Struck by Lightning

32. Take Away All My Sadness

"You know who started the fire?" Amanda's eyes widened and she felt relief wash over her. She smiled, even managed a laugh at how stupid she'd been. "Well that's good isn't it? I thought you were... it doesn't matter. This is great. Are you going to go to the police?"

"I will, but I wanted to check with you first," he said, his tone and body language still guarded as he sat back from her.

"Well then yes, definitely go to the police. You must be so relieved." She paused, tilting her head to one side. "You don't look relieved."

He shook his head slowly. Why did he not seem pleased?

Amanda tried to ease his apparent concern. "Look, I don't know if this will get me out of here. I basically had to admit I was insane. I don't suppose I can just have that label removed. But it means you can finally have some peace of mind and move on."

She wouldn't tell him about the discovery of her surgery - not yet. His news trumped hers.

"You have to go to the police," she continued when he didn't say anything.

In hindsight, it should have been obvious what his problem was, but she was so excited by the news that she didn't think about it.

"Amanda, it might not be as simple as that. It's... fuck." He dropped his head.

"What?" she pressed him, still not affected by his discomfort.

"It was Ivo."

Her eyes widened further, and she sat back in her seat, putting her hand to her stomach as if she'd been punched, feeling the wind had been knocked out of her. Freddie waited.

After processing the information Amanda managed another smile. "Well that's just ridiculous."

Freddie shrugged. "Is it?"

"But... why? I mean, why would he?"

It didn't make sense. She felt lightheaded as she tried to comprehend what this meant. "Tell me," she insisted through her chattering teeth. "You have actual proof?" Her whole body was shaking from the cold now.

"Well, I told you I was trying to trace that anonymous caller who tipped me off?"

Amanda nodded.

Freddie took a deep breath before continuing, his elbows now resting on his knees, his body tilting towards hers as she pressed her back into the chair. "I eventually found her. It seemed to be just a random person, but I traced her back to one of the cast of your TV show. I thought it was an odd coincidence that it would be someone connected to you, given you were the one it was being pinned on, so I started looking into her. It didn't go very far - there was nothing to suggest she had anything to do with the fire. I almost gave up on her, thinking she did just want to give me an anonymous tip-off. But then I followed her one day and found that, well... she was staying over at Ivo's flat."

He paused, looking at Amanda carefully for her reaction. Her expression remained blank as she waited, watching his breath turn to steam. Ivo seeing someone else from the show was hardly a revelation. And it didn't make him an arsonist.

"So that led me to start investigating him. When I knew what I was looking for, I started seeing him on the CCTV footage. Klok too. You can't see who started the fire as the cameras are in the wrong place, but during the weeks leading up to it, you see them around a lot. They never came in, though. I would have remembered. I started looking into his background - Klok's too. Turns out Klok has got him off several charges of violence over the years. His crimes are normally triggered by a woman. He's put a fair few people in hospital, but always gotten off on a technicality. He did spend eighteen months in prison about twenty years ago - assaulting his girlfriend's dad - pre-Klok days. There are some stories related to prostitutes too. I could keep going." He glanced at Amanda as if to ask if he should, but she shook her head ever so slightly, not wanting to hear more. Freddie nodded and instead got to the point. "Anyway, asking around, there is a lady who works with Ivo who likes to gossip. Apparently, she'd been telling people we'd been spending a lot of time together while he'd been away in Miami. I guess that triggered him."