Bare Skin Quotes

“Jamie guessed he wasn’t sure if calling it a homeless shelter when it was filled with homeless people was somehow offensive. He’d had two complaints lodged against him in the last twelve months alone for the use of ‘inappropriate’ language. Roper was a fossil, stuck in a by-gone age, struggling to stay afloat. He of course wouldn’t have this problem if he bothered to read any of the sensitivity emails HR pinged out. But he didn’t. And now he was on his final warning. Jamie left him to flounder and scanned the crowd and the room for anything amiss.  People were watching them. But not maliciously. Mostly out of a lack of anything else to do. They’d been there overnight by the look of it. Places like this popped up all over the city to let them stay inside on cold nights. The problem was finding a space that would house them. ‘No, not the owner,’ Mary said, sighing. ‘I just rent the space from the council. The ceiling is asbestos, and they can’t use it for anything, won’t get it replaced.’ She shrugged her shoulders so high that they touched the earrings. ‘But these people don’t mind. We’re not eating the stuff, so…’ She laughed a little. Jamie thought it sounded sad. It sort of was. The council wouldn’t let children play in there, wouldn’t let groups rent it, but they were happy to take payment and let the homeless in. It was safe enough for them. She pushed her teeth together and started studying the faded posters on the walls that encouraged conversations about domestic abuse, about drug addiction. From when this place was used. They looked like they were at least a decade old, maybe two. Bits of tape clung to the paint around them, scraps of coloured paper frozen in time, preserving images of long-past birthday parties. There was a meagre stage behind the coffee dispenser, and to the right, a door led into another room. ‘Do you know this boy?’ Roper asked, holding up his phone, showing Mary a photo of Oliver Hammond taken that morning. The officers who arrived on scene had taken it and attached it to the central case file. Roper was just accessing it from there. It showed Oliver’s face at an angle, greyed and bloated from the water.  ‘My God,’ Mary said, throwing a weathered hand to her mouth. It wasn’t easy for people who weren’t exposed to death regularly to stomach seeing something like that.  ‘Ms Cartwright,’ Roper said, leaning a little to his left to look in her eyes as she turned away. ‘Can you identify this person? I know it’s hard—’ ‘Oliver — Ollie, he preferred. Hammond, I think. I can check my files…’ She turned and pointed towards the back room Jamie had spotted. ‘If you want—’ Roper put the phone away.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“Yet another reason Jamie was willing to pay out for expensive, hard-capped boots. You never knew where you’d be stepping. Right in the centre of the settlement a side-path led down a narrow little alley between the backs of two squats made out of shipping pallets, and opened into a little square where three tents all opened towards each other. Two of them looked ancient, propped up by sticks and other rigid objects, tied off and hanging from the bridge overhead with their support strings.  But the third tent looked pretty new.  It was a modest green and orange striped thing — big enough to fit no more than two people. But it matched the description that Reggie had given. He said that it looked too nice to be there, and this one did.  ‘Grace?’ Jamie called softly. Roper was right at her shoulder. She could smell the cigarettes on his breath. There was no answer. She stepped forward a little. ‘Grace? Are you in there? Can you hear me?’ There was an equal chance that the tent was empty, or that Grace was strung out and unresponsive. Either way, she needed to take a look. Jamie glanced at Roper, whose face she couldn’t read. His nose was wrinkled in disgust, but his flushed cheeks told her that he was as nervous as she was.  As much as she hated to generalise — confronting homeless people was never an easy thing to do. They could be unpredictable at best, and it was always smart to tread lightly. She steadied her heart, took a breath and then clenched her hand to stop it from shaking. The zipper toggle hung at the top of the entrance, shimmering gently in the half-light. Jamie couldn’t tell if it was from movement inside, or from vibrations coming through the other squats around them.  She swallowed and reached for it, taking it lightly between her fingers, not wanting to startle whoever was inside. Roper’s breath was short and sharp in her ear. ‘Grace?’ she tried again, but there was no response. She tugged left and the zipper began to unfurl, grinding its way along the teeth. Roper exhaled behind her, filling the already ripe gap with hot air.  Jamie craned her neck to look through the widening gap as the flap began to fold down, but inside was shaded and dark. The smell of urine wafted out and stung her nostrils. She was aware of her boots in the mud, aware of the sounds around her, of the closeness of Roper as he looked over her head.  Everything was still, the zipper not seeming to move at all.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“No one replied from inside. ‘Shit,’ she muttered. They were calling her bluff. They knew that getting a squad of officers out there with sniffer dogs to go through and dismantle fifty squats only for the inhabitants to be arrested and back out on the streets in a day — and for the tents to pop back up right after — was a huge waste of time and resources that DCI Smith would never approve. It looked like they were on their own for this one.  Jamie set her jaw and inhaled. ‘Now what?’ Roper asked. She knelt down and double-knotted her laces.  Eyes wide, Jamie. ‘Now we do it the old-fashioned way.’ She stretched her shoulders and shook out her feet, shrugging off the tension building in her chest and stepped into the muddy passageway between two tents.  