Page 83 of No Safe Place

Sunday | Morning

Field

Tomorrow, that was their deadline. Monday morning, and without Andrew Levey in custody or a decent new lead, the super would reassign the case.

Field had barely got back and sat down at her desk, before Riley sprinted into her office.

‘Boss, I think we’ve got him.’

She stopped short. ‘Already? What, in Brighton?’

Riley exhaled. ‘Yeah, in bloody Brighton. In the exact B&B you thought he’d be in.’

She was stunned. It was never that easy, never this straightforward to apprehend a suspect. Even the stupid ones were harder to catch, and Levey was a well-paid software engineer.

Riley looked a little crestfallen that his news hadn’t been met with a bigger reaction.

‘We’ve told the owner of the B&B not to go near him for now,’ Riley said. ‘Apparently he’s totally out of it – might have taken something. Are you going to blue-light it down there?’

Field shook her head. ‘If we get caught in traffic and he gets away, we’re fucked. Let a Brighton car bring him in.’ She stood up, sweeping her notebook back into her handbag. ‘Let’s grab Wilson and start planning the interview.’

When she looked up, Riley was smirking. ‘What?’

‘Aren’t you forgetting something?’ he asked her, and she could have slapped the smug smile off his face, until the penny dropped.

‘When did he check in?’ she asked, but she knew the answer from Riley’s expression.

‘Friday afternoon,’ he said, with a flourish. ‘And his housemates hadn’t seen him, had they? So, he’s got no alibi for either attack.’

It’s never this easy , Field thought again.