*FIRST DRAFT* The Cover of Darkness (DCI Morgan Chester Series)

Chapter Fourteen

The forensic team had set up in Layla's hospital room shortly after the SCU received the call. Silas sat in the waiting room with three police officers. Angry at himself for going to get a coffee and sandwich from the shop on the lower floor. He heard the student nurse scream from the lift. It took two doctors to hold him back as he fought to see what happened. Mr. Chester will be furious with him for getting one of the girls get killed.

Morgan stormed onto the ward with her badge raised. The policewoman nodded and lifted the crime scene tape for Morgan to duck underneath. She turned on her heel and stalked into the waiting room. Her eyes glared into Silas who shuddered when he looked up at her.

"I would like to speak to him alone." She muttered to the policemen. They looked at each other with raised eyebrows. "Now." She barked and they ran out of the room, closing the door behind them.

"Morgan, please..." He pleaded. She walked over to him and leant over him. Silas leant back in his chair; fear gripped him.

"What happened?" She growled.

"I don't know." He sobbed. "I went downstairs to get food as I was hungry. I swear I was only gone for no more than ten minutes."

"You were supposed to stay with her!" She bellowed and paced the room with her hands on her head. "Jesus, we are so fucked!"

"Please don't tell Mr. Chester. I will find another girl, or I will sell more stock once it comes. I'll do anything!" He stammered. Morgan gripped him by his neck and pushed him against the door.

"I don't care what he has to say. Layla was our only lead to catching this son of a bitch!" She cursed and let him go. "Stop snivelling. Be useful for once in your goddamn life and tell me if you saw anything unusual."

Silas looked at her and shook his head. "All I remember is hearing the nurse scream, I ran, and two doctors pushed me into here."

"What doctors? What did they look like?" Morgan fired questions at him. Silas wrapped his arms around his chest tightly.

"The good-looking one from earlier..." He trailed off. "The other one had curly dark hair, shorter than me, had glasses."

"If I ask you to stay in, here will you?" She asked him. Silas replied with a nod.

Morgan left the room and smirked at the policemen as she walked past. Martin was talking with another officer when Morgan turned the corner. He looked up at her and their eyes connected before she entered the room. The smell of blood hit her like a brick wall. Her eyes traced the room until they landed on Layla's mutilated body. Layla's eyes stared at the ceiling. The machines connected to her and the wall behind the bed were sprayed with her blood. Morgan cursed loudly.

"Ah Chester, we were just about to finish sweeping the scene." Elijah Kingston chirped as he placed a swab in an evidence bag.

"Verdict?" Her voice clipped as she stuffed her hands in the pockets of her bottoms.

"Victim had her throat slit, so deep her vocal cords were damaged. She couldn't scream even if she wanted to." He muttered and turned to Morgan. "I found some fibres in the victim's mouth and nose."

"Layla. Her name was Layla. Please show some respect." Morgan warned. Elijah nodded.

"Was she a friend of yours?" He asked.

"I've dealt with her before; she was a nice kid." She muttered and turned away.

"There's something else Chester," Elijah paused and pulled up Layla's hospital gown. Blood soaked her inner thighs. "Genital disfiguration has been done on the poor girl."

"Post-mortem?"

"I'm afraid she was alive when it happened." He shuddered. Morgan walked towards Layla's body and bit her lip. "Started with the clitoris but soon moved onto the inner labia, barely intact."

"He's escalated." Morgan mumbled and Elijah looked up at her with a tight lip. "Angry that she was alive so decided to torture her and then kill her. I think he was testing to see how far he could go."

"Like pushing the boundaries in a taboo fantasy?" Elijah suggested and Morgan nodded in agreement.

"Question is, how long will it be before he strikes again?"

Layla's body was zipped up in a body bag and wheeled out of the room. Morgan said a silent prayer as she watched them leave. Martin and the student nurses bowed their heads as she made her way through to the lifts. Morgan finished collecting reports and evidence from other officers.

She noticed the other doctor Silas had mentioned earlier. She carefully examined him as he walked through the ward, shaken and timid. The nurse who found Layla was curled into a ball on one of the chairs crying into her knees. Martin approached Morgan and handed her a call sheet of everyone working the shift during the attack.

Oliver emerged from the stairs and straightened his jacket.

"I need to speak with you." She demanded and grabbed Oliver's arm. He followed her into an empty room. "The unknown subject, he's escalated."

"Are you certain?"

"He tortured her before he slit her throat. Pretty big leap from what we saw this morning." She explained.

"What is your next step?"

"I have a plan," She paused and took a long breath. "But I need you to pull a favour for me." Oliver looked at her amused.

"A favour, Chester?"

"You of all people know he is full of knowledge; he could open up a new lead. I just need five minutes."

"Absolutely not." He shook his head and started to walk away.

"Everything is either not adding up or is coming to zero. Our main lead is dead. He could help us look at this another way."

"Chester, what you are suggesting is to ask a notorious serial killer for help on a case. Do you realize how incompetent this will make us look?!" He shouted at her. Morgan straightened her spine.

"It falls under the deal struck between him and the system. He is helping law enforcement, and if he successfully helps, I will personally get him whatever he wants." She explained. Oliver cursed and looked around to see no one in sight.

"Okay, I will see if I can pull some strings." He told her, and she smiled as he put his phone to his ear. Morgan secured the folder and walked past him to leave.

"His favourite is JamSponge and Custard." Oliver called out to Morgan as she ran through the war