Page 48 of Gone in the Night (Detective Morgan Brookes #16)

FORTY-EIGHT

It took an hour to assemble a team to go to the Montgomery home.

Morgan had asked Caroline to find out Marie Jones’s address and had been stunned to find out she lived in a one-bedroom apartment above the garage that she had seen her coming out of on a previous visit.

Stan, Amber and Marc had gone in the van with two task force officers.

Ben and Morgan were following behind. Morgan kept checking her phone and sighing.

She’d messaged Cain thirty minutes ago to find out how things were going, but he hadn’t even read it, and she realised that he must be too busy to not even look at his phone.

She hoped he hadn’t fainted. Amy would never let him live it down.

‘Any news?’ Ben asked.

‘Nothing, I feel so nervous for her, and so bad about the last few days.’

‘If I’m honest with you, I don’t think she’ll even be thinking much about Jack at this point. She’s going to be so consumed with pain and hopefully some good drugs to help ease the pain.’

‘Maybe not, but I can’t stop thinking that in a different life he wouldn’t have left her. If he hadn’t left her and they were still together he’d be with her right now, holding her hand not lying in a body bag inside Declan’s mortuary, leaving her to do this on her own.’

‘Wow, that’s deep and scary and she’s not on her own, she has Cain.’

‘Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about, Cain not being able to handle it. It’s true though, his life completely changed course, didn’t it? And now look how it’s ended. It’s so sad and pointless.’

‘Not if he didn’t kill himself.’

‘Well, no, but if he hadn’t been involved with Sharon Montgomery, I don’t think he’d be dead right now.’

They rounded the corner to see two police vans and an unmarked car all waiting in the lay-by not too far away from the Montgomery house.

The plan was Morgan and Ben would go first and gain entry then they’d follow through.

Morgan had the warrant in her hand ready to give to Stefan.

It included any outbuildings, which technically covered the garage and Marie’s living quarters.

Morgan buzzed the intercom, and the gates swung open without anyone asking them who they were. She glanced at Ben, but he drove through and she said, ‘Good to go,’ into the radio so the others could follow them through.

Marie was standing on the doorstep, and Morgan jumped out of the car, walking briskly towards her before Ben had even turned the engine off.

‘What’s all this?’

‘Is Stefan home?’

Marie shook her head. ‘Not sure where he is.’

‘I guess you’re in charge then?’

‘I suppose I am whilst the Montgomerys aren’t here. Why?’

Morgan handed her the warrant. ‘We have a search warrant for the house and outbuildings.’

‘I don’t understand, why do you need this? What are you searching for? I’m going to have to speak to Stefan first. I can’t let you in to trample all over the place.’

Ben had joined Morgan. ‘You ring Stefan, but this is a legal document giving us permission to come inside. I’m afraid you can’t stop us.’

If Marie was feigning innocence, she was doing a very good job because her eyes were flitting from Morgan to Ben to the officers who were all getting out of the vans and car behind them.

‘Okay, I’m not sure what this is about though. Can you at least explain that to me?’

‘We believe that Stefan may be involved in the deaths of three people, and the search warrant gives us legal permission to enter this house and look for any evidence.’

Marie let out a gasp. ‘What? Three people? Have you gone mad?’

‘I wish we had. You need to step to one side now, Marie, just let them do their job okay, we’ll be as fast as we can and cause minimal mess.’

Morgan turned to Ben. ‘I’ll take the garage.’

Ben nodded. ‘We’ll take the house.’

‘Is the garage open?’ she asked Marie, who nodded at her.

Snapping on a pair of blue gloves, Morgan headed towards the large outbuilding.

Marie didn’t even argue with her or mention that she lived above it.

The woman was standing to one side as the team filed past her, seven officers including Ben.

Finally realising that things were getting serious, she pulled a phone out of her pocket and rang someone, Morgan assumed either Stefan or Beth, to tell them what was happening.

The garage was surprisingly empty. In one corner was a stack of gardening equipment, a ride-on mower, assorted tools, everything you could possibly need to look after a garden this size.

Morgan remembered that Beth took care of everything.

Stefan said she wouldn’t take any help because she liked to keep fit that way.

She paused, gardening was hard work, it took a lot of strength to be able to bend and weed.

There were some trug buckets under the workbench, and she tugged them out one at a time.

There was brown jute twine, green twine, plastic twine, every kind of twine you could dream of but there was no blue rope.

At the far end of the garage was a locked door next to two industrial-sized washing machines and a dryer.

There was also a huge clothes maid with bedding drying on it.

Morgan tried the door handle. It was locked. She spied a toolbox at the far end, tucked right back under the workbench, but as she bent to drag it out someone threw themselves at her.

Morgan was knocked to the ground, all of the wind gushing out of her as she hit the concrete with a loud thwack.

Whoever had pushed her was strong. Morgan lay on her side, disorientated on the floor as her arms were tugged behind her.

She tried to fight the person off, but they were kneeling close to her neck, a thigh either side stopping her from turning her head, and sitting on her shoulder blades.

A voice whispered, ‘Shhh.’

As she opened her mouth to scream, a dirty rag was stuffed inside, making her gag so much she was almost sick. A wave of sickness rolled over her as she felt herself being dragged towards a trapdoor in the floor that she’d never noticed seconds ago, near to the ride-on lawn mower.

She’d never seen it. She had no idea who was dragging her, their face was covered by a black mask, and she wondered if she was hallucinating…

Had she knocked herself on the head?

Then she was bundled down into a hole that wasn’t very big.

She fell about three feet into the bottom of the pit, which was thankfully cushioned by something, so her landing was soft, but she hit her head against the wall on her way down and blacked out – not hearing the door above her slam shut, the old piece of matting being thrown over the floor and the mower being moved across it.