“What do you remember about him?”
“Maddie didn’t like him.”
“His sister used to babysit you guys a lot?” Allina asked.
“Yes, she was our favorite sitter. She would do fun stuff with us like give me and Ruth makeovers and bake things with us.” She and her siblings had always been thrilled when they found out that Maddie was going to sit for them. As a kid, Naomi had wanted to be just like her when she was a teenager.
“Did you ever spend much time around him?”
“Not really, he was a teenager, and we were just kids.”
“How did Maddie get along with her brother? Did she ever talk about him?”
“She didn’t like him.”
“Do you know why Maddie didn’t like her brother?” Jonathon asked.
“Because he liked to start fires.”
“Did you know he got expelled for starting fires?”
“No.”
“Then how did you know he was an arsonist?”
“I saw him once, with Seth and David. It was one night, Maddie was babysitting for us, it was summer, and we wanted to play outdoors until it got dark. We were playing in the street with some of the other kids and I noticed Seth and David go off into the Caucchi backyard. I wanted to see what they were doing so I followed, and I saw Harry starting a fire in a trashcan. Do you think maybe he started the fire?”
“Do you?” Allina asked.
“I guess. I never thought about it before because I always thought the fire was an accident so it never occurred to me to suspect Harry.” Now that she knew the fire was almost definitely arson it seemed like a logical conclusion.
“Did Harry ever come to your house?”
“I don’t remember. Probably. We often had other families in the street over for meals and parties and things. Our neighborhood had lots of kids and all the families got along pretty well.”
“What about the last couple of days before the fire. Do you remember him being there then?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Maddie babysat for us that last Sunday evening before the fire. He may have come over at some point that night. I'm not really sure. Why all the questions about whether or not he was in our house?”
“We want to know if he could have had access to your family photos,” Allina explained.
“Oh. Yeah, I guess he could have. The photos from that last recital got printed immediately because I begged my mom for them. We took them to one of those places that printed photos, I don’t remember which one, straight after the recital so they would have been in the house that Sunday night. But I don’t know how he would have gotten a copy of our family Christmas picture because we had already moved by them.”
“Did you ever see him after you moved?”
“No. We didn’t see anyone from our old neighborhood, it was too painful for all of us to go back there—too many reminders of David and Eli. Maddie never babysat for us again, our new sitter was some college student who lived down the block. We didn’t like her.” So many things had changed because of the fire.
“How did you feel about Harry? You said his sister didn’t like him, what about you?”
“I never really spent much time around him. Like I said, he was a teenager, and we were just kids, we didn’t have anything in common.”
“Naomi.” Jonathon leaned in closer. “Did he ever do anything that made you feel uncomfortable?”
“I didn’t like him starting fires with my two little brothers watching.”
“Did he ever hurt you?” Jonathon asked gently.
Her resolve to remain factual and detached evaporated. “No,” she answered, much too loudly. Sam’s hand reached out to grasp hers, she clutched at it like a lifeline. “No, of course not.”