‘He chased her; she dropped her radio either in fright or panicking and then ran upstairs.’
‘Why not run outside to her van?’
‘Did you see the rain earlier; it was horrendous. Or maybe she thought she’d be safer up there. Jesus, Ben, that’s terrifying. If she’s a security guard, she must be used to patrolling empty buildings, so imagine what must have scared her up these stairs.’ She thought of the storm that would have been raging outside and shuddered.
‘Lauren, Lauren.’
Both of them turned to see a huge guy standing in front of Amber who was expertly blocking him from coming inside.
‘You can’t come in here; it’s a crime scene.’ Her voice was clipped, no empathy, and Morgan shrugged at Ben.
She hurried to go speak to the man, who was running a hand over his shaved head.
‘Where’s Lauren? She said there was someone here over the radio and then it went dead. What do you mean it’s a crime scene?’
‘Does Lauren drive that van?’
He nodded. ‘Yes, she works with me. I was manning the control room.’
‘Who are you?’
‘Mike Walker, who are you?’
‘Detective Morgan Brookes. I’m so sorry, the officer that attended found a woman upstairs with fatal injuries.’ She didn’t get to say anything else before he pushed past both her and Amber, sprinting for the stairs. Ben who had just reached the top of the stairs was watching and put his hands out to stop him, but he dodged around him and carried on running to the room where Scotty was standing outside.
‘Hey, you can’t?—’
Mike pushed Scotty out of the way and ran into the room. Morgan sprinted after him and she heard Ben mutter, ‘Bloody hell.’
Mike was standing at the entrance staring down at the body on the floor. The two paramedics were just finishing up.
‘What are you doing? Help her!’
One of them shook their head and the other spoke in a hushed tone. ‘I’m sorry, there is nothing we can do for her.’
‘Yes, you can. Use your zapper, give her CPR.’
‘She was dead before we arrived. She lost too much blood.’
Mike’s face crumpled. ‘She can’t be dead, this isn’t right.’
Everyone was watching the big guy, afraid that he might lose his shit and start fighting them all. Morgan stepped towards him, gently taking hold of his arm but not before she glanced at Lauren’s body and felt a tingle of fear. There was a knifeprotruding from her chest, just like the ones she had seen a few months ago at Lydia Williams’s and Sharon Montgomery’s crime scenes.
‘Mike, I am truly sorry, but this is a crime scene and you trampling all over it could ruin any chance of us retrieving forensics. We need those to catch whoever did this to your friend, you get that, don’t you?’
His shoulders sagged, and he looked so much smaller than a few minutes ago, all the fight and bravado had gone. Tears spilled down his cheeks, and he let her lead him out of the room and back downstairs to where Amber had found a dining chair and put it near to the door for him to sit on.
‘Take your time, and when you feel up to it, could you tell me what happened that led to you coming here?’
He nodded, roughly swiped his sleeve across his face and swallowed the lump in his throat.
‘Lauren works the late shift Wednesday to Sunday, and as we’ve been short staffed for the last two weeks, she’s been doing the rounds on her own. I radioed her about an hour ago to ask her to go check the Mill House after she’d finished here, and she sounded okay.’
Morgan nodded. ‘Did she say she was scared, had she noticed anything different tonight than usual?’
He shook his head. ‘Not until I heard her shout there was someone there but then her radio went crackly and stopped receiving. I couldn’t get a signal. I phoned her but there was no answer, so I got in the van and drove here like a maniac all the way from Kendal.’ He stopped, sucking in a gulp of air. ‘I was too late though. Who did this? Have you caught them, because I’m going to kill them if I get hold of them first!’
Alarm bells were screeching inside Morgan’s head, and she looked around the empty foyer and corridors. Amber must haveread her mind, and she shook her head, mouthing the words, ‘It hasn’t been searched.’
