‘I’m not that grown up, I’m on work experience. My mum got her act together and trained to be a nurse, so when I told her I had to find a two-week placement she arranged for me to work here.’ Macy, whose eleven-year-old self had dark hair, was now a warm honey blonde, and her pale skin was a glowing bronze. She looked over her shoulder and whispered, ‘I hate it, I wantedto ask you if I could do my placement at the station, but my mum had a shit fit and said I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere near there because of all the drama and the fact that a cop had been killing women.’
‘Your mum is wise, Macy. It’s not been a great place to work, although I would have loved to show you around. Maybe one day we could arrange that. I am so shocked to see you standing there in a pair of scrubs though, and very proud.’
Macy’s cheeks burned even redder. ‘Actually, I’m not surprised to see you in here though. Same old Morgan, always putting everyone else’s life before your own. I heard them talking about you before you came in. They said you were on your way and that you dragged a body out of a freezing lake.’
Morgan smiled at her. ‘It wasn’t my finest moment, I almost drowned and it was pretty stupid now I think about it, but someone had to do it.’
Macy squeezed her hand. ‘I’m so glad that you do, although I would very much like it if you didn’t get yourself killed before you’ve had time to teach me how to be like you. It’s all I’ve ever wanted since that day I first met you.’
Morgan laughed. ‘Macy, please don’t join the police, my heart couldn’t take it.’
The girl rolled her eyes at Morgan.
Before she could answer, the curtain opened and a nurse stepped through them. ‘She better not, I keep telling her that it’s not the job for her and how wonderful nursing is.’
Morgan did a double take, Macy’s mum looked so different, and she smiled at her.
‘Macy, please go sit with the girl in cubicle eight. She’s all on her own until her dad gets here and you know what it’s like to be in that kind of awful situation. The policeman sitting outside looks terrified she might talk to him; go put him out of his misery.’
Macy nodded. ‘See you later, Morgan.’
‘Thank you, Macy. It’s so good to see you even if I do feel like an old woman now.’
Macy’s mum laughed. ‘How old do you think I feel? Having a teenager is not good for my wrinkles.’
Morgan smiled at her. ‘She’s a good kid though, right. She always was.’
The woman nodded. ‘The best, I am so proud of her. She amazes me every day and thanks to you I am so grateful that I have her in my life to cause me to need regular Botox. I couldn’t even imagine where I would be now if you hadn’t found her.’ Her voice broke and she coughed into her hand and blinked rapidly. ‘Now if we could just get her to train to be a nurse, nail tech, hairdresser or something really useful to me and not dangerous to her, that would be wonderful.’
Morgan laughed. ‘I hate to break this to you, but I think she might ignore your careers advice. She would make a brilliant detective, but I’m with you, I don’t want her putting herself at risk. She really is too precious. Is the girl in cubicle eight Tori?’
Macy nodded. ‘Yes, bless her. It’s so awful, she hasn’t said anything except to ask if it was Scarlett who you dragged out of the water. I told her we didn’t know anything yet.’
Morgan stood up, clutching the blankets around her, and pointed to the scrubs Macy had left on the bed. ‘If it’s okay with you, I’ll get dressed and go speak to her.’
‘Do your thing, Morgan, you might be able to find out what happened out there. It sounds horrific.’
She left her to get dressed; at least she didn’t feel so exposed anymore. Macy did good, they fit her just right, and her boots were on the hard, blue plastic chair; despite having no socks she tugged them onto her feet.
Cubicle eight was at the other side of the unit, and she walked past the doctor’s station. A woman lifted her head and noddedat her, and Morgan smiled back. Then she was standing in front of Scotty, who was on his phone. He looked up and did a double take.
‘Morgan, I thought you had a twin for a moment.’
She smiled at him. ‘I look the part?’
‘Yep, you can take my blood pressure any day.’
‘Haha, thanks.’
‘You’re good?’
‘I’m good, a bit cold, but I’m okay. Have you spoken to Tori?’
He shook his head. ‘Nope, well I said hi and told her I was outside, so she didn’t have to worry about anything, but I figured you’d want to get her first account. To be honest, I didn’t want to make her relive it twice, it sounds horrific.’ He was whispering now, thankfully.
At one point, Morgan would have thought he was being his usual lazy self, but the more she got to know him the more she realised that deep down he was a good copper and thoughtful too.
‘Thank you.’
