Page 60 of Her Lips Are Sealed

Morgan was cautious not to step anywhere near the area where Lisa had been found. Joe and Carl were mid discussion and both frowned at her as she squeezed past to get to the kitchen window. Joe, who was still not brave enough to question her, kept quiet as Carl said, ‘What are you doing?’

She smiled at him. ‘The victim saw her attacker from the window, so I’m just checking which one.’

‘Do not touch anything, Morgan.’

She tucked her gloved hands into her pockets. ‘I would never. Have you found the note under the pillow yet?’

‘No… how do you know this?’ Carl asked.

‘I found it, I didn’t move it, much.’

He shook his head at her then turned back to Joe.

‘Hey, where’s the cat?’

‘Some guy came before and picked it up, said he was Lisa’s friend. He had a cat basket, and it looked happy enough to go with him. I thought it was better off out of here.’

‘Ah, okay that’s fine. I thought you guys had let it out, don’t want to lose it.’

Morgan turned away and crossed to the kitchen window. It was only small with a restricted view of the back of the gardens. It looked onto the field beyond, but there was a fence running along the perimeter. She radioed Lucy.

‘Boss, can you stand maybe twenty metres to your right?’

Lucy turned in Morgan’s direction and gave her a thumbs-up, and Morgan watched as she paced to roughly the same spot Morgan was staring at. It couldn’t have been this angle, for a start other people in the flats would have noticed some guy just hovering there when there was no reason to. ‘No, that’s not it, do you want to go back where you were?’

Lucy began to retrace her footsteps. Morgan moved into the living room and watched from this window. It was much better, and it had a clearer view of the front drive and there was a gateway to the field. ‘Stop there.’

Carl and Joe turned to look at Morgan. ‘Why?’

‘Oh, sorry. Not you two, I mean the DI. She’s outside.’

Carl scowled at her, and she turned back to look out. She could tell it was Lucy, but that was because she knew her. If it was someone she didn’t know, it would be much harder. She tried to describe her. Female, white suit, but she couldn’t see her features from here. Lucy’s pink hair was hard to miss, but if she had a cap or hood up it would be a different matter. Why was this guy standing there? Morgan waved at Lucy and she waved back.

‘Boss, can you see me clearly?’

‘Yes, pretty good, especially with the light on behind you.’

Morgan turned to see the light was on. ‘Thanks, I think where you’re standing is about right. I’ll ask Joe to go take a look.’

Carl turned back to Morgan again. ‘Ask Joe to take a look at what?’ He sounded exasperated with her and she felt bad. They were all under immense pressure. ‘We know that Lisa had a stalker. Somebody was watching her from where Lucy is standing now, and there may be evidence out there.’

Carl marched over to where she was standing and stared out at Lucy. ‘Possible, but highly unlikely. It’s been raining.’

‘But you’ll still check it out right?’

‘Yes, can you mark it or put tape around it to keep anyone from trampling over that area any more than the DI just has? I need a hand, Morgan. It’s too much for me and Joe. Can you ask the DI to request Claire to come through if she’s not busy?’

‘Of course.’

Morgan left them to it. Everyone was stressed and pushed to the max, and she felt bad for Carl and Joe, but it wasn’t as if this was her fault. They wanted to catch the killer; they couldn’t afford to miss out on what could be vital evidence because Wendy was sick. Grabbing a roll of tape out of the nearest van, she made her way to where Lucy was still standing and looked up at Lisa’s window. She could clearly see Carl moving around in front of it.

‘He was stalking her from a safe distance,’ Lucy said.

Morgan nodded. ‘I could see you clearly but if I didn’t know you and you were wearing a hat or hoodie, had sunglasses covering your face, you’d just look like any other woman.’

‘Did she take photos of him do you reckon?’

‘She never said, I think it was usually of an evening, and she stated her eyesight wasn’t brilliant.’