Chapter 40
FORTY
They drove to work in silence. Morgan hadn’t expected to sleep but she had closed her eyes the moment her head hit the pillow.
Waking a couple of times from terrible nightmares about someone standing in the shadows watching her, at one point she’d turned on the bedside lamp to check there was nobody in the room, to Ben’s groaning, although he’d never opened his eyes.
After using the torch on her phone to check each corner was clear, she’d switched off the lamp and fell straight back to sleep, to another nightmare.
They were too early to grab coffee, none of the cafés were open, so she was going to have to do with a coffee out of the vending machine that had been fixed since Al had shown her how to defraud it and get free drinks.
Ben went into the office, and she went straight to the canteen.
When she came back down with two lattes, the office was already full.
Claire and Marc were sitting down, Amber and Brett had just walked in; Cain pointed to Morgan’s cup, and she lifted her head in the direction of the canteen.
He walked out of the room without even speaking, but she knew, like her, he needed coffee to get his brain fired up so he could function on so little sleep.
She passed a cup to Ben, who took a huge gulp then grimaced as it burned all the way down his oesophagus.
‘They’re hot,’ she told him.
‘Too late, but thanks for that.’ She shrugged, not her fault.
His face was a mess, and she had offered to put an ice pack on it for him last night.
He’d gone to bed with a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a soft hand towel and fallen asleep with it on his face.
Not even waking when it had turned into a puddle of mushed peas and cold water.
He’d only groaned when she’d put the light on, but she hadn’t realised he was still lying on the defrosted bag until they’d got out of bed and she’d seen the bag and the wet patch across his pillow and side of the sheet.
Cain came back in with his coffee. Amber had left to brew up and came back with four mugs for herself, the boss, Claire and Brett.
Ben was pacing up and down sipping his drink.
‘I’ve expanded the search area; Amos and the neighbour’s properties have been thoroughly searched.
So I’ve requested Mountain Rescue who are currently out trawling the whole fellside.
Are there any caves, wells, ancient septic tanks in the area we don’t know about that we can send the search team to? ’
‘What about the lake?’ asked Cain.
‘That’s been searched a couple of times now.’
He shook his head. ‘Not that lake, that’s a relatively small one, man-made. I’m thinking more along the lines of Buttermere and or Crummock Water.’
Marc’s eyes almost popped out of his head. ‘How big are those?’
‘Buttermere is a couple of kilometres, Crummock Water a couple of miles. They’re big,’ said Cain. He was smiling, but Morgan didn’t think he meant it as a gloating smile; he was just cheering the boss up.
Ben shook his head. ‘There is nothing to suggest they are in those bodies of water. We found Dawson and Lizzie in the same spot. It’s a lot busier down by both of those lakes, more chance of being seen.
Having to use a vehicle to transport them and get them to the lakeside without being seen is a stretch. ’
‘Not if it was the middle of the night and foggy.’
Ben glared at Cain. ‘If all else fails then yes, we’re going to have to search them, but we have nothing evidentially that suggests they were dumped in there. I think we need to concentrate on the immediate area surrounding the old campsite.’
‘Suit yourself, just a thought,’ Cain muttered.
Claire was staring at her laptop. She looked up. ‘It’s a valid point though, we may have to consider it at some point.’
Ben was leaning over Morgan’s shoulder. ‘Can you get a map of the area up? Are there any disused buildings nearby, like crumbling shepherd’s huts, bothies, shelters, watchtowers?’
At the mention of watchtowers, a cold shudder ran down her spine. The watcher, the watchtower, it was like some kind of horror movie, and nobody seemed to want to listen to her.
‘We need to consider the idea that whoever this is, they’re basing themselves on the urban legend of the watcher.
Both Janey Moore and Lizzie Thomas were actually recording themselves talking about him when out of nowhere the footage on the phone I found catches a brief glimpse of a tall, shadowy figure following them. ’
Amber laughed. ‘Come on, that’s bullcrap. I’ve never heard of the watcher.’
‘Pity,’ mumbled Cain.
Amber glared at him; he sipped his coffee and didn’t break her stare.
Claire nodded. ‘Okay, let’s consider this, I mean we have nothing else to go on. I’m listening, Morgan, so our guy is pretending to be this watcher, what does that entail?’
