Page 25 of No Safe Place
‘Have you spoken to the super yet?’ Riley asked, his voice tight.
Field contemplated her answer. For Riley and Wilson, this case could be career-defining, but there was still every chance the super would allocate it to a DCI with a more senior team, and they’d end up working the fringes of it.
‘He hasn’t called in the last hour, so that’s a good sign,’ she answered, finally.
Wilson burst through the office door already speaking. ‘Boss – you’re going to want to see this. It’s about the document you found – oh.’
Wilson caught sight of Riley and stopped short in the middleof the room. He smiled up at her from his chair, and Wilson’s eyes flicked upwards. She’d clearly hoped to share her find without him.
Wilson laid a thick printout on Field’s desk. The title page matched the sheet found tangled in David’s clothes.The Disordered Approach to Diagnosis.
‘I thought I asked you to look into this?’ Field said to Riley, eyebrows raised.
‘I delegated.’ Riley shrugged, and behind him Wilson’s jaw clenched.
‘Well,Igot someone to look this up, like you asked, and it wasn’t something Moore was working on recently.’ Wilson leaned over and tapped the date at the bottom of the sheet. ‘The paper is fifteen years old.’
‘So why would he be carrying it round with him on a Tuesday night?’ Riley said, through a yawn.
‘I’ve given it a quick glance,’ Wilson said, breathless. ‘The paper was published in 2010, after a pilot study with five teenagers, all sectioned.’ Wilson turned to a patient list and tapped it. ‘Five kids, all let down by the system, all hospitalised at the Maudsley between 2008 and 2009.’
Unbidden, an image of Toby flashed into Field’s mind. Fifteen and unable to get out of bed. Barely saying ten words per day, refusing to eat.
‘Oh God, we’re going to be looking for some schizo, aren’t we?’ Riley muttered.
The look Field gave Riley would have withered even her most senior colleagues, and he looked cowed.
‘Is it relevant though?’ Riley asked. ‘What does this have to do with the stabbing?’
‘Well, it was in his pocket, or under the body or whatever,’ Wilson snapped. ‘That makes it pretty relevant.’
Field thought back to that morning, the moment she foundthe sheet in the torn-away clothing. She woke her computer screen up, flicked through the crime scene photographs.
David had been clutching it to his chest, the paramedic had said. There was nothing to hint at whether the sheet of paper had been deliberately placed on the body by the attacker.
Riley and Wilson were still bickering.
‘Maybe Moore has some sort of saviour complex. Carries it round to show off to people.’
‘He’s done much more impressive work since then.’ Wilson’s voice rose. ‘Why would he be showing people page one of a paper from fifteen years ago?’
Field was scanning the witness statements of the residents who found Moore.
‘Fifteen years. That’s the point, Wilson. It’s good background but it’s hardly motive for murder, is it?’
‘How do you know?’ Wilson scoffed. ‘You haven’t read it.’
‘Enough,’ Field said, and they both snapped their mouths shut.
Wilson had her arms folded. Riley feigned nonchalance.
‘I want us to assume that this wasn’t something David dropped. It may be a long shot, but if the attacker left it for us to find, then it’s our first real lead.’
Wilson’s mouth twitched at the corners.
‘So—’ Field sighed. ‘This study will have been totally anonymous, and it’s old. Is there anything in here we can identify the five kids with?’
‘Well,’ Wilson said slowly, picking up the stack of paper again. ‘They all had different presentations of OCD. Like, there was one who was scared of noise, one who had the germs kind. There are details in that sense.’
