Page 74 of Dead to Me

I nodded.‘I’m all right.I’d… prefer him not to be here, but I’m going to have to see him sometime, right?’

‘You don’t have to,’ Kit said, immediately.And he gave me a very open, earnest look.‘I will support you in whatever you decide to do, and no matter what Ryan does, I’m not going to let him hurt you ever again.All right?’

And you know, as crappy as I’d been feeling, I felt a sense of genuine reassurance wash through me for the first time in days.

28.Seaton

There was a huge relief to this all being official now.To the fact that Reid had asked him to go to Finsbury Park station and talk to a DC, instead of making him wait, interminably, for something to happen.

There was something even better about sitting once again in an interview room, ten hours after he’d sat in the last one, but this time being listened to.The officer was young and bright-eyed, and wearing a suit instead of a uniform.And Seaton felt instinctively that he could trust this man.

The only thing that made it a little uncomfortable, in fact, was having to remember Reid’s concocted story about Ryan Jaffett’s phone.Luckily, the DC seemed to be nodding along to that, too.

‘So you handed that to DI Reid Murray, along with your daughter’s phone?’the DC asked, once Seaton had explained the rigmarole about the phone being posted through his door with a note.

‘Yes,’ Seaton said.‘By that point I was very concerned for my daughter’s whereabouts and beginning to suspect that she was no longer in Cambridge.’

The DC nodded.

‘It looks as though this is now a Met Police investigation,’ he said.‘Your daughter’s phone last pinged at a location on the outskirts of London.’

Seaton felt his heart twist.Reid hadn’t told him this.Had he known?Or was this new information?

‘Where?’he asked, immediately.

‘Not far from South Mimms services,’ he said.‘Which would be on a driving route from Cambridge.’

Did someone take her?Seaton thought, immediately.Or did she run?

He was opening his mouth to ask what day and time this had been when Reid entered the room, with more presence than he’d seen the man ever exhibit before.And along with the surprise of seeing Anna’s usually rather uninspiring ex arrive as if he’d brought all the energy in the place with him, there was a further surprise in seeing a huge, swelling bruise on the left side of his jaw and a half-closed eye on the same side.

‘Reid,’ Seaton said, getting to his feet hurriedly.‘What on earth…?’

DC Rohin was rising, too.‘Boss, do you need…?’

‘I’m fine,’ Reid said, waving a hand at both of them.He came in and sat a little carefully in the other chair opposite Seaton, but then immediately went on, ‘I’ve asked for this to be made a priority missing persons investigation with possible risk to life.The team’s updated me that Anna’s phone was last traced to the outskirts of London last night, at midnight, but has been switched off since.In addition, I’ve received an email from your daughter’s account with a lot of information that suggests she was involved in a high-risk situation, very much as you thought.’He gave Seaton a very serious look.‘I need you to tell us everything you know about Kit Frankland and his father.’

29.Anna

It’s funny how there are things I’m still finding hard to put down, even now that I’m no longer writing it for you.And when I’m no longer really trying to convince you of anything, either.

But I have to record it somewhere, because some of it is really important.And some of it led me to change my mind about everything and everyone.

So here we go.The Rest of the Pitt Club Dinner.

The moment of calm that happened talking to Kit was pretty much washed away when I walked back into the dining room.I was confronted by Esther pulling Ryan over towards me with a determined look on her face.

What are you doing?Stop it!I wanted to shout.

‘Ryan… has something to say,’ she said, her voice unsteady.

Ryan met my eye for the first time that evening, and I don’t know if the clearly tearful eyes were worse than if he’d looked unrepentant.It felt unfair; like he was demanding sympathy from me.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, quietly.‘I’m so, so sorry.I did… the worst thing.I’ve got to stop.’

‘So why are you here?’I asked him, coldly.‘If you know you need to stop, why are you here, drinking, and making me feel worse?’

He gave me a desperate look, and then said, ‘Because my dad made me come.’He breathed in on what was almost a sob.‘He told me I had to come and talk to the old boys, or…’ He shook his head and looked away for a moment.

---