The pale November light died behind them. The low-hanging outer girders shielded the sky, the tarps strung up around them catching the rest.  It was darkness inside and the claustrophobic feel of rustling top sheets and rattling breath compounded the sense of unease coiled around Jamie’s spine.  They stepped carefully, Jamie at the vanguard and Roper behind.  She didn’t know where she was going, and moving methodically through this place wasn’t possible. Every pathway led deeper into the labyrinth and most of the time dead-ended in a cul-de-sac of shelter entrances.  There was no way she could systematically cross off the wrong turns.  Roper was muttering and swearing behind her as he stepped in brown puddles and crunched syringes under his heels.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“going to get their guard up. We need to be smart about this.’ He turned his back to the tents as if he couldn’t bear to look at them anymore and stared into the sky. ‘Then what do you suggest?’ Jamie thought for a second. ‘I’d bet that most of them are holding drugs or a weapon of some kind. And they definitely don’t want a team of uniformed officers and dogs down here.’ ‘So we offer them a choice?’ Roper didn’t seem enthused by the idea. ‘Let me talk to them.’ She wasn’t really asking, and turned back before Roper could say anything else. She cleared her throat, choosing the right tone. ‘We know that Grace Melver sleeps down here. We just want to ask her a few questions. We don’t know which tent is hers, so we’re going to need you to help us out, alright?’ She looked back and forth, but the shelters were unmoving, all the inhabitants waiting behind their doors, not daring to even breathe. ‘This can go one of two ways — either someone tells us where Grace is and which tent is hers, or we’re going to get a whole team of officers down here with sniffer dogs and vans and we’re going to search every last one of these tents until we find what we’re looking for.’ She let that sink in. ‘I don’t want to spend my entire afternoon watching them confiscate your stuff and put you in handcuffs, so what’s it going to be? You help us out, and we’ll be out of here in minutes. If you don’t…’  Roper came up behind her and planted his feet, folding his arms and sucking his teeth. Jamie could feel her heart beating under her jacket, a sense of nervousness creeping up her spine, that from the impenetrable wall of tarps someone was just going to lurch out at them with a knife.  She had the unshakeable feeling that Oliver Hammond had escaped a cruel fate he was never meant to. That his body was never meant to be found. And a clue as to why that was lay somewhere just inside the fortress of tents.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“shabby A-frame. There was no one inside. ‘London Metropolitan Police,’ Roper yelled again. ‘We need to find Grace Melver, and any cooperation is greatly appreciated. If you could come out, and—’ ‘It’s not going to work,’ Jamie said, coming back. ‘They know we can’t just search their tents without cause.’ ‘How do you think they know that?’ ‘They’re not stupid, Roper. They’ve been living on the streets — they know their rights when it comes to being searched, and they know that they can refuse — and they will because they don’t want whatever they’ve got to be found.’ He hummed again, putting his hands on his hips. It had been a long time since he’d been in uniform and had to deal with them on a daily basis. Things weren’t like they used to be. There were rules now. And they had to be followed. ‘None of them are going to invite us in to look around,’ Jamie added. ‘And demanding to be is only”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“Eyes wide, Jamie. Don’t give them an inch. Don’t even let them think they can take one. Not even for a second. That’s what her dad would have said. What he had said to her. A hundred times. He was no stranger to stepping into the wrong parts of the city. And he used to do it with the sort of attitude that scared most guys off. The kind of try it and see what happens, shit-bag stare that sent most people scampering.  She tried to carry that look. The look that conveyed that her crescent kick could crack a skull and they’d never see it coming. She didn’t know if she could pull it off as well as her dad. He was six-three with the frame of a Scandinavian bison, after all, and about as intimidating. She, on the other hand, had her mum’s frame. Though that did have its advantages. Mostly in part to the fact that if she did need to hit someone, they’d never expect it.  Roper pulled up short of the first tent and put his hands on his hips, looking around.  Narrow walkways wound around the little squats, making the thirty-by-sixty-foot space a veritable micro favela by all accounts. There must have been fifty different shelters made up in there — of all varying sizes, shapes, and constructions. ‘Jesus,’ Roper grumbled. ‘How the hell are we going to find Grace’s tent in all this?’ Jamie surveyed the exteriors. All the heads seemed to shrink back inside as they got close. ‘Reggie said that the tent was too nice to be here. So I guess we just look for the one that sticks out.’ He made a humming sound and pursed his lips, inhaling sharply. ‘Grace Melver,’ he called loudly, verging on yelling. ‘Grace Melver!’  Nothing stirred. ‘Smooth, Roper,’ Jamie mumbled, sidestepping to look around the battered old four-man in front of them. Behind it a blue tarp had been hung from the girders overhead with what looked to be electrical wire.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“Some looked anxious, others scared. And some looked angry, baring their teeth in indignant snarls. ‘You coming?’ Jamie called back up, stepping sideways down the slope in a flood of pebbles. Roper bit his lip, his fingers twitching at his sides as he decided. With an annoyed grunt he followed her, the stone dust caking his black Chelsea boots and turning them grey. ‘Times like this I wished we were carrying,’ he muttered as he got near. Jamie wasn’t sure if it was to her or not. Sure, sometimes it would pay to carry a gun. But she didn’t think that going in there armed was going to yield any positive results. If they didn’t like the police before, increasing the likelihood that they were going to have a pistol shoved in their face wasn’t going to do anything for the relationship. ‘Don’t worry,’ Jamie said back as they levelled out onto the bottom of the line, crushing syringes under their feet. ‘If anything goes wrong I’ll protect you.’ He wasn’t amused and strode forward quickly, keen to get in and out as quickly as he could. Jamie didn’t share his blanket dislike for the homeless, but as they drew closer, she realised just how many people were packed into the little oasis under the bridge, and that among those half-hidden faces, peering out from darkened doorways and from under shadowing hoods, there might have been someone who wasn’t afraid to kill.  Someone who might have done it already. And someone who wouldn’t think twice about doing it again. They could be stepping into the front room of a murderer that didn’t feel like getting caught today and would do whatever it took to make sure they didn’t. But as far as she could see, they didn’t really have any other choice.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“doubled over and an old bobble-hat was hanging down between his knees.  Jamie took another look to see if he was okay, and spotted an empty vodka bottle between his heels against the curb.  She sighed and dragged her eyes back to the man and woman sitting by the fence. They looked up at Roper and Jamie and stopped talking.  As they drew closer the pair got up and walked away quickly without another word, keen to avoid any questions that might have been directed at them. Jamie and Roper didn’t bother calling out, and neither were prepared to chase them down.  They were both in their forties, and neither of them were Grace.  Roper paused at the fence and put his foot on it, craning his neck to see under the bridge beyond.  Long green tendrils looped their way down the bank, the jagged bramble leaves twisting gently in the autumn air.  The sky overhead had turned turbulent and grey, bruised raw by the incoming winter.  Jamie shivered and stepped past Roper, who didn’t seem inclined to make his way onto the loose bank in his old slick-bottom Chelsea boots. Jamie didn’t have that trepidation. She looked back as she stepped over the stained blanket, her deeply-teased heel crunching in the loose stone.  Roper was grimacing, staring down at the bridge and the tents under it.  Jamie could see by the look on his face that he was hoping she’d not ask him to follow. Sounds of conversation were echoing up and a thin blanket of smoke was clinging to the girders above. Someone was warming themselves. Some faces had already appeared in the openings to the little makeshift huts and shelters, peering out at the two newcomers — at the two outsiders.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“Jamie considered herself outside that, but there was a definite feeling of distrust that underpinned every conversation, and a palpable sense of contempt that beat in the background.  She put it out of her mind and pressed on, hoping to hell that they weren’t going to find Grace dead with a needle in her arm.  That would turn a shit-clap into a shit-pie.  Her dad had practically been a poet.  But she wasn’t hungry. A two-lane road swept across a bridge headed north out of the city. Below it, an old line ran perpendicular, the rails buried in stone chips grown over with brambles. It hadn’t been used in years, and provided a sheltered area stretching across its width.  The banks on either side were fenced off and let down around twenty feet onto the flat at the bottom, and the space beneath the bridge was filled with tents and tarps, all huddled together out of the worst of the weather.  A section of fence had been pushed down, one of the posts dug out and shoved over. It had been trampled flat and an old blanket had been laid over the crushed barbed wire at the top so that the denizens could make the traverse without getting nicked.  They’d walked the last stretch up a pretty much deserted street that had been blocked off at the bottom when the line had been put out of commission. Jamie and Roper moved between the bollards and up the cracked pavement towards the gap in the fence in silence.  Three homeless people were sitting on the street — two by the makeshift entrance to the old line and one opposite.  He was wearing a bright green wind-cheater and had his arms folded under his armpits.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“Roper was sulking. He didn’t like this case and it was getting worse for him by the minute.  They had no solid leads and the one person they needed to speak to the most hadn’t been seen since before Oliver’s body was found. With what they knew so far, there was a good chance that someone else was involved in their relationship, and when you factored in the drugs, the azithromycin, and what Reggie had said about their supposedly new tent, things were starting to get muddy.  They needed to speak to Grace and find out exactly what was going on, and they needed to do it fast.  The longer time went on, the less likely they were to find a fresh lead. The longer there was for evidence to get destroyed or misplaced. The longer there was for people to shore up their stories. The longer there was for people to forget exactly what had happened. Time was getting thin, and their investigation was hanging on the testimony of a heroin-addicted teenager who may or may not be missing herself.  It’s what Jamie’s father would have called a shit-clap. The image was explanatory enough.  