Her laughter filled the car, and she took the paper bag from him, peeking inside.
‘You did the right thing, these look amazing.’
It wasn’t lost on her that the last time she’d seen Des alive he’d wandered away from her with a similar paper bag containing freshly made scones. Did he ever eat them, she wondered, before he died? She hoped he had, that he’d eaten all of them and enjoyed every single morsel.
‘Hey, why are you on a healthy eating kick? Is it really for the fitness test?’
‘Bella has just lost a stone doing keto, and I thought I’d give it a go.’
She turned to really look at him. ‘Bella?’
His cheeks burned pinker than the raspberry sauce drizzled over the buttercream icing on the cupcakes. ‘Isabelle, Dr Burrows.’
It was Morgan’s turn to grin. ‘Are you two seeing each other?’
‘Kind of, we’re taking it slow for now, actually we have no choice with her living eight hours away at the far end of Wales. But we talk on the phone all the time, message each other, and she’s coming here for a couple of weeks’ holiday.’
‘Cain, that’s brilliant, I’m so happy for you, she seems lovely.’
‘She is, I really like her. Obviously not as much as I like you, but you’re already spoken for so it’s out of the question, and I can’t spend the rest of my life pining for something I’ll never have.’
Her mouth dropped open, and he nudged her gently in the side. ‘I’m only kidding, well maybe there’s a little bit of truth in there, but I want you to be happy and as much as my poor heart is broken, Benno makes you happy so it’s fine, I can live with that.’
She turned away from him frantically blinking away the tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. ‘You say the sweetest things, I want you to be happy too and I think Bella is perfect for you.’
He shrugged. ‘Yeah, thanks, kid. There’s just this problem of the mammoth drive to take her out for coffee.’
She laughed. ‘You’ll sort it, you could always put in for a transfer to work for the police near her, or she could move to Lancaster University.’
‘What and leave this glamorous life behind with all the excitement of a Netflix series? I don’t think I could do it; I don’t speak Welsh either.’
‘Love will find a way so that you can both make it work.’
‘You think so?’
She nodded. ‘I know so and, by the way, Cain, I bet Bella loves you just the way you are so don’t go depriving yourself of your favourite foods.’
‘Haha, it really is actually more for the fitness test but thanks, Morgan.’
He sipped his coffee, took a large bite of the cake and then began driving towards Hest Bank Road. Morgan’s frozen insides began to thaw a little as she sipped her latte, nibbled her cake and realised that she was ridiculously happy that Cain was seeing Bella. He deserved so much happiness and if Bella could give that to him, then Morgan liked her even more than she already did.
Driving down the road she could see the PCSOs on scene guard outside the Lawsons’ house and the others knocking on doors in the street. Maggie’s front door was ajar, and she took that to mean she had invited inside whoever had knocked on her door. Bless her, she was lovely but naïve beyond belief.
Cain parked the car. ‘Do you need me?’
‘No, thanks I’m just grabbing the CCTV. Are you okay to wait for me though?’
He gave her a thumbs up.
She walked down the driveway, knocking on the open door.
‘Come in.’
Maggie’s voice filtered down the hallway to her. Pushing the door, she hoped to God that the woman wasn’t this trusting to everyone who wasn’t in a uniform. Inside, Cathy was sitting at the kitchen table nursing a mug of tea, a plate of biscuits on the table in front of her. She stood up and Morgan shook her head.
‘Sorry.’
‘Don’t apologise to me, I did the same last night. Maggie makes a wonderful cup of tea.’
