Detective Price ignores this with a sniff.
‘Have you ever made threats to or about Mr Woolf or any member of his family?’
‘No,’ answers Lottie. ‘I don’t believe so. Not to my knowledge.’ Detective Price cocks an eyebrow but says nothing. ‘I honestly don’t remember.’
‘You were overheard discussing the renovation project – the rights and wrongs of it – by several people on differing occasions over the last week. What’s your opinion of people with second homes in areas such as this one?’
‘What are yours? Surely you must see the effect it has, is having still, on the local community?’
‘May I remind you, Mrs Jenkins, that you and your family are tourists yourselves, making use of a local property and all that the resort affords to holidaymakers? What makes you believe you are in the right and the Woolfs are in the wrong?’
Lottie sighs.
‘I’m not saying it’s that simple. Of course not. But Tobias Woolf and some of his men were rude and inconsiderate to me and my family. In fact, my young son was very nearly involved in an accident that could have been catastrophic …’
‘Could have been? Why, what happened?’
‘Well, I wasn’t actually there at the time.’ Detective Price gives a wry smile, exchanges a glance with her colleague. ‘But my son found his way onto the building site. One of the builders stepped in thankfully and stopped Josh from getting hurt. But the point is, it’s not safe.’
‘Sounds like the builders were quite vigilant and helpful if this episode is anything to go by.’
‘Yes, well, the man in question – he was the only one who actually seemed to care. A nice guy, Petras, I believe he is called. He and his wife, Mila are new to the area.’
‘Yes, we are aware of these two individuals but that’s neither here nor there, since events have overtaken us.’
‘They seemed like honest, hard-working people to me,’ says Lottie. ‘For what it’s worth.’
‘And yet you violently disagreed with the building work that was providing them with an income.’
Lottie has no answer to this. She feels tied up in knots, her words twisted around her, until she is strait-jacketed by them.
Detective Price gives another business-like sniff.
‘In any case, Petras and Mila Kaslauskas are currently seriously ill in hospital, suffering from smoke inhalation plus injuries sustained from falling debris and collapsed scaffolding.’
‘What?’ says Lottie, sitting forward. ‘Are they the ones who were found in the fire?’
Detective Price eyes her with interest, assessing this reaction.
‘How do you feel about that, Mrs Jenkins?’
Lottie cannot answer for a moment. She had no idea who the victims of the fire could be, had hoped it would be someone completely anonymous and unknown to her, terrible though it was. But she can clearly picture these people; their faces, their mannerisms, the tone of their voices. Their hopes and fears so obvious, even from the few, brief times she had observed them.
‘Well it’s awful, obviously. Terrible. I mean what were they even doing there at the property at night?’
As soon as this question leaves her lips she knows how silly it is. It was clear to anyone who had eyes that Petras and Mila were desperate and most likely homeless. Why didn’t she and Tim do something to help them before now? She swallows down these guilty thoughts. DI Price continues to eye her beadily.
‘Why? Were they not supposed to be there, Mrs Jenkins? Wrong place, wrong time?’
This woman is goading her, she knows. Trying to trip her up, make her angry. To incriminate herself.
‘Will they survive do you know?’ she says instead. ‘How are they doing?’
Detective Price gives a casual shrug.
‘Well, it’s not looking good. You do realise that if either one or both of them dies, this will be a case of manslaughter, carrying a serious custodial sentence? These problems do seem to follow you around, don’t they?’
Lottie stares back at this woman, defiant.
