Page 10 of Gone in the Night
‘I’m good,’ she growled at him, and he stepped back. ‘Let’s get this over with, shall we? Because if that tent falls off and sends the victim sprawling, I am not taking any responsibility, is that understood?’
All three men nodded.
‘Good. This is ridiculous, but I’ll meet you at the bottom of the track; the recovery vehicle can take it from there.’
She strode to the telescopic ladders, fiddling with them until she managed to push them up enough so she could drive without ripping them and the tent off the roof of the car. Opening the driver’s door, she took a quick look inside to ensure there was no obvious evidence, and then she got in and slammed the door shut.
‘She’s pissed,’ Declan said to Ben.
Ben nodded. ‘Can’t say I blame her. What the hell are we doing here? This was your suggestion, it had nothing to do with me.’
They watched as the engine roared into life and Morgan began to slowly navigate the Land Rover until it was facing the right way.
Ben held up a hand to her and shouted, ‘I’ll go in front; Marc will walk behind and keep an eye on it.’
Then they slowly made their way down the steep side of the fell, the strangest procession that had ever made its way downthere in possibly hundreds of years, when the old coffin road was in use by the locals who lived in this remote area, to carry their dead down to the church.
EIGHT
Unbelievably, Declan’s plan worked without any hitches, and Morgan carefully navigated the 4x4 down to the wider road, which had been closed off to the public. It wasn’t a busy road anyway, but it was still eerily quiet when she climbed out of the Land Rover. There was a silver Ford Transporter with blacked-out windows slowly crawling its way up towards them, and she recognised the undertaker’s van.
‘Well done, Morgan, you made it.’ Marc’s praise wasn’t lost on her, and she could hear the pure relief in his voice that the tent hadn’t toppled off, spilling its contents all over the side of the fell.
‘You guys can take it from here; I’ve done my part.’
Ben smiled at her and nodded. ‘Do you want to get Cain to come pick you up and you can both get back to the station, get those social media checks and background checks started on the victim?’
She didn’t need asking twice and sent Cain a quick message.
Hey, come rescue me now. I need to get back to the station.
Three dots appeared immediately.
On my way.
She sighed as she walked down the road towards the officer who was standing all alone like a fish out of water with a crime-scene logbook in her hands. She took it off her and smiled.
‘I think they might release the scene as soon as the body is recovered from the tent.’
‘Oh my God, there’s a body inside of that tent. How did you manage to drive it down without it toppling over?’
‘Very slowly.’
‘Well done, that’s really impressive.’
‘Thanks, I can add that to my list of ever-expanding skills on my CV.’
The student officer, who looked even younger than she did, giggled, and Morgan smiled at her then carried on walking down the road before anyone could change their mind and call her back. She’d done her part. It could take hours before they managed to get the Land Rover recovered for a full forensic lift. They were lucky the entire crime scene had been contained inside of that small tent, with possible forensic traces outside and surrounding the vehicle. She saw the white car Cain had been driving heading their way and carried on walking towards him, not sure why but desperately wanting to get away from this scene. Maybe it was the contrast of the beautiful surroundings with the desolation of the crime combined with the absolute horror she felt inside her stomach at what had happened. How had the killer found Sharon Montgomery? It was weighing heavy on her mind. As far as she was concerned there were three options: it was an opportunistic kill carried out by someone who just happened to be passing and had a sudden urge to commit murder; it was someone Sharon knew, someone she had told where she was going to be and they had followed her up here planning to kill her. Or thirdly, it was someone unknownto Sharon who knew her, someone who had been closely monitoring her social media accounts.
Morgan got into the car, and Cain nodded at her.
‘That poor guy, I feel bad for him. He’s not been well and now this happening right on his doorstep.’
‘I feel even worse for Sharon. She didn’t ask to be murdered in a tent whilst she slept.’
‘Well, when you put it like that.’
‘What is the world coming to, Cain? I always thought that living around here we were a safe bet far from all the horrors that happen on a daily basis in the big cities, but it seems as if there’s a chance we’re in more danger than ever before. Every violent weirdo is flocking to this part of the Lake District as if it’s some kind of challenge.’
