Page 26 of Gone in the Night (Detective Morgan Brookes #16)
TWENTY-SIX
Susie greeted Morgan and Ben with a sombre face.
‘I’m so sorry it’s one of your own, I can’t imagine how hard this must be for you both having to work it as well as the murder case.
’ Then she reached forward and hugged Morgan, who hadn’t been expecting it, but she hugged her back.
Susie paused before hugging Ben, but he held his arms out and hugged her.
‘Thank you, Susie, it means a lot.’
She let go of him and nodded. ‘Can I get you guys a brew?’
‘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 another Final 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?’
‘We’re good, just keen to get to the bottom of what is going on.’
Declan stood up. ‘I’ll go see what Susie is up to. I’ll meet you in my primary office in ten minutes, give you a chance to get gowned up. Are the CSIs on their way?’
‘I think so, they weren’t at Jack’s scene very long.’
Declan left them waiting in his office for Wendy and Joe to arrive.
Morgan walked into the mortuary and did a double-take.
If she closed her eyes she’d think she was at a spa as the gentle music played in the background.
Declan and Susie were ready to get going.
Sharon Montgomery was still inside of the body bag she’d been sealed into yesterday.
Wendy and Joe were whispering to themselves in the corner, and she had no doubt it would be about Jack.
Declan clapped his hands together once, so loud the noise echoed around the tiled room as if someone had let a firework off.
The bang made her start and she stared at him.
‘Sorry, have I got your attention? I know this is a difficult day for you all and you all have a lot going on but are we okay to get started?’
Everyone nodded, taking their positions.
When Sharon was laid out on the steel table and her clothes had been photographed and bagged up for evidence, it was hard to look at the wounds on her body, even harder to look at her partially decomposed face – there were even more wounds than Morgan had noticed.
Declan announced, ‘Well, he was certainly an angry little man, thirty-three stab wounds. There was no need for that because there is very little blood, which tells me one of those wounds near to her heart killed her almost immediately. Her heart wasn’t pumping when the majority of those were made, or there would have been a lot more. ’
He pointed to Sharon’s back which was dark purplish-red where all the blood had pooled, and pressed his gloved thumb into an area of the flesh.
It caused a white circle that rapidly disappeared when he removed it.
‘Liver mortis is fixed. She died in that position. She was lying down in the tent when she was attacked.’
He picked up her left hand to study it, then her right.
‘There are no defence wounds. He took her completely by surprise, and I would say the first blow to her chest was fatal because if she had woken up to someone attacking her with a knife, she would have instinctively lifted her hands to protect herself and there are no wounds on them.’
Morgan felt a familiar bubbling sensation begin in her chest. She was furious that whoever had done this had not only killed Sharon immediately, but then carried on stabbing her. ‘Overkill.’ She said it out loud.
‘This is someone who knew her maybe?’ Ben whispered. ‘Why would you be so angry with someone you didn’t know? Why continue to stab her? I mean, if the first blow killed her why carry on when they could just get the hell out of there?’
Declan was measuring the wounds one by one. ‘Or it is someone who is either very angry or very sick? Maybe they were enjoying themselves too much to stop.’
Morgan clenched her fingers then released them.
She thought of Sharon’s father, and Eddy – did either of them have the rage to do this?
She doubted it. ‘If that’s the case, then we have a much bigger problem than we thought.
If the bastard who did this did it for pleasure, he isn’t going to stop.
He’s going to be chasing his next high. We need to issue a warning to women who may be considering going on solo camping trips in the Lake District. ’
Ben stared at her. ‘Bloody hell, that will cause huge problems, and it will cause a bit of a media frenzy. We need to clear it with the boss before we consider putting out a press release.’
Morgan didn’t argue with Ben. She knew he was right. She was often impulsive and he would rather be cautious, but she knew this wasn’t something she could decide. It was out of her hands for the time being.
‘What if Jack did kill Sharon in a fit of jealous rage, then kill himself?’ asked Ben to the room.
‘Then hopefully we will find some lovely DNA to prove that and link him to the crime scene. Given the amount of blood at the scene, it’s very likely we’ll find traces on the killer’s clothes or body. I can check Jack.’ Declan was talking directly to Ben.
Morgan heard Jack’s voice telling them last night that he’d been in Sharon’s car, her house, been with Sharon in her bed – his DNA was going to be all over her, but that didn’t make him a killer. Would her blood be on him?