting down next to Adrian.

‘For the record, DS Grey has re-entered the room,’ Adrian said into the tape recorder that was positioned on the table in front of him.

‘Tell us what happened, Gabriel,’ Imogen said.

Adrian sat back and let his partner take the helm for a moment; she seemed to have a better rapport with the man and that might help them get more honest answers out of him.

‘I was out with some friends and we ended up at the signal box.’

‘Have you been there before?’

‘No, never.’

‘Which friends were you with?’

‘Does it matter? I already told you I started the fire. No point in anyone else getting in trouble.’

‘Why did you start the fire?’ Imogen asked.

‘It was cold. The rain was pelting down; I didn’t know it was going to rain so I wasn’t wearing a coat.’ He paused, obviously trying to think of how to word his answers. ‘One of the girls was cold. It was a metal bin and the fire didn’t even last very long.’

‘Go on.’

‘That was it. We left and went to the club to see the band.’

Adrian looked briefly at Imogen, who looked every bit as sombre as he felt.

‘Unfortunately, arson is a pretty big deal, Gabriel,’ Adrian said.

‘Arson? No, it wasn’t that. I wouldn’t do that.’

‘That’s for the judge to decide.’

‘Judge? What do you mean? Are you charging me with arson? It was an accident.’

Imogen sighed audibly, exhaling and then holding her breath again.

‘There’s something else, I’m afraid,’ she said.

‘If you call my parents they can pay for the damage.’

‘I’m afraid it’s more complicated than that.’ Adrian paused and looked at Imogen. ‘There was a body found in the signal box,’ he said.

The force of Adrian’s words knocked the colour out of Gabriel’s face. ‘What?’

‘There was someone in the room below when the building caught fire. There’s every likelihood it was a homeless man, but we don’t know for sure at this point until there’s been a thorough examination of both the site and the body.’

‘No … it was just us,’ he said faintly, his chest heaving.

‘Are you all right?’ Imogen asked. Gabriel was shaking; he looked as though he was going to throw up.

‘It might help your case if you tell us who you were with; they can corroborate your story about the fire.’

‘Can you call my parents? I think I need a lawyer or something, I don’t think I should say anything else.’ His breathing was shallow and laboured. He started to wheeze, fighting to inhale.

‘Gabriel, do you have asthma?’ Imogen asked him urgently.

He nodded as he struggled with the leather buckled corset around his waist. He looked like he couldn’t get enough air.

‘Interview suspended at 00:15,’ Adrian said as he stopped the recording.

‘Help me get him on the floor,’ Imogen said.

Adrian helped his partner lower Gabriel onto the ground; he was cumbersome, but they needed him to calm down. He arched his back and stretched his neck, rasping for air.

‘Can I help you take that off, Gabriel?’ Imogen asked, gesturing to the corset as the teenager nodded, tears falling from his eyes and trickling down the side of his face.

‘Do you have any medication on you? An inhaler or something?’ Imogen said.

He shook his head.

‘What do I do?’ Adrian asked.

Imogen pulled at the buckles on Gabriel’s cincher until it was undone and yanked it off; he breathed in air greedily and Adrian watched as Imogen stroked his forehead. His breathing seemed to normalise a little.

‘You’d better get some help.’ Imogen turned to Adrian who tried to hide his surprise at her tenderness; there was something maternal about the way she was handling Gabriel Webb. He went to the door and called to one of the constables, instructing him to get a doctor.

‘I’m OK,’ Gabriel wheezed. ‘I’m fine, it just happens sometimes.’

‘We’ll get someone to sit with you until you can be checked out by the duty doctor. OK?’

Gabriel started to get up slowly, still breathing in short bursts but much calmer than a few moments previously. Adrian held out a hand to him and helped him stand up. He remembered only too well the feeling of being nineteen; you’re a man but you’re not, he thought. You’re not a child, you’re kind of nowhere. It was a horrible age.

‘What happens now?’ Gabriel sat back down, his eyes glassy and full.

‘Depends on the outcome from the scene of the fire.’

‘Do you understand that if we don’t get to speak to your friends, the people with you at the signal station, then in all likelihood you’re going to go down for this?’ Imogen interjected.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Gabriel, if they determine its arson, then we’re going to have to charge you with manslaughter.’

Adrian stood by his car and lit a cigarette; he had given up on giving up and he felt much better for it. Imogen walked out of the station, pulling her hair back into an updo. She was shaking her head.

‘God, I hate this job sometimes.’ She took the cigarette out of Adrian’s hand and sucked on it before giving it back to him.

‘You believed him then?’

‘Absolutely. Shame it doesn’t matter what I think.’

‘It will matter to him. He liked you, I can tell.’

‘What about his parents? Did Denise get hold of them?’

‘Yeah. They said they’ll come tomorrow. They think a night in a holding cell will do him good.’