Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
Declan’s left eye had dark bruising under it that had spread up from his nose, and it looked a mess.
‘I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your nose is definitely broken,’ Morgan told him.
‘I know, I can’t wait to show Theo. It’s years since I’ve been in a fight, well technically this wasn’t a fight, but I was assaulted. Does it make me look more dark and rugged like the heroes in those books Susie has started to read?’
Ben’s jaw was sporting the same dark, purplish-brown bruising along the left side. He shook his head. ‘Yeah, well my jaw is killing, it hurts to talk. I’m not quite as excited by my injuries as you are.’
‘Man up,’ said Declan, who then collapsed in a fit of giggles at his joke.
Morgan had just taken a sip of coffee and ended up spurting it all in Ben’s direction, which made him look even more pissed off as he brushed the front of his shirt with his fingers.
‘You two think this is funny? Christ, it’s like working with a group of kids, and what the hell is that supposed to mean, Declan, “man up”?’
Declan was clutching his side, lost to the laughter he was trying hard to contain and failing miserably. Morgan turned away from him because he was making her laugh even more, and it really wasn’t funny, but it was. Declan slapped his knee, then coughed.
‘Sorry, my bad.’ Then he laughed even harder. Morgan thought she had it under control but lost it as well.
‘For fuck’s sake, I’m going to make a phone call. Let me know when playtime is over and we can discuss the post-mortem of that teenage boy who didn’t deserve any of this.’ Ben stood up and walked out, leaving them staring at each other. Morgan stopped laughing, so did Declan.
‘Shit, he’s really mad.’ Declan stared after him.
Morgan nodded. ‘He’s tired and hungry, we’ve been working since we got the call in the early hours, and I don’t think he’s eaten apart from those three biscuits.’
‘Poor beggar, I don’t know what came over me.’
‘It’s not you, Declan, well it wasn’t all you. He seems to have taken this one bad. We all get cases that really get under our skin.’
He nodded. ‘You too, I saw the tears in your eyes and the pain when I was doing the PM.’
‘Kids, teenagers, they’re tough to deal with.’
‘They are, but you have to remember we’re here to help them on their final transition.
We’re the only ones who can figure it out and get justice for them, give them a voice when theirs was taken away so cruelly.
That’s why I can do it, I mean I don’t particularly enjoy cutting open a young, fit teenager that should still be flirting around, enjoying music and making their parents’ lives a misery.
I do it because I’m their last hope of being heard, and it makes me feel as if I’ve got some purpose in life and I’m putting my skills to good use; otherwise what have we got? ’
This time Morgan let the tears flow. She swiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her jumper.
‘Why is life so crap for some people, and hard? It’s cruel.’
Declan reached out and took hold of her hand, and the warmth of his hand on her icy skin felt good.
‘We do it because we care so much, we are the good guys, and we want to help find the evil bastards who think that they can do stuff like this. Look at you, how much you’ve been through.
You’d probably get paid just as much to work nights in a supermarket, where the most danger you’d be in is dropping a tin of baked beans on your toes, yet you keep on putting yourself out there because you care, because you are a good person, Morgan.
The world needs more Morgans; it would be a much better place.
It also needs more Bens too, although maybe not ones as grumpy, but the pair of you are amazing at what you do. ’
He stood up. ‘I better go find Ben and apologise.’
Morgan smiled at him. ‘You missed your way; you could have been a life coach or psychologist.’
‘Lord, no thank you. I deal with enough drama in here, I couldn’t do that every day.’
He leaned down and hugged her from behind. She closed her eyes and squeezed his arms the best she could. Then he left her alone to go and find Ben.
Morgan turned Declan’s laptop towards her and looked at the pictures of Dawson’ skull.
He had been killed by a fatal blow to the side of his head; there was very little water in his lungs and no evidence to suggest he’d drowned in the lake.
He’d already been dead when his body had been dragged into it.
So, either Scarlett and the other missing girl were still in that lake, or whoever did this took them away from the area, but where?
Where do you keep a woman and a teenager where nobody can hear or see them?
The search team had done a thorough search of the grounds of the summer camp and the surrounding area.
Whoever this was they had to live somewhere with no close neighbours, or maybe they had a cellar or garage they had put them in.
Morgan knew that Ben wouldn’t like this but Amos had the space, all those outbuildings, all the land, he lived alone and it was on his property that Dawson and the woman’s body had been found.
Everything pointed at him. They should get search warrants to cover every single building on that land, because although the lake and surrounding area had been checked, Ben and Cain had looked around Amos’s property last night when it was dark and things had taken a turn for the worse.
They still needed to go back into every building around there in the daylight to do thorough searches in case they missed something in the dark.
She couldn’t see how Amos living out here on his own, who had the perfect opportunity to commit such a heinous crime, wasn’t the number one suspect and she had no qualms about telling Ben this.
She had a feeling that hidden somewhere inside one of them, they could find Scarlett and the other missing woman, time was of the utmost importance; it could be running out for both of them.