‘Hallelujah, makes a change not to be under pressure,’ said Wendy.
‘Task Force are going to do a thorough search of the grounds, to see if they can find any evidence. It might take all day, as the gardens are extensive and very overgrown. Is everyone clear on what needs doing?’
They all nodded. ‘Good, thank you, and be careful. I don’t perceive any threat to us, but you never know.’
Ben looked at Morgan, who shook her head at him. It wasn’t as if she purposely went out to get herself in trouble. It was the opposite; trouble seemed to find her no matter where or what she was doing.
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.’
