Page 43 of Gone in the Night (Detective Morgan Brookes #16)

FORTY-THREE

Sitting in the car, Morgan checked the log for Lydia, to get a contact number for whoever was dealing with Lydia Williams’s death notification. They had hardly any background information on her. She smiled to see the name of a detective she knew and had spoken to several times before.

As her phone began to ring, she heard the soft voice of Alison Reynolds answer. ‘Reynolds.’

‘Alison, it’s Morgan Brookes.’

‘Morgan, long time no speak. Which technically is a good thing, right?’

Morgan laughed. ‘Technically it is. I’m phoning about Lydia Williams, have you managed to get any background information on her yet? Things are a bit messed up here, there’s so much going on.’

‘Ah, yes. Bless you, I saw the news about your colleague. Well, hopefully I can tick some boxes for you. Apparently, she was a bit of a recluse. I spoke with her younger sister. Both parents are dead, which I suppose is a blessing, she has an older sister, but they were estranged. They don’t have to endure the horror of finding out their daughter was murdered.

Her younger sister lives in York and is on her way here, but she said that Lydia had no partner that she was aware of, loved camping in that roof tent thing.

She’d not long bought it and adored her dog Barney more than she did people.

She’d worked in an office in Lancaster city centre but had handed in her resignation the Friday before she went camping.

Her sister said she told her that the boss was a creep. ’

‘Oh that’s interesting about the boss, and I get that, I prefer our cat Kevin to most people. Lydia sounds like my kind of woman, bless her.’

‘Her sister asked about Barney. Have you located him yet?’

‘No, there was no sign of the dog at the crime scene. Whether he ran off and is out on the fells, and I haven’t heard any reports that he has, but it’s a bit strange that he’s disappeared off the face of the earth.’

‘Unless whoever killed Lydia, killed Barney too.’

‘I did think that, but wouldn’t we have found the dog’s body?’

‘I wish I could answer that for you, maybe he didn’t want the shame of killing a dog. Isn’t it funny how us humans are dispensable, yet dogs and cats aren’t?’

‘Yeah, some humans are the scourge of the earth though animals are just cute, innocent things. Thanks, Alison, I’ll let you know as soon as we find Barney.’

‘Take care, Morgan, that would be great.’

Stan and Amber were out when Morgan returned to the station. Ben was pacing up and down the office.

‘Where have you been, I was worried.’

‘Enquiries.’

‘Oh, you’re okay then, a message now and again would be a comfort. Come up with anything useful?’

She shook her head; she hated lying to him, but she wasn’t going to drag him or Cain into her dealings with Palmer and make things awkward for them both.

‘Amy’s in labour, not surprised really after the last twenty-four hours.’

Ben’s eyebrows raised as she asked him, ‘Has Cain gone to be with her?’

‘Yes, he was so pale I thought he’d painted his face white with greasepaint.’

Morgan smiled. ‘Bless him, he’s worried.’

‘Nervous too, I’m on pins and it’s nothing to do with me. How long does this labour thing last?’

‘Anybody’s guess, the midwife did say it was progressing fast though, so hopefully for the pair of them it won’t take too long.

Marc issued the statement then?’ She tried to keep her voice calm, neutral and not accusatory because she knew it was out of Ben’s control what Marc and the powers that be above them decided.

‘Yeah, too soon if you ask me.’

‘Hey, I spoke to Declan. He needs to speak to you too about Jack.’

‘I’ve already spoken to him.’

‘And?’

‘And I think our first instincts were spot on. I don’t think he took his own life. So, give me some suspects for this, Morgan. How tall is that Leah you went to speak to, and is she strong?’

‘Unfortunately, she’s about two inches taller than me. Jack wasn’t overly big, but he was nearer to your height than mine. I think she’d struggle to strangle him, move his body and everything else. Don’t get me wrong, I think she’s good for it and she’s an awful friend, but it’s the height thing.’

‘What if she had an accomplice?’

‘That would work if they were taller than her.’

‘Okay, so what about…’ Ben was standing in front of the board reading through the list of names under Sharon Montgomery’s photograph. ‘Stefan Montgomery, how tall is he?’

‘Taller than Leah and Jack for sure, but we hardly know anything about Lydia Williams. I spoke with Alison Reynolds from Lancs CID before. She said Lydia has a younger sister who is on her way here, also has an older one she doesn’t speak to, no parents, doted on her dog, kept to herself and loved camping.

