Page 70 of Gone in the Night
‘What about Sharon?’
‘Lots of tears, not much talking about her daughter though. I’m not going to lie, Morgan, I kind of think she’s more upsetat not seeing this Marie than she is about her daughter’s death and her husband’s infidelity.’
‘That’s odd.’
‘Yeah, I thought so too. Who knows? Maybe they’re a lot closer than we realise. I was wondering if they were in a relationship.’
‘Maybe, I could do with talking to Beth.’
‘Well, she’s at Storrs Hall Hotel, living it large. Booked herself into a suite, been eating room service. I wouldn’t want to pay the bill for that when she leaves.’
‘Hm, how tall do you think Beth is?’
‘Taller than me that’s for sure and I’m five foot ten.’
‘Have you seen much of Marie?’
‘Nope, just a couple of times.’
‘Is she taller than you?’
‘Only slightly. Why are you bothered about how tall they are?’
‘Declan and I think that Jack didn’t kill himself, that he could have been strangled and his body was staged, but it would need to have been someone taller than Jack.’
‘Well Jack wasn’t that tall, what was he, about five six maybe five seven at the most.’
‘Thanks, Caroline.’
‘Anytime.’
Morgan hung up and stared at the notebook on the desk, adding Marie Jones’s name next to Beth’s. If they were a couple or secretly dating, why would they want to kill Sharon and Lydia, even Jack? What was the reason for any of it? Revenge, greed, jealousy?
Morgan typed Marie’s name into Instagram and scrolled through a list of accounts to find one where the bio picture looked a little like her. Clicking on her name, she realised this glamorous woman staring back at her with her softly waved hairfalling over her shoulders and make-up to die for was in fact Marie Jones. She was stunning, nothing like the Marie she had spoken to, although she guessed there wasn’t much point going to work looking that good when she was cleaning up someone else’s mess.
She clicked on the follower tab and scrolled down.
Morgan dropped her pen.
Marie was following Lydia Williams, Jack White, Sharon Montgomery – and all three of them followed her back. It was too much of a coincidence. Or was it? She quickly did the same for Jack, who followed Sharon, but not Lydia. Her mind was spinning.
FORTY-SIX
‘Have you seen this?’ Marc had stormed into the office waving a sheet of paper in the air, but noticing the two PSD officers sitting there he dropped his hand to his side.
‘Ben, I need a word.’
Ben knew the moment Morgan had told him about talking to Fin Palmer there was going to be a shit storm coming their way, though it had happened much sooner than he’d imagined and now he didn’t know how he was going to be able to protect her when there were already two PSD officers looking into them after being the last people to speak to Jack. Ben had given them his statement, and then they had asked to speak to Morgan, and he’d told them she’d be back soon. He had just been about to go and find her when Marc had barged in like a bull in a china shop.
He followed Marc to his office, closing the door behind him so nobody could listen in.
‘What’s the problem, boss?’
Marc thrust the paper his way. It was a printout from a local news website.
Police May Have Given Misleading Information to the Public Regarding the Two Murders
Ben felt as if he was going to vomit all over Marc’s desk. He looked up at him.
