Page 71 of No Safe Place

Saturday | Afternoon

Field

‘Zara? Can you hear me?’

Field waited, then heard a sliding door open.

‘Can you hear me now?’ Zara asked.

‘Yeah, that’s better.’ Field accepted her coffee from the barista, and moved away from the noisy coffee machine. ‘How’s Penny doing?’

‘She’s okay,’ Zara said. ‘She’s actually been talking today. What time will you be here?’

Field grimaced.

Wilson took her cup from the server with a smile, and came over to stand next to Field, avoiding the many prams and toddlers in her path.

Riley had promised that he’d have an address for Andrew Levey inside the hour, so they’d stopped at a little caff in Erith, just for a breather.

Wilson had tapped away, typing up the notes from her daybook, while Field composed a detailed update for the super.

It shouldn’t have taken her as long as it had, but it took a lot of edits to tone down her obvious dislike.

‘I don’t think we’re going to make it there today.’ Field walked outside and scanned the tables on the pavement for a spare seat. ‘Depends on how it goes with Andrew Levey, when we find him.’

The only free table was covered in dirty plates and mugs, but it’d have to do.

‘I can let her know,’ Zara said.

Field appreciated that there was no sulk in her tone. ‘What have you been chatting about? Anything useful?’

Wilson was stacking the plates and tidying the table, to make it easier for the servers. Thoughtful, but annoying.

‘Well.’ Zara lowered her voice. ‘She admitted to me this morning that she knew Callum had been at the trial. Partly because David was still treating him, but also because of the book.’

It made sense.

‘I think she’s worried we’re going to charge her with obstruction, for not mentioning it on the first day. And she’s convinced herself that if she had told you, Sam wouldn’t be dead.’

‘Jesus,’ Field said.

She suddenly felt like a piece of shit for not trying to cram a visit to Penny in, between visiting Ruby and knocking for Andy.

‘That’s not all. She also knew about Paige.’

Field sat up in her chair. ‘How?’

‘Well, she was married to David by then, when Paige died. Apparently he was devastated. She never saw him that upset, before or since.’

Field frowned. That made it two names that Penny had held back.

‘She’s adamant that that’s it. David used to talk about them as a group, sometimes, but he always called them “the kids”. Simon Dawes is back today, and he’s confirmed that.’

‘Okay,’ Field said. ‘Well, it is what it is. Try and reassure her.’

‘Will do, ma’am. I’m going to stay here for another hour, and then drive over to Rickmansworth. Check in on Mr and Mrs Hughes. They’ve asked to see Sam, so I’ll try and get that arranged for tomorrow.’

‘Ask Professor Robinson to have a word, if you’re struggling to get through to anyone on a Saturday. Oh, and Zara?’

‘Yes, ma’am?’

‘Make sure Penny knows that we’re doing everything we can. Tell her I’ll be by in the next few days, and to try not to worry, okay?’

They said a hasty goodbye.

Field had kept an open mind when it came to Penny, suspecting she knew more than she’d let on, but never sure how much.

She was left-handed, and she’d had odd reactions to the news of her husband’s attack – but Field didn’t believe she was a suspect.

The super was still keen for them to have a prime suspect, something he could sell on to his superiors, but Field wasn’t going to pester a grieving widow, just because they had nothing more solid to go on.

Her phone buzzed in her hand, and Wilson’s screen lit up.

Wilson snatched it up, then gave Field the nod. Andy’s address.

Andrew Levey’s door was answered almost immediately by a twenty-something blonde girl, in tiny pyjamas. She was dabbing at her chest with a bag of frozen peas. ‘Yeah?’

Field was surprised. She seemed an unlikely housemate. ‘I’m DCI Field, and this is DS Wilson. Is Andrew Levey home please?’

‘Andy?’ The girl’s eyes widened, and she crossed her arms over her chest. ‘He’s not here. Why?’

‘Could we come in?’ Wilson hesitated. ‘Sorry, I didn’t catch your name.’

She turned to her, answered frostily. ‘It’s Lisa.’