They kept a good pace through the streets, opting to walk rather than drive, retracing the route that Ollie and Grace would have taken every day to get to the shelter.  They caught up with and passed several nomads trekking back from lunch towards their nests, but none of them were Grace, or prepared to tell them whether Grace was there.  Maybe they didn’t know, or maybe they just didn’t want to help. The homeless and the police had a frosty relationship to put it mildly. Putting it more succinctly, neither liked the other.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“Who?’ he asked, his eyes still going from detective to detective. ‘Ollie — the young boy with curly hair, came in here with a girl the same age — lopsided bob—’ Mary moved her hands by her ears to demonstrate the cut ‘—slim, pretty, green eyes, and—’  He nodded once. ‘Yeah, yeah, I know who you mean now, the ones on the needle, um…’ He stopped talking, not wanting to say another word in front of Jamie and Roper. ‘Go on,’ Mary urged. ‘You can tell them. Nothing’s going to happen to you.’ He exhaled and a waft of tomato flowed out from under his scraggly moustache. ‘They had a space down there. Nice tent, actually. Too nice, almost. New, like. She had it — brought it one day. They was in a tarp before, you know?’ Jamie nodded and Roper looked at her.  ‘Do you know if she’s still there?’ Mary asked. ‘Tent was still there s’morning. The girl…’ He shrugged and lifted the edge of his bowl, sipping the dregs out of the bottom. ‘Who knows. With the boy, least she had some protection, you know. Now, well, I don’t know who her friends are, you know?’ Jamie knew. ‘Thank you. And how do we get there? Can you show us?’ ‘Me walk up with two coppers? Nah. I can’t do that.’ ‘Listen, mate,’ Roper said with the lack of finesse he was known for. ‘This is an active murder investigation, alright? If you don’t—’ Jamie squeezed his arm and he stopped talking. She thought about the old flies and vinegar adage.  ‘Reggie?’ she said, trying to sound friendly. ‘Could you just tell us where it is?’ He was staring at Roper, who was pretty much glaring back, but eventually he turned to her. ‘Sure. Who am I to hold up a murder investigation?’ Back on the street with the directions etched in her mind, they headed for the bridge.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“been long, greasy, and pulled back into a low ponytail.  The words Mary had used were ‘cute asymmetrical bob’, and Jamie thought that probably meant she’d cut it for her. Damn, she really did care. No one that looked even remotely like Grace showed up, though. And after all the soup was finished, the crowd began to dissipate. ‘I don’t know what to say,’ Mary said. ‘She’s usually here for lunch.’ Roper smacked his lips. ‘Who knows. Word gets around sometimes. Maybe she heard about the vic—’ He cut himself off. ‘About Oliver.’ Mary nodded, like she concurred.  ‘Mrs Cartwright,’ Jamie said, ‘do you know where Grace sleeps? Does she have a usual spot, or do you know if anyone might know how we can get hold of her?’ Mary thought for a second. ‘There’s a bridge that runs across an old overground line — not far from here. I know that a lot of our patrons make themselves a space there. I don’t know if that’s where she sleeps, but…’ She looked around, and seeing a guy in his late twenties with a tattered beanie hat pulled down to his eyebrows sitting on one of the chairs, polishing off a bowl of soup, lifted her hand and called out to him. ‘Reggie?’ He looked up, the fur lining the hood of his jacket all clumped together and dirty. ‘Hmm?’ he said, looking scared all of a sudden.  Jamie smiled at him, but the fear of getting questioned by two police detectives couldn’t be dispelled that easily.  Mary beckoned him over and he approached cautiously. ‘Reggie — you’ve got a space down on the old overground line, right? Under the bridge?’ He looked at Roper and Jamie, as though admitting it was going to get him in trouble.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“Johansson.’ She turned around to see Roper standing there, tapping the ash off his cigarette.  ‘Yeah?’ she said, covering the tightness in her throat with a strategic cough. ‘You good?’ he asked, his eyes a little narrowed as he studied her. She nodded and checked her watch. ‘Yeah.’ It was nearly one and the line was growing impatient. ‘Good, then let’s head inside. I don’t want her to see us out here and bolt.’ ‘Okay.’ ‘You sure you’re good?’ She exhaled, cracked her neck, and stuffed her phone back into her jeans pocket. ‘Yeah, I’m good. Let’s do this.’  Chapter 8 Inside the shelter, the people came in quietly, as though if they rushed and demanded they’d be turned away.  Each accepted a bowl politely, not asking for more or for anything else. They all thanked Mary and then took seats, or stood and finished their lunch.  Most of them headed outside afterwards and then lined up again for seconds.  Mary served diligently, asking each how they were, whether they were okay, as well as an impossible number of personal things that Jamie couldn’t believe she could remember.  But the whole time, while her and Roper leaned against the stage watching the door for Grace, she never showed.  Mary had said she was about five-four, slight, with mousy brown hair which was now cut”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“Jamie stared at the file open on her screen, at the names of his parents. Kevin and Margaret Hammond.  The address was in the good part of Brentwood. An expensive area.  You’d have to be well-off to live there. A picture was forming in her head. Hard-working parents neglect their son for their careers. He rebels, lashes out, resents the private schooling, the luxury of his life. Starts mixing with the wrong crowd. Wouldn’t mum and dad just hate it if I got a tattoo? If I went out with this girl? If I tried heroin.  