Chapter 12
TWELVE
Cain breezed into the office to find Morgan slumped onto her desk, head resting in the crook of her elbows, and the sound of Ben snoring filtering through his office door as he slept in his chair.
Stan, who was a lot smaller and older than Cain, walked straight into the back of him, hitting him like you would if you walked into a solid door.
‘Oof, sorry, mate. That’s my back out of joint. What are you made of, metal?’
‘Shush.’ He turned to Stan who looked confused.
‘Why?’
Cain stepped to one side so Stan could see and whispered, ‘Something’s gone down, come on, we’ll work in one of the empty offices and give them a bit of time.’
Stan nodded, and Cain began to gently close the door.
‘Where are you two going?’ Marc’s voice bellowed down the corridor, making Morgan jerk her head up. She looked wild. Her hair was more down than up; her eyeliner was smudged and there were dark circles under her eyes.
Cain whispered, ‘Sorry.’
She croaked, ‘What time is it?’
‘Almost eight.’
Rubbing her eyes with her fingers, she straightened up. ‘Crap.’
Marc strode into the room, took one look at her, then craned his neck to see Ben who was still asleep in his chair. ‘Why didn’t the pair of you go home?’
‘We were going through the case files for the past three murders.’
‘Can’t pay you for sleeping, you know that right?’
Cain pulled a face behind his back and moved his closed fingers up and down as he mouthed, ‘Wanker.’
This made Morgan cup a hand across her mouth so the smirk on her lips was concealed. ‘Yes, boss.’
‘Did you find anything?’
Morgan needed coffee and fast because she felt as if her brain was nothing but thick sludge, and her mouth was so dry it was hard to form words. She shook her head instead.
Marc strode across to Ben’s office door and threw it open. ‘Wakey, wakey, rise and shine.’
Ben snorted and snapped his head up, staring at Marc in complete confusion until he realised where he was. Morgan didn’t miss the flash of anger in his eyes as he stared at the boss, who stepped inside, closing the door behind him.
Cain’s voice was as hushed as he could make it. ‘What’s going on?’
Stan was sitting at his desk logging on to his computer, and he looked up, both of them waiting for her to answer.
She pointed to the whiteboard that had photographs, graphic photographs, of Lauren tacked onto it.
Wendy, at her request, had also taken lots of the outside of the building, and she had a shot of the Keswick Manor Hotel in all its full abandoned glory.
Cain and Stan both stood up, walking nearer to it.
Stan quickly turned away when he realised exactly what he was looking at, but Cain stared long and hard.
‘When did this happen?’
‘Last night, just as we were about to order a takeaway.’
‘No way.’
She nodded and couldn’t help the smile on her lips; Cain’s whole life revolved around food, and at the thought of food her stomach let out a growl so loud even Cain heard it.
‘Well, first of all if you two pulled an all-nighter on empty stomachs you need to eat. I’ll go get you something in a minute, but do we know who the victim is?’
‘We don’t know her as far as I’m aware, no record or intel on the system, but we know of her which makes it completely suck.’
‘We do?’
‘Her sister was Lydia Williams.’ She let her name hang in the air.
‘No.’
‘Unfortunately, yes, and now we need to locate the third sister because she hasn’t been heard from since a couple of days after Lydia’s death.’
‘You think she’s good for this? Hang on, Beth Montgomery confessed to killing Lydia. Who would want to kill her sister?’
‘The same person who killed her sister, most likely. I think we fucked up. I don’t think Beth was the killer, or if she was, she had an accomplice and was covering up for them.’
Stan gaped. ‘What, are you saying that the killer is still out there? What if it’s a copycat though, someone who wants us to think we messed up the first time but it’s someone who wasn’t involved.’ His voice was slightly higher pitched than usual at this notion.
Morgan nodded. ‘If it is a copycat then that’s even more worrying because there are only a few people who know the exact details of the crime scenes. I’d much rather go with the possibility that Beth wasn’t working alone, that makes more sense, I think.’