We need to speak to her boss, find out more about her life.

We need to go through her social media like we did with Sharon, find if anyone on the list of interesting commenters match with those on Lydia’s social media. ’

‘Yes, we should. Great idea, then we can speak to her colleagues too. Somebody has got to know something.’ He leaned over and brushed his lips against her cheek. ‘Let’s get out of here before Stan comes back with Amber and Marc in tow.’

‘Where are they?’

‘Marc is busy with the Chief Super, and I sent the other two out to do some CCTV enquiries around Sharon’s house, just in case someone has evidence that Jack did not leave when he said he did or that there isn’t some creep hanging around stalking her.’

‘Thank God, I was worried you were going with the Jack is guilty theory.’

He shook his head. ‘No, I didn’t want to openly argue with Marc in front of the team, especially when we have two newbies, but I told him he was way out of his comfort zone.’

He grabbed her hand and dragged her towards the door; out in the corridor they let go of each other and Morgan walked single file behind Ben, wondering if she should tell him about her meeting with Fin Palmer.

She’d never kept anything from him in the past, but she didn’t want him to get into trouble either.

As long as Fin kept his word then he would never need to know.

Although this made her feel a little uncomfortable, she knew it wasn’t like she was doing it for herself.

It was to warn other women there was a real possibility that danger was still lurking out there, watching and waiting for them to put themselves in a difficult situation.

Lydia Williams worked in an office building opposite Lancaster Town Hall.

Her role was customer service and data entry officer, and Morgan had no idea what that meant, but she was going to find out.

There was a video doorbell camera on the door.

Ben straightened his tie before pressing the button and announcing who they were.

The door clicked open, and they walked in to where a receptionist was staring at them.

‘We’re here to talk to Lydia Williams’s colleagues.’ Ben smiled at her; she wasn’t remotely interested.

She pointed upstairs. ‘First floor, lift’s broken, you’ll have to walk up those stairs at the end of the corridor.’

Morgan asked, ‘Did you know Lydia?’

‘Not really, I mean I know her face, but I didn’t speak to her or anything. There’s a lot of people work in this building. I haven’t got the time to talk to them all.’

Morgan nodded, turned and followed Ben to the stairs, where she whispered, ‘What a charming woman.’

Ben stifled the laughter, cupping a hand over his mouth.

They reached the first floor to an open-plan office filled with desks and lots of people.

Nobody looked as if they were devastated at the news one of their colleagues had been murdered.

They were all typing furiously on computer keyboards or were on the phone, except for one woman who was staring into space, her eyes a little red.

Morgan walked over to her and introduced herself.

‘Did you know that Lydia Williams has been killed?’

The woman nodded. ‘Justin announced it at the team briefing this morning then carried on talking about what we needed to do as if it was a minor inconvenience and she’d just called in sick.

Everyone was so shocked. He didn’t give us time to talk about it or ask questions, which just proves what a crap place this is to work.

I’m out of here as soon as I find something else. ’

‘Were you friends with Lydia?’

‘Kind of, we weren’t best friends, but we chatted to each other about stuff and took our breaks at the same time.’

Morgan looked around at everyone. The noise was deafening. ‘Did she have any good friends here?’

‘No, we all get paid to work not to socialise.’

‘Who says that?’ asked Ben.

The woman whose lanyard read Karen pointed to an office on the other side of the room.

‘Justin, our boss and fearless leader.’

‘You don’t like Justin?’

Karen looked around before lowering her voice. ‘Nobody likes Justin.’

‘Ah, I see, how was he with Lydia? Did she get on okay with her work or was she having any problems with anyone?’

‘The only problems she had was with him, he’s a creep. Married and always trying it on with every woman or teenager that comes to work here.’

‘What kind of problems was Lydia having?’

‘He always got her to stay behind on a Friday when everyone else was rushing to get home; he would call her into his office.’

‘Did Lydia ever tell you why?’

Karen shook her head. ‘No, well, she insinuated he was hitting on her like the creep he is.’

‘Did he ask her to stay behind last Friday?’

Karen nodded. ‘She texted me to say she’d quit and would see me around, that he is a total loser and to keep out of his way.’ Then she lowered her head as a guy came out of the office door and headed straight towards them.

‘Can I help you?’

‘Detectives Matthews and Brookes, can we speak to you about Lydia Williams?’