She was gripping her phone hard, seeing it play out in her head.  She knew it was possible. Easy even. Her own father had been an addict her whole life and she’d not known until she was in her early teens. Until then, she thought her dad was superman. Catching bad guys by day, devoted father and husband by night. Nothing could have been further from the truth.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“could always come home? He wasn’t himself, I don’t think — the uh, the…’  He couldn’t say the word. Heroin. ‘It changed him. We hadn’t heard from him for a long time. We didn’t know if he was alive, or… And now…’ He pulled the phone from his ear and started sobbing in the background, the audio muffled as he put his hand over the mouthpiece. ‘Mr Hammond?’ she asked, forcing the words over the lump in her throat. ‘Mr Hammond?’ He brought the phone back. ‘I’m here, sorry. Sorry, it’s… Sorry.’ ‘That’s alright. Can you tell me when Oliver first started using? Who with, maybe? Did he have any friends, or?’ ‘No, I don’t know. He was always independent, you know? Going to meet friends in the city, and… He had a girlfriend, but we didn’t know who. He wouldn’t tell us. Thought we wouldn’t approve, or… or… I don’t know.’ Grace came to mind. ‘How long ago was this?’ ‘August last year, maybe? Before it all started to, uh…’ ‘That’s great,’ Jamie said, her free hand clenched tightly into a fist. ‘I’m sorry to have bothered you. Would it be alright if I gave you a call tomorrow? Or if you’d prefer, I could come to—’ ‘No, no, that’s fine. You can call… I’ll be in work, but… I’ll call you back when I can.’ Jesus. He was going back to work the next day? He didn’t even think about it. Like missing a few days hadn’t even entered the realm of the possible. ‘Okay. Thank you,’ she said. Apologising for it all was bad practice. Even though she wanted to.  ‘Goodbye,’ he said. She left it at that and hung up, letting him process. She had enough to start piecing together a timeline. And an idea of what had happened. At least at the start.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“Have you had any recent contact with Oliver?’ She started quickly. ‘Did he reach out to you, to tell you he was in trouble, or—’ ‘We hadn’t heard from him in months…’ He swallowed again, fighting the catch in his throat. ‘The last time we… the last time I spoke to him, he asked me for… God… money.’  Jamie didn’t press him. It was best to just to let people speak sometimes.  ‘He wouldn’t tell me what for, but… but we knew that he was… you know… using that stuff…’ Acceptance was hard. He went on. ‘We knew he was. We had a call from the hospital — he’d been admitted for an overdose. That was when we confronted him, and — since, he just… We didn’t know where he was, or…’ His voice was barely a whisper, the words near incoherent. She thought he meant back when Oliver had first started using. But she didn’t interrupt. ‘That was why he left, you know? We thought that… I thought that giving him an ultimatum would… would… make him see, you know?’ She set her jaw, trying to keep perspective. She’d been through this herself. Felt this herself. ‘I know.’  She felt like saying ultimatums don’t work on addicts — they never do. But it’s not your fault for trying. It’s what everyone does. It makes sense to us. But addicts think differently. Their logic works differently.  ‘We barely heard from him after he left. Once he turned up at Maggie’s work — you know? Asking for money. Thought that if I wasn’t there… Of course she gave him some — told him to come home for dinner. But that night we had a call from you — the police, I mean — saying that he’d been found… And… Uh… I’m sorry —’ ‘Take your time,’ Jamie said softly. ‘It’s okay.’ ‘So we said that we wouldn’t, you know, help him any more — give him anything else. But that”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“She opened the case file and attached an audio clip, hitting the background record button. She still had the doctor’s number in her call log and dialled it.  It rang for a while and then went to voicemail. ‘You’ve reached Elliot Day, I can’t get to the phone just now, but if you’d like to leave a message, I’ll return your call as soon as I can. Thank you.’ The voice told her he was well-brought-up. South-England native. But she couldn’t place where. ‘Hi,’ she said after the beep. ‘This is Detective Sergeant Jamie Johansson. I’d like to speak to you regarding your work at the homeless shelter in Enfield. It’s in accordance with an active investigation. If you could call me back at your earliest convenience, that would be great. Thank you.’ She hung up and sighed, stopped the recording, and then went back to the case file, finding the number for Oliver’s parents. She hit record again, copied it and called them immediately, not wanting to put it off any longer. After three rings, a tired voice answered. ‘Hello?’ ‘Mr Hammond?’ ‘Yes?’ ‘This is Detective Sergeant Jamie Johansson with the London Metropolitan Police. I understand that one of my colleagues informed you that I might be getting in touch?’ There was silence for a second and then she heard him swallow. ‘That’s right… But I don’t know what I can tell you,’ he said quietly. It sounded like he was moving from room to room, cupping the phone to his mouth. Maybe he didn’t want Oliver’s mum to hear. ‘Any information you provide could be very useful. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?’ ‘Sure,’ he said, his voice small. ‘Would it be okay if I recorded this conversation?’ ‘Yes,’ he said, almost absently. Jamie hated asking it — it never had a positive impact on the conversations that came after. Made them stunted, reserved. But she had to ask.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“Jamie hated being asked that question, because there wasn’t a good answer that didn’t make it sound like they were. Roper looked at her, not wanting to tackle it either. ‘We, uh,’ Jamie started, looking around the room. ‘We don’t have a list of suspects, yet. We’re just gathering information.’ Mary looked relived, nodding. ‘Okay, good. Well, if there’s anything I can do.’ Roper smiled, rocking back and forth on his heels. ‘Just let us know when Grace arrives and we’ll do the rest. You’ve been a great help already.’ He turned away and headed towards the far side of the room. Jamie followed, knowing it meant he wanted to talk. They stood side on so they had a view of both Mary and the door, and then Roper said, ‘I’ll make the call, get the uniforms out here. You think it’s worth looking around this place again?’ Jamie shook her head. ‘We’d be swinging in the dark. Let’s speak to Grace first, then go from there. If she gives us any names — the third person in the love triangle — then we can grab another file. But for now…’ She inhaled, knowing they had twenty something minutes to kill and she had two phone calls to make.  They couldn’t be put off any longer.  ‘Let’s head outside,’ Roper said. ‘It smells like piss in here.’ She thought that was rich considering that there was about a fifty-fifty chance that smell was coming from Roper himself. But she didn’t say anything. Roper had a cigarette lit before his feet hit the pavement and he circled into the street to get a look at the thirty-strong line that had now formed. The people were beginning to jostle.  They couldn’t have all been local — which meant that they were making the trek over for a plastic bowl of soup. Jamie looked away, focused her mind on the calls, and dug her phone out of her pocket.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“name, but he lives around the corner.’ Mary sighed. ‘He works in a law firm — or a finance brokerage — or something like that—’ she lifted her left hand and moved her wrist in circles ‘—on the next street over. Of course, when you walk past a shelter wearing a Rolex you’re going to be asked if you can spare some change.’ She shook her head. ‘But yes, I know who you mean, and I’ve heard him say those things.’ ‘He mean anything by them you think?’ She studied Roper for a second. ‘Are you asking if I think he could have murdered Ollie?’ Roper stayed quiet. He couldn’t lead her into anything. After a second, he said, ‘I’m not asking anything other than whether you think that he’s worth speaking to.’ Diplomatic he wasn’t. ‘I don’t know. I’ve never spoken to him — only heard his voice, had him described to me.’ Jamie cut in now. ‘Has he ever assaulted any of the people who come here? Any violence, or direct threat?’ ‘Direct threat?’ Roper sucked his teeth. ‘As in, I’m going to drown you versus you should be drowned.’ Mary’s mouth crumped into a wrinkled line. ‘I don’t know that I can really say whether… I… I don’t know is the simple answer. Lots of people take offence to the shelter being here. It wouldn’t be out of the question for someone to act rashly — but him? I don’t know.’ She was being careful not to say anything that would incriminate the possibly innocent man. She turned to Roper, trying to sound casual. There was no need to worry Mary. ‘We’ll get some uniformed officers to canvas the area — ask around to see whether the shelter has had an impact on anyone in particular.’ She smiled at Mary now. ‘But don’t worry, it’s just eliminating the most improbable suspects first, narrowing down the scope of the investigation, you know?’ ‘Am I a suspect?’ Mary asked, stopping”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“Mary was standing behind it, emptying minestrone out of tins into the vat.  An entire slab was resting on the stage behind her with half of the cans missing. They looked to be wholesale and cheap. But the folks outside wouldn’t complain. A stack of plastic bowls and spoons had been set on the table next to the heater. Once it was full and hot, she’d call them in. Jamie was surprised that they hadn’t flooded in already. The door was open, after all.  That said something to her about Mary, and about the respect these people had for her. ‘Detectives,’ Mary said, a little surprised. ‘Did I call you?’ She seemed to be asking herself as much as Jamie and Roper.  ‘No,’ Roper said. ‘But we wanted to be here when Grace arrived.’ Mary took it in, stirring the soup with a ladle. ‘Oh, well she’s not here yet — as far as I know. I won’t be serving lunch for another half an hour or so.’ ‘That’s fine, we’ll wait,’ Roper said, smiling. He thought he was charming at times. But he never was. Silence hung in the air while Mary popped and emptied in another tin with a dull slap.  Jamie looked at the slab and saw that the soup was best before August last year. It was out of date — probably salvaged from a food bank. Jamie thought about the phrase, beggars can't be choosers, and then immediately felt bad about it. ‘There was a guy outside this morning,’ Roper said, pushing his hands into his pockets. ‘Smartly dressed, short black hair, glasses.’ ‘Oh, um,’ Mary said, not sure where he was going with it. ‘He bumped into Jamie, said some pretty nasty things — about the good people who rely on this shelter. Didn’t seem too excited about them being there.’ Mary’s face lit up and then drooped as she realised who he meant. ‘Ah, yes — I don’t know”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“Hopefully, once they’d spoken to Grace, she’d have more to ask and the calls would necessitate themselves.  Roper turned into the street with the shelter on it and pulled the handbrake up without pressing the button. It clicked angrily and Jamie resisted the urge to tell him that it wasn’t good for the car. They got out and she breathed through her nose again.  The air was marginally fresher.  Her watch told her it was half past twelve and the smell of soup coming out of the shelter, as well as the growing line of homeless people, told her that it was nearly lunchtime.  