Page 7 of No Safe Place
Nights like this, Field really did marvel at the differences in their jobs. Both on hand for the most horrific things – LAS there to save lives, the Met there to pick over them.
‘The girl who was with you, when we arrived,’ Field said, and Mike turned to her. ‘Lea, was it?’
Mike nodded, smiled.
‘She was—’ Field hesitated. ‘She did a really good job.’
‘Would you believe she’s a trainee?’ Mike asked, sitting a little taller. ‘She’s going to be bloody brilliant. I’m getting ready to hand my job over to her.’
Like Field, Mike was the old hand tasked with training up the newbies.
It was still dark, but the sky was starting to take on that grey tinge that meant dawn was round the corner.
‘All debriefed and cleared to go?’ Field asked.
Mike nodded. ‘Nothing else for me?’
‘There was one thing, actually,’ Field said. ‘A sheet of paper.’
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I saw that. He was clutching it to his chest, when we arrived. Didn’t get a chance to look at it – obviously.’
She made a note.
‘Do you mind if I put that in your statement?’ Field asked, and he waved a hand. ‘Great, well – pass my thanks on to Lea.’
Mike stood to leave but she put a hand on his arm.
‘Can I ask—’ She looked down at her notebook, like this was something else she would need to note down. ‘The way Lea was talking to him, all the way through – do you think he could hear her?’
He spoke softly. ‘Your hearing is the last thing to go. And maybe he couldn’t hear a word she said. Maybe he was already out of it before we arrived.’
Field’s grip loosened on her pen, and she almost dropped it. She looked up at Mike.
‘But if he could hear us, he would have been scared. And wouldn’t you want a kind word in your ear, Detective Field?’
Chapter 3
For as long as there have been human beings, there has been a need to keep records.
We have a pathological need to leave a mark behind. Something that saysI was there–something that will survive us.
This is my record. I hope it survives me.
P:Do you wish we could take it back?
D:Look, P—
P:Because I don’t. Is that okay? That I don’t regret it?
Pause
D:It was wrong. It was my fault.
Pause
D:I don’t know. I don’t know how it happened.
Pause