‘My aunt said it’s an old myth. He watches the fells and only appears to walkers who are lost in the fog when they’re out walking and the weather turns, preys on the lost and the weak, that kind of thing.’
Claire shrugged. ‘Well that definitely fits with what’s happening, so okay, he’s not the OG watcher from the legend because how long has that story been going around?
But there’s nothing to say he’s not a copycat.
Somehow, he knows about the legend and has taken it another level, maybe they’re delusional and think that they are the watcher. It’s not unthinkable.’
Morgan nodded. ‘Which also means that whoever this is must be local to know about it.’
‘Or, he has family that are local who know about it.’ Claire was nodding.
Morgan stood up and began scrubbing the knackered old whiteboard clean. She wrote Joyce Black’s name, underneath that Amos with a question mark because had he mentioned it, she wasn’t sure. Then she wrote Ettie’s name.
Ben pointed to the word Ettie. ‘I don’t think Ettie is the watcher, Morgan.’
‘No, I don’t either, but she knows about him because she told me. I’m just trying to list the people who know about it. Then we can ask them if they’ve talked about it with anyone lately and add their names to the list.’
Amber, who was picking at the gel polish on one of her nails, looked up. ‘Better write your own name on that list, Morgan, because none of us have ever heard of it until you brought it up.’ She smiled sarcastically, and this time it was Ben who glared at her.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he said.
‘What? It’s not ridiculous, if you’re adding names to a list and you have Joyce Black and her poor aunt Ettie down, it makes sense to put hers down. I’ve never heard of this watcher dude. Has anyone else?’
They shook their heads, so Morgan wrote her name under her aunt’s. Ben took the pen from her fingers. ‘You don’t need to do that.’
She smiled at him. ‘Yes I do, and now I’m going to write all of your names next to mine because I told you all about it.’
Amber was no longer smiling; her lips had drawn a thin line, and Cain laughed. ‘Hahaha, Amber, you dweeb, you’d be my first suspect if you weren’t so short.’
Amber picked a pen off the desk and launched it in his direction.
Marc stood up. ‘Stop it now, you’re behaving like a classroom of unruly children.
Let’s be sensible about this. Someone scour the map for disused buildings.
I’m going to call out Mountain Rescue to see if they’re able to assist with a full search of the fell, starting from the neighbour’s house.
They already did Amos’s land with no success. ’
‘Have we tried pinging Scarlett or Janey’s phones?’ Morgan asked.
Claire nodded. ‘It was done last night before we finished. I’m waiting for the results to come through.’
Morgan looked around at everyone. ‘We need to widen the search, check out any other property, buildings in the area, whether they’re on the fell or not.
Let’s do a search of all the buildings and houses in Buttermere village, that’s the nearest one.
We can make a start now. If their bodies are not in the water or nearby then maybe the killer lives in the village and has someplace he has taken them. ’
Ben clapped his hands together.
‘We’ll get teams out on a full house to house of the village; I’ll draft in the PCSOs to help with the door knocking. I want every registered voter spoken to.’ His phone rang, and he saw Declan’s name and put him on loudspeaker.
‘Hey, have you got something good for me? You’re on loudspeaker by the way and I’m in a briefing.’
‘Could be, those nail clippings from Lizzie Thomas had the faintest trace of DNA on them. It would have been much stronger if she hadn’t been in the water, but it’s there and hopefully enough to get an ID.’
A loud whoop of delight went around the room. ‘That’s fantastic, Declan, thank you.’
‘Well, it’s better than nothing. Speak soon.’
Ben was grinning.
‘Until we get something back from the database, let’s get going and carry on with the plan.’
Marc shook his head. ‘No offence, Ben, but the state of your face, you’ll terrify whoever opens the door.
You stay in the office and coordinate with Mountain Rescue; maybe see if you can chivvy up the DNA.
Ring the lab and ask them to fast-track it.
Besides, someone needs to stay behind so it may as well be you.
Me and Claire will head up the team going to the village. ’
Morgan watched Ben carefully to see if he was disappointed; instead she saw a look she recognised all too well, one of mild relief, and for once she didn’t blame him.
This was turning into a carnival with a whole load of clowns; she just hoped that between them they came up with something tangible to help them find the missing women.