Page 9 of Gone in the Night (Detective Morgan Brookes #16)
NINE
Morgan had cleaned off the whiteboard and then stuck up a sheet of paper with a selfie of the victim, which she’d copied and printed from Instagram.
Beneath it, she added a list of twelve names from Sharon’s Instagram followers.
The photo showed Sharon smiling and clearly loving life; it was taken at some point when she’d first set up camp outside the entrance to the field.
The sun had been setting behind the mountain, sending bright orange rays through the clouds that covered them like an exotic blanket of light.
Beneath the names, Morgan also added the name of the farmer who had found Sharon’s decomposing body.
Cain had come back into the office ten minutes earlier, with a smile on his face that had both Morgan and Amy rolling their eyes at each other.
The new boy was nowhere to be found, though none of them were too bothered about looking that hard, as it was nice to spend time together as a team before Amy finished.
Morgan hadn’t realised how much she was going to miss Amy’s sarcasm and sense of humour; things were going to be a lot different around here without her.
Marc pushed the door open too hard, as always, and it swung inwards with a loud clump as it hit the wall, knocking yet another chunk of plaster off it – that wall had more holes in it than Morgan’s fishnet tights. Ben was behind him.
‘Everyone okay? Briefing in the blue room in ten minutes?’ said Ben, before disappearing into his office with Marc behind him.
Cain went from smiling to positively beaming to himself. Amy stared at him.
‘Are you okay over there? You’re not having some kind of medical episode, are you? Because you know that nobody ever has the right to look as happy as you do whilst at work.’
He shrugged. ‘Never been better.’
‘Weirdo,’ muttered Amy, and Morgan stifled a laugh.
Cain ignored them and walked out again, leaving Amy staring after him.
‘What’s with him? He’s acting so shifty.’
Morgan shrugged. ‘Who knows? Maybe he’s happy in his work.’
Amy laughed. ‘Glad someone is, I’m going to miss this place. It’s like some fucked-up family unit that I can’t get enough of; but I’m not going to miss sitting in these uncomfortable chairs and having permanent backache.’
‘We’re going to miss you too; it won’t be the same.’
‘Ah, but at least the new guy is better looking.’ She winked at Morgan who felt her cheeks begin to burn.
Marc and Ben came back out of Ben’s office; Ben had an all-too-familiar blue folder tucked underneath his arm. In it he would keep a detailed record of the ongoing murder investigation. All four headed to the blue room, where Tristan was hovering outside.
‘I wasn’t sure where the blue room was. I saw Cain go in, but he told me to keep out until it was time for the briefing.’
Marc arched an eyebrow at Ben. ‘He did? No idea why.’
He pushed the door handle down and stepped inside to a sea of pink and blue balloons, banners, cakes, confetti and bunting.
Cain was literally beaming from ear to ear, and Amy, who looked almost as shocked as Marc, burst into tears.
Ben was looking confused, and he shrugged at Morgan and mouthed, ‘What’s happening? ’
Cain stepped towards Amy, wrapping his huge arms around her and hugging her. He yelled, ‘Surprise! Do you like it? It’s your baby shower; there’s no need to cry about it, Amy, you could at least look happy.’
Amy buried her head deeper into his chest and sobbed. Cain looked at Morgan, a grimace on his face as he whispered, ‘Too much?’
At this Amy began to laugh. Pulling herself away from him, she slapped his arm and wiped the tears on her cheeks with her sleeve.
‘No, it was just the shock. Nobody has ever done anything like this for me before and my hormones are all over the place. It’s just so lovely.
’ She sniffed and blinked a couple of times.
‘Phew, thank God you’re okay. Don’t go into early labour or anything before we’ve eaten the cakes. I wasn’t sure whether you had decided if it was a girl or a boy, so I went for both.’
Morgan and Ben laughed, but Marc looked horrified.
‘Wasn’t sure if she’d decided? Cain, you don’t get to choose. It’s a girl or it’s a boy, end of story,’ he said.
‘You know what I mean. She won’t tell us what she’s having so I went for the safest bet.’
‘I don’t know what I’m having, that’s why. I didn’t want to know; I want it to be a surprise.’
‘Same thing, anyway, congratulations, Amy. You’ll soon be pushing that watermelon out of?—’
‘Enough,’ yelled Ben who had both his hands in the air. ‘We’re going to miss you, Amy, but I bet you’re going to be glad of a break from him.’ He pointed at Cain, and she shook her head.
‘I don’t know what I’d do without him; he’s been my lifesaver the last few months.’
