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THE POLICE ARRIVED with the forensics team and an unmarked inspector’s car. To add insult to injury, it was DI Wood’s car but her passenger was very familiar. I didn’t know Trin had transferred to my old station.
“Morgan, what the fuck are you doing here?” Trin shot as she marched across the lawn toward me.
“Hi, honey,” I muttered and tried not to tense. This was going to make an interesting conversation.
“Don’t fucking ‘hi, honey, me,’ what are you doing at a murder scene?” She strode over, flicked her brown hair off her face, and fixed me with a Trin glare. It was her speciality when she could pull her eyebrows right down and crinkle her forehead enough you could tug the folds. Not her most attractive side.
“I work here,” I said, jutting out my chin. “If you’d bothered talking to me, you’d know that.”
“Oh, so this is about getting my attention?” Trin hardened her glare. “You want to make me look ridiculous in front of everyone. Great. Well, done, Morgan.”
Her Geordie accent thickened but she’d long ago lost the gentle touches of slang and phrases I’d loved. No, she would ditch the accent too if it helped her gain popularity.
“Weirdly, no.” I folded my arms, hoping it would make me feel stronger only my hand whirred and she flicked her gaze over it in disgust. “Why would discovering a body be a cry for attention?”
“Morgan?” DI Wood asked in her Scottish accent as she strolled over. Her black curly hair fell around her shoulders and her shirt was far tighter than was appropriate. Her huge breasts were hard to miss as it was, I didn’t know why she needed to advertise them. “Why are you here?”
Yeah, this didn’t hurt at all. “I’m the head of security.”
“Oh,” she whispered and exchanged a look with Trin. “You didn’t say.”
Trin huffed out a breath. “I didn’t know.”
DI Wood frowned like Trin should have known. “Did you discover the body?”
“No, one of my staff did. He raised the alarm and I called you in.” I wasn’t going to mention that Sophie didn’t want me to or that Jake wanted to get rid of it. “I’ve kept the scene as clear as I can for you and marked where the guard left his sick and who walked where.” I glanced back at the house. “I also have the videos from the night Salisbury was killed and I think you’ll want to check out something I found. It’s all in my statement.”
DI Wood nodded. I’d taught her how to work the scene. “Other witness statements?”
“For this incident, just mine and the guard’s. Lady Haye and the groundsman Jake were the only other people who have seen the body.” I put my hands on my belt like I used to when on the beat. “I was in the courtyard and there is a patrol that comes along here every fifteen minutes. It’s the same guy and he didn’t see anything before this patrol.” Funny how old habits rolled back, I sounded like was going to start giving her orders. “As per Salisbury, I have several staff members and their accounts.”
Trin walked over to the flowerbed and snapped at the poor constable trying to set up the inner and outer cordons.
“Morgan, you need to find a different job,” Wood whispered to me like she didn’t want to speak to me at all.
“Excuse me?” I glared at her. Didn’t matter that she had the warrant card and I didn’t, I still felt like her superior officer.
“This is the second murder on this estate,” Wood said, not able to meet my eyes. “I don’t want you getting hurt more than you already are and . . . I don’t want you being implicated in anything.” She sighed and dared to hold my gaze. “It’s bad enough you’re like you are.”
I flexed my prosthesis. “I’m happy in my role, just as I see you’re enjoying yours.” I glared over at Trin. “And what a wonderful new DS to accompany you.”
Sounded bitter again. I was working with it.
“The only reason she wasn’t on the team before was her relationship with you, you know that.” Wood tucked her hair behind one ear showing off her triple gold piercings. I’d told her to keep them covered on duty but professionalism seemed lost without me to point it out.
“Right, she blame that one on me too?” I rolled my eyes. “I think you should take a look at what I have from Salisbury’s murder.”
One of the forensics team walked over with an evidence bag. “Body was placed here,” he muttered to Trin. “The pathologist wants a word.”
Wood nodded then turned back to me. “Best we look at what you have compiled but you don’t need me to tell you we might have questions.”
“Really, I’d have never have guessed.” I turned, only for Wood to clear her throat. “What?”
“Trin, you go with her and get the evidence,” Wood said like she was scared to say it.
Trin glared.
“What, too disgusted to be near me?” I strode off, knowing she would have to follow.
“Slow down,” she muttered. She was shorter than me, with muddy brown hair in a bob, a heart-shaped face, and full lips. “It’s bad enough I have to come with you.”
