Chapter 12
TWELVE
Ben was mid briefing when Morgan and Cain walked into the blue room.
She looked at the dark purple circles under his eyes, they looked bruised, and she realised that it was exhaustion.
Nobody had hit him much to her relief. She didn’t have it in her to have to go and fight someone right now, but she would if she had to.
His head inclined slightly in her direction, and she gave him a curt nod to tell him she was fine.
‘Thanks for joining us, Morgan. Cain, appreciate you collecting her from A if they’d have found him earlier would it have made the difference, could they have saved his life?
‘The pathologist agrees with my theory that the injuries were not accidental. Declan couldn’t say anything else about it except that death could have been by drowning.
There was a driving licence in his pocket that matches the name Dawson Turner.
He has yet to be identified by his parents, which is very sad and not very nice for them.
It’s not the kind of news you expect to hear, is it, on a mundane Sunday evening.
Obviously, we won’t know for sure until the post-mortem what the confirmed cause of death was, but whatever his conclusions are there is no doubt in my mind that this was intentional, and we are treating it as suspicious. ’
Morgan’s hand shot up.
Ben smiled at her.
‘Did you find Scarlett?’
‘No, unfortunately we didn’t locate her. The underwater search and rescue team is going to check the lake as soon as the weather permits.’
‘I spoke to Tori and got her first account at the hospital, and we’ve just been to her house and got a full statement from her.’
‘You did? Brilliant, what did she say?’
‘That all three of them decided on the spur of the moment to go ghost hunting. They never posted anything about it on their social media accounts, they never told another person their plans. Tori said they were in Dawson’s house talking about starting a podcast and he suggested they go up there to get some footage of the area.
The girls agreed thinking it would be fun.
Both girls are sixteen and Dawson, as you know by his ID, is seventeen; both girls told their parents they were sleeping at each other’s houses, according to Tori.
She said they had no idea how bad the weather was until they got up onto the fell and then they were surrounded by the mist. We all know too well how the Lake District has its own weather pattern, I mean we’ve all been caught out at some point. ’
Ben was nodding.
‘Tori said as they neared the entrance to the camp, Dawson slammed his brakes on and claimed that he almost hit a person crossing the road. The visibility was poor, the mist was so thick they couldn’t really see anything, and she’d told him it was a bad idea to be out there in this weather.
It was too dangerous, she said she wanted him to forget it. ’
Ben sighed. ‘Why did they not turn around and go home? None of this would have happened.’
Marc leaned forward. ‘Did she think it might be the caretaker? I mean it stands to reason that he’s the only other person with a legitimate reason to be out there at that time of night when the weather was bad.’
Morgan shrugged. ‘Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and we all know too well how the stupidest of ideas when you’re a teenager seem like the best. To answer your question, boss, Tori didn’t see her but Dawson thought it was a girl who had run across the road not some older guy with a limp.
So, if Tori is being truthful about not telling anyone where they were going ,whoever did this must have stumbled across them.
It’s not premeditated; it was unfortunate for them that the killer was also out there.
Why would someone be out on the fells when they couldn’t see their hand in front of their face?
Why would they kill Dawson? And is this figure in the mist the killer or another victim? ’
‘This gives me all the Friday the thirteenth vibes. Have we got our own Jason Vorhees out there, stalking teenagers who go to that abandoned summer camp?’ Cain’s face was serious, and Morgan realised he wasn’t being sarcastic.
That thought put the fear of God into her.
Where was Scarlett? The thought that he might have abducted her and taken her with him made her stomach churn.
‘Oh, God, what if he took Scarlett with him and she’s still alive. We haven’t found a trace of her, only Dawson’s body.’
Ben held up his hands, palms facing them. ‘Stop it, I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. Thanks for that, Cain, very reassuring to consider that theory.’
Cain shrugged. ‘Glad to be of service.’
Morgan looked around the room. ‘Why are we here? We need to get back out there.’
‘We are as soon as possible; we need to just take a moment here, guys, to think about our next steps. The only key witness we have is the caretaker, Amos Watson. He heard Tori scream and went out to search with his dog. Cain, can you check to see if we have any newly released sex offenders in the area, or any that may have moved here? Might as well get that ticked off straight away. There are no neighbours nearby, but someone could have been squatting in the abandoned grounds.’
Cain nodded.
‘Let’s get Watson brought in for a video interview, Ben. If he’s all we have let’s do it officially, and to be honest with you, he is my prime suspect at the moment.’ Marc was pacing up and down putting everyone on edge, and Morgan was desperate to tell him to sit down.
‘Boss, we will do that. Cain and I searched his house and outbuildings in the early hours, we found nothing of interest. Personally, I don’t think he had anything to do with this, but yes, we’ll interview him again here at the station.
Morgan, to answer your question I am more concerned that Scarlett is in the water, and I think we need to consider that is a huge possibility, or out there somewhere.
If she ran and hid like Tori, then she could be.
The dog handler is on their way with the search dogs; Mountain Rescue has their search dogs out, but right now we can’t do a lot until the weather clears enough for it to be safe to have my team out on the side of that fell.
Morgan, you already put yourself at risk, let’s not have a repeat of that. ’
Marc paused. ‘Did the caretaker say if he had CCTV? Because if he’s fed up of teenagers trespassing wouldn’t he have cameras, I mean you can get those trail cams that are ideal for that kind of terrain?’
‘He never mentioned there were any, we didn’t see any but to be fair we didn’t see an awful lot because of the mist.’
‘Put that down as a priority.’
‘His only neighbour is an elderly woman, but again it’s on the list to check. Morgan, do you want to pay her a visit and see if she has anything to say? She might have heard something. Scarlett’s screams could have carried down the fell to where she is.’
Morgan nodded. ‘Yes, I’ll go there after this. Has anyone spoken to Scarlett’s parents?’
‘Madds sent Amber and her student officer to inform them she’s missing. Obviously Caz is with Dawson’s family. They’re sending an FLO from Barrow to liaise with Scarlett’s family.’
Cain rolled his eyes at Morgan, and she knew exactly what he meant – off all the officers, why did it have to be Amber who had the worst people skills out of anyone she had ever met?
‘Before any of you judge that decision, I need you to be aware that I would have preferred Morgan or Cain to go and deal with such a delicate situation, but you were both otherwise engaged. Plus, I think the news is better coming from a uniformed officer. For now, let’s concentrate on motive as to why this has happened, and also bringing Scarlett home.
I’m going with the theory that she is still alive, possibly injured, hypothermic but breathing.
When Cassie gets there with the search dogs, I’ll go back out.
I guess task force can’t go out and search until the weather permits. ’
Morgan’s skin felt as if it was crawling and she shivered; she didn’t think the girl was in the water. They needed to find her and fast, not be here sitting around a table wasting time.