Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
Morgan typed ‘The Watcher Lake District’ into Google and waited for the page to load.
The only references it brought up was to a viewing point over Wastwater that was popular with photographers.
There was nothing about a creepy urban legend, so how did Ettie and Mrs Black know about it?
She sat back and sighed, did Amos know about this watcher, too?
She realised that Cain hadn’t updated them about the statement he’d taken from Amos, just as Ben walked in the room followed by Marc.
Amber and Brett were sharing a computer; Wendy followed behind Marc.
‘Should we just have our briefing here?’ Ben asked.
Everyone nodded, and Morgan caught the expression on Wendy’s face as she’d looked from Amber to Brett then to Morgan, who gave a small shrug. Wendy sat on the edge of Morgan’s desk and whispered, ‘Where’s Cain, thought he was back at work?’
‘I’ll tell you after,’ Morgan whispered back.
‘As you know, there was an unexpected turn of events at the mortuary this afternoon. What we foolishly took for granted was the missing teenager Scarlett Peters was actually a completely different woman, yet to be identified. It is a possibility she is a missing woman reported today by Sandra, our lovely cleaner, for not checking out of her Airbnb with her friend.’
The door opened and Claire Williams walked in, dragging a small suitcase behind her, a laptop bag under her arm. ‘Sorry, guys, am I interrupting?’
‘Not at all,’ said Marc, who jumped up off his chair to take the case off her, pointing to the empty seat he’d just vacated.
Wendy whipped her head around to look at Morgan, arching one eyebrow at her.
‘Ben was just saying about the awful mix-up in the mortuary this afternoon,’ Marc told Claire.
‘Ah, yes. That was very unfortunate, especially for you, Ben. I believe the dad punched you, and did he break the pathologist’s nose?’
Ben nodded. ‘It was very unfortunate, but from the dad’s point of view I get why he lost it.’
‘Did he get arrested?’
‘No, we didn’t think it was appropriate to put him through that. His stress levels are understandably through the roof. I didn’t think bringing him in would help anybody, and Declan agreed.’
Claire sat down, unzipped her laptop bag and took out an A4 notebook, and picking up a pen off the desk she began to write notes. ‘Okay, that’s a fair point. So, who you thought was Scarlett Peters, do you have a name for her?’
‘Not yet, well we do have a possible name – she could be Lizzie Thomas. Reported missing along with her friend Janey Moore.’
‘I took the report, well me and Brett did earlier,’ Amber piped up.
‘Okay and have you got bank cards or driving licences for either woman?’
‘No, I’m waiting on the support team from Airbnb to make contact, they should have picture ID for Janey Moore on her profile page, and all of her contact details.’
Claire glared at Amber. ‘I trust you’ve checked our records, had a dabble on the old internet to see if you can find anyone matching her location, that kind of thing.’
Amber’s eyes narrowed to small slits. ‘Well of course I have, that was the first thing I did. I’m not an idiot; that’s standard investigation skills.’
‘I’m not saying you are, I’m just asking because sometimes the basics do get forgotten about. Has anyone checked if they’ve been reported missing officially? Where are they from?’
Ben shook his head. ‘Well, if there was a misper report it would have been brought to our attention.’
He turned to Morgan. ‘Do you want to chase that up for me, please.’
She nodded.
Amber was pouting in the corner like some spoiled child, and Morgan wished that Marc hadn’t said she could work with them.
Her phone began to vibrate on the desk, and a cute picture of Ava Rose filled her screen.
Morgan stood up. ‘Excuse me, got to take this.’ She walked out of the office, relieved to have an excuse to be out of there.
‘Hey, Amy, how are you?’
‘I’m good.’
‘Did Cain tell you what happened?’
‘He did, that student is lucky he’s still breathing. What an arsehole.’
Morgan sighed. ‘Yeah, and to make it worse he’s got Amber tutoring him, and she has now managed to wing her way back onto our team.’
‘Jesus.’
‘I know, how’s that gorgeous baby?’
‘That little madam is currently snuggled in Cain’s arms fast asleep. I think he’s dozing off too. I left the pair of them downstairs so I could work in peace at my desk in the spare bedroom.’
‘Bless you, I’m so sorry that Ben has asked you to do this.’
‘I’m not, I am bored out of my tiny tree.
I mean, it’s great being at home with Ava but it’s not exactly exciting.
Anyway, that’s not what I’m ringing for.
I sent you an email but because it’s from my own email it might go into your junk folder.
I found the two women that Cain said are missing, they are all over Instagram and Facebook. ’
‘You did, that’s amazing.’ Morgan didn’t mention she’d taken a cursory glance at Lizzie Thomas’s Instagram because Amy was so much better than she was.
‘Well Cain mentioned they had podcasting equipment left behind in the rental, so I did a bit of searching for various podcasts, etc. and found one that’s a true crime, mystery podcast hosted by a Janey Moore who is Caucasian, and Lizzie Thomas, who may be of Asian ethnicity; I don’t know if that’s any help. ’
‘Yes, it is. Did Cain tell you about the mix-up at the mortuary?’
‘He mentioned it.’
‘The woman we thought was the missing teenager Scarlett turned out to be an Asian woman possibly in her twenties.’
‘Bingo, take a look at the stuff I sent over. You should be able to do a visual ID of her from that. Do you know how she died? Have you found Scarlett yet?’
