Page 29 of Her Lips Are Sealed

Morgan turned to Ben. ‘Do you think it belonged to his partner or mum and he’s taking revenge on women who remind him of them?’

‘Oh, that’s a good shout. It could be something like that.’

‘Or he could be a freak who gets off on women wearing red lipstick,’ Cain answered.

‘Maybe, we’re not going to know until we start questioning viable suspects.’ Morgan smiled at him.

‘Who have we got so far?’

Ben was uncapping a marker pen ready to write on the board. Morgan had already printed out a photo of each woman. She opened her notebook and read the names she’d written down.

‘Paul Graham, ex-employee of the cleaning company who Rachel accused of stealing from her, is a very viable suspect in my opinion. Brian James found the body; he’s the current cleaner. He was late to work this afternoon, said he was at the doctor’s surgery. Then we have the upstairs neighbour, Dan Webb, who was friends with Rachel and we now know is the son of the guy who owns the flats.’

‘Excellent, that’s great news. At least we have names to rule out. What about Ash, any suspects for her? Did she own her own house or is that one rented too? We need to find that out in case this Dan’s dad owns multiple properties.’

Morgan shook her head. ‘I don’t know about the house, I’ll investigate that. There are no suspects at the moment, or at least not that I’m aware of. Her mum said she worked for Luxury Lettings in Windermere, showing people around properties. It’s possible those properties use the same cleaning firm that Rachel did, but we need to speak to them and find out if I’m grasping at straws or onto something.’

‘I think that’s a good call, Morgan, it would link both victims if they were in contact with the cleaning firm and it gives us a better position to focus on. I want a list of every employee who works there, and background checks carried out on them all. I think we should go and speak to Paul Graham if you’re up for it, Morgan.’

She nodded.

‘Cain, do you want to do some Intel checks on those three names that Morgan’s written down? Let us know if you find anything. And follow up on the CCTV requests I made from Rachel’s home. If not get yourself off, we’ll see you tomorrow bright and early.’

‘Fine by me, boss.’

Ben grabbed his coat and Morgan did the same. It may have been a beautiful day but once the sun set the nights were still chilly, and Morgan was feeling that chill right to her very core at the creepiness of these two murders.

NINETEEN

Paul Graham lived in a ground-floor flat in one of the small side streets not far from where Rachel lived. With nowhere to park the car, Morgan and Ben left it on the main street and walked.

‘Have you noticed how small this street is?’ Morgan was counting the number of houses, most of which had been turned into rental flats.

‘What are you thinking?’

‘I don’t know. Most rental flats happen to be in tiny streets. Is that how he’s finding his victims? I wonder who owns his flat, be interesting if it was rented from the same company as Rachel’s.’

‘I suppose you might have something about the rented properties, but let’s not jump to conclusions. As much as I want it to be him, let’s do this by the book.’

She nodded, a bit miffed they always did things by the book. Well, she almost always did.

Ben was knocking on the front door before she’d even caught up with him. The door opened and a dishevelled looking guy answered it. His rough stubble and hair that was stuck up all over the place made her think he’d been asleep.

‘Paul Graham?’ Ben asked, and the door slammed shut in his face.

Morgan tried not to laugh at Ben’s shocked expression. Instead, she took off running around to the narrow alley that ran behind the flats. She knew Paul wasn’t going to stay put. She knew he was a runner the way he’d not even given Ben a chance to tell him who he was.

She reached the alley and felt a small sense of satisfaction that the guy was legging it up towards the tall, limestone wall at the end of it. She heard Ben’s shout for immediate assistance as it echoed back at her through her radio.

Paul paused at the wall, looked back towards Morgan and then began to try and climb it. Morgan followed suit. He reached the top just as she jumped up to try and grab his trainer. He kicked his foot at her, managing to knock her in the temple, but she didn’t let go until he kicked again and this time managed to plant his foot in her nose. The blinding pain and warm rush of blood as her eyes began to water should have slowed her down, and she let go of his shoe, but instead of giving up she was fuelled by anger and began to clamber up after him, using her solid Docs to get purchase in the gaps. A loud yell and heavy thump made her pause at the top as she leaned over and realised there was a massive drop on the other side. He was lying gasping, on his back, clasping his arm to his chest, with his leg at a funny angle. It was a building site on the other side of the wall. He’d just thrown himself into a deep hole that had been dug ready to lay foundations. Morgan turned to Ben who stood below her on the wall.

‘What the hell, Morgan, get down. You’re hurt.’ His voice was tense. ‘I’m going to break his fucking nose.’

‘No need, he’s broken his arm and possibly his leg. He’s lying in a deep hole on the other side of the wall. Better call an ambulance and find someone to let us into the building site.’

‘Really?’ He sounded hopeful.

‘Yes.’