Page 12 of Gone in the Night
NINE
Morgan had cleaned off the whiteboard and then stuck up a sheet of paper with a selfie of the victim, which she’d copied and printed from Instagram. Beneath it, she added a list of twelve names from Sharon’s Instagram followers. The photo showed Sharon smiling and clearly loving life; it was taken at some point when she’d first set up camp outside the entrance to the field. The sun had been setting behind the mountain, sending bright orange rays through the clouds that covered them like an exotic blanket of light.
Beneath the names, Morgan also added the name of the farmer who had found Sharon’s decomposing body.
Joss Graham 60 + years old – last person to speak to Sharon that we are aware of.
Cain had come back into the office ten minutes earlier, with a smile on his face that had both Morgan and Amy rolling their eyes at each other. The new boy was nowhere to be found, though none of them were too bothered about looking that hard, as it was nice to spend time together as a team before Amyfinished. Morgan hadn’t realised how much she was going to miss Amy’s sarcasm and sense of humour; things were going to be a lot different around here without her.
Marc pushed the door open too hard, as always, and it swung inwards with a loud clump as it hit the wall, knocking yet another chunk of plaster off it – that wall had more holes in it than Morgan’s fishnet tights. Ben was behind him.
‘Everyone okay? Briefing in the blue room in ten minutes?’ said Ben, before disappearing into his office with Marc behind him.
Cain went from smiling to positively beaming to himself. Amy stared at him.
‘Are you okay over there? You’re not having some kind of medical episode, are you? Because you know that nobody ever has the right to look as happy as you do whilst at work.’
He shrugged. ‘Never been better.’
‘Weirdo,’ muttered Amy, and Morgan stifled a laugh.
Cain ignored them and walked out again, leaving Amy staring after him.
‘What’s with him? He’s acting so shifty.’
Morgan shrugged. ‘Who knows? Maybe he’s happy in his work.’
Amy laughed. ‘Glad someone is, I’m going to miss this place. It’s like some fucked-up family unit that I can’t get enough of; but I’m not going to miss sitting in these uncomfortable chairs and having permanent backache.’
‘We’re going to miss you too; it won’t be the same.’
‘Ah, but at least the new guy is better looking.’ She winked at Morgan who felt her cheeks begin to burn.
Marc and Ben came back out of Ben’s office; Ben had an all-too-familiar blue folder tucked underneath his arm. In it he would keep a detailed record of the ongoing murderinvestigation. All four headed to the blue room, where Tristan was hovering outside.
‘I wasn’t sure where the blue room was. I saw Cain go in, but he told me to keep out until it was time for the briefing.’
Marc arched an eyebrow at Ben. ‘He did? No idea why.’
He pushed the door handle down and stepped inside to a sea of pink and blue balloons, banners, cakes, confetti and bunting. Cain was literally beaming from ear to ear, and Amy, who looked almost as shocked as Marc, burst into tears. Ben was looking confused, and he shrugged at Morgan and mouthed, ‘What’s happening?’
Cain stepped towards Amy, wrapping his huge arms around her and hugging her. He yelled, ‘Surprise! Do you like it? It’s your baby shower; there’s no need to cry about it, Amy, you could at least look happy.’
Amy buried her head deeper into his chest and sobbed. Cain looked at Morgan, a grimace on his face as he whispered, ‘Too much?’
At this Amy began to laugh. Pulling herself away from him, she slapped his arm and wiped the tears on her cheeks with her sleeve. ‘No, it was just the shock. Nobody has ever done anything like this for me before and my hormones are all over the place. It’s just so lovely.’ She sniffed and blinked a couple of times.
‘Phew, thank God you’re okay. Don’t go into early labour or anything before we’ve eaten the cakes. I wasn’t sure whether you had decided if it was a girl or a boy, so I went for both.’
Morgan and Ben laughed, but Marc looked horrified.
‘Wasn’t sure if she’d decided? Cain, you don’t get to choose. It’s a girl or it’s a boy, end of story,’ he said.
‘You know what I mean. She won’t tell us what she’s having so I went for the safest bet.’
‘I don’t know what I’m having, that’s why. I didn’t want to know; I want it to be a surprise.’
‘Same thing, anyway, congratulations, Amy. You’ll soon be pushing that watermelon out of?—’
