Page 19 of Gone in the Night
By the time all six of them were crammed into the viewing room there wasn’t much time to manoeuvre.
Declan raised his voice.
‘Hello, I’m Doctor Donnelly, the forensic pathologist. Could we please take a moment to breathe and just try to bring it down a little? I know you’re both very anxious about this and I completely understand how scared and upset you’re feeling.’
‘Do you, do you really? Because it’s just another day for you lot, isn’t it? This isn’t your life that’s in tatters.’
Beth spat the words with such venom that Declan took a step back.
He nodded. ‘I have been doing this for a very long time; I have been in the position you’re in when I lost my father in a pointless pub brawl. Please, we want to help you, but we can’t if you’re shouting and being aggressive towards my staff. It’s not helping anyone, least of all your daughter.’
Stefan took hold of Beth’s arm. ‘He’s right, you need to calm down, Beth, it’s not helping Sharon.’
At that moment Beth looked as if she was going to cause Stefan serious injury. ‘Mydaughter, and you weren’t even talking to her, so I don’t know what you’re being so upset about.’
Morgan felt Cain’s eyes glaring into the back of her head, but she didn’t turn around. All was not as they’d first thought about the couple in front of them.
‘That’s uncalled for, Beth, of course I’m upset. I love Sharon deeply.’
Beth stopped whatever was about to tumble from her lips and nodded. She turned to stare at Declan. ‘I’m sorry, can we just get this over with.’
She was clutching her phone in one hand and a beep of the voicemail message ending was heard in the room. Morgan realised Beth had been phoning Sharon, and God forbid if this wasn’t her daughter on the gurney in the viewing room, then she’d just left her the most awful of voicemails, begging her daughter to phone her now because she was about to look at someone’s corpse.
‘Would you like us to show you a photograph of her on the screen, or do you want to see her in person?’
‘In person.’ Beth didn’t pause. ‘Can I go in with her to take a look?’
‘I’m afraid not, we can’t let you touch her at the moment and I’m terribly sorry. We need to do a thorough forensic examination to find as much evidence as possible so we can find the perpetrator. We’ve covered part of her face. I’m sorry to say that there is some decomposition and it’s not nice. If you’d like, maybe you could identify her by the clothes she was wearing or her hair.’
Stefan held up his hand. ‘No, we need to see her, don’t we? To make sure you guys haven’t made a huge error.’ Then he reached out for Beth’s hand, who clasped his fingers, despite her venomous attack on her husband.
Susie left the room, a look of relief across her face at the chance to escape.
‘We’re ready,’ said Beth.
Morgan felt her heart break for the woman because she was not and never would be ready for what she was about to see. The curtains were drawn back and Beth gasped. Sharon’s waxy face with her eyes open and dried blood was even more horrific with the cloth covering the half of her face that had been eaten away by insects. The white sheet was tucked under her chin to hide the rest of the wounds on her body.
Declan spoke softly. ‘Take your time, we understand that it might not look like your daughter, how you remember her.’
Stefan nodded his head. ‘Christ almighty, it’s her, it’s Sharon. Shut those damn curtains, we’ve seen enough. I mean how long has she been dead to look like that? Do you even know?’
Declan waved to Susie; Stefan was staring at his daughter until she was no longer visible. ‘My rough estimation would be anything from four days to a week. I won’t be able to give you a definitive answer until I’ve conducted the post-mortem.’
Stefan gulped. ‘Now what? Do you even know who did this?’ He was glaring at Morgan.
‘We’ve already begun our investigation; we have some questions that we need to ask you about Sharon. Would you like to do this here or back at your house?’
‘Can you get it over with here? No offence, but I don’t want you back in my house.’
Cain looked mildly offended by that statement, but she got it and would probably feel the same.
‘Can I get you some tea or coffee?’ Susie was hovering at the doorway.
Declan nodded. ‘Tea would be good, Susie, thank you.’
She hurried away; Declan turned to Beth. ‘I’ll let you speak with my lovely colleagues and then I can talk you through what the next steps are.’
He left them to it, smiling at Morgan as he left, and she wanted to follow him out of this too hot, too small room, butinstead she sat on a chair opposite the Montgomerys and took out her notebook.
