The Safe House by Nicci French Read Free Book Online

it concerned a problem that has arisen in Stamford. I was struck by the remarkable coincidence that the best person I know in the field has just moved up the road from Stamford, so I came to see you.’
    ‘I’m flattered, Thelma. How can I help you?’
    Thelma took a bite from a biscuit and frowned.
    ‘You should keep biscuits in a tin, Sam,’ she said. ‘Left in an open packet, they go soft. Like this one.’ But she finished it anyway.
    ‘Not if you eat the whole packet in one day.’
    ‘We have a nineteen-year-old girl whose parents have been murdered. She was attacked also but survived.’
    ‘Using my famous forensic skills, I think I can guess at the case you’re talking about. This is the murder of the pharmaceutical millionaire and his wife.’
    ‘Yes. Did you know him?’
    ‘I think I may have used his shampoo occasionally.’
    ‘So you know the details. Fiona Mackenzie’s life is not in any immediate danger. But she is scarcely speaking. She has refused to see anybody she knows. I understand that there are no surviving relatives in Britain, but she won’t see any family friends.’
    ‘You mean nobody at all? It’s none of my business, but she should be encouraged to restore some sort of connection.’
    ‘She allowed the family’s GP to visit her. I think that’s all.’
    ‘That’s a start.’
    ‘What would you recommend for a case such as hers?’
    ‘Come on, Thelma, I can’t believe you’ve come up here from London for my advice about a patient I’ve only read about in the papers. What’s going on?’
    Thelma smiled and refilled her mug.
    ‘There’s a problem. The police consider that she is possibly still at risk from the people who murdered her parents and tried to murder her. She needs to be kept reasonably secure, and I wanted some advice about what might be best for somebody who has suffered as she has.’
    ‘Do you want me to see her?’
    Thelma shook her head.
    ‘This is all unofficial. I just wanted to know what your first thoughts on the subject might be.’
    ‘Who’s treating her? Colin Daun, I suppose.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘He’s all right. Why not ask him ?’
    ‘I’m asking you.’
    ‘You know what I’m going to say, Thelma. She should be in a familiar environment with family or friends.’
    ‘There is no family. The possibility of her staying with friends has been considered, but the matter is academic because she has rejected the idea out of hand.’
    ‘Well, I don’t think staying in hospital for an extended period will do her much good.’
    ‘It’s not practical, anyway.’ Thelma drained her coffee. ‘This is a lovely house, Sam. Large, isn’t it? And quiet.’
    ‘No, Thelma.’
    ‘I wasn’t saying…’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Just wait a moment,’ Thelma said, with a more insistent tone now. ‘This is a severely troubled girl. Let me tell you what I know about her. Then say no.’ She sat back, marshalling her thoughts. ‘Fiona Mackenzie is nineteen years old. She is academically clever, although not brilliant, and apparently she has always been eager to please and to conform. A slightly anxious girl, in other words. I gather she was quite dominated by her father, who had a very forceful personality. Since puberty, she has been somewhat overweight.’ I remembered the plump, smiling face of the girl in the news. ‘When she was seventeen she had a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized in a godawful private unit up in Scotland for almost six months. In the process she lost almost half her body-weight and plumpness became anorexia that nearly killed her.’
    ‘How long has she been out?’
    ‘She was discharged in the summer, missing the last term of school and her A levels; I think the plan was that she was going to go to a crammer this year and do them. And then she immediately spent a few months going around South America; I think her parents felt it would mark a new beginning. She’s only been back a couple of weeks, if that. It seems that the