Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
Joey Baker looked as if he had been on a three-day bender.
If Morgan didn’t know any better, on first impression, she would think he’d been in a brawl that had left him with two black eyes.
They were emphasising just how bloodshot the whites of his eyes were.
He had a thick stubble that was dense and peppered with grey.
He stared at them, looking them up and down, then opened the door wide enough that they could step inside.
‘Joey, I’m Detective Morgan—’
‘I know who you are.’
Morgan glanced in Ben’s direction for the briefest of moments. She nodded at Joey.
‘I’m so sorry for your loss.’
‘Are you though? Because from what I can gather from the little information that has been given to me by you lot, I don’t think you are. If you’d done your job right in the first place, you wouldn’t be standing in our flat pretending to give a shit.’
She could sense Ben straightening up, ready to protect her, and she discreetly held out the palm of her hand behind her back to tell him she had this.
‘Yes, I truly am. We screwed up big time and now Lauren has paid the price of our mistake with her life, and I will never get over that.’
Joey’s shoulders slumped a little, as if someone had let all the air out of him, and he seemed to shrink in size.
‘Thank you, I appreciate that more than you could ever know.’
He turned and led them into the living room which had bare plaster walls, samples of different wallpapers were masking-taped onto them. There were cardboard boxes stacked in one corner.
‘Excuse the mess, Lauren decided we were decorating. Stripped all of the walls and then couldn’t decide which colour or patterned paper she liked. It’s been like this since we moved in.’
He pointed to the sofa. Morgan had to walk past him to take a seat, and she could smell the stale booze that radiated out of his pores. She didn’t blame him one little bit. If she was in his situation she would hit the bottle too. Ben sat next to her; Joey sat on the armchair across from them.
‘I’d offer you a coffee but I’m out of milk. The only thing I have plenty of is vanilla vodka, because that was Lauren’s favourite, and Jack Daniel’s.’
‘We’re good, thanks. I can go get you some supplies. Has the family liaison officer been here?’ Ben asked, concern in his voice that they’d screwed up again and no one had attended.
Joey nodded. ‘Yeah, Caroline. I sent her away last night, just wanted to be alone to try and process it, you know. Have you caught the sick bastard who did this?’
‘Not yet.’
He nodded. ‘But she was killed the exact same way as Lydia, right? Throat cut, stabbed through the chest?’
Morgan had to stop her eyes from searching out Ben’s. How did he know this already?
‘Mike told me, in case you’re wondering if I did it.’
The relief was palpable, of course he would have talked to Mike. Mike who ran up and saw the awful scene with his own two eyes before they’d been able to stop him.
This time she did look at Ben, wanting his approval for her to be honest with Joey. He gave a slight nod of his head.
‘Yes, the similarities between Lydia’s and Lauren’s crime scenes are too much to disregard, and now we have to figure out how we missed Lydia’s killer the first time around.
We really are desperately sorry that you’re going through this.
Beth Montgomery confessed to Lydia’s murder before she took her own life.
She had already attacked me; there was no reason to discount her confession. ’
Joey’s gaze was burning into hers and she felt a heat so uncomfortable it was almost unbearable, but she didn’t look away.
‘So, what does this mean? Someone wanted both Lydia and Lauren dead and that Beth covered for them? If that’s the case, what about Lynsey? Have you taken her into protective custody because it stands to reason that they’re going to go for her next.’
‘We can’t locate Lynsey.’
Joey shook his head and let out an almost maniacal high-pitched laugh. ‘Well, shouldn’t you be out looking for her ASAP? Have you any idea what they did to cause someone to hate them so much they had to butcher them in cold blood?’
‘We have a team out looking for Lynsey and no, that’s what we were hoping you could help us with.
Lancs police dealt with some of the enquiries into Lydia’s death because she lived in Lancaster.
Clearly, we should have done more, too, because somewhere along the line things have been missed that shouldn’t have been. ’
Joey stared at her. ‘Are you always this honest with people? It’s nice that you are. It makes it easier to accept that you fucked up and aren’t afraid to admit it. Now, if you’d come in here pretending that you hadn’t, I’d have had to throw both of you out.’
She shrugged. ‘I can’t express how shit I feel about this; I wouldn’t ever lie to cover myself, it’s not who I am. The whole case is under review by the Professional Standards Department and if there are consequences to pay then we will pay them.’
He nodded. ‘You would have got on well with Lauren, she was very much the same. Worked hard, took no crap and if she messed up, she’d hold up her hand and say that she had.
I don’t want you to get into trouble, I can’t imagine how hard your job must be, and the fact that you have come here to talk to me so honestly, well, it doesn’t make it better, but it helps, a lot. ’
A huge sob escaped from his lips, and he buried his head into his hands as he cried. Morgan stood up and sat on the arm of the chair next to him, patting and rubbing his back.
‘She sounds amazing, I would have liked to meet her.’
After a few deep breaths, Joey blew his nose and swiped the tears from his cheeks with his sleeve.
It was Ben who spoke first. ‘How did Lauren get along with Lynsey?’
‘Not too great, there was always the usual sibling rivalry between them, but after the crash that killed their parents it was as if someone took away their inhibitions and they all had the most awful argument. I don’t think they ever spoke to each other again.
Funny how money can turn some people into green-eyed monsters who care about nobody and nothing except for how much they are getting, even when they did nothing to deserve a single penny of it. ’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, Lauren and Lydia saw their parents the most. Lynsey didn’t bother with them, didn’t even send birthday or Christmas cards. Phoned up once or twice a year if that, yet she was the one who caused all the trouble that led to the argument between the three of them.’
‘Was Lynsey jealous of Lauren and Lydia?’
‘Maybe, I mean she has this yoga business where she posts about love, light, forgiveness, and self-love but deep down she isn’t a very nice person compared to the image she portrays.
She was always making things up. Used to tell people she was an only child.
You had to take everything she said with a pinch of salt. ’
‘Do you think Lynsey could have killed Lauren?’ Ben’s question hung in the room. Joey was staring at Ben, his mouth open. When he finally closed it, he nodded.
‘I suppose she could have; I never even considered it but who knows how far someone will go? Do you think she killed Lauren and Lydia?’
Morgan shrugged. ‘We don’t have any evidence to say that she did, but we can’t rule her out until we’ve spoken to her. Do you know of anyone else who would want to do this, Joey? Did Lauren fall out with someone, did she ever mention having a stalker, a jealous colleague?’
Joey was shaking his head; there was a knock at the door and Ben stood up to answer it. He came back in with Caroline, who had milk and a packet of digestives in her hands.
‘Right then, who wants a brew?’
Joey nodded, a look of disbelief etched on his face as if he was asking himself what the hell was happening.
‘Not for us, thanks, we need to get going.’ Ben smiled at Caroline, and she nodded.
Morgan stood up and squeezed Joey’s shoulder. ‘If you need anything or think of anything, ring me on this number.’ She scribbled her number on a Post-it note and passed it to him. He stuck it onto the almost empty Jack Daniel’s bottle and watched the pair of them leave.