Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
Ben and Morgan arrived back at the station as the sun was setting over Heron Pike and Nab Scar fells, which framed the small but busy Lake District town of Rydal Falls.
She got out of the car and paused, taking in the beauty of the cotton-candy-streaked sky.
If only the weather had been like this last night things could have turned out a lot differently for those teenagers.
She sighed. Whoever had snuck up on them and attacked them in the mist wouldn’t have been able to do that when they could have seen their surroundings.
That’s not to say they wouldn’t have got attacked anyway, but at least they may have had a fighting chance if they saw the killer walking up on them.
It had been confirmed there was not one CCTV camera in the area.
Tori had been interviewed, Amos too. Nobody dare go speak to Scarlett Peters’s family just yet after the debacle in the mortuary earlier, but the FLO confirmed that they hadn’t even known their daughter had gone out of the house because she was supposed to be grounded.
Mr and Mrs Peters had been home with their other two children.
Dawson’s mum had been at work; she worked in a care home on the late shift, and his dad had been with his brother at his house helping him wallpaper until late.
Everything pointed back to Amos and the buildings on his land.
She was desperate to go back and search them, but it wasn’t happening tonight.
First thing in the morning though it would be their priority.
Which made her think of the watcher, surely that was some urban myth that wasn’t real.
She didn’t want to mention him to Ben again unless she had some kind of proof that he existed.
Or what if someone was pretending to be him?
Now that would make perfect sense. The killer wasn’t some supernatural being, but a flesh-and-bone man pretending to be whatever this creepy legend was.
Ben was already at the door, holding it open for her. ‘Are you coming inside?’
She nodded. ‘The sky is so pretty, I was just admiring it.’ Morgan jogged towards him, and he whispered. ‘Not as pretty as you. I’m sorry for being an arsehole all day, are you okay?’
‘I’m good, well I still haven’t managed to get warm but I’m doing better than you, that bruising on your jaw looks painful.’
‘It’s okay, well maybe not, it’s painful. I’m starving and don’t know if I can open my mouth very wide to eat.’ He was trying to smile at her, but it looked more like a grimace.
‘I’ll order you something soft, maybe a chicken chow mein, you can suck the noodles up and not have to chew too much. Or I can feed you some soup.’
‘You’re all heart, you know that, don’t you, but that sounds good.
Come on, let’s get upstairs and see who else needs feeding.
Do you think Cain’s okay? I’m not too happy that he turned up at the scene, I think it’s too soon.
I’ve been stressing about him all day too.
I wish I didn’t like you lot so much, that would make it so much easier to work with you all instead of worrying as if you’re my kids and not my colleagues. ’
Morgan leaned towards him and kissed his cheek softly.
‘You’re a good man, Ben, and how could you not like us all?
I think Cain is okay, he needs to keep himself busy.
It can’t be easy sitting in Angela’s house with nothing to do, surrounded by everything she ever owned.
’ She paused, wondering if that was too much because that was what Ben must have done after Cindy died.
‘Come on, get me the noodles, please, I’m fading away. I’ll just go find Marc; I need to run some things by him.’
He left her to go in search of Marc, and she went to the female changing room so she could grab an extra sweater out of her locker. As she walked out of it, she saw Madds who was shrugging on his civvie jacket. He was finally finishing his shift.
He nodded at her.
‘Thank you.’
‘You’re welcome.’
‘I just wanted to say that I’m sorry you had to go into the water after me.’
‘You are? Don’t worry about it. I wouldn’t have let you go under; I had to do something. I wouldn’t have let anyone go under, not even Marc, and he’s an even worse arse than me.
‘You know, when I was a kid, me and my twin brothers would play down at the riverside even though we weren’t allowed.
We made this den out of twigs and rocks, it had a roof on it and everything, kind of like a club house that we all used to hide in.
It was pretty cool considering it was built by two eight-year-olds and a five-year-old.
One day my brother Eddy, who never could keep his mouth shut, was mouthing off at the local bully.
He chased him and Danny down to the riverside.
I was already there waiting for them; they’d gone to the shop to get crisps and a bottle of pop to share.
Anyway, this lad, Harry, he grabbed hold of Danny and threw him into the river, it was horrible.
I couldn’t swim, we weren’t supposed to be anywhere near there, and I knew we were going to get in big, big trouble with our dad who was strict about playing by water.
Danny was struggling, he kept taking in mouthfuls of water and he went under.
Eddy jumped in to save him, and I stood there watching, feeling useless.
Thankfully, Eddy dragged him out and the pair of them were lying on the riverbank soaked to the bone, but it was close, too close.
Danny almost drowned and I just stood there unable to help. ’
‘You were only five, you couldn’t have done anything. I’m so glad your brothers were both okay. That must have been terrifying.’
He nodded. ‘It was, but not as terrifying as if our dad had found out about it. We had to wait hours for their clothes to dry before we could go home. Good job this was the eighties and nobody ever checked up on their kids or bothered what time it was before they went home. I begged my mam for swimming lessons the next day, and she sent me to the swimming baths on my own, with a note and the money to pay for lessons. I learned to swim, then I learned to be a lifeguard, and I swore I would never stand by and watch anyone else struggle in the water. I can tell you that promise I made to myself when I was a kid has caused me all sorts of grief as a copper, but I stick by it because I remember how scared I was thinking Danny was going to die.’
‘Wow, that’s an incredible reason for being so brave. Thank you, I really do appreciate it.’
He waved his hand at her. ‘Anytime, although I’d prefer it if you could keep away from lakes and tarns for the foreseeable future. I’ve been bloody freezing all day.’
Morgan laughed. ‘Me too.’
She watched after him as he exited through the rear doors she and Ben had just come in, and she wondered how little she knew about most of the people in this station.
She knew Ben’s, Amy’s and Cain’s stories, but had next to no knowledge about Marc or his background.
Wendy she was close to, but again, didn’t know a lot about her – and it struck her how everyone had their own stories to tell, their own reasons for doing this job and it made her feel a little humbler about her colleagues.