Page 14 of One Left Alive

‘Who’s Morgan, what’s her number? I haven’t had my psychic pills today either, boss.’

‘Crap, I don’t know her collar number. She was the one who found Olivia Potter yesterday. Bloody hell, they went in and searched the house. How the hell did they miss three dead bodies?’

‘No one is perfect. Hang on, the bodies are in the cellar, ooh, one’s still breathing.’

He stole a glance at her to see if she was being sarcastic, but she was just giving him a running commentary.

‘Who, who is still breathing?’

‘I think it’s a girl, I missed the start of that part.’

He reached out and took the radio from her. ‘This is DS Matthews to the officer at scene.’

‘Go ahead, Sarge.’

‘Are you okay, Morgan?’

‘Yes.’

‘What have you got?’

‘Adult male with a serious head injury; teenage female with a head injury: both appear to be dead; sorry, foxtrot. Paramedics are on the way. One teenage female with serious head injuries, breathing, unconscious. I’m sorry, they were in a cellar that must have been mistaken for the garage. It was bolted from the outside.’

Her voice almost broke on the last sentence and he felt bad for her, bad that she’d gone in there alone to discover this. Bad that she was going to blame herself for not finding them yesterday, and he wondered where this sudden influx of empathy had come from. He’d spent the last three years being a miserable, tetchy git who didn’t really give a shit about anyone, and now this.

‘I’m on my way.’

Amy looked over at him and arched an eyebrow.

‘What?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Then why are you looking at me like that?’

‘“I’m on my way.”’

‘I am on my way.’

She nodded. ‘Yep, you are. Super cop Matthews to the rescue.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Nothing.’

She turned and stared out of the window; they drove in silence until she finally broke it.

‘Do you like her then? You know, as your colleague I need to know this stuff. It’s part of my job description to keep the boss on the straight and narrow.’

‘Jesus, Amy, I only met her yesterday. She had a crap first day on independent patrol, then at Mitch’s leaving do that idiot Dan made fun of her in front of everyone in the pub. Now this. I think she deserves a little bit of compassion.’

She leant across and placed the back of her hand on his forehead. ‘Just checking you’re not coming down with something. And I’m shutting up right now.’

She smiled at him and began to look at her hand-held device to see what the latest updates were on the log they were heading to. Ben knew she was only joking and he didn’t mind, but he was questioning himself. Did his team really think he was a bastard who didn’t care about anyone? Why else would she be so shocked at him being nice? Maybe it was time to shake things up a bit. He glanced in the rear-view mirror. His hair was in desperate need of a cut; he had a beard that was more homeless-guy-who-doesn’t-have-a-mirror than trendy. As for the double chins, he cringed. Christ, he’d really let himself go. Cindy would be horrified to see him looking like this. Time to get his act together.

‘I still can’t believe the whole family are dead. Who would do something like this? It’s horrific.’

‘Not the whole family, didn’t she say one was still breathing?’