The door was closed and another piece of paper had been stuck over the last one. It read ‘Hot food for all. 1pm.’  The people outside were lined up neatly, hugging the right-hand rail and stretching down onto the pavement and along the street. Jamie did a quick headcount down and got to twenty-two before Roper moved in front of her and she lost the number.  He looked back, dipped his head towards the door, and she went after him.  A guy with a shaggy beard and a lined face wearing two coats opened his mouth to tell them there was a line, and then had his sixth-sense tweaked and clammed up.  Roper gave him a glance and then pulled the door open and headed inside.  The room was much the same as it was before — except it was now empty of bodies and a dozen or so folding chairs had been set out for people to sit and eat. The camp table at the back that the coffee still had been on was now mostly filled by a big soup heater. It looked like it was older than Jamie was and the caked droplets of a thousand broths stained the side.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“with dust and ash, a fast-food coffee cup was sitting in the centre console with eight cigarette buts dropped in it, and the passenger footwell was littered with burger wrappers and cigarette packets.  She could comment, but it wouldn’t make a difference.  He wheeled backwards into the middle of the underground car park and accelerated up the ramp. The scanner clocked his number plate and the barrier lifted. The engine whined and the Volvo thrust itself into the mild midday sun, the sounds of the city engulfing them.  They didn’t speak on the way over — both too engrossed in their own thoughts. Roper was no doubt planning his line of questioning for Grace. Jamie was thinking about Ollie. About how an eighteen-year-old kid goes from sixth-form to heroin in one fell swoop.  She still hadn’t spoken to his parents. Or to the doctor. She really needed to.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“They may have been the same rank, but he was still technically her senior — in both age and experience — and sometimes he liked to flex. Make himself look like he gave a damn. She leaned forward, hit the keyboard shortcut to minimise the windows, and got up. ‘Nothing,’ she said, pulling her jacket on. ‘That’s helpful.’ She ignored the comment, downed half her now-tepid coffee and bit lightly into her bagel, holding it between straight white teeth as she powered off her monitor and tucked her chair in.  ‘I don’t know why you bother,’ Roper said, flicking a hand at the now-black screen. ‘Not while all this is burning.’ He gestured around the room at the other desks and detectives working away. Dozens of screens were lit, the photocopier was buzzing, the lights were humming, and phones and devices were charging on every surface.  She shrugged. ‘If you leave a monitor on standby overnight it wastes enough energy to—’ ‘Yeah, yeah,’ he said, dismissing her with his hand. ‘And the polar ice caps are melting and penguins are getting sunburn. Come on, we’ve got a murder to solve.’ He walked forward, draining what was left in his coffee cup, and put it down on a random desk — much to the disgust of the guy sitting behind it. Roper swaggered towards the lifts, finally shrugging off the hangover, his caffeine quota for the next hour filled. Once his nicotine level had been topped off, he might actually be capable of some decent police work. Jamie fell in behind him, trying to get her mind off the other missing kids and back on Grace Melver. Whatever the hell was going on, Jamie had a feeling that Grace Melver knew something about it. Whether she realised or not.  Chapter 7 She walked with Roper without thinking about it.  Jamie had dropped him back at the crime scene after the shelter so he could pick his car up. The medical examiner was there and the scene of the crime officers, or SOCOs, were crawling all over in their plastic-covered boots, snapping photos and putting things in evidence bags.  They hadn’t stuck around.  It was best to leave the SOCOs do their jobs, and anyway Jamie and Roper had paperwork that needed to be done.  Her fingers typed on autopilot now. She’d had her prelim licked before she’d finished her first cup of coffee. Roper headed for his Volvo without asking and got into the driver’s seat.  Jamie pulled the door open and got in, closing the door only when he’d cranked the ignition so she could crack the window. The seats were covered”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“digging when she got back. It was estimated that there were more than eight thousand people sleeping rough on the streets of London. And last year more than six hundred deaths of homeless people were recording across the country. More than a hundred of those were in London alone. And those were just the ones who were found. She wondered how many died and never got recorded — how many slipped through the cracks and weren’t added to the statistics.  More than a quarter of a million people were reported missing every year in the UK, and these numbers were growing. Twenty-eight missing kids, though. She looked at the files. They had nothing in common other than that they were young, and someone, somewhere, was wondering where they were. How many were dead already?  ‘Johansson,’ Roper said, his voice hard. ‘Hmm?’ She looked up, still in her chair. ‘I asked what you’d been doing all morning?”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“him that he couldn’t speak to Jamie. Not even to wish her a happy birthday. It wasn’t that Jamie blamed either of them for anything. They weren’t happy people — apart or together. She looked up, Mary’s voice echoing back to her as she let the recording in. Roper was snapping his fingers and waving at her.  She pulled the headphones down around her neck and sat up. ‘What is it?’ ‘You called the parents yet to follow-up?’ ‘Not yet.’ Her voice cracked a little and she coughed to cover it. ‘Good. It’s after twelve—’ he checked his watch ‘—we should get going if we’re going to catch Grace at the shelter.’ ‘Has Mary called?’ Jamie asked, taking a sizeable bite out of her bagel. She’d already eaten a bowl of granola and an apple. ‘No,’ Roper said, standing up and taking his pea coat off the back of his chair, ‘but I want to get there before she does and see her come in. Don’t want her to know we’re coming and come up with a story we can never disprove. Heroin, secrets, dead-boyfriend — there’s a lot she’s not going to want to say and I don’t need her getting any prep in before we arrive.’ Jamie inhaled deeply, letting the oxygen seep into her muscles. ‘Okay.’ ‘You call that doctor yet?’ Roper asked, throwing his coat around his shoulders. ‘No,’ Jamie said, shaking her head. ‘What the hell have you been doing all morning?’ She looked at her computer screen, at the twenty-eight windows she had open. All”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“Jamie held it all back, headed to school, and then broke down during her first class and ran out of the room.  At the time, she’d despised her father for killing himself on her eighteenth birthday. Now, she saw it with more clarity. Her mum had denied him the chance to talk to her, to see her, to be a part of her life during those last months. And he couldn’t take it.  The post-mortem report said that his blood-alcohol level was high enough to give an average male alcohol poisoning and possibly brain damage, and ruled that an investigation be launched to determine whether he had shot himself, or whether it had been staged, as they weren’t sure that anyone could even stay conscious, let alone lift a gun with any conviction, after drinking that much. Several character reports testified that he wasn’t an average male, and he was very well-practised at both while being shit-faced drunk. It was deemed suicide and never contested.  Her”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“said, ‘I don’t know what she expects to find out — we haven’t seen him in ten months.’ The word haven’t stuck out to her. As if they would again. It was always difficult to wrap your head around news like that. He’d sounded calm on the phone, as though he’d come to terms with this eventuality already, even before the news came in. Though when the reality of it all hit home the emotion couldn’t be denied.  She knew from personal experience. She’d felt indifferent when her mum told her that her dad was dead. It was only three days later that the realisation set in, when she came downstairs and the birthday decorations were still up. Her mother was slumped on the sofa, an empty bottle of red wine lying on its side next to her, the contents soaked into the fabric.  She remembered pausing at the bottom of the stairs and looking at her mother, passed out drunk. She’d always hated her father for looking like that.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“listening back to the audio-clip anyway, and put her headphones straight in. She was in even less of a mood for small-talk than normal.  As Roper’s voice spoke in her ears, asking Mary if she’d seen or heard anyone arguing with or threatening Oliver Hammond, she took a bite out a bagel she’d topped with light cream cheese. Someone had taken and eaten the two slices of smoked salmon she’d left in the fridge. She didn’t have energy to find out who.  Jamie chewed thoughtfully, glad of the noise in her ears to drown the world out. She’d become good at tuning out Roper’s east-London rasp by now. It was practically white noise. She was thinking about Oliver Hammond. His parents’ number was written down in front of her. She was working up to calling them to follow-up.  It was nearly midday and they’d already been informed of his death and told that a detective would be calling to speak to them. She’d listened to the recording of the conversation. His father had”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“The coffee made by the six-year-old drip filter machine in the break room was as black as tar. The DI who made it every morning had the tolerance of a bull and the neck of one too. His name was James Graham, and Jamie had seen him take a cup of coffee out of the jug when it was made by someone else, and then add a spoon full of instant coffee to it. More than once.  When that happened, he did nothing but complain about how weak it was.  It just so happened that Graham bought good coffee as well as making it strong, so it was easier — and tastier — for everyone to just let him make a pot, half fill a cup, and then top it up with water and milk until it was the right shade.  That morning Jamie didn’t add any water, and took a russet-brown cup back to her desk. She sat down and Roper eyed her, flicking through the files from the shelter. She’d laid it all out for him and he’d regaled her with the particulars of the conversation he’d had with Mary. She was”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin

“Jamie arched an eyebrow, deconstructing the situation.  He was headed to work by the look of him, and judging from the direction he came from, he lived on the upmarket residential street that this one intersected. Homeless shelters often drove house prices down, and someone dressed like him would be a prime target for begging. And he’d obviously experienced enough of it to not even want to look at them as he passed. Roper wasn’t so understanding and inhaled hard to shout after him, coughing hoarsely as he did, unable to catch his breath. ‘Roper,’ Jamie said quickly, moving towards him, shaking her head. ‘Don’t.’ Roper leaned forward, reddening, then hawked and spat a chunk of brown phlegm onto the tarmac. He stood up then, hands on his hips, forehead creased, a vein bulging in his temple. ‘Why not?’ he squeezed out. ‘You heard what he said. You think that’s a coincidence?’ Jamie looked after him.”
― Morgan Greene, Bare Skin