Nahara rocked back on her heels, paper rustling under her knees, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.

They matched.

The fingerprints from the Calsey case, matched the fingerprints taken from the scene of the blaze.

For a while, Nahara didn’t know how long, she sat there, candlelight waning as the wick spluttered.

Until a door slammed from the reading room above and she flinched as if struck.

Climbing unsteadily to her feet, pins and needles gnawing at her shins, Nahara forced herself to take a deep breath.

Then she climbed ten flights to the Commodore’s office.

Knocking on the door, taking the precious few seconds before the Commodore answered to straighten her uniform, Nahara said, ‘It’s Lieutenant Nahara, ma’am. I’ve just had a break through in the arson case.’

‘Enter!’ came the Commodore’s brusque tone from the other side of the thick oak door.

The Commodore was reclined in her leather office chair, both legs propped on the desk as she scrutinised a set of blueprints.

‘Ah, Lieutenant,’ the Commodore barely glanced her way, ‘how’s the arm? Still sore?’

‘It’s … fine, ma’am,’ Nahara said steely, thrown off by this turn in the conversation. The Commodore wasn’t one to make polite chit-chat. Nahara needed their conversation to be more direct. ‘About the arson case-’

‘Mmm,’ the Commodore grunted, brushing a stray crumb from her lapel, ‘terrible business that. Glad we have the perpetrator apprehended.’

‘Well that’s just it, ma’am,’ Nahara stepped as close as she dared, kneecaps nearly brushing the Commodore’s desk. The Commodore raised an eyebrow.

‘I was checking our records, closed cases, never solved,’ Nahara mentally scolded herself for adding so much unnecessary detail, of course the Commodore would know what a cold case was. ‘The Calsey case,’ she added, ‘family of five, the parents killed, the children-’

‘Abducted, yes,’ the Commodore’s expression was undecipherable, ‘I remember.’

‘Well,’ Nahara swallowed thickly, ‘the fingerprints we took from that scene match the fingerprints we recovered from the site of the second arson attack, which suggests-’

‘Lieutenant,’ the Commodore stood up so abruptly her desk shifted forwards an inch, ‘need I remind you, we already have the perpetrator in custody.’

It wasn’t a question, but Nahara answered it anyway. ‘No, ma’am. But he told me-’

‘He told you?’ The Commodore looked incredulous. ‘Then he’s been filling your head with poison, lies.’ Her tone softened. ‘You haven’t spoken to anyone else about this, have you?’

‘No, ma’am,’ Nahara shook her head, ‘I brought it straight to you.’

‘Good,’ the Commodore strode out from behind her desk, clapping a heavy hand on Nahara’s back. Nahara did her best not to grimace. ‘Then it should stay that way. I don’t want you infecting anyone else with that snake’s poison.’

Nahara almost said, ‘He’s not a snake, he just looks like one,’ but caught herself just in time. Instead she bowed her head, ‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘Good,’ the Commodore’s hand smacked against her back again and Nahara bit her lip so hard she drew blood. ‘No one has to know.’