William rang the doorbell, and Buffy answered. She took one look at his face and held open her arms. Immediately accepting her embrace, William just allowed himself to be held a while before he started talking.
“God, he looks awful…poor Anya’s in bits, and to top it all off the cops are trying to blame Xander for the fire! I told them no way!”
Buffy held him for a little while and then led him into the lounge and he sat on the sofa.
“Come on through and I’ll put the kettle on, are you hungry?” She went and put the kettle on.
“No…and guess what else – the police didn’t even know where to look for Stebson………………………………………….”
Buffy stirred the mug of tea and handed one to William
“Have you seen the gallery yet?” She asked
“The burnt out shell you mean…no, I couldn’t bring myself to go see it alone. The chief fire officer assures me that the vault is safe, with all the debris on top nobody could get in even without a steel door being there, but they want me to go tomorrow to see it”
“Well that’s a little comfort; you haven’t lost your work”
William sat forward and rubbed his face and yawned. He said
“Another thing…the insurance won’t pay out if its arson unless there’s a conviction”
“Oh god my poor, poor baby…” Buffy pulled him into a side-hug and he leant on her shoulder
“Stay here with me tonight?” Buffy asked
“Would you mind?”
“Silly. I’ve washed all your clothes for you, they’re in the drier as we speak” Buffy said
“Bless you. Anya made me come home to you – not that I needed much persuading - she said it’s pointless us both sitting there fretting over Xander.
“Didn’t you tell me they had a daughter?”
“Yeah – Hailey -luckily when it happened she was at a sleep-over at a friend’s house, the same friends are keeping her until Xander gets better”
“And what’s the prognosis with him?”
“The longer he’s unconscious, the more the worry. And his lungs have been lightly kippered with the smoke inhalation”
“What was Xander doing back at the gallery so long after it closed?” Buffy asked
William told her what Anya had told him. He yawned again, and Buffy said
“Want a bath or a shower?”
“Hmm…a hot shower would work wonders” William said, his eyes closed with his head still resting on her shoulder
“Come on then, I’ll show you how to work things”
ooOOoo
“
………………My client Mr Parker Abrams is willing to accept a sum of $250,000 for his contribution to the piece of artwork, else we take it to trial”
Angel leaned to the side of him and whispered to his lawyer one word, ‘Trial’.
Alan Sharp collected his papers together, stood and said,
“Then we go to trial”
oOo
“This court is in session…all rise for Judge Ethan Rayne”. The judge came into the court room and sat down. He banged down his gavel and everybody sat down
“What happened to the woman judge?” Angel whispered to his lawyer. Alan Sharp shrugged and said he didn’t know.
“This case was allowed through by Judge Keogh, personally I would have dismissed it out of hand, but are you both ready with your opening statements?”
“I am your honour” Alan said, then Abrams’ lawyer also said the same.
“Good, get on with it then!” Angel brightened at the judge’s attitude, it looked better for him, this judge would have thrown it out originally…
After hearing what it was all about, the judge said
“I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous in all my life – I don’t know whose worse, you for making it so-called art, or you for claiming for it…you can’t call throwing away a meal ‘work’ – and I can’t for the life of me see that slapping a bit of varnish over it is art, but then again there are those – case dismissed – he banged down the gavel again and stood up
Angel grinned and so did his lawyer, they shook hands. The court doors opened and in strode two officers from the NYPD. They came straight up to Angel and Cordelia
“Angel Brendan Stebson – you are under arrest for arson and attempted murder of one Mr Alexander Harris…”
“Cordelia Regan Goneril Chase, you too are under arrest for conspiracy to setting fire to Giles’ Fine Art Gallery…”
Angel looked at Cordelia and said,
“Goneril?” Cordelia slapped him around the face and hissed
“I KNEW you were up to something, well you better get me out of this coz I have nothing to do with – ow –OW get off, your hurting me – take them - OW!” the cop took no notice of her as he slapped handcuffs on and tightened them, then he pushed her towards the back entrance door.
They were both taken down in the lift through the back entrance and put into separate cars and driven to the station. There were two Sunnydale cops waiting for them, and after the paperwork had been transferred, they were put on a flight back to Sunnydale.
ooOOoo
William woke. He looked around unfamiliar surroundings. Buffy stirred and he felt her warm hand on his stomach
“You okay baby?” She asked sleepily
“Yeah…forgot where I was for a sec – now it’s all come flooding back, my gallery’s gone, my best friend is in hospital…no more holiday” Buffy sat up and put the light on
“I’m so sorry baby, really I am!” William sat up and stroked her face and said
“Hey, you have nothing to be sorry for – you are the only one bright thing I have at the moment, it’s only you keeping me together”
Buffy leaned forward and kissed him and said
“I’m here for you Will – anything you want” It was at that moment his stomach positively growled and he put his hand on it and said
“Oh god, excuse me!” Buffy smiled and said,
“Hungry?”
