Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
The outside of the empty hotel reminded Morgan of something out of American Horror Story, it really was creepy.
The blue and white crime-scene tape strung across the entrance was flapping in the breeze.
It wasn’t raining today but the sky was gloomy with the threat of it.
Ben was talking on the phone, and she got out of the car.
They’d signed into the crime-scene log with the PCSO who was sitting in an unmarked car at the entrance gates.
There was a police officer who Morgan didn’t recognise standing inside the open doorway, and she walked towards them and smiled.
The woman was much older, and she smiled back.
‘Hey, you’ll be glad to know Task Force are on their way to do a search of the grounds, so you’ll probably be able to leave soon. We’re going to take one last look and then get the body removed too.’
‘Good, I feel so bad for that woman. She’s been stuck up there since last night. It’s bad enough she was killed inside of there, but to be left; it’s not right.’
Morgan realised that despite being older she was probably quite new to being a response officer. ‘I know, it’s horrid, but sometimes you have to do stuff that doesn’t feel right. I’m Morgan, I’m with CID.’
‘Gail, I’m just out of probation, can you tell?’
Morgan grinned. ‘Only because you still have a heart that hasn’t been turned to stone yet.’
‘Is that what happens? Will I get called to crime scenes as horrific as this and not even blink an eyelid?’
Morgan thought about lying, but it wasn’t in her nature.
‘It kind of depends on the kind of person you are. If, say, you’re not easily emotionally attached to people, it gets easier.
If you’re anything like me, you relive the worst days when you’re trying your best to switch off.
I kind of envy people who can switch it off and push it to one side. ’
Gail nodded. ‘Yeah, I bet. It’s bad enough getting a full night’s sleep with this blooming perimenopause crap that’s already happening. It’s good to know I can add this to the list of reasons.’ She grinned at Morgan. ‘Sorry, too much information.’
‘Not at all, I have it all to look forward to.’
Morgan slipped on her shoe covers and double gloved, though there was no need for a crime-scene suit, as forensics had been completed.
They were just having one final walk through before they could get Lauren’s body moved.
Morgan wanted to double check if her suspicions were right about the similarities between the two sisters’ crime scenes.
On the way to the hotel, she had checked the images of the knife used to kill Lydia and the position it had been left, and wanted another look to make sure she was on the right track.
Gail was right, it had been pretty awful to leave Lauren there all night.
Stepping inside the hotel, the faint smell of damp and mould filled Morgan’s nostrils; she avoided walking where the yellow numbered markers were placed on the floor.
Imagining how Lauren must have felt, Morgan’s pulse began to race as she closed her eyes.
Hearing someone else’s footsteps inside of here must have scared the crap out of her, then to be chased by a real-life bogeyman.
Morgan’s entire body shuddered; she ran up the stairs imagining being chased.
The horror was almost too much; her walkie-talkie had been smashed.
Lauren had her phone but that was also smashed in the bedroom.
Morgan could feel her heart pounding as she ran along to the room she thought was a safe place to hide and stepped inside and flinched at Lauren’s now cold, stiff body on the floor.
She crouched down next to her and whispered, ‘I am so sorry, Lauren, we’re getting you out of here now.
’ The wound across Lauren’s throat looked identical to the ones on Lydia’s crime scene photos, although she’d need official confirmation from Declan; Morgan wasn’t a doctor.
‘Hey.’
At Ben’s voice, the scream that escaped Morgan’s lips echoed throughout the first floor. She hadn’t heard him coming up the stairs behind her, the carpet, although it had seen better days on the stairs and hallways, was plush and cushioned any noise he made.
‘Christ, Ben.’
‘What are you doing?’
‘I was reliving Lauren’s last moments; she must have been so scared. She also probably never heard him walking along here because I never heard you.’
He nodded. ‘Undertakers are on their way.’
‘Good, I don’t think we should have left her alone all night in here. It’s scary and she’d been through enough.’
He frowned at her, and she knew he was wondering if she was a little too emotionally attached to this case.
‘I don’t think Lauren would have minded too much, she’s not here now, is she? That’s just her body; her soul is hopefully somewhere up there in the light with her loved ones.’
‘I know that, and I hope it is, but it’s still crap that we left her though.’
‘I know, she wasn’t totally alone she had someone guarding the door downstairs.’
Morgan nodded, this job was getting harder.
‘Ben, Morgan.’ Gail’s voice echoed up the stairs. ‘Control are asking for either of you.’
Ben glanced at Morgan, who pulled her radio out of her pocket and turned the volume up.
‘Control this is Detective Brookes.’
‘Ah, Morgan, sorry to be the bearer of bad news. There’s a scene not too far from where you are now, patrols are requesting CID to attend. A member of the public found a tent hidden in the forest with a body inside of it, are you or Ben able to attend?’
