Page 38 of Gone in the Night
‘No, thank you, has Jack been booked in yet?’
A loud bell rang, and she pointed to the rear doors where the bodies were dropped off. ‘He’s just arrived. Declan’s in his office; he said he’d have a chat with you first. I’ll go get Jack booked in.’
They knew the way to Declan’s office as well as they knew the way to their own, because the last couple of years they had spent almost as much time in it as they had the one at the station.
Ben knocked on the door.
‘Come in.’
Declan was eating a sandwich, and seeing him doing something so normal and mundane made Morgan feel slightly better.
‘How are you? Bit of a mess this one. Can I get you something to eat?’
They shook their heads in unison. ‘No, thanks, we’re good,’ replied Morgan.
Ben sat down on the sofa where Declan spent a lot of time snoozing when he worked late. Morgan sat in a chair.
‘What’s gone on, do you know anything at all, did he leave a note? How was I not called out to an off-duty cop?’
‘We literally know nothing. Marc and Madds were already at the scene by the time we got there, and he was bagged up and being moved. They’re adamant it’s suicide.’
‘Yeah, I was a bit shocked when Susie came in to tell me the undertakers were on the way with an off-duty police officer. My heart was in my mouth, and I checked to see if either of you were online on Messenger; of course neither of you were because you’re both rubbish at communicating. Then she told me it was a Jack White, and my pulse returned to normal. Do I know him?’
‘Sorry to have worried you, but neither of us would die on purpose.’ Morgan smiled at him, and he laughed.
‘Are you sure about that, Morgan, because you seem to have a death wish. Have you seen they’ve made anotherFinal Destination? They could make a film about all your near misses, Morgan, and I should shut up right now, shouldn’t I?’
She nodded. ‘Jack is Amy’s ex-partner.’
‘Our Amy?’
‘Yes.’
‘Oh Lord, did we like him or not? And how awful for her, isn’t she almost due the baby?’
‘We didn’t like the way he was being with her since she found out she was pregnant, so unfortunately not a lot. It was her last day in work yesterday, and Jack turned up at her house last night and admitted to her that he was seeing Sharon Montgomery.’
Declan leaned forward, both elbows on the desk. ‘The Sharon Montgomery who I’m about to do a post-mortem on?’
‘The same one.’
‘Holy mother of Mary, what is going on here? I mean this is wild even for us.’
Ben sighed. ‘We’d be grateful if you could figure it out for us.’
‘The pressure is on, are we ready for this and what do I do about Jack? Will his family need to identify him?’
Ben shook his head. ‘I think he was identified by every officer at the scene, but his parents may want to view him. I’m concerned that Marc and Madds are going to want to brush this off as a murder-suicide.’
‘They can try, but I won’t be brushing anything off. I’ll be doing a thorough PM on the pair of them.’
‘Thanks, Declan, I appreciate that. When do you think you could do Jack’s?’
‘Happy to move things around and do him after Sharon’s, if you’re happy for me to do that.’
‘I’d be very happy.’
‘Leave it with me, it’s no problem. What a day you guys are having, are you both okay?’
