Page 71 of Her Lips Are Sealed

Wendy giggled.

‘Morgan, you drive me insane at crime scenes so I’m glad you gave him a taste of your persona.’

Morgan laughed. ‘Night, Wendy, hope you feel better in the morning.’

‘Thanks, night.’

Morgan walked away.

At the end of the small street was a tiny communal garden with trees and lots of shrubs. It was cloaked in shadows, hiding the figure of the man watching her every move with great interest.

FORTY-FIVE

It was a full office by the time Morgan and Ben arrived at the station and it was busy. Both of them had slept surprisingly well, all things considered, their little disagreement over Lisa forgotten. Today was a new day and they were getting closer to finding the killer. It was great to see Lucy and Josh both poring over a map of Coniston. Lucy looked up and grinned at them both.

‘Morning, it didn’t rain overnight so the dog is already out searching and nothing else came in.’

Ben grinned at her. ‘Really, that’s amazing.’

‘Yeah, Cassie went out first thing. She phoned before to say Brock has picked up a trail that leads to this area, but he lost it around here.’ She pointed to a place on the map. Morgan and Ben joined her. ‘The Crown Inn.’

‘It’s a busy pub, lots of foot traffic around there. Let’s focus our enquiries in that specific area and speak to the staff in the pub. They should have CCTV outside. That road forks off in all directions.’

‘It’s not ideal,’ Lucy said.

‘No, but it’s a start. I want everyone out there with photos of the offender. Can we draft in PCSOs again from wherever has staff?’

‘Already requested them.’

Ben nodded at Lucy, and Morgan found herself admiring the woman even more, she was focused and cared which was a lot more than could be said for Marc.

‘It might help if we print off maps and highlight the specific streets, if they’re from out of this area.’

‘Yes, Morgan, that’s a brilliant idea.’

Amy stood up. ‘Leave that to me, I love this kind of stuff.’ She walked over to the desk they were gathered around. ‘Mind if I take this for a moment, I’ll go make some photocopies.’

‘Be my guest.’ Lucy handed it to her and as she walked out of the door, turned to Ben. ‘I can see why you get such good results; you work so well together as a team. It’s refreshing to see no animosity or jealousy between everyone, just plain old teamwork and friendship. Why did you not tell me about this sooner? I’d jump at the chance to be your permanent inspector.’

Ben laughed. ‘Well, if Marc decides he’s had enough of us all you might get that chance.’

Cain arched an eyebrow at Morgan and put his hands in the prayer position, making her have to turn away to hide the grin on her face.

Ben wrote The Crown Inn on the whiteboard, next to Lisa Palmer’s name. In the middle was a photograph that had been blown up of the offender, and lines from him went towards each victim’s photo. There were three. Morgan hoped there would be no more and that today they would find him and bring him in because three was three too many.

‘Any updates on Lisa?’

‘Not yet,’ Lucy replied.

‘Would you mind if I did that? I’d like to get her statement then I could join you in Coniston,’ Morgan asked.

‘I wouldn’t have a problem with that. Is it okay with you, Ben?’

Ben paused and for moment Morgan thought he was going to say no, she had to be paired up now that she’d been named in the last note, but he shrugged. ‘As long as it’s straight to the hospital and no detours that we don’t know about.’

She tilted her head at him. ‘Would I?’

‘I’m not even going to answer that, Morgan.’