Free Playing With Fire by C.J. Archer

this about the wild dog, Inspector?" Jack prompted. "I told you everything I knew."
    "Has it hurt someone else?" Sylvia asked, lowering her embroidery hoop to her lap.
    "No, ma'am, and I'm not here about the wild dog, sir. I called off the search in actual fact. My men found no sign of it the day of the attack, so I reckon it must have left the area. Besides, I don't have the men available to poke around the woods no more."
    He was a fool to think it was gone, but none of us gainsaid him. His men were much safer away from the woods altogether. We'd just been discussing how to broach the subject with the police before the inspector arrived. It was most fortunate that he was ahead of us for once. He wasn't known for his thoroughness, something Jack had discovered the long and hard way a few weeks earlier when he'd tried to get Weeks to accompany him to London to confront Tate. Weeks had refused.
    "Then how may we help you?" Jack asked.
    Weeks patted his coat pockets. When he didn't find what he was looking for, he set his hat down on a table and used both hands. "It's here somewhere," he said. "I know it is."
    "What is?" Sylvia asked.
    "The telegram."
    "You have a telegram for me?" Jack said.
    "No, sir."
    When he continued to pat and not elaborate, Jack persisted. "For August Langley then?"
    At the mention of the name, Weeks paused in his search and glanced nervously at the door. "Is he here, your uncle?"
    "He's working. So the telegram is for him?"
    "Hmmm, what?" The inspector returned his attention to an inside pocket of his coat. "No, it's not for Mr. August Langley. It's just that I haven't seen him since he moved in except for that one time when his papers were stolen some weeks ago. The lads at the station will want to know if I spoke to him again. Not to mention Mrs. Weeks. She likes to know what goes on in the village and up here at the big house. Lucky she married the local inspector, eh?"
    "My uncle is not a sideshow act, Inspector Weeks," Sylvia snapped. "Now if you don't mind, either hand over the telegram, or tell us its contents. That's if you can remember what it said."
    Her scolding was quite lost on the policeman as he continued to burrow deep into his pockets a second time.
    "It can't be for me," Samuel said. "Nobody even knows I'm here."
    That was news to me. I was about to ask him why he'd never informed his family, but Inspector Weeks pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and waved it triumphantly.
    "Here it is! It was addressed to me at the station and asks me to come to Frakingham immediately and give you the news."
    "What news?" Sylvia asked at the same time that Jack said, "Who is it from?"
    Weeks held the paper close to his face and squinted hard. "It's from Scotland Yard."
    Jack held out his hand for the telegram, and Weeks handed it over. Jack read it and promptly sat down.
    "What does it say?" I asked, leaning forward.
    Sylvia shifted to face him and the hoop slid off her lap to the floor. "Jack, you're scaring us," she said.
    He cleared his throat. "It says Reuben Tate has escaped from Newgate Prison."
     

CHAPTER 5
     
     
    I felt everyone's gaze upon me. They didn't need to voice their anxiety and concern because it was there in their eyes and the deep grooves of worry across their foreheads. It echoed within me. Tate had escaped…and he would come after me, the one person he thought could help him find a cure for his fire starting.
    It was only a matter of time.
    Inspector Weeks did not look my way like the others. He was busy talking and folding the paper on which the telegram was written. "I'm sure they'll catch him soon," he said. "They're very good at Scotland Yard. Very good. Matter of fact, they've probably already got him and locked him up again. No need to worry yourselves just yet, but it's better to be forewarned, I always say."
    "Yes," I said, my voice sounding distant and small. I stared down at my hands in my lap because I could no longer stand seeing everyone's faces. My