Page 107 of No Safe Place
Field considered this for a moment, and again her thoughts went to Toby. How would he cope, if something happened to her?
In her box, Field found family photo albums and Andrew’s degree certificate. First-class honours from UCL.
Wilson was scanning a bundle of letters. ‘I’ve got postcards from Brighton here.’
‘Any Brighton photos in there?’ Bellamy nodded to the photo album.
‘He needs somewhere he can go to ground,’ Field thought aloud, as she checked. ‘And Brighton makes sense. It’s close enough that he could get there quickly, but it’s out of London.’
A series of family photos caught her eye. A tiny boy, Andrew presumably, standing between his mother and father on the steps of a B&B or a hotel. She’d found a similar picture in the drawer downstairs. The boy Andrew looked serious andworried, squinting up at them. The same photo was recreated over the years, the boy getting taller and a little broader in each one, until he was about twelve.
Field extracted a few of the clearest ones from the sleeves. ‘Call Riley. Send these over to him, and see if we can enlarge it. Tell him to get the name of whatever hotel that is.’
Wilson took a picture of the photograph with her phone, then bagged it.
‘If the hotel is still there, get Riley to phone and ask if they’ve had anyone matching Andy’s description check in.’
Chapter 74
Saturday | Evening
Field
Young was sitting in Field’s usual booth at the back of the Volly, a bottle of wine in an ice bucket in front of her. She’d already filled her own glass, and a second stood ready and waiting.
The balmy weather and lack of football meant most of the patrons were in the beer garden. Apart from Field and Young, the only people inside were the staff and a few old blokes on bar stools.
‘Heya,’ Young said, breezily. ‘I got Pinot – hope that’s okay.’
Young didn’t meet Field’s eye as she sat down. She busied herself pouring the wine, and mopping up the drips from the ice bucket with a tissue from her cavernous handbag.
‘I thought this was going to be about the case,’ Field said. ‘I didn’t realise we were on the lash.’
Young shrugged. ‘Well, you haven’t had a break since Tuesday. I thought you might need a breather.’
‘Right.’
They sat in an awkward silence, sipping from their glasses. Field had a headache starting, behind her eyes.
‘So, the raid on Levey’s house was a washout then?’ Young asked.
‘Yep. He’s disappeared without a trace. I’ve got Riley on a few wild goose chases, but I’m not hopeful.’
‘You never know.’ Young stared down at the table.
As they lapsed into silence again, a bloke at the bar opened a bag of crisps. The sound of him eating set Field’s teeth on edge.
She had a creeping suspicion that something was going on. Young was acting like a parent about to break bad news to a five-year-old. Field took Toby for a spontaneous trip to McDonald’s before she told him Jimmy the hamster had died.
Field didn’t really want to be sitting in the Volly drinking Pinot.
Wilson was ordering the tests on the bloodied clothing found at Andy’s house, filling out the forms that Field would need to authorise when she got home. She should have just ignored Young’s text, pretended she hadn’t seen it.
And now she was here, her friend was distracted. Field could sense that there was something she wanted to talk about, that she was working her way up to.
‘Found anyone interesting on the apps lately?’ Field asked.
Young shrugged. ‘If they’ve still got their hair and their own teeth, they’re looking for someone twenty years younger. My last date cried about his divorce over pudding.’