“Actually, now you come to mention it…yes, yes I am, starving! – What’s the time?”
“It’s 4.45am – but if you think about it, it’s really lunchtime as we’ve been used to”
“Yes it is I suppose!” Buffy went to get out of bed
“Where are you going?”
“To get you something to eat!”
“Don’t be silly, get back into-“
“Nope, I’m going to do you something and then we can come back to bed”
William smiled and relented
“Okay. Oh and babe” she turned towards him slipping on her robe
“Hmm?”
“I love you” Buffy beamed at him, leaned over ruffled his hair and kissed him again and said
“I love you too, you lie there I won’t be long”
William lay listening to Buffy pottering about in the kitchen, and a little over ten minutes later she appeared in the doorway carrying a tray. She slid it onto the nightstand and leaned over and while William sat up, she plumped up the pillows.
“You tuck into this, I’ll just go fetch the tea”
“Hmm, looks wonderful, thanks babe!” he began to tuck into the omelette she’d made for him. Two minutes later she returned with a plate of toast and two mugs of tea.
“Hmm, that was delicious – hit the spot!” he took a mug of tea off her and they both munched on the toast
“I’ve got a meeting with the fire department this morning………would you come with me – please?”
“Of course I will. Is it at the gallery?” William just nodded and then he said
“And then I said I’d go and relieve Anya at the hospital so she can go home and shower and change and that, she just wants Xander to wake up to a friendly face, will you stay with me?”
“As long as you want me there, I’ll be with you”
William leaned over and kissed her
“You’re a star”
“Come on, lets snuggle down and have another couple of hours sleep, shall we?”
“Ahh…oh!”
“What’s the matter pet?”
“Toast crumbs!”
ooOOoo
William and Buffy got out of the fire officer’s car, and stood looking at a huge gaping gap where the gallery had once been. There was scaffolding around the two buildings either side of where the gallery once was, and barriers around the ground floor front. There was a huge truck that was having rubble and the charred remains of the building loaded into it via an earth mover. It’s big hopper on the front scooping up a load and dumping it into the truck.
William’s eyes watered – all his hard work, gone up in smoke…Buffy squeezed his hand, she couldn’t help let a few tears slip. People stood in small groups and watched the earth mover do it’s job.
“Oh god…it’s gone – just………just gone!” She whispered
They hugged, and the fire officer took a call on his mobile. When he’d finished he came over to them and asked,
“Mr Giles, did you use any varnish on the floors of the gallery at all?”
“Varnish, no, it was wooden panelling, only a non-slip wax polish why?”
“Only in several places or forensic team found small dark blistered spots on the wood – they’ve turned out to be spots of a polyurethane varnish they found the same on a half-burned plinth and on a burned out halogen lamp that hadn’t quite burned too”
“Well, that must have been the arsonist…did you say the vault was secure?”
“As we can make it, do you have access from the parking lot?”
“Yes – I’ll just go and-“
“No, I’m sorry Mr Giles, one of our safety officers will have to access the danger first, after all, we don’t want the roof falling in on you do we?”
“No – we definitely don’t!” Buffy said, squeezing William’s hand.
ooOOoo
Interview Room 2
“How many more times do I have to tell you, we swapped cars – he had my Cirrus, I had his Viper! – I wasn’t there at the gallery, I was at Merrydale Golf Club until 4pm, then I left, went home changed my clothes and went to Sunnydale Airport where I waited for Angel – we were being flown to New York on a cargo plane because he couldn’t afford a regular flight” Cordelia said
Interview Room 3
“Now, let’s turn to your accomplices” the detective said
“I didn’t have any”
“No – not your faithful personal assistant Miss Chase?”
“No, she’s totally innocent of all this, she didn’t know a thing”
“Then how come her car was seen in the parking lot at the Gallery around the time the fire started?”
“Because we’d swapped cars – look, I’m practically broke, I’ll admit it, the car and the house in Sunnydale are the only things I really have bought and paid for – I gave her my car as payment in lieu of wages, and I’ve been using her car as it isn’t such a gas guzzler as mine”
“What about Mr Harris, where does he fit into all of this?” Jon Levinson asked the hapless Angel
“Who’s that? – Oh is that the guy that I hit with…um…don’t know. Don’t know what he was doing back at the gallery, but he wasn’t an accomplice. He arrived at the wrong place at the wrong time, saw me, I panicked, slugged him the fire extinguisher. Um….how is he? Do you know?”
“Still unconscious”
“Oh – he had nothing to do with it”
“So you’re telling me that neither Mr Harris nor Miss Chase had anything to do with the fire”
“That’s correct” Angel said. The detective got up and left the room. A policeman stood guard by the interview room door.