I ignored her and sped up. I marched in through the arched gateway to the office. I liked fitness and sport and being active, Trin preferred Zumba and dieting. She’d been on some “five-two” diet when we went out for dinner months ago and couldn’t eat much because of her calorie intake so I’d been forced not to eat much either in support.
“Morgan, slow down,” Trin snapped in a tone that had become all too familiar. I hunched in response then scowled. I was bitter and angry about her missing my birthday.
“No.” I headed to the old armoury, unlocked it, picked up the tapes and witness statements, and dumped them on the desk for her. “The quicker you take a look at that, the quicker you can look for the real killer.”
Trin was too busy eyeing every space of the office and my desk. I had my usual rugby stress ball, a shake in a sports’ cup, and a book. Whether it was school, university, in a barrister’s chambers, a police station or here, wherever I was, those three items generally followed.
“How long have you been working here?” she asked with confusion and annoyance in her brown eyes.
“I’ve been living here for a week.” Was she interviewing me or talking to me? I tapped the evidence pack and went and washed my hand, hoping to wash away the visual of the body and Salisbury getting shot. Never worked. Semi-photographic memory had made me a good detective and tortured me with details.
“You didn’t say.” Trin pulled out evidence bags and started to label the tapes.
“You were ignoring me. It’s hard to inform someone when they aren’t answering.” I checked the cameras again. “I can show you the location where Salisbury was shot . . . would have helped if you hadn’t driven through the cordon.”
“I got transferred in. It’s a big case.” She shrugged like that made it okay. “And Ruth drove through it.” She sighed. “I did suggest we should go around . . . but she thought it was Haye playing a game.”
“Double suspicious deaths, high profile suspect, you must have been drooling.” And Wood wasn’t the kind of officer to do something as rash as drive through a crime scene. “What makes you so certain that Lady Haye is playing any game?”
“You know I can’t tell you that.” Trin perched on the desk beside me and tucked the hair behind my ears. “I felt bad I got the transfer. I felt like I was betraying you or something.” She sighed. “You’re not exactly easy to talk to at the moment.”
“Well, you don’t have me to hold you back now, do you?” I batted her hand away and grabbed my stress ball. She hated rugby. I loved it. I even used my left hand, knowing Trin could barely look at me.
“I don’t want that, Morgan, stop being a baby.” She scowled at me. “Everything is an argument with you.”
“I’m not the one screeching because you were at a crime scene.” I scowled right back. You really could just reach out and pinch the folds in her frown.
“I’ve worried enough about you getting hurt, okay?” Trin got to her feet. “I’m still trying to erase the memory of you in intensive care.”
“If I hadn’t blocked the attack, your superior officer would have been hacked down on duty.” I stared at her. She was angry at me for protecting someone? “He would have killed her.”
He’d nearly killed me instead.
“Yes, you’re a fucking hero, well done.” Trin shook her head, tears misting her eyes. “But it would have been me who had to live with losing you.”
Great. If I didn’t feel like shit about losing my career, my friends . . . everything . . . Now she wanted me to feel guilty about it too? Like I needed anymore issues. I tried to force down the stupid tears. I’d cried enough. I was sick of crying.
“Don’t you have something important to get on with?” I waved her off and went back to the cameras, hoping it covered the wobbling chin. No matter how tough I tried to be, get me emotional and my chin wobbled so noticeably you’d need glasses to miss it.
“That’s it, dismiss me. That’ll help us work through this.” She lifted the statements and tapes into her arms. “When you’re ready to be reasonable, call me?” She stooped and kissed me on the lips. “I miss you. I love you.” She kissed me again. “You look gorgeous in that uniform.”
“You missed my birthday.” I turned my face when she went to kiss me a third time.
She sighed and kissed my cheek then kissed the corner of my mouth. “Yes, I did. I intend to make it up to you.” She kissed the corner of my mouth again. “I love you mad.”
I turned and kissed her back. “Get out of my office and do something useful.” I was smiling though. The relief that she’d missed my birthday through work flooded through me. She wasn’t avoiding me.
“Only if you show me more crime scenes.” Trin smiled against my lips. “And I said I love you, twice, and you haven’t said anything.” She kissed me again. “You in there or do I need to pull it out of you.”
“I love you,” I mumbled, fighting the smile. “I love you already.”
She pecked me once more and strolled out.
I sighed and watched her in the camera feed. Maybe we could fix things between us? Maybe.