If Riley was here, he’d have charmed his way in by now.

Field took the lead. ‘Are you Andrew’s girlfriend, Lisa?’

She let out a bark of laughter. ‘Andy? God no.’

Field smiled. ‘So, who is Andy to you? A housemate?’

‘He’s a friend,’ Lisa said slowly. She leaned against the banisters. ‘We’re five of us here – we went to uni together. He’s got the top room.’ Lisa’s eyes widened. ‘Shit. Has something happened to him?’

‘Let’s do this inside the house, shall we?’

Lisa took them inside, to a messy living room, and Wilson told her about the two attacks, keeping the link to Andy vague.

‘An OCD doctor? Andy has OCD,’ Lisa said, frowning. ‘I mean – he’s fine. We’re all used to it. It’s not like it stops him working, or anything.’

Field was surprised at the frankness. Clearly Andy hadn’t hidden his illness from his uni friends, now housemates.

‘What does he work as?’ Field asked.

‘He’s a software engineer.’ Lisa pointed to the pile of laptops on the dining table. She was rambling, nervous. ‘We all did computer science at UCL. I’m a UX designer at a start-up. Andy works for Microsoft. He’s the front-end lead on a major software upgrade to SharePoint. He earns silly money.’

Wilson’s pen hovered above her notebook. ‘And Andy’s OCD, it doesn’t affect his work?’

‘No,’ Lisa said firmly. ‘He finds it hard when we’re noisy, sometimes – and there’s still the odd thing we do around the house to make life a bit easier for him, but most of the time you’d never guess, not nowadays. I’m not sure his work even knows.’

‘And when you said he’s not here—’

‘He’s gone to stay at his mum’s place for a few days. She passed away, a few months ago. He’s doing it up, to sell.’

‘And when did you last see him, Lisa?’ Field asked, already getting her phone out to send an urgent email.

‘Thursday morning, when he left for work. He was in bed by the time I got back on Thursday night, and I think he left for his mum’s early on Friday. What is this about?’

‘You’ve been really helpful,’ Wilson soothed. ‘We just want to make sure Andy’s safe.’

Lisa let them go up into his room. They were pushing it, without a search warrant, but Field wanted answers, and they’d wasted enough time.

The room would be easy to search, when they did get a warrant. It was almost completely bare. There were shelves holding a few books and some well-cared-for houseplants. He had an open wardrobe rail, a small chest of drawers and a desk.

The bed had been stripped, the bare duvet folded on top of the mattress.

Wilson snapped on a pair of gloves and opened the desk drawer. Field leaned over to look inside.

Neatly laid out were his phone, his laptop, his bank cards.

‘Anything that could be used to trace him,’ Wilson said grimly, sliding the drawer shut without touching anything.

Field rubbed her temple. ‘So, he was last seen early on Thursday morning – the morning after Sam’s attack.

He was one of David’s patients, but as far as we know, he’s not been in treatment for OCD since.

’ Field hesitated, tapping her phone against her hand.

‘And at some point between Thursday morning and today he’s disappeared without his phone, bank cards – anything. ’

Wilson still had gloves on, moving aside the trailing houseplants to peer at the books.

Field caught sight of the laundry basket, at the end of the bed. She used her pen to lift the lid. ‘Wilson—’

Field looked down at the white T-shirt, crusted with blood. The bedsheets beneath it were filthy – the light blue pinstripes stained black.

‘The Territorial Support Group are being briefed as we speak.’ The super sounded energised, full of praise for their initiative in tracing Andrew Levey through his work.

‘Thank you, sir,’ Field said down the phone, throwing a thumbs-up at Wilson. ‘That’s great.’

He’d handled the warrant for Andrew Levey’s house personally, and he’d called DCs from MIT5 and MIT2 into work, for extra support.

‘Make sure you nail the bastard, Field,’ he said, happily. ‘Wrap this up nice and quick and, well—’

It might bring the Met some positive press for once, and earn him major brownie points with the commissioner.

For once, Field didn’t care what his motivations were. They were making progress, and all she wanted was to bring Andy into custody – safely.