Jon Levinson knocked the door of number 2 interview room and put his head around the door
“Can I have a word” Det. Bill Fordham nodded and left the room, they both stood in the corridor
“He’s copping to the lot, states that neither his assistant or Harris had anything to do with the fire” Levinson said
“Did she tell you they swapped cars?”
“Uh huh, she said that at the time of the fire she was at Merryvale Golf Club – that’ll be an easy enough alibi to check out. Did Stebson say why Harris was there?”
Levinson said,
“Stebson says he didn’t know why Harris was there, he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. So what he told his wife, about driving passed the red Cirrus belonging to Miss Chase was true as they’d swapped cars”
“Detective – you’ll both want to see this” A cop said to them and took them into an evidence viewing room. On the TV they saw CCTV footage of Angel arriving in the Parking lot, and then the tape was run on 18 minutes, they saw Xander Harris leave, and Angel get a box out of the car and go to the lift. The tape was run on again for 1 and 18 minutes, and Xander Harris’ car was seen arriving again at the parking lot and screeching to a halt. Two minutes later Angel was seen to leave at speed.
“Right then, I’ll just check with the golf club to make sure her alibi pans out, and then I think it’s safe to let Miss Chase go, it’s obvious from what we’ve seen on the tape the truth has been told, and I’ll just phone the hospital, I’ll check on Harris’ health, then I’ll go in and formerly charge Angel Stebson with Arson and attempted homicide”
“I’ll do the phone calls, you get Stebson to write his confession” Det. Fordham said and he went into the office to make the calls.
Five minutes later he knocked on Interview Room 2, and Levinson came out.
“Her alibi checked out, she was at the club from 1.30 until 4, she actually had lunch with the owner’s son”
“How’s Mr Harris?”
“Still the same I’m afraid, he hasn’t yet regained consciousness – but I thought I’d go over to the hospital, give Mrs Harris the good news that he’s not under suspicion any more. But before all that…”
Fordham opened Interview room 3 and said,
“Okay Miss Chase, thank you for your time, you are free to go, no charges”
“About time too. Can I see Angel?”
“Not at the moment, he’s been formerly charged with arson and attempted murder”
Cordelia looked shocked and then she said,
“When can I see him?”
“When we can appoint him a lawyer, he said he didn’t want one present”
Cordelia left the room, she knew what she was going to do. Phone Rack.
oOo
Five Hours Later – Angel’s house in Sunnydale
“Man! It’s good to see you at last!” Angel shook hands with Rack
“Remember what I said, you better party on down tonight like you’ve never partied before – it could be his last night of freedom” Cordelia had said to Rack earlier
“Two million bucks bail – don’t let me down!” Rack said
“He won’t – he’s had to surrender his passport, I’ll be sure to get him to the station on time tomorrow” Cordelia said, now I have work to do”
“Oh princess…you mean you’re not going to party with us?” Rack sounded disappointed
“Nu huh, not me………I know you Rack, you’ll have more than enough –um girls and stuff!”
“Got girls, got the rest of the band, got booze and got a lot of something to make it go with a bang!” Rack said laughing
“Quite!” Cordelia gave him a pained smile, and then looking at Angel she said
“Can I just have a quick word with you in private?” They moved off into the hallway leaving Rack making a call on his mobile phone.
“Sure – oh Cordelia thanks for this I really do appreciate all that – “
“Yes, yes, be quiet, now listen to me, you’re going to need a top lawyer”
“Too late, I already –“ Angel started, but Cordelia put her hand over his mouth
“LISTEN! There’s a chance you could get off on a technicality, but you need somebody good, and I when I say good, I don’t mean the Alan Sharp’s of this world, I mean somebody from Wolfram and Hart’s calibre”
“But I can’t afford it!”
“Yes, you can! Look, you told me you’d got two off-shore accounts – what good are they to you if you’re mouldering in jail? Pay for the best lawyers, get off, write a book about being ‘out of your mind’ when you did it, the bad boy of art, you’ll sell a million – two million, they’ll be book tours, TV interviews, other countries…I bet one of the Hollywood directors would want to make a film out of it - you’ll clean up money wise, make more than you ever spent!”
Angel grinned –
“My god…you’re a genius, a fucking GENIUS!” he picked her up and swung her around
“Well, how do I get to those accounts?” Cordelia asked
Angel looked over his shoulder and said quietly
“On my computer, go to banking and open file named ‘Other’ type RainydayCayman as one word that’ll get you into the one, for the other type Swisscheese for the other – oh Cordy………god girl I love you!” Angel said holding her face gently. Cordelia smiled, repeated what he’d said to her and then she said,
“Leave everything to me, I’ll sort it for you”
ooOOoo
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks to all for the reviews, and thanks to CallMeKitten for the Americanese
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