He glared at Karen who still hadn’t lifted her gaze in his direction. His shoulders stiffening, he nodded, then pointed in the direction of his office. ‘Of course, officers.’

They followed him into the large room that overlooked the city square. He pointed to chairs.

‘What can I do for you?’

‘We’re here about Lydia Williams.’

‘Yes, it’s terrible news.’

He didn’t look as if he was overly upset by it, Morgan thought, then she asked, ‘Were you and Lydia close?’

He shook his head. ‘Not particularly, I’m not close to any of my staff. That’s not my job, I’m here to make sure they do their work and meet the targets.’

‘So, you weren’t friends or seeing each other?’

Justin’s face was turning pinker by the minute, and he was beginning to squirm.

‘No, what gave you that idea?’ He was staring in Karen’s direction.

Ben intervened. ‘We’re just trying to find out if Lydia had any problems at work, any other staff members that didn’t get along with her, any issues with anyone overstepping their boundaries. That kind of thing.’

Justin was beaming now; his cheeks were so red, Morgan thought if she held out the palms of her hands, she’d feel the heat emanating from them.

‘Lydia was very quiet; she didn’t have any friends here. She did her work and went home, leaving her job behind.’

‘What does that mean? Don’t all of us do that when we leave our place of work?

I know I do.’ Morgan had her fingers crossed because that was the biggest lie she’d ever told, but he didn’t need to know that she could never switch off when she went home and was always thinking about the current case she was working.

‘Well, yes. Some of us are a little more dedicated to our jobs though. I work lots of extra hours, late evenings, weekends if I have to.’

Morgan said, ‘Karen mentioned that you often asked Lydia if she’d stay behind on a Friday when everyone else was leaving. Why was that?’

Justin was openly glaring in Karen’s direction now.

Ben coughed into his fist and asked, ‘Could you tell us why?’

Justin looked awkwardly at Morgan.

‘If I review the footage from last Friday, will I find out you were the last person to see her before she died?’

Justin snapped his head back in Ben’s direction. ‘I liked her okay, I flirted a little with her and she flirted back. I wanted to get to know her, but she wasn’t really into me, so nothing happened.’

‘Were you okay with this? You seem to me like a guy who is used to getting what he wants.’ Ben winked at him, and Morgan knew he was trying to play into Justin’s ego, but it made her skin crawl all the same.

‘Of course, I’m not some total creep. She didn’t want to have a bit of fun or go for drinks, that was completely her choice.’

‘And your wife wouldn’t have minded you going out late on a Friday evening with one of your employees?’ Morgan couldn’t stop herself and knew she was goading him, but he was a sleazeball.

‘Well, of course she would.’ He was getting flustered now.

‘So, why did Lydia text Karen to say she’d quit her job because you were a total creep?’

Justin’s expression was one of pure fury. ‘How dare she say that. I did nothing wrong. I just asked her for a drink after work; it wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do to any of my team members.’

‘Ah, yes. I believe you like to hit on all the female team members, especially the younger women. Do you make a habit of this, Justin? I mean how many sexual harassment cases have been filed against you in the last twelve—’ She didn’t get time to finish her sentence because Justin flew across the desk fists curled, spittle spraying out of his lips as he launched himself towards her.

Ben stepped in-between them and did some kind of jujitsu move that the personal safety trainers up at HQ would have given him a standing ovation for. Justin’s arm was twisted at such an angle and he was flipped onto his back and on the floor with Ben straddling him so he couldn’t move.

Morgan pulled a pair of cuffs out of her pocket and snapped them on his wrists whilst Ben read the guy his rights.

The whole incident took less than two minutes.

They pulled Justin up to stand with the entire office now standing up behind their desks and watching with grins on their faces.

Whilst Ben marched Justin out past them all to the exit, Morgan couldn’t resist.

‘I think you guys can grab an early finish.’

Everyone began to clap and cheer. Morgan waved at them all as she followed Ben out towards the lift. She radioed for a van to meet them and transport Justin to custody because there was no way they could take him in the back of the small Focus they were driving. He might try and attack them again.

Well, that hadn’t gone how they’d expected, but at least they had a good suspect in custody. He’d proved he had the rage to stab Lydia multiple times. The question was, did he know or have reason to kill Sharon or Jack? If he was innocent, why had he reacted to their questions with such violence?