Page 69 of Gone in the Night
‘Good, that would make it easier for you. When we get back to the station let’s get you set up in an empty office, away from everyone so you can concentrate.’
‘What about Justin?’
‘Stan and Amber can interview him; I’ll give them a list of key questions I need answers to. We need to speak to his wife too and see if she can alibi him for the nights of the murders.’
‘Ben, I need to tell you something.’ Morgan couldn’t keep it in any longer.
He turned his head to look at her. ‘What?’ The look of concern in his eyes made her feel terrible.
‘I had a meeting with Fin Palmer earlier, well I was at The Coffee Pot and he came there.’
‘What do you mean a meeting? Did you bump into him by chance? If he’s following you…’ Ben shook his head. ‘I swear to God, I’ll strangle him with my bare hands.’
‘No, I asked him to meet me there.’
‘Why? What the hell for?’
‘I wanted him to run a story about the murders, I’m sorry. I should have asked you, but I wanted something putting out there that there may still be a killer in the area. I asked him towrite it up, so it didn’t look as if it came from the police, and he promised he’d write it from his perspective.’
‘And you believe that he’ll do that? Christ, Morgan, what were you thinking? The guy threw you out to the wolves once, to sell papers. Don’t you think he’s going to have a field day with this? You walked right into his open arms, how could you be so stupid?’
She’d known he was going to be mad at her, but she hadn’t realised it would hurt so much. ‘I’m not sorry, well I am for not telling you sooner. I didn’t want you to be involved and that’s the only reason why, but I’m not sorry if he prints something that makes other female solo campers stop and take notice. The way Marc put it, there is nothing to be concerned about, it’s like those two murders were a little glitch that he’s single-handedly put a stop to, and that in my opinion was far more irresponsible than what I’ve said.’
Ben shook his head and turned to look out of the passenger window. He couldn’t look her in the eyes. If she’d felt queasy before, right now she wanted to pull over and vomit all over the grass verge.
‘I can’t, Morgan, please. I don’t know what to say, just leave it okay?’
The rest of the drive back to Rydal Falls was uncomfortable and now she was regretting ever thinking about speaking to Fin Palmer. Her life as she knew it could be over if he betrayed her again. Tears pricked at the corner of her eyes as she stroked the bare ring finger. She had known Ben would be angry, so she wasn’t sure why she was feeling so bad. It hadn’t stopped her from doing what she’d done, and she just had to hope that for once in his life Fin might do the right thing.
FORTY-FIVE
Two detectives from Professional Standards were sitting in the office when Ben and Morgan walked in. She didn’t know them, but Ben nodded at them both and she didn’t miss how his shoulders had stiffened, his whole posture had.
‘Mike, Dan, how’s it going?’
Morgan smiled at them, retrieved her laptop bag from the floor underneath her desk and left them to it. Regardless of the mess she’d made of things, she was going to find an empty office and do what Ben had said she could, at least until he’d calmed down.
She went up to the third floor, as there were a few empty offices up here that had once housed the coroner and his assistant. Morgan went into one and tried the window to see if it opened because the dust in there was thicker than her fingertip. Relieved that it did, she went to the toilet and grabbed a handful of toilet roll to wipe the desk and chair down. When it was as clean as she could get it without a hoover or duster, she sat down and opened her laptop. Leaning over, she closed the door, blocking out the rest of the world.
She wanted to concentrate and try and quell the sickness that was rolling around inside of her stomach, as if she was onthe Windermere ferry in a bad storm. If Fin did quote her as speaking out against her superiors, those two from Professional Standards would be carting her off to interview the moment the story dropped and yes, she had known this was the most probable outcome and had gone with it. So, why was she regretting that now?
Logging on to her Instagram account, she brought up Sharon’s and Lydia’s profiles. Taking out a notepad, she wrote down their names, then added Stefan’s, Leah’s, Beth’s, Justin’s. She realised they knew nothing about Lydia apart from that Justin was her boss and he was a total loser; Beth hadn’t been spoken to either not since they’d found Sharon’s body. Morgan phoned Caroline, the FLO.
‘Hey, it’s me, Morgan. How’s things? Are you with Beth at the moment? Does she know about Lydia Williams?’
‘No, I’m not with her and she’s doing surprisingly well and told me she’d ring me if she needed me. I informed her about Lydia when Ben notified me. What’s up?’
‘Has she said anything about Stefan or Leah, anything about Sharon?’
‘She’s been very quiet, the only person she kept talking about was the maid. I can’t remember her name offhand.’
‘Marie?’
‘Yes, her.’
‘What’s she been saying about her?’
‘That she’s a lifesaver, she should have listened to her subtle hints about Stefan and his flirting. How she misses her more than her husband because she was a friend more than the woman who took care of things.’