Ben nodded although by the look on his face he’d rather not.
‘Yes, on our way.’
‘I’ve sent you over the location, it’s a bit remote in Grizedale Forest. The caller is waiting in the car park. I’ve given you directions to meet patrols and show them.’
A sense of déjà vu washed over Morgan. It wasn’t that long ago that they’d found other bodies in tents in a different forest, victims who had died at the hands of the Travelling Man in Whinlatter Forest. She looked at Ben. ‘When will this ever stop?’
‘I honestly don’t know, it seems as if we’re on a huge giant hamster wheel that we can’t escape from and it’s making me sick beyond belief.’
Ben took one last look around the room, then at Lauren. ‘It’s time to get you out of here.’
The clattering of the metal trolley that the undertakers used echoed down the hall as the two men pushed it along. Morgan stepped out of the room and waved at them.
‘Would you believe the lift still works, somebody forgot to turn off the electricity but it’s a bonus for us. Save our backs that little bit more, won’t it, Jackson?’
Jackson looked a bit apprehensive. He nodded. Both Morgan and Ben stepped out of the way to let them inside.
The older guy whistled. ‘Oh man, that’s bad.’
Jackson looked as white as Lauren’s lifeless face. He faltered at the door.
‘She’s dead, Stevie.’
Stevie rolled his eyes at Morgan and Ben. ‘Yes, poor lass, but did it escape your notice, Jackson, that we are undertakers and it’s our job to deal with the dead?’
Jackson’s knees buckled and he stumbled forwards. Morgan deftly caught him with both hands, dragging him away from Lauren’s body, so he didn’t collapse onto it.
Stevie looked horrified. ‘Are you going to—?’ Before he could finish his sentence Jackson dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes, out cold, his skin clammy.
Stevie shrugged. ‘I’m sorry about him, he’s new.’ Then he bent down and began to gently slap at Jackson’s face, and at the same time he tugged his phone out and dialled someone.
‘Cara, I need a hand. I thought you said Jackson was okay with blood; he’s out cold.’
Morgan heard the swearing on the other end; Stevie tucked the phone back in his pocket.
‘Sorry, someone else is on the way.’
‘Erm, do you need an ambulance for him?’ asked Ben.
He shook his head. ‘No, he’ll come around in a bit. I told his dad he wasn’t cut out for this line of work, but he insisted he was. His dad is my cousin’s boyfriend; kind of old school; you know how it is.’
Morgan was staring at Jackson and didn’t know how it was at all. Ben looked uncomfortable. ‘I think we better call an ambulance.’
Stevie walked into the en suite bathroom, and the sound of running water filled the air.
He returned with a glass, and Morgan grimaced, hoping to God he wasn’t going to make the lad drink that, because if he did, passing out would be the least of his problems when he could be contending with typhoid or something far worse.
She need not have worried because he crouched down and threw it into Jackson’s face.
Jackson’s eyes flew open.
‘See, no need to waste the ambulance service’s time. It works; the number of guys and women who’ve passed out at their first gory removal is legendary.’
‘Ugh, what are you doing?’
Stevie bent down, took hold of Jackson’s elbow and dragged him into a sitting position.
‘Making sure you’re not as dead as our customer over there. Don’t look at her if it makes you feel all light-headed. When you’re able to stand up and leave the room, go sit on the steps outside. Cara is on her way to help.’
Morgan felt bad for Jackson. His cheeks had gone from porcelain white to burning red.
‘Sorry, I just—’
‘Hey, it’s okay. It can happen to anyone.’ Morgan smiled at him. ‘Come on, I’ll walk you out.’
He didn’t argue with her. When she held out her hand, he took it and she pulled him to his feet, walking him out of the room and into the corridor.
‘If you take some deep breaths, it helps a lot, in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth. I do that a lot.’
He looked at her. ‘You do?’
She nodded. ‘I do, it helps to regulate your breathing and keep you feeling a little calmer. It’s helped me in so many bad situations, you should try it. Sit out in the fresh air and take a few, you’ll feel better in no time.’
‘Thanks, I’ll still feel like a dick though. I made a right idiot of myself.’
Morgan smiled at him. ‘Can I give you some advice? Maybe being an undertaker isn’t the right job for you.’
This made him laugh. ‘It isn’t, I never in a million years wanted to do this, but I got finished from my job working in the kitchen at a hotel and my dad said I should go help my cousin for a bit because he was short-staffed.
I thought he meant answering the phone, cleaning up, washing funeral cars, you know, that kind of stuff.
I’d have run a mile if I’d realised he’d bring me to something like this.
That poor woman, I won’t ever stop thinking about her. ’
Morgan sighed. In the space of twenty minutes he was the second person to have said as much, and she made three: as horrible as the circumstances were, at least Lauren would never be forgotten.