Page 12 of Her Lips Are Sealed

‘Josie, did you see or hear anything out of the ordinary last night, notice any cars in the area that were odd? I know I’m clutching at straws, but we have to cover all angles.’

Josie shook her head. ‘Morgan, these walls are thicker than my arm, I wouldn’t hear if a brass band was playing full blast outside on the main road. I’m sorry, love, that I can’t be any help. Was it really bad, should we be worried? I mean I was the first one in this morning, last one out last night on my own, locking up and walking back to my car.’

Morgan couldn’t not warn her. ‘Yes, very bad. There’s been a murder and it’s not common knowledge yet, but it will be soon enough.’

‘Oh no, that’s dreadful. How on earth did that happen? Drunks fighting I suppose? I hope it wasn’t a stag night gone wrong, we seem to be getting a lot of those lately, rowdy, drunken men having the time of their life until it all goes wrong and they start fighting each other.’

‘No, nothing like that. It’s inside of a flat, but I’d suggest you aren’t in here on your own with the doors open until we know more about the circumstances. Just to be on the safe side. Theo is lovely, he will understand and would not want you to put yourself at risk.’ Morgan thought about Theo, the injuries he sustained when he was attacked at St Martha’s, his broken, bleeding body left for dead. He would tell Josie to lock up the church and leave the stuff she was busy with in a split second. He wouldn’t allow anyone to go through what he did in the name of the Church.

Josie nodded. ‘You don’t need to tell me twice; I’ll grab my stuff and walk out with you. I don’t want to be in here on my own with a murderer running loose out there. I love this place, but I am not ready to meet my maker just yet to prove or disprove that theory about getting into heaven.’

She gave Morgan a half smile, tainted with sadness, and Morgan felt bad – another person’s day ruined because of the actions of whoever it was killed Rachel. She had no choice but to ask.

‘Do you know any of the residents who live in the little street behind the church?’

‘I know Rachel, well I know her cat more, it’s always sneaking in here. Honestly that cat is clever, it knows where to go to get fed. I always have a couple of trays of Sheba in the cupboard for it. Cute thing, but a serial womaniser if ever there was one. I think it spends almost as much time at her neighbour’s flat upstairs, nice young man. I don’t know him though except to smile at and say hello.’

Morgan felt even worse, but she laughed. ‘Cats are like that, aren’t they? We have one called Kevin and he’s always playing me and my partner off against each other.’

Josie nodded. ‘Yes, worse than kids at times. Kevin is a strange name for a cat.’

‘It’s a long story, we inherited him. Josie, the body we found…’ Morgan paused, it was always hard knowing how much to tell people. Josie reached out and took hold of her hand; her fingers were soft and warm. Morgan’s felt like two blocks of ice.

‘I don’t want to know, lovey, if that’s okay with you. I will lock up, go to my car and wait until I hear it on the news or in the paper. I don’t think I could cope if it’s someone I know. I’d need to be alone in my house to process it. I’ve been struggling a lot with grieving for my partner, Sheila. She died six months ago and it’s the whole reason I’m here at ridiculous hours trying to keep myself busy, so I don’t dwell on her accident too much. I never even got to say goodbye and it’s slowly killing me.’

Morgan squeezed her hand with the softest touch. ‘I’m so sorry, Josie, that must be so hard.’

Josie nodded. ‘Some days are better than others, but yes. We were together for a long time, met at university back in the seventies and been together ever since. She was a good woman, who did not deserve to die like that. Which is the whole reason I don’t put too much faith in the big man upstairs, but I don’t mind organising stuff and keeping the books on His behalf. Religion is a funny thing; you either get it or you don’t.’

‘That’s true, I’m not particularly religious, but I’m good friends with Theo so I get it.’

Josie smiled at her. ‘He’s a sweet guy, isn’t he, and his partner is positively swoon-worthy. Have you met him?’

Morgan grinned at her, nodding. ‘He is, but don’t let him hear you. Declan would love it and never let Theo live it down. They’re both very close friends to me and my partner.’

Josie laughed. ‘I think I would like to be a part of your friendship group, you have good friends and you are just the sweetest police officer I’ve ever met.’

‘Well, when they finally find another pub that holds weekly quiz nights, I’ll tell them to invite you on their team because between Declan, Theo and my partner Ben they are quite the embarrassment. Honestly, they used to come last every week, they are hopeless.’

Josie’s eyes sparkled in the glow of the candlelight, so many tears to cry. ‘You know, I would love that and I could help them out, I am quite a dab hand at general knowledge.’

Morgan did something she wouldn’t normally do. She stepped forward and hugged her. Josie wrapped her arms around her and rocked her back and forth. Both women needing a little comfort to help ease the pain they were both living with daily – Josie losing the love of her life and Morgan grieving for yet another victim she had never had the pleasure of meeting while she was full of life, and it made her heart ache with sadness at the horror of it all.

EIGHT

The blue room was so full of people and so stuffy, the smell of stale body odour lingered in the air along with the aroma of cold tea, and Morgan walked straight to the window and opened it as wide as it would go. Ben and Marc followed her inside; Marc’s nose wrinkling as he looked around for the sweaty culprit. Cain and Amy had come back from their enquires and were already seated. Wendy with a laptop tucked under her arm rushed in with Joe, plus there were the usual crew of response officers and the task force team who were on shift. Marc began connecting his laptop to the smart board. Ben didn’t wait.

‘Thanks for coming, this is a matter of urgency, and I think as a collective we might be able to come up with a decent plan of action.’

Everyone nodded as Morgan squeezed into a space between Cain and Amy. Ben continued, ‘Rachel Derry, thirty-two years old, worked mainly from home from what we’ve discovered so far as a freelance digital marketing assistant. She lived alone with her cat that she shared with the upstairs neighbour. Her body was discovered this afternoon by the cleaner; he was late and found her like this.’ Ben turned to Marc who was still trying to log onto his laptop. Morgan didn’t miss the eye roll Ben gave in Marc’s direction before he turned to Wendy.

‘Wendy, could you do the honours, please?’

Wendy already had her pictures on the screen. She shared them to the smart board, and a shocking image of Rachel’s body filled it. There were murmurs and small gasps as everyone leaned towards it to get a closer look.

Ben pointed to Morgan. ‘Do you want to continue?’

‘I spoke to the upstairs neighbour, Dan Webb, and the cleaner who found her. Both have alibis that I’ll be checking out after this. There’s another cleaner who worked at Rachel’s up until recently, so he needs checking out too. It’s clear from the scene that Rachel trusted her killer enough to let them in, and there were no signs of forced entry anywhere.’