Page 66 of Dead to Me

‘This is ten to eight, when she arrived.VIP queue, so they got in early.’

The screen was suddenly filled with a black-and-white but thankfully clear image that must have been taken from just outside the porters’ lodge.On the left was a table where a couple of students in black suits were presumably checking tickets.To the right of the frame was the expanse of the court, a huge space that had a queue of people dressed in evening wear snaking round it.In the corner of the screen Reid could see what looked suspiciously like a hot-air balloon.

He had a moment to think that this whole May Ball thingwas madness before a figure appeared at the ticket table and it made the breath catch in his throat.

‘There she is,’ the porter said, tapping the screen.

But Reid didn’t need the comment.Of course it was Anna.

She was wearing the dress he’d seen in the photograph Seaton had sent, her hair elaborately curled and pinned up.Despite a serious pair of high heels that made her taller than most of the men around her, she moved smoothly as she stepped back from the table slightly.

Even in black and white, she looked like she had the sun on her.And god, it hurt to see.

Reid saw her head tip back slightly as she laughed at something, and he knew exactly how it would have sounded.He was vaguely aware that a few students trickled through the porters’ lodge entrance while he was watching, and that Trish went to see to them, but he couldn’t look away.

The student at the desk handed Anna something– a programme, maybe– and she slid it into her handbag and then put the bag onto her shoulder.And then she turned and moved away, until she was out of range of the camera.And that was all.The video carried on without her in it, seeming blank.Empty.

Trish returned, and he asked, ‘So you didn’t pick her up anywhere else?’

‘We don’t have a huge number of cameras,’ she replied.‘She’s not on any of the feeds I’ve looked at.Scanning through the crowds leaving is taking a while.I’m being careful.But nothing so far, and I’m most of the way through.’

‘Can students book rooms for the night?’he asked.‘I mean, I’m wondering if she stayed with someone here after the ball.’

‘Well, Trinity students have their own rooms already,’ Trish told him.

‘But students from other colleges?’

‘No,’ Trish said.‘They don’t have room rights here.Just alum members.’

Reid opened his mouth to ask something else and then remembered that most of these kids had parents who’d been to Cambridge, too.If those parents had gone to Trinity, they’d have the right to book rooms as alumnus members.

‘Can you check some names for me on your booked rooms?’he asked.

‘Sure,’ Trish said, and he thanked his stars that he’d happened on an amenable porter.If he’d had to argue over all of this, it could have taken a long time.

‘The surnames would be Jaffett, Frankland, Sedgewick and Thomas.’

Trish wrote those down and then brought up a new screen.She scrolled and checked between it and the names, and then said, ‘There was a Roland Frankland booked in last night, but none of the others.’

Reid straightened up, adrenaline flooding through him.

Kit’s father had a room.

‘Was it just for one night?’

‘Actually, two.He extended it today.’

And that might mean everything.Why extend a room booking if it was just for his son, who had his own room a ten-minute walk away?

What if she’s being held right here in the college?

And then the fact that twenty-four hours had gone past hit him like a train.

They might want something from her,he thought, trying to convince himself that it was all going to be all right.If they need something from her, they’d hold her.They wouldn’t do anything else.

‘Will you be able to show me the room?’he asked.

‘Well, we can’t let anyone in without good reason,’ Trish said.‘First thing I’d say, you have to go over there and knock.If there’s no answer, we can maybe look at getting in there once Peter’s back from doing the rounds.’

---