Stan was shaking his head. ‘Oh my God, this is terrible. PSD are going to be all over us, again. Christ, I came here hoping for a change of scenery and to maybe get some more experience under my belt. I didn’t expect this level of fucked up; we’re all going to be out of jobs and suspended at this rate.
I’ve never had to talk to them in my entire career and now I can’t get away from them. ’
‘Shut up, Stan, we did our best with what we had. It’s nothing to do with us. Are you always this dramatic?’ Cain was incredulous.
‘Well, no, but I’m just stating the obvious. Are you not worried about the repercussions this is going to bring on all of us?’
‘Is that what you call it? Nobody asked for your opinion.’
‘Is everyone okay?’ Ben’s voice was even croakier than Morgan’s.
She replied, ‘Yes, boss. Stan is just freaking out a little over the circumstances of last night’s murder.’
Ben nodded at Stan. ‘Stan, you’re not the only one. Why do you think Morgan and I never went home? Cain can you go grab coffee and bacon butties from somewhere, anywhere. I don’t care as long as they are warm and greasy.’
‘Already on my way, boss.’
‘Thanks, appreciate that.’ Ben threw his debit card in Cain’s direction, but he shook his head.
‘You should have called me; I’d have come in.’
Morgan knew that he would have too. ‘Where were you last night?’
‘At Amy’s, I slept there so I could help with Ava’s night feeds. She’s not sleeping too good; Amy looked exhausted when I went to see her on my way home from work.’
Morgan’s heart melted. Underneath the huge exterior was the softest, kindest-hearted man she knew. ‘You must be tired too.’
He shrugged. ‘Nothing a cappuccino and bacon buttie won’t remedy, besides she was good as gold for me. Amy wasn’t too happy that the little madam slept in my arms, but she looked much better before I left, so she wasn’t complaining too much.’
‘Ava is going to have you wrapped around her tiny fingers.’
Cain beamed at her. ‘She already has, Morgan, and I’m here for it. I never even thought I liked babies, but she is so beautiful, I’m smitten with her. I can’t wait to take her shopping and to her first football training session.’
Morgan laughed. ‘Does Angela not mind you staying over at Amy’s?’
‘She’s been a bit unwell and not sleeping too good herself, said she was relieved to have the bed to herself.’
‘Bless her, I hope she’s feeling better soon. Give her my love when you go home.’
‘I will. Right, I’ll be back before you can say Police Standards Department.’ He winked at Ben, who groaned but laughed anyway.
Marc walked out of Ben’s office.
‘Briefing in the blue room after Cain gets back. Give you two a chance to freshen yourselves up.’
He left with the blue police folders for the last three murders under his arms, and as the door closed behind him Morgan gave him the finger.
‘Some days I think he’s finally chilling enough to be okay, then others he strides in here and winds me up so much I think about throwing him out of the window. ’
Ben laughed.
‘Please don’t do that. As much as we’d all appreciate it PSD would have to take up permanent residence in the corner of the office, and we might get someone even worse to take over.’
He left the office, and she stood up stretching her arms above her head. Her cropped Black Sabbath T-shirt rode up a little too high and she tugged it back down when she realised Stan was staring at her.
‘You might be able to get a transfer back to your old job if they haven’t filled the position yet.’
He smiled at her.
‘No, I like working with you guys. I really do. I’m sorry for freaking out just then. It’s just there is a lot going on that I’ve never seen before in any of the departments I’ve worked in.’
‘Ah, that’s the beauty of Rydal Falls CID.
If you want experience then you’ve come to the right place.
But you have to take the rough with the smooth and lately there hasn’t been much of the smooth.
I should have known it was too good to be true, five weeks of bog-standard shed breaks, domestics and tourist drama was never going to last us out. ’
Stan laughed. ‘You’re funny.’
‘Thanks. I think so too.’ She grinned at him and left him in the office alone to go and get freshened up before she scared everyone to death at the briefing.