Chapter 4: What I've Done

"Thank you for coming in, officer McNally." Jo said in a faux-pleasant voice, as if Andy had been given a choice in the matter. "I just have a few questions, this shouldn't take too long."

Andy forced a smile for the benefit of her audience behind the glass. She was pretty sure Sam was back there, and she was even more certain Jo had the cameras running, though thankfully the detective hadn't felt the need to set up a second camera in the room with her like Boyd had eighteen months earlier. There was something about having a camera lens right in her face that made Andy feel flushed and anxious. "Anything I can do to help."

Jo took the seat across from Andy and set down a thick folder and a pad of paper on the table between them. There had to be at least one hundred sheets in the folder and Andy felt a nervous flutter in her stomach. What the hell was this really about? The fire had been less than three hours ago, how could they already have that much paperwork?

"Can I get you anything before we get started? Water, coffee?" Jo offered, her slim fingers toying with the edge of the file.

Andy shook her head. "I'm fine."

"Alright." Jo flipped open the file to the first page. "How long have you lived at 1 Columbus Avenue?"

"I bought the condo a year and a half ago. I've actually lived in it for about ten months of that time." Andy said, settling back in her seat. No point in broadcasting her nerves.

"Why is that?"

Andy resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Shortly after I purchased the condo I was placed on a three month suspension and took that time to travel, and for the last five months I have been working on an assignment that took me away from my home."

Jo made a few notes on a yellow legal pad. "When did you return from this assignment?"

"This morning, a little after ten am."

Once again the detective made a note on her paper before posing another question. "Did you notice anything unusual or suspicious?"

Andy thought for a moment, picturing her apartment as it had looked when she first entered it that morning. She remembered the overwhelming feeling of relief at being home, and the realization that there was absolutely no food in the house that had driven her to hit the grocery store before even beginning to unpack. "I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary."

"While you were away, was someone looking after your condo?"

"No." Andy said. "Someone form fifteen came over and cleaned all the perishable foods out of my apartment and set up a hold on my mail with Canada Post, but otherwise I didn't have time to make any arrangements. The assignment was..." She trailed off, casting a glance at the one way mirror. She really wanted to have this conversation with Sam before anyone else. But clearly, what she wanted didn't matter much in this scenario. "... I had very little notice."

Jo raised an eyebrow. "Why was that?"

Andy twined her fingers together, wrestling over how much she should say. A number of the details of the investigation would remain confidential until after the trial, which could be a year from now at the rate lawyers seemed to work. "I was a last minute addition to the task force." She said at last, adding as an afterthought. "I'm not authorized to talk about the details of the assignment."

If Jo had a problem with Andy's refusal to reveal more details about the task force she didn't show it. "Who else has keys to the condo?"

"Traci Nash has my spare key." Andy once again glanced briefly at the window she suspected Sam was watching her through.

"Just officer Nash?" Jo sounded skeptical.

"Sam Swarek had keys, I don't know if he still has them." Andy answered in a soft voice. She remembered the sharp stab of pain that had shot through her when Sam had asked for the spare keys to his truck back. She'd never been able to bring herself to ask him what had become of the keys she'd given him. Asking for them back had seemed impossible. Somehow thinking he still had her keys and didn't voluntarily give them back had given her hope that he might not be completely done with them.

"Anyone else?"

"No."

"Can you tell me about the events that happened on the afternoon of April 27, 2013?"

It took Andy half a moment to realize that was today's date. She'd been stuck in the back of a surveillance van or manning a wire with Nick Collins sixty hours a week for the last five months, and even though she'd written the dates hundreds of times a day every day had sort of bled into the other until she wasn't sure what day of the week it was, let alone the actual date.

"McNally?" Jo prompted when Andy didn't start talking immediately.

"Sorry." Andy forced an apologetic smile that she hoped covered the frustrated exhaustion she really felt. "I got back to my condo around ten am." She began in a clipped, emotionless voice. She kept her story short and to the point, not wanting to be here any longer than necessary, knowing Jo would not hesitate to grill her on anything relevant. "I realized I had no food so immediately went out to get groceries. I returned at approximately 11:30. I decided to bake a batch of cookies. While I was mixing the dough, Traci Nash called. We talked for ten to twenty minutes. She asked me to return a sweat shirt I borrowed and after we ended the call I went into my room to look for it. I looked for probably half an hour before I smelled smoke. When I went into the kitchen there were flames coming out of the oven. The towels hanging on the door had already caught fire and the cupboards were singed. My fire extinguisher was empty," her eyes flicked to the one-way mirror, wondering if Sam remembered the baking disaster that had used up her extinguisher. "I didn't know how else to put out a fire that size, so I went into the hall and pulled the fire alarm for the building. I made sure my neighbours were outside, called 911 and then waited for the fire fighters to arrive. It took them nearly half an hour to arrive. Sam Swarek was one of the officers who responded. When the fire was extinguished and we were told we could not go back inside, he offered to let me stay at his place for the night. That is where I was when you asked me to come in."

Jo listened without interrupting, her pen scribbling the occasional word on the pad in her hand. When Andy finished Jo was silent for several moments before looking up at Andy. "At any point, did the smoke detector inside your apartment go off?"

Andy thought for a moment. She remembered the shrill shrieking of the building's central alarm, but what had alerted her to the fire was the smell, not her own smoke detector's alarm. "No. At least not in the time before I pulled the main alarm."

