Abigail slid a clipboard across the desk to him and he began to read off his list of questions to be greeted with a ‘no comment’, every single time.
Forty-Eight
Morgan waited in the office for Ben. She’d shown Amy a copy of the footage. When he finally appeared, his face was red and he’d undone the top buttons on his shirt. His tie was loosened, and he looked like he needed to go home and sleep for a week.
‘How did it go?’
‘Rubbish, he’s not coughing to anything. Sacked his solicitor after ten minutes and went “no comment” the rest of the interview. How did you get on at the library?’
‘Interesting, the librarian said someone else had been in two weeks ago to search for the exact same thing I was looking for. Said he was a teenage boy with nice hair who kept running his fingers through it.’
‘Harrison Wright?’
‘I think so; he had a girl with him. She waited outside.’
Ben sat down and leant forward, putting his head in his hands. ‘This whole thing is a mess, it’s far too complicated for my poor brain.’
Amy threw him a Snickers.
He held his hand up. ‘If you say anything.’
‘I’m not, I wouldn’t. But you’re not yourself when you’re hungry.’
‘Amy.’
‘Sorry, couldn’t help it. So, what’s what and who’s who?’
‘I wish I knew; I think Barker has the motive, and he’s definitely angry enough. I’ve never seen so much hostility come off a man who’s supposed to be a pillar of the community. He’s like a man possessed.’
‘Maybe he needs a Snickers too.’ Amy laughed at her own joke. Ben shook his head. Morgan stood by the whiteboard, uncapping a pen. She wrote three headings: Potters, Stone and O’Briens; underneath she wrote the families’ names. Underneath Potters and O’Briens she wrote ‘Gregory Barker’.
‘What connections did Barker have with Stone?’
‘He would have known him. He never admitted anything when I asked him just now though. I can’t see how the mayor and the editor of the paper wouldn’t be acquainted. We need it confirming. Write an action under Stone’s name to speak to other councillors and staff at the paper, see if they knew each other.’
Morgan did. ‘Harrison Wright, he knew the Potters. He’s far too young to have known the O’Briens though. However, I think he did know about them. I’m pretty sure it was him who went to the library to research their murders. Why was he interested in them? Also we don’t know if Bronte had a role in this. If she was with him it could have been the both of them and somehow it all went wrong.’
‘We need to speak to him. I want him bringing back in for questioning ASAP. Have response officers located him yet? Write that down as an action, and when Bronte wakes up we’ll question her to see if she remembers anything, but my focus would be Harrison.’
‘What about Stan Brookes?’
Ben looked at her, but she didn’t make eye contact with him and continued.
‘Well he was the last person to see the Potters and he knew the O’Briens. He’s the right age, so I don’t think he can be totally discounted. I spoke to him this morning, though. I don’t think he’s the killer, but…’
‘Put his name on the board, but somehow I don’t see Stan as a viable suspect. For one thing I get the impression he hasn’t got the balls and there’s another.’
‘What?’
‘He likes to drink. The Potters’ murders wasn’t some unorganised spur-of-the-moment killing. It was an organised killing. Whoever did it planned it out; we know that because of the tox results. There were traces of GHB in their systems. They didn’t drug themselves and it’s not the kind of thing I think Stan would be into. This killer took their time in researching and planning. Why did they hang Olivia, though? She didn’t have the head injuries the others did.’
There was a knock on the door and Declan walked in. ‘Hope I’m not disturbing anything?’
Ben shook his head.
Morgan turned away, relieved. As much as she disliked Stan, he was still her dad. Although she owed him no loyalty, after their little chat this morning she had found the block of ice beginning to thaw whenever she thought about him. It would have been hard to come to terms with it if Ben thought he was the killer.
‘I can tell you why Olivia didn’t have her brains smashed in. She was already dead. The killer had given her a