Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
Morgan carried the clear evidence bag with the phone back into the house and into the kitchen, where Amos was sitting on a chair at the table, his huge, weathered hands wrapped around a mug of coffee.
Ben was standing leaning against the worktop.
His gaze fixed on the evidence bag. Morgan lifted it to show to Amos.
‘Is this your phone?’
He shook his head, then pushed himself up off the chair. His eyes wide and he looked terrified. ‘No, I’ve never seen it before.’
Ben looked at the bag she was holding out. ‘Where did you find that?’
‘In the shed full of cow shit,’ muttered Marc.
Amos looked at Marc. ‘It’s horse manure not cow. I keep it for the garden, or I used to, not that you can see much of a garden now. It’s all got a bit overgrown. Whose phone is that?’
‘Morgan, can you phone the Peters’ family liaison officer like now and ask them what colour Scarlett’s phone is?’
She nodded. Placing it on the kitchen table she went outside and asked control to give her the number, and then she paused and took out her tablet – it should be on the missing person’s report that was originally logged.
After skimming through it she saw that it had been a green iPhone 16 and sighed so hard, she wanted to scream.
She was so mad, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t evidence.
They had barely any information about Janey Moore or her deceased friend Lizzie Thomas, it could belong to one of them; it most likely did.
She walked back into the kitchen and felt the warmth that radiated from the ancient Aga settle over her like a fluffy blanket.
She shook her head and glanced in Ben’s direction, and he looked relieved. Amos looked terrified.
Morgan turned to Marc; he looked pissed. ‘Can you get onto it?’ he asked.
‘I doubt it, there’s no charge and it will have a passcode.’
The rest of the search team piled into the house. Al cleared his throat. ‘Nothing we could find.’
‘Thanks, guys, I appreciate you looking.’ Ben nodded at him.
‘We’ll get going, we’re needed for drugs warrant over in Kendal.’
They left them standing, staring at each other.
Morgan wanted to drag Amos back to the station.
How did he have a relatively new iPhone in a shed on his property that didn’t belong to him when there were two missing women?
Judging by the look on Amos’s face he was panicking.
Why was that if he had no idea where it came from?
Ben picked up the bag. ‘Amos, what kind of phone do you have?’
Amos opened a drawer and pulled out an old Nokia, so old it was vintage. ‘I rarely use it; I prefer the landline, but sometimes you get cut off out here and it’s good to have a backup.’
He handed it to Ben who smiled. ‘Wow. This works, still?’
‘Yes, good old Nokia, it has no internet, can’t take photos but I can play a mean game of Tetris on it. I don’t know where that phone came from you found or who put it there, but I can tell you that I wouldn’t know how to use it, and I have never seen it before.’
Marc sighed again. ‘Do you think it could belong to the missing women?’
‘I wouldn’t know, I mean it might, but what were they doing in that shed? Didn’t you have to open it up with a key, it’s padlocked.’
Ben’s face was full of remorse as he listened to Amos question his boss and dig himself into a hole. It was Morgan who answered.
‘Yes, we had a key, but the lock wasn’t fastened. Which means someone was lucky to find it open like that or they had to have had access to it to put the phone in there. Has anyone else got the keys to that shed?’
He shook his head. ‘No, just me that I’m aware of, but I don’t always snap the lock across. There’s never much need to really.’
‘I’m sorry, Amos, but I’m going to place you under arrest now and we’re going back to the station.’ Morgan didn’t care what Ben or Marc thought; she wasn’t letting this go because of some misguided feelings towards the guy. He may be nice, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t hiding something.
‘We don’t need to cuff you if you’re willing to cooperate,’ she said, and he nodded.
‘Poor Shep has had a rough time of it the last couple of days. He’s never been on his own so much. Can I let him out and feed him?’
‘Of course,’ replied Ben, and Amos smiled at him as he began to sort Shep out again. ‘Do you want to bring him with you?’
Marc almost choked, and Morgan looked bewildered at Ben’s suggestion. Amos smiled sadly.
‘No, it’s okay. He wouldn’t like it in that fancy police station of yours, it’s too bright and noisy. He prefers the peace and quiet. I appreciate the offer though; that’s very kind of you. What will happen if I can’t get back to let him out in the morning?’
‘If for some reason you can’t then I’ll come get him and take him to my house. Would that be okay, Amos?’
‘You’d do that, I appreciate it.’
‘But you should be back, so don’t worry about him too much, this should be sorted out without too many complications.’
Morgan left to go and sit in the van. What the hell was Ben doing? She was going to drive, and Ben could keep Amos company if he was so bothered about her arresting him. Marc and the other officers were still searching the buildings – finding Janey and Scarlett was their priority.
Today had been crazy and she didn’t think it could get any worse.
She didn’t know if she believed that Amos was a killer and had kidnapped Scarlett and Janey, but what she did know was that she wouldn’t be doing her job if she didn’t interview him about the phone.
He had to know something. If nobody else had a key to that barn then who had put it there in the first place, and why?
Unless someone had set him up to look as if he had hidden it there, there was that possibility.
Either way they wouldn’t know unless he was spoken to again, this time after being read his rights.
Morgan rubbed her index and middle finger along the bridge of her nose, her head was pounding and she wanted to swallow two ibuprofen and get an early night.
They had been working this investigation since the early hours and there didn’t look as if there was any sign of them being able to call it a day yet.
Not unless she could prove the phone didn’t belong to either Scarlett or Janey and the only way to do that tonight would be if she could charge it up and get into it.
Marc would never agree to it once they were back at the station, but Ben might if it meant getting Amos off the hook.