she began cleaning up the rest of the mess Stan had left behind. It wasn’t as bad as it had first looked last night. It must have seemed worse because she’d been exhausted. Once everything was put back and tidy again, she set about making herself a pot of coffee and some toast. If yesterday was anything to go by, today would be just as long and busy, if not worse.
The smell of burning toast brought her rushing back to the kitchen. She’d forgotten to turn the dial down. Her dad always ate his toast burnt to a crisp. The thought of him made her fingers curl into tight fists. The shock of seeing the mess he’d left had totally thrown her, and she’d forgotten the reason she’d rushed home to see him, to ask him what he’d been doing at the Potters’ house the day before they were murdered. Crap. She needed to tell Ben, who would probably say it was a conflict of interest and she couldn’t work on the investigation because of it. If that happened, she would be furious, not to mention mortified. If she thought Dan’s teasing was bad now, it would only get worse once he found out what a disaster the last twenty-four hours as a detective had been.
Taking her coffee and toast, she sat at the small table where she took her laptop out of her bag. As she ate her toast she wondered how many murders there had been in the area. Probably not that many; it was a quiet town in the Lakes after all. She set about searching the internet, which brought up a couple of recent murders in Keswick and Kendal. Neither victims were killed by strangers: it had been partners or ex-partners. Perhaps Ben was right: the killer was someone who knew the family. But who would bear such a grudge against them to do this? It was too horrific to comprehend. Morgan stared at her laptop screen. There at the bottom of the page was a grainy black-and-white photograph of a house that looked familiar, with the heading ‘Family Slain’. She clicked on it and waited for the article to load. It was from the local paper, which had changed its name since this had been written, a whole forty-five years ago. As it loaded, she sucked in her breath and didn’t let go.
It was the Potters’ house, she was positive.
An entire family were murdered in their beds at a rural property on Easdale Road last night. The O’Brien family only moved in recently after renovating the property which had lain empty for years. Jason O’Brien and his wife, Jennifer, were found bludgeoned to death in their double bed. Their two daughters, Anna and Melissa, were found in their bedrooms. Police have cordoned off the entire area and are asking for anyone who may have seen anything to come forward.
Morgan let out a gasp; how could this happen twice in the same house? She began to scribble notes on a pad.
Did the O’Briens’ killer get caught?
Where are the case files?
Did the Potters know about the murders when they bought the house?
Is there any connection between both families?
Did Stan also know the O’Briens?
A sinking feeling in her stomach as she reread the last line made her feel like throwing up. Pushing away the remainder of her breakfast, she rushed and got dressed. She needed to get to work now, log on to the computer and try to find any information on this case.
As she drove into the car park, she had to look on the bright side; at least coming to work this early had its benefits. There was no need to worry about a parking space, she had her pick. By the time the early shift started in another hour they’d be fighting to get parked. It felt strange not getting her kit on and going into the downstairs report writing room, where the response staff worked before going out on patrol. Instead, she carried on upstairs to the CID office.
It was empty. She looked at the desks: some of them had photos on, mugs with sarcastic slogans on them containing days-old tea or coffee. While waiting for the computer to load she gathered all the mugs and took them out to the small kitchen, where she tipped their offending contents out and filled the sink with steaming hot water and a good dollop of washing-up liquid. Leaving them to soak, she went back and sat