Page 94 of One Left Alive

‘You were?’

He nodded. Pressing the necklace into her hand, he let go. She lifted it up and a single tear trickled from the corner of her eye.

‘Where?’

‘Stan came through, he brought your necklace back and saved your life.’

She tried to sit up. ‘He did?’

‘He did, he turned up to give it to you himself. I haven’t got the whole story off him yet because he hurt himself pretty bad in the process of trying to save your life.’

‘Is he okay?’

‘Bruised, lost a lot of blood but yeah. He did good. I know where you get it from now.’

‘What?’

‘Dramatic entrances: wait until you see the state of your flat. He only went and threw a boulder through your picture windows.’

Despite the seriousness of the situation they both began to laugh, a little too loud for the emergency department, but they couldn’t help it, and Ben realised he liked the sound of her laughter a lot more than anything else.

Fifty-Eight

One Week Later

Morgan stared at her reflection; she was ready to go back to work. The DCI had insisted she take some time off, but she was already bored and sitting home on her own didn’t help. Apart from the couple of times she’d visited Stan in the hospital, she hadn’t been out of her flat. Ben had done a good job of getting the window repaired and the flat cleaned up before she’d returned. She hadn’t seen the mess or the blood because she’d been unconscious by the time Stan had made his heroic attempt to save her life. Who’d have thought it, after all this time he’d finally shown her he really did care and she was grateful to him. Her fingers reached up and touched the crescent moon necklace he’d brought back for her. It would take a lot of time to repair their fractured relationship, but at least they were both speaking to each other and she would accept that. She tugged a black roll-neck jumper over her head to hide the fading ring of bruising around her neck that was still visible. She didn’t want people to stare at her. For seven days she had been forced to lie around doing nothing; she was bored beyond belief and eager to get back to work.

Inside the station she crept up the back stairs, avoiding the parade room and the officers in it. She reached the office which she’d been given and pushed the heavy wooden door open. Flipping the switch, a small ‘Oh’ escaped her lips. The desk and computer she’d been given were gone, along with the case notes. The realisation that she’d been moved out of Ben’s team so fast stung. She leaned against the door frame; at least she could hold her head up high when she re-joined her shift downstairs. Even if she said so herself, she’d done a pretty respectable job in the short time she’d been up here. Two killers had been remanded and were behind bars thanks to her. An overwhelming feeling of sadness for the life she could have led overcame her; realising she’d been so dispensable hurt a lot more than the injuries she’d suffered. Not once when Ben had visited had he told her she was no longer needed, and she’d thought they were friends.

Determined not to let anyone see how devastated she was, she strode along the corridor. Pushing open the door that led into the CID office, about to tell him where he could shove his attachment, her mouth fell open. There in the corner on the desk she’d used a couple of times was her stuff; a foil banner was draped across the desk, the words ‘Welcome Home’ emblazoned across it. A bunch of blue helium balloons hovered above the computer and her whiteboard with all her notes on it had been fastened to the wall behind it. Amy, Ben and a few others began to clap and in unison shouted ‘Surprise!’

For once Morgan was truly speechless. After a few moments she found her voice and looked at Ben.

‘What’s going on?’

He grinned. ‘Is that desk okay? Sorry about the balloons, they didn’t have any pink ones, but I figured you wouldn’t care what colour they were. Oh, and that was the only banner they had as well, but it’s the thought that counts.’

Amy shook her head. ‘You’re lucky he managed to find those. When Josie went on her maternity leave, he got one that said “Happy Retirement”. He’s not very good at this, are you, boss?’

Morgan laughed. ‘I thought you’d had enough of me when I looked in my little office and saw everything gone.’

Ben shook his head. ‘Definitely not. Right, enough of the fuzzy stuff. We still have a lot of work to do. Barker was charged with the murder of Jamie Stone and has been remanded for that.’

‘How?’

‘That folder he was about to burn had traces of blood and DNA on the papers inside that matched Jamie Stone’s. The mask and knife he was burning also had traces of Jamie Stone’s blood on it. Which was a miracle really, but sometimes it happens. A minute later and the whole lot would have probably been too burnt to retrieve anything of forensic value.’ He waved his hand at her. ‘It was worth sticking my hand in the fire for that. Barker hasn’t admitted anything, but he knows he won’t be coming home for an exceptionally long time, if at all.

‘In the meantime, we continue to gather evidence and work on the O’Brien murders. Good news is we got a hit on the fibres from that small piece of carpet in the hall cupboard. There were similar ones in the driver’s side footwell of the car you discovered in his lock-up. I’m awaiting confirmation, but Wendy thinks they’ll come back as a definite match.

‘Harrison Wright has been charged with the murders of Olivia, Saul and Beatrix and the attempted murder of Bronte Potter. He made a full and frank confession to them all once he realised there was no going back, and he was already going down for a long time for your attempted murder. He admitted that he wanted the media attention and us arresting Greg Barker for their murders tipped him over the edge, which is why he came after you. He also admitted that Bronte had nothing to do with any of it.’

Amy crossed towards her and patted her back. ‘You did a great job. I’m pleased to tell you that starting from tomorrow you’re on the intake for the detective course and you’re now officially on the team. I’m your tutor, so don’t worry, you’ve already passed as far as I’m concerned. You’ve covered all the good stuff, there’s just the mundane to go through.’

Ben was smiling. The DCI walked in and crossed the room towards her, his hand outstretched.

‘Welcome to CID, Detective Constable Morgan Brookes. We’re glad to have you on board.’

Morgan took Tom’s hand and shook it. ‘Thank you, sir, I’m happy to be here.’

Ben nodded his approval. ‘Right, enough of the niceness. Morgan, you need to catch up on what you’ve missed this last week. Everyone back to work.’

She sat down at her desk and stared at the banner, then she looked around the office. Everyone was already looking back at their computers; she’d had her five minutes of glory.

It was over now, time to get back to work and she had never felt happier.

* * *