Page 64 of Gone in the Night
‘I’m Helen, a midwife at Helm Chase Maternity Unit. We have your friend Amy with us, she’s in labour and trying to get hold of Cain but he’s not answering his phone.’
‘Oh my gosh, is she okay? Please tell her I’ll get hold of him right now.’
‘She’s doing okay, but I don’t want him to miss the birth which is progressing quite fast.’
‘Give her my love. I’ll go find Cain.’
‘Thank you.’
Morgan pulled out her radio from the side pocket and dialled Cain’s collar number. It crackled to life.
‘Have you been sacked yet, Brookes?’
‘Amy’s in labour. She’s managed to get herself to the maternity unit but the midwife who phoned said labour is progressing quickly.’
‘Oh.’
‘Yes, oh. Tell Ben you have to leave. Don’t make her go through this on her own, not after the tragic news about Jack.’
‘I won’t, I wouldn’t.’
There was a long pause then he whispered.‘Morgan, I’m scared, what if I pass out or am no use to her whatsoever.’
‘You will be amazing; all you have to do is let her squeeze the shit out of your hand and maybe don’t look down there if you think you’re going to pass out. You can do this, Cain, she needs you.’
‘I can do this, yes, I can. Thanks.’
‘Let me know as soon—’ But he’d gone, the radio chatter broke the silence in the car.
Morgan hoped Amy was okay. What a day this was turning into.
FORTY-THREE
Sitting in the car, Morgan checked the log for Lydia, to get a contact number for whoever was dealing with Lydia Williams’s death notification. They had hardly any background information on her. She smiled to see the name of a detective she knew and had spoken to several times before.
As her phone began to ring, she heard the soft voice of Alison Reynolds answer.‘Reynolds.’
‘Alison, it’s Morgan Brookes.’
‘Morgan, long time no speak. Which technically is a good thing, right?’
Morgan laughed. ‘Technically it is. I’m phoning about Lydia Williams, have you managed to get any background information on her yet? Things are a bit messed up here, there’s so much going on.’
‘Ah, yes. Bless you, I saw the news about your colleague. Well, hopefully I can tick some boxes for you. Apparently, she was a bit of a recluse. I spoke with her younger sister. Both parents are dead, which I suppose is a blessing, she has an older sister, but they were estranged. They don’t have to endure the horror of finding out their daughter was murdered. Her younger sister lives in York and is on her way here, but shesaid that Lydia had no partner that she was aware of, loved camping in that roof tent thing. She’d not long bought it and adored her dog Barney more than she did people. She’d worked in an office in Lancaster city centre but had handed in her resignation the Friday before she went camping. Her sister said she told her that the boss was a creep.’
‘Oh that’s interesting about the boss, and I get that, I prefer our cat Kevin to most people. Lydia sounds like my kind of woman, bless her.’
‘Her sister asked about Barney. Have you located him yet?’
‘No, there was no sign of the dog at the crime scene. Whether he ran off and is out on the fells, and I haven’t heard any reports that he has, but it’s a bit strange that he’s disappeared off the face of the earth.’
‘Unless whoever killed Lydia, killed Barney too.’
‘I did think that, but wouldn’t we have found the dog’s body?’
‘I wish I could answer that for you, maybe he didn’t want the shame of killing a dog. Isn’t it funny how us humans are dispensable, yet dogs and cats aren’t?’
‘Yeah, some humans are the scourge of the earth though animals are just cute, innocent things. Thanks, Alison, I’ll let you know as soon as we find Barney.’