‘No, to both of those questions. Hey, you’ve lived here as long as me. Have you ever heard of an urban legend about the watcher?’ Morgan had nothing to lose at this point and hoped Amy was about to say yes.
‘No, what the hell is that?’
A sigh of disappointment escaped Morgan’s lips. ‘Ettie said there is a really tall, pale-skinned man or spirit who follows tourists or walkers out on the fell near that old summer camp, but only when it’s misty.’
Amy laughed. ‘Well, if that isn’t terrifying, I don’t know what is.’
‘I know.’
‘You think this watcher killed them and has taken the other two that you can’t find?
What did Ben and Marc have to say about this?
I mean, I’m not saying it’s not true, because God knows there are things out there that can’t be explained, but it’s not the kind of thing they’ll want to run with, is it? ’
‘Ben wasn’t impressed.’
Amy’s laughter filled her ear, and she had to hold her phone away, so she didn’t deafen her.
‘Yeah, and there is my predicament. But hear me out, what if it’s someone pretending to be this watcher guy.’
‘It’s all a bit Scooby Doo though.’
This time Morgan laughed. ‘I know, it’s nuts. Or maybe he’s just a weirdo out there walking when the weather turned and he got the perfect opportunity to fulfil his sick fantasies.’
‘Where are the others though, Morgan. I think you need to be prioritising searching for them.’
‘My thoughts exactly and I’m pretty sure they are. Thanks, Amy.’
‘No problem, speak soon, Morgan.’
Amy ended the call, and Morgan tucked her phone into her pocket.
She walked back in and asked, ‘What are we doing about locating the two missing women?’
‘Amber and Brett are going to be following up with getting an ID for the woman at the mortuary.’
Morgan held up her hand. ‘Hang on, give me a moment, Amy found some information that she’s sent over. Let me take a look at it.’
Her computer took forever to log her back in while every pair of the eyes in the room were fixed on her, and she wished she’d got the email open before she’d spoken up.
Eventually, her emails loaded and Amy was right; it had gone straight to her junk mail.
As she confirmed it was a safe sender, she opened it and waited for the pictures to load.
Staring back at her from the screen was a lively, fun-looking woman called Lizzie Thomas, one half of the podcast duo Mystery & Murder UK.
She looked a little different to the dead woman in the mortuary, but Morgan was pretty sure it was the post-mortem changes that made the differences, and she would bet that it was the same woman.
She looked at Ben. ‘I think it’s her,’ she said, turning her screen as far around as it would go, so everyone else could see. Ben leaned closer and screwed up his eyes.
‘It might be. Can you forward that onto Declan, please? At least we have a possible ID. Excellent work.’
‘Thank Amy, she found this.’
Turning her screen back, she forwarded the email on, marking it as high priority, then texted Declan to be sure that he’d read it before he left work for the day.
‘Now, what’s the plan of action for the missing women?’
Ben pointed to the window, his reflection in it because of how dark it was outside now.
‘Searches have stopped for the night, it’s too dangerous. Al has had the drone out, Mountain Rescue have had a team out with dogs too, but nothing has come back yet.’
Marc, who was smiling at Claire, turned his attention to Ben. ‘Are we not going with the theory that we’ve already pulled two bodies out of the lake, so unfortunately the other two are likely in there as well?’
Morgan glared at him. ‘Well, I’m not saying that they aren’t, but if there have been divers in there searching all day and they haven’t found another body, then maybe we should be considering the possibility that whoever killed Dawson and Lizzie has taken them some place?’
‘Abducted them?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why kill two and take two? What’s the motive? If he wanted to kill, then wouldn’t he kill them all?’
‘I don’t know but I’m just saying we can’t rule it out.’
Claire nodded at Morgan. ‘I agree with you, we still need to be actively looking for them, so I want full teams out there at first light. What about the guy who found Tori? Have we had him in for questioning, because he seems to have been in the right place at the right time and had plenty of opportunity to do this.’
Ben added, ‘Cain brought him in earlier to get his statement. I need to speak to Cain, but Amos hasn’t said anything that makes him think he could be a suspect, and I’m assuming he uploaded the statement onto the file before he left. I’ve talked to Amos a few times and he seems legit.’
Claire crossed her arms. ‘So was Ted Bundy on first impressions. I would like him brought in for formal interview, and can we get a search warrant for his house, outbuildings, sorted out, so we’re ready to go first thing?’
Morgan didn’t smile or gloat, as she had mentioned this earlier and it had been brushed to one side.
Ben might be her partner in both her personal life and working one, but that didn’t mean he was always right.
Not that she was saying Ben wasn’t taking Amos seriously, but she was worried his judgement had been a little too clouded because he liked the guy.
‘Cain searched the outbuildings when we first got the call out.’
Claire nodded. ‘I know, I read that on the file, but he would have been looking for Scarlett hiding out, and maybe he only gave them a cursory search, and it was the middle of the night. I’d like to do a thorough search with a full team.’ Claire smiled at Ben, who nodded.
Morgan couldn’t help herself. ‘Can we not do that now? I mean, if he’s holding a woman and a teenager hostage, who knows what he’s going to do?
We could be wasting precious minutes and putting their lives at risk.
Isn’t it better to get the warrants and a search team together while there’s enough of us here, and go execute it.
I can’t go home and wait until the morning knowing that we left them there in God knows what kind of situation. ’
Ben didn’t make eye contact with her and she was glad. She wanted to act now. Not in twelve hours’ time when it could be far too late to save Scarlett and Janey.