Reaching the bedroom, she saw him curled up on top of the duvet fully dressed, his eyes still unfocused, and she realised he’d been asleep. ‘Hey, what you are doing, are you okay?’
‘What are you doing? I thought you were staying over tonight?’
She shook her head. ‘What and miss this warm welcome, absolutely not, Matthews.’
He chuckled, pushing himself up. ‘Well, I’m glad you’re here, have you seen—’ Before he could say his name, the cat slipped through Morgan’s legs and jumped onto the bed next to Ben.
‘“I hate cats, I don’t want one in my house, it’s not sleeping inside.”’ She rolled her eyes at him with a big smirk on her face.
Ben lifted his finger to his lips. ‘Shh, you’ll upset him, he has feelings you know.’
Morgan grinned. ‘Well, you better say goodbye to Kevin for the time being, Control just rang your house phone. Fire have requested you attend Hest Bank Road for a house fire with fatalities.’
Ben sat up. ‘Crap, I never even heard it; I was so tired after he kept waking me up at the most ridiculous hours last night.’ He pointed to Kevin who was sitting on the edge of the bed cleaning himself.
‘Do you need me? I can help out, there’s not much on in Barrow.’
He stood up and was pushing his feet into the shoes he’d kicked off at the end of the bed. ‘There’s a lot to be said for falling asleep fully clothed you know; it saves so much time.’
She looked longingly at the soft, super king-size bed and sighed.
‘Yes, I do need you. Amy isn’t back in work yet and I’m not supposed to be working anything too stressful, so if you can spare the time, I would really appreciate your assistance.’
‘I always have the time for you.’
He nodded, crossed the room with Kevin behind him and disappeared into the en suite.
Morgan wasn’t tired any more, she was ready to visit the house and find out what she could do to help the poor souls who had died.
THREE
Hest Bank Road was lit up like an airfield. It was so bright Morgan had to squint her eyes against the glare from the floodlights. The noise from the fire engines and generators running the lights and pumps was deafening, not the kind of excitement that neighbours were used to at all. Almost every house was alive with movement and lit up like a beacon. The ones that weren’t Morgan had no doubt housed the more discreet curtain twitchers, lights off watching the drama from the safety of the shadows. The fire crew was damping down the smouldering house, which didn’t look too badly damaged. Morgan had been expecting to see charred ruins, but the house was still standing. The front windows were broken and cracked, the woodwork and sill were all charred black, but the house was still recognisably a house. She turned to find Ben. He was talking to the crew manager. Joining them she couldn’t help it and asked, ‘How are there fatalities? Could they not escape?’
She was thinking of the fire she’d recently been in that had taken hold of the old farmhouse in a matter of minutes. She’d had to jump out of a first-floor window to save her life, hence the injured ankle.
‘They could have, no doubt about that, if they weren’t already dead. Paul Wallace.’ The crew manager held out his gloved hand to Ben, then Morgan, who both shook it.
‘Smoke inhalation?’ Ben asked.
‘No, it’s really weird, you need to see it for yourselves. They’re all sitting at the dining table with plastic bags on their heads.’
Ben turned to look at Morgan, asking Paul, ‘How many of them, was it suicide?’
‘If they cut off their own hands then it was. You can go in as soon as I get the all clear. I’m afraid the front of the house is a bit of a mess with smoke damage, but the kitchen is pretty intact. Luckily the neighbours were going out to pick their daughter up and saw the flames, phoned us and ran to knock on the door. Poor guy ran around the back to raise the alarm and hammered on the kitchen window but knew something was wrong. He said he was going to drag them out but realised they were already dead and thought he better not touch anything.’
‘What do you mean, cut off their own hands?’
‘Exactly that, they are all missing a hand.’
Morgan had to stop her mouth from hanging open at the thought of it.
‘That’s shocking to say the least; and I guess he was a wise guy, must have been a hell of a shock for him.’
Paul nodded. ‘Very wise, nice too, though he’s more than a bit shook up. His wife went to collect their daughter, as he’s gone home.’
He pointed to the nearest house, not quite as grand as this one had been, but still beautiful. It was the kind of street you lived in when money was not something you worried about. Morgan would bet that none of the residents ever worried about the rising costs of Lurpak when they did their weekly shop, unlike the rest of them.
‘Should we go and speak to him whilst we’re waiting, Ben?’
