Page 58 of Her Lips Are Sealed

‘I was. Until Paul Graham lost it and fell out of the wheelchair trying to attack Lucy.’

‘She’s good then?’

‘Too good.’

Ben chortled.

‘Seriously though, well done. Your quick thinking saved Lisa’s life; it could well have been a very different outcome.’

‘I’m glad. I’m heading back to her apartment now. I tried to ask her about what happened, but she’s still groggy and she’s heading off for an X-ray. Scotty is with her, and he’s going to ring the moment she’s out and coherent enough for a statement.’

‘Good, in fact, it’s bloody excellent. I mean we still don’t know why Paul Graham had those photos, but he probably stole them. He’s a creep, but unfortunately not our killer because he was en route in the back of one of our vans to the police station when you got the call from Lisa. I’m almost at the scene I’ll meet you there.’

‘Ben, I don’t want to be the one to do this, but you know Marc didn’t share the concerns that Lisa reported with anyone.’

‘I know. He came to tell me as soon as he realised who the victim was. He’s been in touch with PSD and told them himself before anyone could drop him in it.’

‘Okay good, I’d never have done that, but he needs to be accountable. Lisa could have died. He’s been messing around disappearing and not been interested in months.’

‘He knows that too; he’s gone home sick. I think he’s embarrassed. Because Lucy is a DI she’s offered to cover for him.’

Morgan wasn’t sure whether she felt relieved or bad for Marc. They all made mistakes, God knows she’d made more than her fair share, but he’d not been giving them his all. She had a feeling Lucy may just change the way things worked in their department for the better.

When Morgan arrived at the scene, she was surprised at how different it looked. The CSI van was there along with several marked police vans. Blue-and-white crime-scene tape had been strung across the entrance to the drive from gate post to gate post. She saw Ben and Lucy already dressed in crime-scene suits and for a split second felt a little left out. Usually she was with Ben, first on scene. Then she berated herself for being stupid, you were first on scene, you idiot, and Lucy is helping.

Lucy came striding towards Morgan, smiling.

‘Well done, that was amazing, Morgan. You should be very proud of yourself.’

‘Just doing my job, but thanks.’

‘No, if it was just your job you could have ignored the call, you were under no obligation to answer it. Ben said you gave Lisa your personal mobile number and that was very generous of you. A lot of people wouldn’t have done that.’ She squeezed Morgan’s shoulder. ‘In case nobody else tells you, I’m very proud of you. Thanks to you, we might just have some key evidence to help identify the killer. There’s a hidden camera on the front door that only the residents know about. The guy who lives above Lisa is asking the landlord to come down and download the footage.’

Morgan nodded. ‘That’s amazing.’

‘It is! Now, do you want to get suited up? I’d like your opinion on the scene.’

‘It’s okay, don’t you want to go inside?’

‘I will if you don’t want to, but I’m happy to advise from outside. I don’t want to overcrowd the flat. I’m here to help you guys out, not take over. You don’t need me to tell you what to do, you have far more experience at this than I have. Although I’ve got myself into a fair few scrapes in the past, but we’ll not talk about those.’ She winked at Morgan.

Morgan nodded. ‘I’d like to go back in, if that’s okay. Earlier this week, Lisa told me she could see the guy she reported hanging around near to the field from a distance. I’d like to take a look and see if I can figure out where so CSI can search for any evidence.’

‘Sounds like a plan to me. Should I walk the perimeter, and you can take a look, maybe see if between us we can figure out whereabouts he was standing?’

‘That would be great, thanks, Lucy.’

‘No need to thank me, this is what we call teamwork. I might have DI in front of my name, but I’m still a beat copper at heart. I always have been, always will be and the day I forget that is the day I’ll be handing in my notice.’

Morgan smiled at her, realising that her short-lived jealousy at seeing Lucy with Ben was misguided and uncalled for. Lucy was more like Morgan than Morgan was and she liked that, a lot.

THIRTY-SEVEN

Wendy felt like death warmed up; she’d been throwing up into a bucket ever since she’d got in from work and hadn’t been able to keep down more than a sip of water before retching that back up too. As she lay on the sofa with a duvet on, her teeth were still chattering. She was going from burning up to icy cold and had no idea where the hell she’d picked up this bug.

Her phone began to ring, and she wanted to ignore it but couldn’t when she saw Morgan’s name on the screen. ‘Hey.’ Her voice croaked it was so hoarse.

‘Oh, hey, Wendy. Sorry to bother you, how are you?’