been. Two paramedics came out of the house with the unconscious girl on a stretcher. They loaded her into the back of the van and began working on her. He saw Morgan follow them out of the front door. She was pale, her bright yellow body armour was stained red and for want of a better way to describe it, she looked completely shell-shocked. He saw Dan trying to speak to Morgan, but she didn’t acknowledge him or even look at him; in fact, she looked as if she was about to pass out.
Amy nudged him. ‘Your new bestie needs a hand before she hits the deck.’
Ben could see that, but he didn’t exactly want to be the one to rush to her rescue because he’d never live it down. Yet, he couldn’t stand there and watch it happen. He pushed Amy towards her.
‘Go grab her arm, bring her to the car and get her in the back seat. We can pretend we’re interviewing her, give her five minutes.’
Amy was already walking in her direction.
‘Hi, Morgan. I’m Amy, one of the DCs. DS Matthews would like a word with you. We need to get the details of what’s happened.’
Not waiting for a reply, she grabbed Morgan’s elbow and guided her in the direction of the car, where Ben was zipping up the pale blue paper suit. He opened the back door and watched as Amy expertly got her inside without making a scene.
Amy turned to him. ‘You owe me one.’
He nodded. Then turned to look at Morgan. ‘How are you doing?’
She stared at the back of the ambulance. The doors were open and they could clearly see the two paramedics working hard to stabilise the girl so they could drive to the hospital.
‘I think it’s Bronte, she looked older. I didn’t know she was there. I let her down; she was still alive and I could have found her yesterday.’
‘You did find her though. If it wasn’t for you insisting something wasn’t right, we all wouldn’t be here right now. She wouldn’t be in with a chance of survival.’
Her head moved in slow motion, up and down.
‘I need you to focus, Morgan. I need to know exactly what happened. Have the paramedics confirmed death of the other victims?’
‘Yes. They did a quick assessment, said if you want them to run a heart strip they will. But it’s quite clear they’ve been dead a while.’
‘No, I don’t need them to do that. What about you, did you think they were dead?’
‘You told me off yesterday for making that assumption.’
‘I know I did, disregard that. I was trying to give you good advice; this is a desperate situation. What was your first impression?’
‘That they were all dead, then I realised one of the girls was still breathing. I got scared. I didn’t know if the killer was still in there or if…’
He nodded, encouraging her to continue.
‘Maybe it was Olivia? She might have killed them all then killed herself.’
‘We don’t know anything yet, but it’s a possibility. Thank you, Morgan. Stay here for a little while. When you’re ready you can go out and face the others.’
She looked up at him. ‘I’m okay. I don’t need to take time out. There’s a door in the kitchen, it leads down into the cellar. That’s where they are. Can I go to the hospital with Bronte?’
Morgan was already out of the car and on her way to the open ambulance.
‘Of course, it’s all hands on deck back there. You might be able to help out.’
He’d slipped on two pairs of blue nitrile gloves while they’d been talking and some shoe covers. Amy was dressed the same. He looked at her and she gave him a thumbs up. It was time to meet the rest of the Potter family.
He just wished it was under better circumstances than this.
Eleven
Over the years he’d been in the police, Ben had attended some pretty tragic crime scenes. The worst had been a house fire where two children had died. Thankfully the smoke had got them and when he’d pushed his way in – despite being told not to by his superior – and found them, they had looked as if they were asleep. He’d been to some terrible accidents, a fair few murders and suicides, but this, however, was by far the most horrific. He went down the wooden steps first, Amy following behind.
Standing at the bottom step, Ben took in the scene in front of him. On first