Page 36 of One Left Alive
‘You mean when he’s not being an alcoholic petty thief? Not much. He’s a bit of an odd-job man, does a spot of gardening. Nothing much.’
‘So, there’s a good chance he might have worked for the Potters.’
‘Possibly, he wouldn’t have a reason to be at their house if he didn’t know them. Look, I know this is awkward, but I really don’t want to go back down to response. I want to stay involved; I want to catch whoever has done this.’
Ben began to rub his hand across his chin. ‘No, I don’t want to lose you. I think I can swing it that you stay up here. Look, you’re the one who has brought this to my attention. You could have tampered with the evidence or neglected to tell me the man was related to you. You haven’t, though; you’ve been open and honest, which I really appreciate. What will happen is that you will continue working up here, but I’m going to task you with looking into the first set of murders. You will probably have to spend hours up in the attic looking for the files. I’ll clear it all with the DCI. Tom will agree to it. Is that okay with you? Right, you’d better show me this footage before I speak to the boss.’
‘Yes, of course. Thank you.’ She wanted to high five him, but wasn’t sure if he’d appreciate it.
She led him to the CCTV viewing room she’d run from last night. The light was still on but the television monitor had turned itself off. When she pressed the button it fired to life, still paused on the zoomed-in image of Stan. Her throat felt dry as she reached forward to press rewind. Ben watched in silence.
She left him to it and went to see if she could find Dan.
She saw him going into the locker room and followed, calling, ‘Dan.’
He turned to face her.
‘Morgan.’
‘I sent you an email. I just wanted to mention it.’
‘Very good, what about?’
The hairs on the back of her neck bristled. He was being so offhand with her and she didn’t get why.
‘To ask if you could check the external camera outside the Potters’ front door and see if it had been tampered with.’
He put his hands in his pockets.
‘And why can’t you?’
A burning rage began to build inside her chest at his attitude.
‘Because I’m tied up with enquiries for a murder investigation. Look, Dan, I don’t understand why you’re acting this way. I thought we were all a team, that we worked for the same side. I guess I got that bit wrong, but you get paid to do this stuff, so why don’t you do it instead of acting as if it’s all some huge inconvenience?’
He shook his head and turned his back on her. Morgan stormed off before she completely lost her temper with him. At least she could continue to work with CID. She was mortified about the possibility that Stan could be involved, but she had a new feeling inside her. A steely determination that she could do this. She would research the first murders and prove to Ben and Dan that she had what it takes to make a first-class detective.
Twenty-Four
Ben watched the man on the screen as he shuffled up to the house. He waited until Morgan left the small room and was out of earshot. Then he phoned Tom to tell him they had a suspect that needed bringing in. He explained about Morgan and was relieved when Tom agreed with his plan.
‘Do you think this Stan Brookes is good for the murders, Ben?’
‘Too early to say, boss, but he’s as good a place to start looking as anywhere. He knows the property, and knew the Potters.’
Ben ended the call. He looked at his watch and grinned. Not a bad start to the day and it wasn’t even sevena.m. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on Stan Brookes. He was looking forward to teaching him about family values and not stealing from his daughter. Of course, he wouldn’t let Morgan know about any of that. He didn’t want to embarrass her more than she already was with such a loser for a father. Up to now she was having the shittiest first week anyone had probably ever encountered and yet here she was at the crack of dawn ready to work a long shift for no extra pay and not much thanks.
Amy was right: he might be getting soft in his old age but to him it felt as if she’d woken him up from a three-year sleep. Since Cindy had died, he’d been on autopilot. His home life was a cycle of eat, drink too much and sleep. Work was… well, it was work. He’d plodded on doing his best to solve crimes and getting the results without putting too much effort in. Olivia Potter’s death had changed all of that; his sloppiness had resulted in Bronte Potter almost dying in a cellar next to the bodies of her family. He should have been more thorough and now he would have to shoulder the burden of that for the rest of his life: another thing to add to his list of things he’d well and truly fucked up. There might be an internal investigation into the mistakes made at accepting her death as a suicide, but until that happened and he got kicked off the job he was going to do his best to bring the killer in and get justice for the Potter family. Amy could accompany him to the post-mortems of Saul and Beatrix; he would send Morgan to the hospital for an update on Bronte. He’d noticed that she’d been desperate to go and visit yesterday.
He wondered what Claire Williams would think when he rang her with an update on the latest news. Hopefully she’d be happy with Morgan continuing to work on researching the early murders. If not he’d be willing to put up a fight to keep her; he felt as if he owed her something now that her life had gone so spectacularly to shit.
By the time the office began to fill up Ben was raring to go. Morgan was nowhere to be seen and he assumed she’d gone on the hunt for the old case files. He didn’t know anything about that case or who had worked it. Once she had some information to go on he might be able to put her in contact with the original detectives, although they’d have been retired a long time. Fingers crossed they were still alive. He decided that now was as good a time as any for a briefing. Claire and Abigail were both here; he could update them all at the same time and save repeating himself.
‘Right then, should we go to the blue room for an update?’
He led the way.
The blue room was in a strange place tucked away on the first floor down a tiny corridor. There was a staircase before the corridor which led up to the attic; Kenny was coming down it.
