Page 57 of Gone in the Night
Ben was nodding. ‘Yes, you’re right about the women. Let’s say we push Jack to one side at the moment. What do we need to do or what are you thinking we should do? Oh, and I thought you’d want to know Palmer is in custody, or he was. Marc told Cain to release him.’
Morgan was leaning over Ben’s desk her elbows resting on it. ‘Did he now? That’s a shame. You should have heard him talking crap on the radio, it was shameless. I’m glad Cain locked him up, and why did Marc wimp out? That’s just typical.’
‘I didn’t wimp out; I’m just trying to keep this department off the radar whilst we have so much going on.’
Neither of them realised that Marc had stepped into the room. ‘I know you have beef with him, Morgan, but we still have to do things by the book.’
‘I don’t have beef with him. He has no morals and doesn’t care about any of the victims or their families; all he cares about is writing stories that sensationalise their murders.’
‘Whatever, it’s sorted. Some journalists thrive off it, we can’t police them all. What were you both talking about that had you so engrossed with each other anyway or is that a private matter?’
Morgan had to stop herself from sticking her fingers down her throat and pretending to vomit all over Ben’s desk.
‘No, sir. We were talking about Leah King being a possible suspect for both murders.’
He nodded. ‘The friend who was sleeping with the stepdad?’
‘Yes.’
‘Have we got enough to bring her in?’
Ben answered for them both. ‘Not really, we could do with some forensics.’
His phone began to ring, and he picked it up. ‘Matthews.’
‘It’s me.’
‘Declan, what have you got because we’re clutching at straws.’
‘I have something very interesting for you as a matter of fact. The rope around Jack’s neck looked familiar to me, not that I’ve used that kind of rope before, but the colour and texture that kind of thing. To cut to the chase, I found a couple of strands of blue fibres stuck to the chest wound on Sharon Montgomery. I also found a single fibre that was identical to the ones retrieved from Sharon on Lydia Williams’s neck wound.’
‘And?’
‘When I compared all three samples under the microscope, they are identical to each other. I mean they need to be confirmed forensically but whoever killed Lydia and Sharon came into contact with the rope that was around Jack’s neck.’
Ben whistled. ‘The knives used to kill both victims, could they have been used to cut the rope around Jack’s neck?’
‘That is for you to figure out. I’m just giving you a heads up on my findings. It’s clear to me that the same person came into contact with the rope and all three bodies.’
‘Thanks, Declan.’
‘Anytime, let me know how you get on.’
The line went dead, and Ben fixed his gaze on Morgan. ‘All three crime scenes are linked to each other. Declan has found the same fibres on both bodies that match up to the rope around Jack’s neck.’
‘What the actual—’ Marc stopped himself from completing the sentence.
Morgan was looking at Ben who said, ‘So, either Jack killed both women and then himself or someone killed all three of them.’
Morgan asked, ‘Why would Jack kill them? He had no motive, he’s only been going out with Sharon for a couple ofmonths, so it doesn’t make sense. I mean that’s a big leap, killing Sharon in a fit of rage maybe, but he would have killed her at home, wouldn’t he? There would be evidence all over her house and we found nothing. What would he gain from waiting until she was camping then finding her and killing her in her tent? That would prove it was premeditated and I’m sorry, but I don’t buy it. The arguments he had with Amy and that time he got into a fight with Cain were all the same kind of stressors, and he didn’t try to kill either of them – he just lost his temper and wanted to strike out at someone.’
Marc turned to leave. ‘Who knows what he was thinking? We’re never going to know and to me it looks as if we already have our killer. I don’t see the point in wasting any more time. It’s obvious Jack White killed Sharon whether it was in a fit of rage and then maybe he thought he’d cover it up by killing Lydia, realised that he’d only made things a hundred times worse and then killed himself. It’s the only explanation. Now I’m going to have to speak with HQ to see how we approach this because it’s going to cause public outrage.’
Morgan didn’t agree with him, not one little bit, but continuing to openly disagree with him wasn’t going to work in her favour at all. He’d made up his mind that Jack had done this. Even though Jack wasn’t the good guy she’d once thought, she knew he wouldn’t kill two women and then take his own life, it didn’t make sense to her. She was going to have to prove he was innocent all on her own.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Amy hadn’t stopped crying since Cain had been to break the news to her about Jack. She had fallen out of love with him when he’d turned so angry with her because she was pregnant. She had never expected him to behave that way in a million years, shocked maybe because they hadn’t ever discussed having kids. It wasn’t something either of them were bothered about. Nobody had been more surprised than she was when she realised that she wanted this baby regardless of Jack’s feelings. She’d always thought that he might eventually come around to the idea, and when she’d seen him on the doorstep, she had hoped his visit yesterday had been some kind of truce. It turned out he’d come to her because he was in trouble, and it had nothing to do with her or the baby which was Jack all over. She had worried he might do this by the state he was in, but had she really, truly thought that he would? Either way it didn’t matter, she hadn’t been able to stop him and now…
