Page 73 of Her Lips Are Sealed

‘Hey.’ She sounded as if she had a sore throat, her voice was still croaky.

‘Hey, good to see you. How are you feeling?’

‘Sore, scared, angry and relieved that I’m still alive to be feeling all those emotions. Have you caught him yet?’

Morgan pulled a chair closer to the bed. ‘Not yet, but we’re closing in on him. Are you okay to talk to me about what happened?’

She nodded. ‘I suppose so.’ She had a tissue in her hand that she used to wipe her lips with.

‘I need to know everything you remember from what happened; from any strange sounds right before the attack, to anything you noticed after.’ Morgan gently held Lisa’s hand. ‘Take your time, and stop whenever you need to. I’ll take notes.’

Lisa nodded slowly and took a deep breath.

‘I was about to go in the shower when there was a knock at my door, and this guy was standing there with Pickles.’ Lisa looked at Morgan, suddenly panicking. ‘Oh God, is she okay? Who’s looking after her?’

Morgan crossed her fingers and felt bad for the answer she was about to give, but she needed Lisa to give her as much information as she could and if she knew where the cat was, she might not be able to. ‘With Mike.’ Morgan didn’t look her in the eye and stared down at her notepad.

‘Oh, that’s okay then. Tell him I said thank you. I hope she’s okay, she’d been puking up all night and I was worried I’d have to take her to the vet. Can you check with him that she’s stopped being sick.’

‘I will.’

‘He was handsome, smartly dressed in a suit and said he’d rescued Pickles from some barbed wire she was caught in. He was on his way to visit Mike. He handed me the cat and smiled, it was so warm and friendly. I smiled back. I was shutting the door when he stuck his foot in it, but not in a violent way. He said he’d been here a couple of times and noticed me, was trying to pluck up the courage to ask me for coffee.’ She stopped and sucked in a deep breath, before blowing it out slowly. ‘I said I’d think about it, and he said it was only coffee and nothing serious and if I didn’t enjoy it, he wouldn’t bother me again. He went upstairs and I shut the door, the whole time thinking to myself how cute he was and that it had been so long since I’d split up with Jake and had no dates, how bad would it be to say yes. I opened the door before I changed my mind and told him. He was coming back down, he said Mike wasn’t in and I said – and I don’t know what came over me – but I said why don’t you come inside and have a coffee while you message Mike to see where he is.’

Lisa was shaking her head, tears dripping down her face. Morgan looked around for a box of tissues. There was one on the sink and she stood up and passed them to her.

‘Thanks, sorry.’ Lisa blotted her eyes and her lips again.

‘Don’t be sorry, you’re doing amazing, Lisa. This must be so hard for you, take your time.’

There was a knock on the door and the officer, whom Morgan didn’t know, stuttered, ‘Sorry, had to go to the loo.’ Her cheeks were burning.

‘It’s okay, can you give us some time?’

She nodded and closed the door.

Lisa continued. ‘I put the kettle on, I don’t have a coffee machine, and said I was just going to turn the shower off. It was running, I turned around and it all happened so fast. I was being dragged backwards with something so tight around my neck I couldn’t breathe. I was gasping and choking, and I tried to kick him from behind, but he dragged me back into the kitchen. I fell to my knees and could feel pins and needles in my fingers. My eyes were black with silver stars floating inside of them and I knew I was going to die, so I stopped fighting because it was so tight and I went floppy. I think he thought I was dead; he lay me on the floor and kept pulling tighter. I passed out. He stood up because the pressure was off my stomach where he’d been kneeling on me. I don’t know how long it was but the next thing I knew I could feel him putting lipstick on me then he was moving around and went into my bedroom, that’s when I managed to phone you but he came back and saw me.’ She shuddered and wiped her lips again, and Morgan realised she was still trying to remove every last trace of it off her face.

She reached out and took hold of her arm. ‘It’s gone, there’s no lipstick there now.’

Lisa nodded. ‘He began to choke me again, but I was drifting in and out of consciousness, so I didn’t have to work hard to play dead and didn’t move at all, kept myself floppy. I think he knew I might not have been dead and began to choke me again. It went on forever but when Pickles started yowling so loud, he let go and left.’

Morgan’s blood had turned to ice inside of her veins and she shivered at the thought of what Lisa had been through. She held her hand for a few minutes. She needed to speak to Mike – if he was his friend then he could give them a name and address.

‘You’re so brave, I don’t know how you did it but I’m so glad you did.’

‘I don’t know either.’

‘Can I ask you some questions?’

Lisa nodded.

‘The lipstick was bright red. Do you own a red lipstick?’

‘Red isn’t my colour; I don’t own any.’

‘He must have got scared when Pickles started yowling because of the noise. Lisa, do you think it could be the same guy you reported hanging around?’

‘I don’t know, possibly. If he’d been wearing those black clothes and baseball cap then I’d say a hundred per cent, but he looked really smart. He had a suit on, shirt and tie, navy pinstriped with a white shirt.’