Page 92 of No Safe Place
It was too much.
Scott was right. Callum did manipulate her. Over the years they had both said awful, hurtful things to each other. He could be jealous, petty, mean. Cal always knew how to most upset her, what he could say to get the maximum reaction and cause the most hurt.
And Lily had learned a lot from him.
She bent down, kneeled in front of Scott, and took his face in her hands. He gazed soulfully back at her, his cheeks still dry.
‘You’re right,’ she said softly, and Scott’s bottom lip trembled. ‘Callum is bad for me.’
Scott nodded, opened his mouth to speak—
‘No, let me finish.’ She stroked his cheek with her thumb and maintained eye contact. ‘Callum is bad for me. But I still love him.’
The knife found its mark. Scott’s shoulders stiffened, and she leaned in closer. ‘No one will ever love you, Scott, not like I love him. Not me – not anyone.’
Scott forgot to look hurt or pained. He just looked shocked.
Lily stood, tried to leave the room again, but Scott grabbed at her leg, catching the hem of her jeans.
‘Don’t tell anyone,’ he said. ‘I’ll lose my job – my medical licence. Please – please don’t tell anyone.’
Lily eyed him coldly. ‘I’m going to tell anyone who will listen. Your boss, the medical board.’ She pulled her leg free from his grip. ‘How dare you think I wouldn’t.’
Chapter 64
Saturday | Morning
Field
Field got to the station at quarter past seven. She’d showered, straightened her hair – even put on make-up. Everyone else looked rested, but after finishing Callum’s book at gone four, she’d had a few hours’ fitful doze before her alarm went off.
Day four – and another night with no reported incidents. They had two days before the super reassigned the investigation, and still had no name for Patient C.
Field needed to concentrate on the case, but she kept thinking about Toby.
She wanted to tell him that she’d read Callum’s book. All these years, she’d never been able to fathom what might have been going on in Toby’s head, when he was a teenager. All she knew was the terror and the confusion of being trapped on the outside.
But then she readDarlings, Obsessed.
Riley and Wilson were in before eight, both looking forfresh links between David and Sam, convinced that if they were the only intended victims, there had to be something going on between them. Their chatter and speculation finally snapped Field out of it.
She was waiting for the results of the DNA comparison between the semen sample found on Sam and David’s DNA, but then Riley dropped a print-out on Field’s desk. It was Sam’s phone download, back late last night from Digital Forensics.
Field skimmed a string of messages between Sam and a man saved in her phone as “James Hinge”. They’d been messaging for over a fortnight, and met for a first date on Tuesday. There were messages from Wednesday morning, thanking Sam for breakfast, suggesting he’d been with her overnight, when David was attacked. A DC was already on the way to follow it up.
The team had completely taken over the whiteboards in the conference room. Furthest left were David and Sam’s photographs, surrounded by their known movements and personal information.
In the centre of the board was their list:
PATIENT A: LILY STEWART
PATIENT B: SAMANTHA HUGHES
PATIENT C:?
PATIENT D: CALLUM MULLIGAN
PATIENT E: PAIGE JACOBS
