started to laugh and Ben joined in. Both of them were almost bent double with laughter when Tom came striding towards them.
‘Am I interrupting?’
Ben stopped laughing. ‘No, boss.’
‘Care to tell me what the hell just happened and why Gregory Barker is in custody having his eyes rinsed by a nurse?’
‘He was angry and aggressive towards me, and I feared for my safety. He’s been arrested under Section Four.’
‘Jesus, you’re having me on. Why couldn’t you have sorted this out amicably?’
‘Boss, the man is an idiot. Just because he’s the mayor doesn’t give him the right to threaten me or my team.’
‘No, it doesn’t but it sure as shit makes my life difficult. I’ll have to talk to him, smooth things over a bit.’
‘Tell him if he drops his ridiculous accusations, I’ll drop my charges. I still want to talk to him in connection with these murders, so you can break that news to him. He can either come back a little later when he’s calmed down or get it over with now. His call.’
‘Jesus.’
Tom stormed off towards custody and Ben looked at Morgan. ‘Come on, let’s grab a coffee and you can fill me in on why you went to talk to him alone. I hate lecturing people, but that was risky. Especially with people like him. They have a way of using their connections to make their life easy and everyone else’s difficult. You saw how he kicked off. What if he’d done that to you and no one knew where you were?’
Her cheeks began to burn. ‘Sorry, I thought I was helping.’
‘You were.’
Morgan followed him to the office where Amy and a couple of others were mid-conversation. She went to switch the kettle on.
‘Anyone?’
Everyone held their hands up. Three mugs of tea and two coffees later she was sitting opposite Ben in his office. The others were watching, and she felt a little awkward. It was as if she was the entertainment factor of CID.
‘So?’
‘He knew the O’Briens very well; he also knew the Potters. When I asked him if I could talk to him about the murders, he didn’t even mention the O’Briens. If you knew two families that had been murdered in the same house, wouldn’t you mention it? He got really cagey and told me to leave when I asked about his business partnership with Jason O’Brien.’
‘Very odd. I’m going to have to keep you out of anything to do with him now though. Even though he won’t make a formal complaint, it’s easier that way.’
‘A formal complaint?’
‘Look, one thing you need to be ready for in this job is the complaints. It doesn’t matter how good you are or whether you didn’t do anything wrong. People don’t like being accused or arrested. They sometimes get arsy and will blame everyone but themselves. It’s usually the arresting officer. Most of them get dropped before they even start, so don’t worry about it. But next time make sure you don’t go on your own. For your own safety.’
‘I won’t.’
She took her mug of coffee and walked down to the office she now called home. She still didn’t know who had banged on her window last night, but in the clear light of day she reasoned that it could have just been teenagers, messing around. But what if it was Stan? The thought brought her back to the whole Stan situation. She had to speak to him. She wanted to know what he had done with her necklace and what he might be able to tell her about the Potters. She doubted he would have opened up to Ben about them. Stan had a long-standing hatred of the police due to various run-ins with them over the years, further fuelled by her decision to become one. Maybe it was time they had their first adult conversation of her life. Before she disappeared through the door, she turned around.
‘Can I go to the library?’
‘If you need to, I don’t think you’ll get in any trouble there.’
Ben winked at her and she smiled. She wanted to get the newspaper reports from the O’Briens’ murders. How would the person who killed the Potters know about the cloths on their faces and the killer hiding in the cupboard if it wasn’t them? There was some kind of connection she had to figure out. And when she’d finished there, she’d hunt down Stan. It wouldn’t hurt to visit The Grain either.
The small library wasn’t even open when Morgan arrived. Deciding to grab