For Your Own Protection(58)

‘Are you okay?’ Beth looked up from the sofa, her arm around Charlie.

Matt realised he probably looked hot and flustered. ‘The storage area in the top room. Did James fit a lock to the door?’

Beth frowned. ‘Not that I know of. But I don’t really go up there. It’s James’s space.’

‘There’s a new padlock on there. But I can’t find the key. Have you any idea where it might be?’

Beth kissed Charlie on the forehead and got up. ‘We still keep all the keys in the kitchen cupboard, where we used to have them.’ She moved into the kitchen and opened the cupboard unit, which was filled with bunches of keys dangling from hooks. None of them looked small enough to fit the padlock upstairs.

‘How about that one?’ Beth suggested. She picked out a small key.

‘Too big,’ Matt said, scanning the others. He stopped and looked at Beth. ‘Do you have any idea what is up there now, in the storage area?’

‘No. I can’t remember the last time I looked in there. When James moved in, well, he adopted the room for his office, and I was glad to give it to him. As far as I know, it still has Charlie’s baby toys and clothes.’

‘But he wouldn’t fit a padlock on it if that was all that was up there.’

‘No, he wouldn’t.’

‘Maybe he’s kept it secret from you.’

Beth seemed to find that thought disturbing. ‘Maybe.’

Matt wanted to reach out and comfort her, but he resisted the temptation. ‘I’m really sorry, Beth, for making you question James like this. Whatever you might think, it doesn’t give me any satisfaction. Not in these circumstances.’

Beth placed her hand on his arm. ‘I don’t think that, Matt, at all. I know you’re doing this to try to protect Charlie.’

‘And you too.’

Only then did Beth seem to realise that she was still touching Matt’s arm, and she withdrew her hand self-consciously. She looked away, embarrassed.

A thought came to him. ‘How about the floor safe?’ Matt and Beth had had the fire-resistant floor safe concreted into the floor of their utility room a year after they moved in, to hold their passports and most precious jewellery.

‘I lost the key to the safe a few weeks ago,’ Beth admitted, reddening. ‘I needed my passport for, you know, the Australia plans.’ She looked sheepish. ‘I don’t know where the key went. I remember unlocking the safe, then locking it back up, but I just couldn’t remember what I did with it after that. We looked everywhere.’

‘I know where there’s a spare.’

‘You do?’

‘Unless it’s been moved,’ he said, moving back into the living room. Charlie was building something with Lego. He’d switched off the TV. ‘Look, Daddy, I’ve built a spaceship! Whoosh!’

Matt crouched down and Charlie handed him his creation. ‘Wow, that’s brilliant!’

Charlie beamed. ‘I love building. I build lots of things in school.’

‘I know you do,’ Matt said, kissing the top of his head.

Charlie returned to his play as Matt went over to the bookcase. He pulled out the hardback copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, and there it was, still taped to the inside of the back cover. A smile broadened his lips. ‘You beauty.’

Beth had entered the room. ‘You got it?’

‘Yes,’ Matt said, heading for the utility room. A quick half-turn of the key in the lock, and the safe revealed its contents.

Two rings. And one small padlock key.

‘It’s in there?’ Beth said.

‘Looks like it could be.’

They all made their way upstairs, wanting to stay together. ‘You know,’ Matt said, as he paused at the bottom of the final flight leading to the top-floor office, ‘this key might not be the right one after all.’

‘It is,’ Beth said. ‘I can feel it.’

‘I hope so. You wait here with Charlie.’

Beth nodded. A ransacked room wasn’t the place for a child.



The key fitted the lock perfectly, and a quarter-turn saw the bolt flick out of its clasp. ‘It’s the right key,’ Matt shouted downstairs to where Beth and Charlie were still waiting.

He pulled back the door and flicked on the light switch that he remembered was on the right, just inside the crawl space. The storage area lit up, and Matt was left staring at the familiar bags of Charlie’s toys and clothes. For a second he thought that was it, but beyond those bags was one he didn’t recognise – a cream-and-brown rucksack. He wriggled further forward and hauled the toys and clothes out of the way in order to reach the bag. Heaving it out of the storage area and into the office, it hit the ground with quite a thud.

‘Is everything okay?’ Beth shouted.

‘Yes,’ Matt said, kneeling over the bag.

He grabbed the zip and pulled.





CHAPTER FORTY-ONE


‘So, you wanted to see me?’

Harvey watched Tyrone as his sister’s boyfriend put on a show of bravado, puffing out his chest and approaching with a swagger. ‘Yeah, bruv, I did.’ Tyrone smiled.

‘How are the injuries?’ Harvey quipped. A bruise blossomed along the left side of the man’s face, where Harvey had caught him beautifully with a left hook.