Page 66 of No Safe Place

Saturday | Morning

Field

‘Thank you for joining the Zoom, especially on a Saturday,’ Field said, exhaling. ‘I have DS Riley and DS Wilson in the room with me here.’

Her internet connection wasn’t great, and some of the faces were frozen. Riley and Wilson were next to her, hands clasped around steaming mugs.

Bellamy was using his phone, walking through Callum’s house with headphones in.

Zara was in Penny’s garden. Professor Robinson – Prof – had a backdrop of books, on ancient-looking oak shelves.

Young was in her modern, Scandi living room, sipping from a Le Creuset espresso cup Field had got her as a set last Christmas.

Last to join the call was Dr Maxwell, frowning down the camera from his cupboard-sized office.

Field addressed Maxwell first, keen to get his take and then invite him to leave the call, so they could speak openly about Mulligan.

‘Dr Maxwell, can I ask – is it still your intention to discharge Callum tomorrow?’

‘Yes,’ he said, curtly. ‘I spoke to him at length last night. My assessment is that on his normal medication Callum is perfectly lucid, and doesn’t pose a threat to himself or others.

He’s recovered from the stress he was subjected to at the scene.

The social worker will be here tomorrow to sign him out. ’

Wilson made a note, as Riley sat up straighter.

‘When will he be able to go back to his house?’ Maxwell asked.

Bellamy, who had turned his camera off, suddenly reappeared. ‘I’d expect us to be out of here by tomorrow morning. Obviously, if we find anything it could be longer.’

‘That’s good,’ Maxwell said. ‘Staying in a hotel wouldn’t have been an option for Callum.’

‘In your opinion, has he been affected by the attack on Sam, beyond witnessing it?’ Field asked.

‘Well, yes.’ Maxwell shifted in his seat. ‘She was a friend, in the past. They hadn’t been in touch for some time, but he was still upset.’ He sighed. ‘I can’t really say any more than that, without breaching my patient’s confidentiality.’

Field added a line on her “patient confidentiality” tally.

‘If we want to speak to him again today—’ Field said, letting her question hang in the air.

Maxwell looked reluctant. ‘Yes, it would be admissible.’

‘Right, okay,’ Field said, with a smile. She did a quick mental calculation of exactly how many people she needed to speak to, and how many different places she had to be in. ‘In that case, we will see you tomorrow morning. Before the social worker. Thank you, again, Dr Maxwell.’

‘No worries.’ He added a curt goodbye and signed off.

‘Nice chap,’ Prof said, cheerfully.

‘Right, so we believe we’ve traced Paige Jacobs’ family address,’ Field said. ‘We’re going to head there next. Riley has spoken to—’

‘The sister,’ he said, keenly. ‘Ruby Jacobs.’

Field nodded. ‘She’ll be expecting us, Wilson. The RTC report suggests the accident was caused by a combination of deep water on the road, a mechanical fault with the car and possibly excessive speed. It was a long time ago, so nothing to suggest it’s related to this case.’

‘I’m happy to take a look at the pathology report,’ Prof chimed in. ‘If that would be useful.’

‘Great, thanks. Riley – get that sent over please.’ Field took a sip from her mug.

‘So, we still haven’t found any recent messages between David and Sam.

Sam had been on a date with a man from Hinge, and she seems to be his alibi for the night of David’s murder.

I’ve got a couple of DCs heading to speak to him.

‘Anything I’ve missed?’ she asked Riley and Wilson, who shook their heads. ‘Great, so I think that’s my update. Bellamy, can you give us a summary of what you’ve found at Callum Mulligan’s house, and on the street?’

‘Morning, boss,’ the voice down the line said, sounding chipper, despite the all-nighter.

‘We’ve not turned anything up inside the address.

All the kitchen knives appear present and correct, and they’re all blunt.

I’ve bagged all the dark clothing, as requested.

Shoes too, although UV checks aren’t showing blood on any of the soles, and they don’t look like they’ve been worn out of the house recently. ’

Bellamy was speaking delicately, because he knew about Callum’s “housebound” alibi.

‘But we did find something outside.’

Field sat up in her chair, as Bellamy fiddled with his phone and swapped to the back camera, so they could see the evidence bag in his hand.

‘Look familiar?’ he asked. ‘It’s page 2.’

Through the clear window of the paper bag, they could see a typed sheet of A4.

‘So that looks like a match for the sheet found at the David Moore scene. Where was it, Bellamy?’

‘Under a neighbour’s hedge. Found it during the final fingertip search. There’s blood on it, which we can safely assume belongs to your victim.’

‘Let’s get it to fingerprints today,’ Field breathed. ‘Riley, phone ahead and get it flagged as urgent. Excellent work, Bellamy.’

‘No worries. Final crime scene log and all the paperwork will be with you tomorrow morning. There is one other thing,’ Bellamy said. ‘I’ll have to board the back door up. Bloody thing keeps blowing open, and he’ll get robbed otherwise.’

‘Fine,’ Field said. ‘Penny Moore – have you had anything back from Digital Forensics? Has there been any contact between David and Penny, since he moved out?’

‘They’ve checked again – nothing that we can see. Also, I know you were concerned that she had her phone off, so we couldn’t use cell site to put her at home on Thursday night.’

‘Oh yeah?’ Field said.

Bellamy shrugged. ‘Well, I’ve downloaded the data from her Ring doorbell – and the one over the road too. Both ran all night, and there was no movement. She doesn’t leave the house, car doesn’t move. Lights are off.’

‘So, I think we’re pretty close to ruling her out as a person of interest,’ Field said. ‘Thank you, Bellamy. Appreciate the attention to detail, as always.’

He nodded. ‘No worries – cheers all.’ Bellamy signed off the call.

Field looked to Young’s rectangle on the screen. ‘Anything back from the lab tests at the post-mortems?’

Young shook her head. ‘You’re looking at mid-week, earliest, for the fingernail scrapings. Preliminary reports from the clothing by Tuesday, at a push.’

‘Ever the optimist, Young,’ Prof boomed, leaning forward. ‘I’m sure you’re not surprised, DCI Field, but not much has changed our side since yesterday. I have taken a second round of swabs today, of Samantha Hughes.’

Unbidden, the image of her lying on the mortuary table sprang to Field’s mind.

‘I’m still hopeful we may have contact DNA from the slip in the blood,’ Young said.

‘Thank you, both. Sorry to drag you onto the call,’ Field said.

‘Not at all.’ Prof waved a hand. ‘It’s useful, keeps us up to date. I’ll have David Moore’s prelim PM report for you by end of the day today. Samantha’s tomorrow.’

Young nodded, and Field’s eyes swivelled to Zara Ayres. ‘How does Penny Moore seem?’

‘I got here about an hour ago. She’s sleeping.’ Zara was speaking in hushed tones, and Field upped the laptop’s volume. ‘Dr Simon Dawes is planning to stay on for a few more days, says he’ll keep an eye on her.’

There was a brief pause.

‘Right,’ Field said. ‘Today is going to be busy. We need to speak to Paige Jacobs’ sister, Lily Stewart – and ideally Penny Moore, too.’

She thought for a moment. ‘Let us speak to Ruby Jacobs first, then we’ll head to the Moore house. Wilson, you’re with me again today. Riley, I want you to update the decision log and collate any additional victimology we’ve turned up in the last twenty-four hours.’

Everyone on the call knew it was a snub, the ongoing repercussions of his fuck-up with Callum.

She thanked them all, the civvy support worker promised to get the notes over in the next hour or so, and Field closed the laptop.