He nodded then shook his head.
‘I worked here. I did stuff for Mr and Mrs Daynes. Just shit they didn’t want to do. Am I under arrest?’
‘Not yet but keep talking and you might be. What the hell were you thinking?’
‘I wasn’t…I just…I’m sorry.’
Kim exhaled, not sure how many more times she could shout at a man who said sorry every other sentence.
‘Did you take anything?’ she asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
He shook his head vehemently. ‘No, I swear. You can search me.’
‘Oh we will, you can count on that.’
Kim looked to her colleague. ‘Bryant, have a word, eh?’ she said, nodding towards the stairs. Leaving the guard post of a crime scene was going to cost someone their job. She just wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again. ‘And bring Mitch back with you.’
‘On it, guv,’ he said, leaving the room.
She turned back to Reece. ‘Wasn’t it you that raised the alarm yesterday morning?’
He nodded. ‘I saw the smoke. I was on my morning run. Every morning at 6.30. Have done for years. It keeps me—’
‘Okay, Reece, got it,’ she said, holding up her hands. ‘Did you see or hear anything else unusual?’
He shook his head. ‘Nothing. I didn’t hear a thing. I’d tell you if I heard anything or knew anything. I swear.’
Kim regarded him silently for a minute. He was agitated. Too agitated.
Bryant appeared with a harassed-looking Mitch in tow.
‘Sonny Jim here was hiding under the bed. Get one of your guys to bag his clothing, give him a blue suit and escort him back to his house.’ She turned back to Reece. ‘Where you will stay until you report to Halesowen police station at 8a.m. tomorrow.’
‘What for?’ he asked, losing what little colour he had left.
‘To make a formal statement. Now go with Mitch and then go home,’ she said, putting him out of his misery.
‘Is that it?’ Bryant asked as Reece followed Mitch out of the room.
‘What do you suggest I do?’
‘He knows something.’
‘You think he’s gonna tell us the state he’s in right now? And I left my “absolute truth” extractor back at the station.’
He rolled his eyes at her sarcasm.
Whatever he knew, they’d focus on getting it out of him tomorrow. She could definitely see why some of the Daynes family called the neighbours the weirdos.
‘He’s been handed over to Geoff,’ Mitch said, reappearing. ‘Who also said to tell you that everything has been checked again, and he can confirm that I was right and no one left this house after the incident.’
Kim regarded Mitch for a full minute. ‘Did Geoff really say all that?’
‘No, but I wanted someone else to be responsible for giving you the answer you didn’t want.’
‘Okay,’ she said, heading for the top of the stairs.
She wasn’t sure what he’d expected her to do but he let out a sigh of relief.