Page 37 of Her Lips Are Sealed

‘But it was raining, everyone had their curtains closed. Nobody saw anything,’ Cain muttered.

‘Exactly why I want them to check the footage. I want the entire area mapped out with camera locations so we can see if we can plot the suspect’s direction of travel. Unless they lived next door they had to have left the area somehow. Amy, can you check with the ANPR cameras and see what vehicles they had entering or leaving Coniston from a couple of hours before it got called in, and then run the number plates through the database, please?’

‘Yes, boss, on it right now.’

‘Thanks. Cain, are you free to wait around for the Barrow officers to arrive then drive them to the scene to canvass everywhere?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Good, that’s us all sorted for the next couple of hours then.’

‘What about the cleaning firm, do we need to formally interview the guy from there who found Rachel?’ Marc asked.

‘Oh, yes. I think we should arrange that for this afternoon. Morgan, could you fix that up, please? Is there any update on Paul Graham, is he in the cells yet?’

Amy shook her head. ‘I checked with Mads on the way in. He’s still in hospital, needs a pin in his ankle which they’re doing this morning, then hopefully he’ll be released into our custody by this evening.’

‘Right, well, we need to shift focus a little because once he comes in the clock’s ticking. Task force have the warrant, it was too late last night to get a full search team so they were going in first thing, to make sure it’s safe and Paul Graham didn’t leave any nasty surprises for us. As soon as it’s been cleared, I want you and Amy to go in and search it for anything that might be of evidential use. I’m putting the press release on hold until we know where we stand with Paul Graham. Once we’ve figured out if he’s involved I’ll get the press office to issue a revised one.’

Cain nodded.

Ben smiled at Morgan. ‘I’ll see you up at the mortuary.’

‘Yes, you will.’

Ben and Marc left the office. Cain sighed so loud it made Amy glare at him.

‘What’s wrong with you now?’

‘Do you not ever feel like this is too much for us to handle? Most big cities have actual homicide teams that deal only with that stuff. Good old Rydal Falls out in the sticks has the five of us, if you can count Marc because he’s never around when you need him, and we have to borrow staff from here, there and everywhere.’

‘Go see if Amber is free then, she’s desperate to get up here.’

‘Yeah, and I’m not that desperate to work with her. She’s the main reason I moved here. If she comes up here permanently then I’m going to have to find another department to work from.’

‘You don’t mean that, you wouldn’t leave us.’

‘Try me, I can’t deal with her attitude.’

Morgan shrugged. ‘Well, what are we supposed to do then?’

‘Hand in our notice and buy a wine bar or something.’

Both Amy and Morgan snapped their heads in his direction. ‘For real? You’d leave here and go open a wine bar. Do you have any idea how to run one?’ Amy was serious.

‘No, but I didn’t have any idea how to solve a murder when I started and now, I do, so I’ll learn as I go along.’

Morgan’s glance at Amy told her everything she’d ever suspected may be true. She looked totally crestfallen at Cain’s admission that he’d give this up at the drop of a hat.

‘Glad to know we mean that much to you; you’d walk away and leave us up shit creek without a paddle.’

Cain smiled at Amy. ‘I’m not actually going to, I’m just saying it’s an option for all of us. This is going to be the death of us and nobody up at headquarters cares. They’d replace us in a matter of hours and not even remember our collar numbers. It’s just something to think about.’

‘I don’t think I could give this up,’ Morgan said. ‘I mean I hate the level of violence we deal with, it’s so unjustified, but I like knowing that I’m going to be the one to put a stop to it, that we will work as a team I mean, not I, all of us.’

‘That’s because you’re mad as a box of frogs, Morgan. Look at the state of your face, your nose is bruised and you have a slight black eye after getting kicked in the face yesterday. Did anyone say thank you for that? Sorry you got hurt doing your job, and I don’t mean Ben because he automatically does that and he’s your boyfriend, so he doesn’t count. Did Marc ask how you were this morning, or was he so eager to get his free breakfast he didn’t even give you and your scary face a second glance?’

‘Cain,’ Amy gasped.