Page 76 of No Safe Place

Sunday | Midnight

Lily

It was gone midnight, and Scott still wasn’t back at the flat. She’d left her phone off, so if he’d messaged her she hadn’t seen it.

She had nowhere else to go. DS Wilson had called to say she should stay safe indoors tonight and keep the doors locked.

Lily didn’t feel safe in this flat, not anymore.

If he was still out this late, on his night off, then Scott would be getting shit-faced.

Usually he was pious, sipping one low-calorie bottled beer for an hour and then moving on to slimline tonic.

But there had been a handful of nights out with his old med school mates.

Scott swore he was just hungover, but Lily recognised the signs of a comedown.

A few months ago, he’d had a difficult shift at the hospital. A patient put in a complaint about something – Lily never got the full story. He’d gone out on his own and she hadn’t heard from him for two days.

On the bus home tonight, she’d thought of a thousand scathing things to say to him when she got in, and then he was just gone. It was unnerving, being on her own in his flat, waiting for him to get back.

She’d looked everywhere for the pills he must have been giving her. Taken the flat apart as thoroughly as DCI Field’s team would have. He must have got rid of them today, or kept them in his car, because she didn’t find anything.

She did find a bag of coke, right at the back of his bedside drawer. He always said anyone who did drugs was pathetic.

She flushed it down the toilet. Fucking hypocrite.

Lily didn’t need the pills themselves. There’d be her medical records, and his prescriptions. She would tell them how violating it was, finding out that someone had been trying to regulate your moods for you. Putting powdered tablets in her tea, or her food.

Her tote bags were packed, at the end of the bed.

She couldn’t wait up much longer, but she didn’t want him to come back in when she was sleeping.

Eventually, when her eyes kept closing on the sofa, she dragged one of the dining chairs into his bedroom, and wedged it under the handle. Lily hadn’t really expected it to work, but it did.

She left the lights on, just in case. Crawled into his bed for the final time, and fell asleep.