‘Aww,’ said Tristan. ‘How lovely, congratulations to you both, how exciting.’
Nobody bothered to correct him because they were all too busy diving to grab cakes and sandwiches.
The door opened and in sauntered Al and three task force officers along with Wendy, Joe, and Madds who didn’t miss any chance to eat cake.
He grabbed a cupcake and pointed to Marc. ‘Thought this was a briefing?’
‘Slight change of plan. After this there’s a briefing so you may as well stick around.’
‘Not me, I just came for the cake. I’ve got a meeting at Kendal town hall to attend. Congratulations, Amy. I hope it goes well.’
She smiled at Madds. ‘Thanks, me too.’
He disappeared along with a paper plate of sandwiches and another cake; everyone sat down and soon there was nothing left on the plates but crumbs.
Amy hadn’t stopped smiling, and Morgan realised that Cain had just saved all of them.
They would thank him later. She had no idea he could be so thoughtful, and she wondered if Angela had pushed him in the right direction.
Eventually Ben stood up. ‘I’m sorry to bring your celebration to a rather abrupt end, Amy, and I hope you don’t mind but we really need to crack on with this briefing. Are you okay with that?’
She nodded, and he smiled at her. ‘You’re welcome to finish for the day now. I don’t want to spoil your lovely afternoon with the case in hand.’
Amy stood up. ‘Are you sure you don’t need me for anything? I’m happy to stay now I’ve been fed.’
Morgan knew the answer was a resounding yes, they did need her, but Ben shook his head.
‘Absolutely not, you get yourself home and take it easy. We’ll catch up with you soon. Keep us updated, won’t you? And let us know if you need anything at all.’
Then he walked towards Amy and hugged her. Morgan stood up and hugged her too when Ben let go. Marc looked like a fish out of water – he shook her hand, and Tristan who didn’t know any of them, smiled at her.
Amy blew a kiss to Cain. ‘Thanks, Cain, I’ll speak to you later and thank Angela for me too.’
She winked, and Cain laughed. ‘It wasn’t all her idea.’
Amy waved a hand at him. ‘Yeah right, of course it wasn’t.’
She left the room, closing the door softly behind her.
Morgan looked at Cain. ‘You did good, we’ll all chip in to cover the cost. Thank you, it completely slipped my mind, and you just made us all look like we’re not complete arseholes.’
‘I couldn’t let her just walk out with nothing. It would have been terrible, she deserves better, and you’re welcome.’
Ben stood up. ‘Yes, thanks, Cain. We’ll all contribute towards this, well done. Are we okay to get started with the briefing?’
Everyone nodded.
‘Good, what do we have up to now? The victim, Sharon Montgomery, do we have an age for her yet?’
Morgan nodded. ‘Thirty-six, according to her Instagram profile, although not sure if that’s a hundred per cent accurate. I haven’t started the Intel checks yet, as there’s been a lot going on.’
Ben smiled at her. ‘It’s certainly been busy. Tristan, did you manage to get the Intel checks started?’
All eyes fell onto the new guy, who nodded. ‘I can confirm she is thirty-six; there are three reports on the system for her. She was a victim of domestic violence back in 2022.’
‘That’s interesting, were there any after 2022?’
‘No, I guess she kicked the boyfriend to the kerb.’
‘Who was it? Did they get arrested, are they known to us?’
Tristan looked down at his notebook. ‘Eddy Lightburn.’
Just about everyone in the room let out a groan, and he looked up at them wide-eyed. ‘Known to you all then?’
‘Unfortunately. He’s a little weasel. Handy with his fists, fancies himself as an amateur boxer with his current woman his sparring partner, but I’m pretty sure he’s inside. He got locked up for a whole multitude of crimes, breaking in, theft, assault by battery, handling stolen goods,’ said Cain.
‘Tristan, can you do a full check on Eddy? I want to know where he is and if he’s been within a two-mile radius of Sharon at all. Did he get locked up for his last assault on her or was it someone else?’
Tristan shrugged. ‘Sorry, I didn’t get time to do a deep dive into him, but I will as soon as this is finished.’
Marc smiled at him. ‘Good, at least we have a possible suspect. I want everyone focused on finding out where Eddy Lightburn is and if he’s been in contact with the victim.’
Morgan glanced in Cain’s direction, and he caught it, rolling his eyes in Tristan’s direction. He was thinking the same as she was. What had Tristan been doing all this time? It would have taken him ten minutes tops to search Eddy’s name and find out who he was.