Page 35 of Gone in the Night (Detective Morgan Brookes #16)

THIRTY-FIVE

Morgan was about to get into her car when she saw the maid coming out of the barn and waved at her. The woman had a basket full of laundry, and she walked towards her.

‘How are you? I guess things have been very stressful around here.’

She shrugged. ‘It’s so sad. I feel terrible about Sharon, and now Beth has left and Stefan is on his own and they’re grieving without each other, making it even harder.’

‘How long have you worked for the Montgomerys?’

‘Too long, fifteen years.’

‘Do you not like it?’

‘Oh, yes. Sorry, that sounded wrong. I do, I love it. It’s not too hard and the pay is wonderful compared to what the girls get cleaning in the big hotels these days. What I mean is I feel old I’ve been here that long.’

Morgan smiled at her. ‘How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?’

‘Forty next month.’

‘You’re still a teenager.’

‘Ha! Tell that to my knees.’

‘Sorry, I didn’t catch your surname?’

‘Marie Jones.’

‘How were things before the incident with Stefan and Leah?’

‘As in was this the first time he’d brought other women here?’

‘Yes.’

‘There have been a few over the years, nobody serious. Quick affairs that fizzled out before they’d begun.’

‘Why do you think that was?’

‘He’s an idiot, he’s a man which doesn’t help, and a man with money is even worse. He gets bored, some bimbo throws herself at him, his ego won’t let him say no and then afterwards he always regrets it because he loves Beth deeply.’

‘Wow, you know a lot.’

Marie shrugged. ‘I see a lot, sometimes I feel like slapping him across the face and telling him to wake up. Beth is a good woman, kind, she doesn’t deserve to be disrespected that way.’

‘But you don’t say anything?’

‘I’m the maid, it’s not my job to do marriage counselling. It’s just hard watching it going on and if I’m honest it’s tiring. That last time when Sharon caught her friend with her dad, I was kind of relieved because I knew she would do something about it.’

‘Was Stefan mad with her?’

Marie nodded. ‘Furious that he’d been caught red-handed, ashamed maybe.’

‘Mad enough to kill her?’

‘No, he’s not a violent man. In all the arguments over the years – and there have been some real good ones – he’s never, ever lifted a hand to either Beth or Sharon.’

‘How well do you know Leah King?’

‘Enough to know she’s a little gold digger who was happy enough to break up their marriage and hurt her best friend in the process.

Horrible girl, I used to catch her stealing Sharon’s things, make-up, clothes, shoes, handbags.

She’d say she was borrowing them, yet she never returned them, and I think Sharon let her get away with it because she was embarrassed that she had all of that stuff and Leah didn’t.

If you ask me friends don’t steal from you.

I wouldn’t trust her in a charity shop if you get what I’m saying. ’

‘Did you ever see Sharon’s boyfriend?’

Marie’s eyes opened wide, and she shook her head. ‘She was dating? Oh, wow, that’s something I didn’t know. Poor guy must be devastated.’

‘He’s dead.’

Marie’s jaw dropped open, her eyes opening even wider. ‘What? How?’

‘It looks like suicide.’

Marie dropped the basket of clean bedding she’d been holding and leaned against the side of the car. ‘Oh God, that’s terrible.’

‘Yes, he’s a colleague of mine so it’s all been a bit of an awful shock.’

‘So much death, so much pointless death.’

Morgan nodded, never had truer words been spoken.

‘Did Beth or Stefan know Sharon was dating?’

Marie bent to retrieve the basket off the ground, and when she straightened up, she looked Morgan in the eyes.

‘Did Leah know about Sharon’s boyfriend? She was jealous of everything Sharon did.’

Morgan shrugged, noting that Marie hadn’t answered her question and had sidestepped it like a professional criminal. ‘I asked her but she denied it, said she had no idea.’

‘I’m not telling you how to do your job, Detective, but I think Leah is not the innocent little girl she portrays.

She’s a cunning, selfish thief who I would imagine has no qualms about going after what she wants and taking care of whoever tried to stop her.

I bet she was furious with Sharon after that incident.

I can’t see Leah letting that go without any kind of repercussions. ’

Morgan agreed, the more she heard about Leah King, the more she disliked her, but was there a connection between Leah and Lydia Williams?

Female serial killers were rare, but they did exist. She knew she needed to take a look at the CCTV from the campsite to see if it showed anyone wandering around, possibly with Lydia’s dog in tow.

She was going to have to find out and fast because if Leah was the killer, who was to say she didn’t already have another victim in her sights.