Page 34 of Her Lips Are Sealed

‘Oh, that’s bad.’

‘It’s also his own fault, don’t you worry yourself about it, lassie. He climbed that wall; you didn’t force him to.’

‘No, I didn’t, that’s true.’

‘And look what you got for your pains, that eye looks as if it’s going to be black tomorrow, and how’s your nose feeling? Did ye not want to get it checked out at A&E?’

‘No, I hate hospitals. I spend far too much time in them as it is. I’m always getting into scrapes.’

‘Are ye now? Well, I suggest you try and avoid them, but from what I gather you’re the best detective in the whole of the county so it’s probably falling on deaf ears.’

Morgan felt her cheeks burning. ‘Who told you that rubbish?’

He tapped the side of his nose. ‘I may be new to this area, but I have my sources and I’ve been doing this job way too long. I know a good cop when I see one and besides, how many hours have you been in work so far today?’

‘Too many to count.’

‘Ay, I thought as much. Get yourself away home, you need some rest.’

‘I just need to speak to Dan, do you know if he’s in?’

‘He’s in, he was outside shouting for a cat about five minutes ago. Shaking a bag of cat treats up and down the street.’

She laughed. ‘Thanks, I’ll go speak to him then I’m going home.’

‘Good, so you should be. I’ll be checking when I get back to the station.’

‘You’d make a good sergeant.’

He nodded. ‘Been there, done that and got fed up of the responsibility. I had a bit of a falling out with my inspector out West and did something I shouldn’t have done. I’d say I wasn’t proud of it, but he was a dickhead and deserved it. He was lucky he only got a black eye out of it.’

Morgan laughed far too loud for how quiet it was, and the sound echoed around the street and back at her. ‘I like you Mac, welcome to Rydal Falls.’

‘I like you too, Morgan Brookes, you’re as feisty as I am. Probably a good job we work in different departments or the pair of us would lead each other astray.’ He winked at her and she grinned at him, walking towards Dan’s flat.

She knocked on the door, and it opened immediately. Dan’s eyes were puffy and red. He stepped to one side. ‘Have you seen the cat anywhere?’

‘No, sorry. I haven’t.’

‘It’s okay, probably out hunting mice or something. Or do you think it knows about Rachel?’

‘I couldn’t say, but my friend I worked with was murdered and I ended up with his cat and he’s okay, or he was as far as I could tell. He didn’t stop eating or anything, in fact Kevin probably eats more than he ever did.’

‘Kevin?’

‘Nothing to do with me.’

He smiled at her. ‘I haven’t been able to stop crying since you left, even got sent home from work. They don’t even send you home when you’re ill so I must have been a total embarrassment.’

‘I know you were upset, I spoke to the manager.’

‘Checking up on me?’ He looked worried.

‘Ruling you out as a suspect. You want that, don’t you? I don’t want to have to arrest you and take you in when you’re a good guy.’

He forced a laugh. ‘That much of a good guy I didn’t hear my friend get killed when I live right above her.’

‘You were at work.’