"You said your fire extinguisher was empty. Do you frequently set fire to things inside your apartment?"

Andy blanched. Her immediate reaction was to get defensive, but she took a deep sharp breath and exhaled fully before responding. "No. This was the second fire in my apartment."

Jo leaned back in her chair and tapped the end of her pen against the legal pad, clearly waiting for Andy to continue.

Andy grit her teeth against the irritation and launched into the story of her housewarming party nine months earlier. She couldn't stop her eyes from flitting towards the glass every few seconds as she explained her desire to have everyone over for a housewarming six months after she'd moved in. It was really the first time she'd baked anything, and, though she didn't admit this to Jo, Sam's presence had proved incredibly distracting. It was hard to keep track of all the directions with your gorgeous partner right across the counter. A counter they hadn't even had sex on yet. The desire to cover Sam in frosting and lick him clean had been intense. It had almost certainly been the reason she'd forgotten about the contents of the oven until it started smoking. "Sam grabbed the fire extinguisher and put it out, and that was that." She concluded.

"This incident was six months after you moved in?"

"Yes."

"So at no point in the last year did you think you should probably replace your fire extinguisher?"

"I-"

"Or did you not realize that once an extinguisher is used it needs to be replaced?"

Andy clenched and unclenched her fists, trying to retain a level of calm. She'd never felt so attacked in her life, and that was including the time Boyd interviewed her after Sam disappeared from his cover apartment. "No. I knew it needed to be replaced. I just... never found the time."

Jo's eyebrows raised and she scribbled down something. "Did your smoke alarm go off with this other fire?"

"Yes." Andy answered in a hesitant tone She knew she'd set off the smoke detector on more than one occasion in her apartment, but it was hard to keep the memory of each and every cooking disaster straight. The vague memory of Sam flapping a towel at her smoke detector could have come from any number of nights. Not that she was going to admit that to Sam.

Jo scribbled a few other things and then rose to her feet, picking up the file and notepad. "Just hold tight, McNally. We're nearly done. Are you sure I can't get you a coffee?"

Andy shook her head. "No, I'm fine." She'd told her story, now it was just a matter of waiting for Jo to tell her what the hell this was really about. She knew for a fact the fire wasn't arson. So why were the police being called in to investigate it in the first place?

"Swarek, you got a minute?" Jo asked, motioning for him to follow her.

Sam cast one final look at Andy through the glass before stepping out into the hall. He wondered what Jo wanted. Andy had answered every question honestly, what more did Rosati expect? Sam felt a twinge of annoyance at Frank for even bringing Jo in on this. Sure, he understood that the Staff Sergeant had a responsibility to avoid even the appearance of corruption. They'd all learned that from watching the RCMP's constant struggle for popular opinion in the waves of scandal that seemed to roll one after another across the evening news. But, has Frank really not been able to find a detective who didn't want to see Andy burn? Sending Rosati to interview McNally was almost as bad as bringing Donovan Boyd back from whatever desk they'd shoved him behind because that was easier than firing him.

Jo went into the next observation room, shutting the door as soon as Sam entered. "You need to find her a good lawyer." She said without preamble. "If this went to court tomorrow she would lose. No one is going to believe a grown woman set a building on fire by accident because she forgot about a tray of chocolate chip cookies!"

"So don't arrest her." Sam snapped, his mind reeling. Andy didn't start that fire. His gut told him that. Of course, when it came to Andy his gut wasn't always all that reliable, but even acknowledging that, he refused to believe she would do something to reckless and dangerous.

"What? Let her get away with arson?"

Sam fought the urge to punch something. Just because Luke had chosen Andy two years ago didn't give Jo the right to destroy Andy's life. "If you arrest her, that's the end of her career!" It was sad, but true. Even if Andy was found innocent, which of course she would be, the stain of an arson charge would stick to her like glue. The Service couldn't fire her, but all the good work she'd done on the task force would be for nothing. Her career would stall where it was right now, riding a patrol car through the streets of Toronto. That couldn't be allowed to happen. Not only because he loved her, but she was a damn good cop. He'd worked with her undercover, she was quick on her feet, and when she trusted her gut instead of getting lost in her head, she was usually bang on. She should be working guns and gangs, or vice, something with adventure, danger, and prestige.

"Which is why we're not pressing charges.. yet." Jo said in an infuriatingly calm voice, like she thought he really was going to lash out. "But you need to understand, and someone needs to make McNally understand, that this is serious. The fire department has ruled this a suspicious fire and they are expecting a full investigation... and right now I don't have any other suspects."

"McNally would never—"

"Maybe. Maybe not." Jo interrupted. "People can surprise you."

"Andy didn't do this." Sam said, fixing her with a glare. He couldn't believe Jo was accusing Andy of purposefully setting her own home on fire the day she returned from a five month task force.

"Then find me another suspect." Jo said. "Until then, I'm releasing Andy into your custody. We're keeping this off the books as long as possible, but if the press starts sniffing around the white shirts are going to do what's best for the Service.. which means arresting one of our own to avoid rumors of corruption."

"Thanks." Sam said, almost managing to sound like he meant it. He knew he should be at least a little grateful. If Andy was a suspect, then Jo probably had something more to go on than the fact she didn't believe Andy's story. Which probably meant she had enough for an arrest. That she was leaving it off the books and letting Sam take Andy home instead of throwing her in a cell wasn't much of a favour in Sam's books, but it was one.

"Take her home" Jo gave him a soft smile. "Call me if you come up with anything."