Page 38 of Her Lips Are Sealed

‘What, Amy, it’s true. We’re out there putting ourselves at risk for what?’

Before either of them could answer there was a knock on the door and then it was pushed just a little too hard and it swung open smacking into the dinted wall.

‘Oops, didn’t expect that to happen. Our office door is the opposite, you need to dislocate your shoulder every time you try to open it. Morning, we were told to report here.’

Cain was grinning at the woman who was older than both Morgan and Amy, but had the pinkest hair Morgan had ever seen, it even gave Susie a run for her money.

‘Morning, Robson, it’s been too long.’

She strode across the room to Cain and wrapped her arms around him. ‘I was so sorry about Angela, how are you coping?’

Cain hugged her back, rocking her from side to side. ‘I’m okay, most of the time. I have these two to keep me on the straight and narrow. I like the hair; it suits you more than the red you had the last time I saw you. Has nobody told you off about it?’

She shook her head. ‘Who’s going to be brave enough to do that? Besides, I have a cool boss who knows that hair colour is not a problem, attitudes are.’

Cain put his arm around her shoulder. ‘This is DI Lucy Harwin and DS Josh Walker. Yeah, I heard your boss was the bomb, Lucy.’

He laughed and Lucy grinned at him. ‘Why are you here though, isn’t this a little below your pay grade?’

‘Truthfully, I’m bored, I should never have transferred from Brooklyn Bay to Barrow, and I felt even worse because Josh here followed me, so now I’m the one responsible for both of us being bored. Secondly, I jumped at the chance to come assist the infamous Rydal Falls detectives. I want a slice of the action too, so hit me with what you’ve got and let us help you out. It’s an honour to work with you guys.’

She winked at him, and Morgan looked at Amy who looked put out at the bubbly woman who clearly knew Cain very well.

‘How’s Georgia, she must be at college by now.’

Lucy laughed. ‘She’s twenty-four, lives in London and works in publishing. She left me behind the minute she could get away, but I don’t blame her one bit and I’m very proud of her.’

Cain was shaking his head. ‘Twenty-four, she was this high last time I saw her.’ He had his hand chest height.

Lucy nodded. ‘Well, she’s taller than me now, so there you go. What do you need from us, is Ben around?’

Cain shook his head. ‘Gone to speak with one of the victim’s mums and taken our DI with him. Lucy, this is Morgan and Amy.’ He pointed to each of them, and she smiled warmly at them both.

‘It’s such a pleasure to meet you both. Morgan, your reputation precedes you.’

‘Don’t believe everything you’ve heard.’

‘I would never, I know how much coppers love to gossip. I’ve been on the end of it more times than you could ever imagine. Amy, it’s great to meet you too.’

Amy smiled and Morgan realised that you couldn’t help smiling at Lucy. She literally beamed warmth from every pore of her body. This was going to be fun, or at least she hoped it was because it was nice to have another woman on the team and Lucy was a DI, so she was more experienced than if Marc had let Amber come up here again.

She looked at Cain, no wonder he was beaming with joy. Lucy was a much better alternative to Amber. Josh was very quiet, but then again Cain was very loud so that was understandable. He crossed the room and outstretched his hand towards Amy, who took it and smiled at him.

‘Pleasure to meet you, Amy.’ He then turned his attention towards Morgan. ‘And you, Morgan.’

She smiled back at him. ‘The pleasure is all ours, we were praying to get some decent help, and I think those prayers were answered.’

He laughed, a warm, gentle laugh that made his brown eyes crinkle at the sides and Morgan thought that for once, they may have just struck it lucky.

TWENTY-THREE

Dan was on the front street, pacing up and down, when she arrived a little later than planned because of Lucy and Josh arriving and needing being brought up to speed with everything they had, which wasn’t much. She felt a lot more positive now they were here though, so maybe this was all going to work out just fine. The cordon had been lifted but Rachel’s flat was still a crime scene so there was a PCSO outside of the front gate guarding it.

Dan opened the car door and got in. ‘You’re late, I hate it when people are late.’

Morgan looked at him. ‘Sorry, it’s been a bit busy.’

‘Oh good, does that mean you’ve caught the bastard who did this?’