Page 30 of One Left Alive
‘Yes, we do, but it doesn’t perform post-mortems. Our hands are kind of tied.’
He drove around to the rear of the nondescript building with a small blue sign that read ‘Mortuary’.
‘You know I always thought a mortuary would be a bit scarier than this.’
‘It’s not scary at all, more sad than anything else.’
Parking in one of the two spaces, they got out of the car. Ben pushed the doorbell and they waited for someone to come and let them in.
The door was opened by the same woman who’d let Morgan in with Olivia yesterday. She was in blue scrubs, her pink hair tied back in a tight ponytail. Ben flashed his warrant card. ‘Declan is expecting me.’
‘He is; just so you know he’s in a bit of an arsy mood.’
She turned and led them inside. Ben looked at Morgan and shrugged his shoulders. He’d never seen her before and never in the years he’d worked with Declan had anyone described him that way. He guessed this was who Declan had been complaining about on the phone. She didn’t look much older than Morgan; maybe they’d both acquired new protégés at the same time.
His phone began to vibrate, and he recognised Amy’s number.
‘Amy.’
‘Good news, a patrol located the missing car. It was parked in a lay-by on Fell Road.’
‘Brilliant, I want a full forensic lift.’
‘I already told them that.’She ended the call.
He smiled at Morgan. ‘Saul’s car has been found; hopefully there might be something of evidential value inside it.’
Twenty
Greg Barker sat in his office scrolling through the newsfeeds on his phone. He needed to know what was happening at the Potters’ house on Easdale Road. He felt bad; the police would no doubt want to talk to him once they discovered that until a few months ago he and Saul had almost been business partners on a new housing development on the outskirts of Rydal. It never took off and hadn’t ended particularly well; there had been an argument more than once, over the money needed to get it off the ground, planning delays and Olivia. Greg had got a little too close to her, been a shoulder to cry on when things had been tough between her and Saul. And now they were all dead. The girls too. How did that even happen? What was certain, though, was that once Jamie Stone learned the connection, he would make sure fingers were pointing towards him. It was ridiculous. Had he put too much strain on Saul with the stress of starting this new project and he’d flipped, killing them all? He hoped not. That would be an unfortunate chain of events. But at the end of the day not his problem, until the police came knocking and decided that it was. Considering an entire family had been wiped out, there was very little information about it. He picked up the phone. It rang for some time before the voice on the other end answered.
‘Hello.’The voice was curt.
‘It’s me, I need a favour.’
‘Like what? I’m busy now; in fact I’m up to my neck in it to be precise.’
‘What happened on Easdale Road?’
‘You know I can’t tell you anything.’
‘Yes, I think that you can. I don’t want all the details, just what’s happening with the investigation. Where’s it going?’
There was a slight pause.‘It’s nothing to do with me, I’m not working it. They gave the student I trained the placement in CID. I’ve been waiting a couple of years for that opportunity and I was passed over for an inexperienced woman whose face must be a better fit than mine.’
Greg could almost taste the bitterness it was so palpable.
‘You have access to the logs though, and must know people who are.’
‘Why are you bothered anyway?’
‘Why wouldn’t I be, I knew them.’
‘I’ll see what I can find out and get back to you. Don’t phone again.’
The line went dead. He swore under his breath. That arsehole Dan needed to be a bit nicer; he knew Greg could make his life a misery if he decided to.
The door opened and in walked Mary Jane with five women who looked even older than her, and she was ancient. Mary Jane stopped when she saw him.
