Page 59 of Her Lips Are Sealed

‘Feel like crap, I haven’t stop throwing up and I don’t get how this has happened to me. I avoid kids like the plague; I don’t get too near to people and as far as I know didn’t come into contact with anyone that had a sickness bug.’

‘Oh no, bless you. I’m sorry you feel so ill. I’ll let you get on. Do you need anything?’

‘No, I’m good, thanks. What did you ring for, Morgan?’

‘To see how you were.’

‘You little fibber, tell me what’s up.’

‘No, you don’t need to hear about it until you’re back at work. They’re just going to have to cope without you.’

‘Has there been another murder?’

Morgan paused, and Wendy sighed. ‘For Christ’s sake.’

‘The victim didn’t die, she’s okay. Well, as okay as someone who was strangled to within an inch of their life can be, she’s in hospital.’

‘Oh my God, she survived. That’s incredible.’

‘Yeah, it is.’

‘So, what did you need from me?’

‘Honestly, nothing really except maybe to ask if it’s possible to get fingerprints off a bruise?’

Wendy, who was now hotter than Kylie Minogue’s gold hot pants, threw the duvet off and sat up straight.

‘Say that again.’

‘Can fingerprints be taken off a bruise, theoretically?’

‘Well, they can but it’s incredibly hard to pull off and the chance of getting them is practically zero to none, plus they typically only last around fifteen minutes.’

Morgan’s sigh was loaded with frustration, and Wendy felt every bit of it deep in her soul.

‘Sorry, that’s not the answer you were hoping for, is it?’

‘No, but it makes sense. This victim has bruising around her neck, and it looks as if a couple of them might be fingerprints.’

‘Well, that’s good, make sure Joe or whoever attends her takes clear close-ups of them. A fingerprint specialist might be able to identify whether they belong to someone already on the database by the ridges and swirls, if we’re extremely lucky. But don’t get your hopes up, Morgan, unfortunately that happens rarely.’

‘I won’t, thanks. Marc has gone sick, Lucy is covering for him and this whole thing is a mess.’

‘Has Marc got what I have? I’ll strangle him if he gave it to me, that will really upset me.’

‘It’s not a bug. Marc’s stressed about this latest case.’

‘You’ll find them, Morgan, you always do.’

‘I hope so, thanks, Wendy. I hope you feel better soon.’

‘Oh, Lord, going to retch myself to death again even though there’s nothing left inside. I better have lost half a stone with all this effort. It’s the most bending and stretching exercise I’ve done in a long time.’

Wendy ended the call but not before Morgan’s laughter echoed down the line.

Wendy leaned over the bucket and wished for the hundredth time that she’d never caught this stupid bug, as the cat still yowled outside her window.

THIRTY-EIGHT