Page 110 of No Safe Place

Monday | Morning

Field

Field squeezed the car into a space on the busy street and turned the engine off. She felt the lack of air-con immediately.

Riley and Wilson unclicked their seatbelts, but neither of them moved.

Field flipped the mirror down. She’d sweated off another layer of cover-up and the bruises around her eye were, if possible, darker than they had been earlier.

Zara opened the front door, and they followed her into the dining room. It was full of light, bouncing off the whitewashed walls and tiled floor.

Simon and Penny were sat at the one end of the kitchen table, a pot of tea waiting under a cosy. The large windows were open, floral scents wafting in from the garden.

Field, Riley and Wilson took their seats.

Penny cleared her throat. ‘You’ve made an arrest?’

No one touched the teapot.

Field nodded. ‘Yes, we’ve got the perpetrator in custody.’

It was important to take these conversations slowly.

‘You’ve got him,’ Simon said, almost to himself.

Penny nodded several times, then her face crumpled, and she addressed her next question to the ceiling. ‘Who was it?’

It was hard to know where to start.

‘It was a relative of one of the trial participants. The girl who died in a car accident, Paige Jacobs – it was her sister.’

Penny pulled at the collar of her blouse. ‘Paige’s sister? But—’ Her voice was thick with emotion.

‘Ruby Jacobs has confessed to David’s murder,’ Field said. ‘And the murder of Samantha Hughes.’

‘We appreciate how difficult this is,’ Wilson added. ‘Take a minute, if you need it.’

‘Yeah, actually, I will—’ Penny hesitated. ‘Help yourselves to tea, I’m just going to—’

The chair scraped against the tiles and she left the room. Simon followed her into the hallway and closed the kitchen door.

Field sagged against the dining chair and suppressed a yawn.

‘Are you going to tell her?’ Wilson asked quietly. ‘What Ruby thought David had done?’

Zara poured the tea, passing them each a cup.

Field sighed. Penny would have to know, eventually. There would be a trial, and from the brief conversation Maxwell had managed to have with her this morning, Ruby was still convinced that the whole thing was a true account.

‘I’d tell her,’ Zara Ayres said in a low voice. ‘She wants to understand, and she’s going to be frustrated if she thinks you’re holding something back.’

‘Okay,’ Field said.

It was ten minutes before Penny and Simon re-entered. Her eyes were red, but she looked composed.

‘Shall we sit in the garden?’ she asked, hovering by the door. ‘David’s wildflowers have bloomed. He’d want us to enjoy them.’

They took their tea to the walled garden, and Field explained how Ruby found the playscript among Sam’s things, when she was packing up the house.

How she believed David had abused her sister, when she was admitted onto his ward.

Taking the play as truth, Ruby assumed the other four knew about the abuse, or at least suspected it.

A faint breeze ruffled the vines climbing the brick walls.

‘I’ve read it, by the way. It was called Disorder ,’ Simon said, quietly.

‘David used extracts from the play as a teaching aid, for a time,’ Simon said, clearing his throat.

‘Along with an early draft of Darlings, Obsessed. Paige and Callum gave him permission. He’d get students studying CBT to read it.

To give them a real-life insight into the complexities of OCD. ’

Riley topped up Penny’s glass of water from the jug on the iron table and Penny nodded her thanks.

Silence settled on the garden.

‘Before we could make the arrest,’ Field said, carefully. ‘Ruby also attacked two other patients from the study. Callum Mulligan and Lily Stewart.’

Penny sat up. ‘Are they okay?’

‘Callum is doing well. He’s stable. Lily is still in critical condition, and she’ll be undergoing a major operation this afternoon. The blood loss was severe and—’

Field felt Wilson’s and Riley’s eyes on her, and knew she had to tell the truth. No sugar-coating; that’s what she always told people. ‘It’s a very risky procedure. The doctors say she might not make it.’

The four officers waited in silence while Penny sat, eyes closed, hands in her lap. Finally, Penny stood up from the table.

‘Why?’ she demanded. ‘If Ruby thought – she thought David could do that to a patient, I understand attacking him. But why the others?’

Field hadn’t fully wrapped her head around that herself yet. She let Riley answer.

‘She thought they must have all known, and helped cover it up to protect David,’ Riley said. ‘As you know, Paige Jacobs died in a traffic accident. It seems Ruby always suspected it was deliberate – a suicide. After she found the playscript, she took it to be, well, evidence.’

No one spoke.

The tiny courtyard garden could have been suspended in time.

Finally, Penny spoke. ‘David loved those kids, you know? Even though he worked with hundreds of children later, they were always special to him.

‘I know David and I weren’t – we weren’t together when he died. But I loved him. He was a good person, to his core, and he’d be—’ her voice caught ‘—be devastated by all this.’

‘We’re so sorry, Penny,’ Zara said, taking Penny’s hand across the table. ‘So sorry for your loss.’

Penny squeezed it.

‘I don’t know if I told you this,’ Field said quietly. ‘But as well as wearing his wedding ring, David was carrying a photo of you in his wallet.’

Penny tipped her head back, looking up at the sky and pressing the heels of her hands into her cheeks to stem the tears.

Field realised it was the first time she’d seen Penny cry.

‘At least it wasn’t one of those kids,’ Penny said at last. ‘It’s not much, but it’s something. He wasn’t killed by one of his kids.’