Page 49 of One Left Alive
‘I would assume so.’
‘I need to go back to the house. I want to take a look inside it. The first set of crime scene photos are far worse than these ones. I want to see if there’s a possibility of any evidence inside that cupboard that we could have missed. Maybe even something from the first murders.’
‘Like what? It’s been, what? Forty-five years.’
‘I don’t know; a loft hatch to hide a weapon in. Carpet fibres, bloodstains, fingerprints.’
He picked up the phone. ‘Wendy, when you did a sweep of the house did you check inside the upstairs landing cupboard? Some new information has come to light.’
He listened to what she told him then put the phone down.
‘Photos were taken of the inside, nothing looked disturbed, so it was left.’ He shoved the remaining piece of his muffin into his mouth. ‘Come on then, let’s go. If we find anything I’ll get CSI to come back.’
He had his jacket on and opened the door for her. She followed him, glancing across at Amy, who made a swiping motion across her throat with her finger. Morgan shook her head, then chased after Ben, who was already on his way down the stairs.
The drive to Easdale Road was breathtaking. Morgan enjoyed looking out at the fells and lakes. A gentle breeze blew in through the open windows; neither of them spoke, but it wasn’t awkward. Morgan felt as if their relationship had moved more towards friends than colleagues and she was happy with that. It seemed like the pair of them were loners with a small social circle; maybe their working together was meant to be.
The house no longer had a PCSO guarding the scene, though the blue and white crime scene tape was still fastened across the drive.
‘Well if that isn’t a signal for every burglar in the area to come in and ransack the place while it’s empty, I don’t know what is.’
He stopped the car, got out, ripped it down and screwed it up, throwing it into the back seat.
Morgan spoke. ‘I thought it would still be under guard.’
‘So did I, but we’re short-staffed and it’s secluded so the DCI decided to take the scene guard away. Big mistake if you ask me, but what would I know?’
He parked outside the front and they got out. Morgan turned to take a look at the backdrop of the fells. The lush green hills and trees that covered them soothed her nerves. Helvellyn, the third highest mountain in England, stood majestically in the background. A river ran along the end of the garden and there was a densely wooded area on the opposite bank; it was beautiful.
She let out a screech and Ben turned to see what she was screaming at. Her heart racing almost as fast as she was running, she pelted towards the tree, horror etched across her face; this couldn’t be happening again. It was like she was stuck in some bad movie and she had no control over it whatsoever. Lying at the base of the same oak tree where she’d found Olivia Potter was the lifeless body of Harrison Wright.
She reached him in seconds, pressing two fingers to his neck and relief flooded over her: she could feel a pulse. There was a noose around his neck, but luckily for him the rope had snapped. She heard Ben’s breathless voice as he jogged towards her; he was on the radio calling for urgent assistance. He requested an ambulance and a patrol.
‘Harrison, Harrison, can you hear me?’ He didn’t stir. ‘He’s breathing, but unconscious.’
Ben relayed the information on to the control room operator. Taking his jacket off, he covered Harrison with it.
Morgan looked at Ben. ‘Do you think he did this himself or someone else did it?’
‘Only he can tell us that. After the events this week I don’t even want to hazard a guess.’
Morgan did not know what was going on, but she’d never envisaged anything like this in her wildest dreams. She had expected her first few months to be a bit of an anti-climax after her time spent in company with Dan. He’d answered every immediate response job whenever they were on shift and every sudden death, to make sure she got plenty of experience. A feeling of overwhelming sadness filled her; how had it all gone so wrong between them? She thought they were friends and it hurt her that he had turned against her the way he had.
Feeling sorry for herself, she looked down at Harrison. Her fingers reaching out, she stroked his head. He was a teenage boy who should be thinking about nothing but having fun and what he was going to do with the rest of his life. Yet he was lying here on the ground of an empty house, lucky he was still breathing. His life would have been over before it began, just like Bea’s and Bronte’s. It made her so sad and even more determined to find out what had happened here. Maybe she could talk it through with Dan, tell him she hadn’t asked for the attachment in CID, that it had been pure luck she’d been in the right place. It wasn’t helping things that he’d been hoping for the opportunity for a long time.
They waited for what seemed like forever until finally a siren could be heard in the distance. Ben went to wait at the entrance to the drive to flag them down. The ambulance manoeuvred up the drive and parked behind Ben’s car. The two paramedics got out and raced across to where they were. She stood up to let them get near him and realised one of them was Luke.
‘What is it with this place? Hello again, I was here on Friday.’
She smiled. ‘I remember; hello, Luke. No idea, but I wouldn’t live here if they gave it to me for free.’
She stopped speaking, realising how bad it sounded. Stepping back, Morgan and Ben both watched the paramedics assess the boy. He murmured and groaned a little while they began to ask him questions and take his vital signs; the air was fraught with tension and sadness. Finally, they loaded him into the back of the ambulance.
‘Where’s he going?’
‘Westmorland General A & E is closed at the moment, so it will be RLI.’
Morgan wondered if he’d wanted to be close to Bronte. Had he done this because he wanted to be with her or had he done it because he had a guilty conscience? A patrol arrived, Dan got out and Ben began explaining the circumstances of what had happened to Harrison. Dan didn’t say much; he didn’t even look Morgan’s way. He couldn’t ignore Ben because he was his superior, but when she turned away from him she could feel his eyes burning into the back of her head. A couple of grunts later and he reversed out of the drive to let the ambulance out, then followed it. Morgan stared after him. He walked back to where she was standing, staring after Luke. Realising he was watching her, she snapped out of it.
