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both into the burning building and watch them turn to cinder.’
    Drew raised one eyebrow and bit down on the response that such actions would require strenuous effort on O’Leary’s part, of which he didn’t think the older man capable. ‘You can’t just arrest them. Where’s your evidence?’
    O’Leary made a scoffing noise with his teeth. ‘The evidence is burning to smithereens behind us, but it doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to put two and two together and come up with those two. Stop wasting my time and go bring them in.’
    â€˜Let me go in and take a look,’ Drew demanded, striding towards the fire truck. He’d get the additional protective gear he should have demanded when he first arrived and go inside to take a proper look. Something told him the boys weren’t responsible for this – he hadn’t seen them in the crowds, in fact, the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind until now and he could generally rely on his instinct.
    â€˜What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ O’Leary roared over the top of the background noise. ‘Don’t you take one step into that building! Quite aside from the fact it’s not safe, we’ve got trained investigators to do that. The big guns of the arson squad will have my guts for garters if I let you go blazing in there and destroy vital evidence.’
    Drew froze in his tracks, tension burning up his ribcage. By the time the arson squad made their way up from Perth tomorrow, any clues would likely be gone. They could look at the burn patterns and maybe work out a point of origin but the chances of saving anything for prints would be dog shit.
    But O’Leary had no idea Drew knew about all this stuff. As far at the sergeant understood Drew was nothing but a constable from the UK, who’d migrated for a new life in Australia, and happened to act a little too big for his boots. The older officer had hated him from the moment Drew had made his first arrest and Mrs O’Neil had baked him a big batch of cookies and brought them into the station to say thanks for catching the hoon who’d been speeding down her street. He’d seen O’Leary’s scowl that day and guessed the older man might be suspicious about why the police commissioner had thrust Drew onto him, but it didn’t stop him doing his best to protect the community.
    He couldn’t just stand by and let the lazy old sergeant pin the crime on the boys because it was the easy option. Those young boys had their whole lives ahead of them and getting done for something like this could ruin them. Short of gathering evidence from among the rubble, the next best thing he could do was to find Jaxon and Ben and question them himself. He felt certain they were innocent of this crime, but one look into their eyes would tell him for sure. And if they had done it, they deserved whatever the courts and the town would throw at them.
    His shoulders slumping, Drew turned around and met O’Leary’s aggressive gaze. ‘Yes, Sergeant. If you don’t need me here I’ll go bring in the boys.’
    â€˜The suspects , Noble. The suspects,’ O’Leary growled.

Chapter Three
    â€˜Mum, do you think you should go home and get some rest?’ Ruby touched her mum’s elbow, noticing she was shaking.
    â€˜No.’ Lyn shook her head, and wrapped her arms around herself, hugging her torso. Her face looked ragged, tears and dust mingling on her cheeks, and her hair was messier than she’d normally be seen in public with. ‘I need to stay for your father.’
    And there was no chance of dragging him away. Nodding, Ruby pulled her mum close to her again and together they watched as the firefighters continued to battle the flames. Despite feeling like death warmed up – very warmed up – she couldn’t bear to leave yet either. It didn’t seem right to abandon all these people