Chapter 49
FORTY-NINE
Morgan got to the station and was kind of relieved to see it so empty.
She took the stairs two at a time to get to the office.
She needed to check if either missing woman had been wearing a silver charm bracelet at the time of their disappearance.
She ran straight into Ben who was on his way out of the door.
‘Hey, where have you been? Cain’s been on the phone. He was asking how come you got out of the house to house?’
‘He has? The grasser.’
‘No, Morgan, he was worried and I was worried too when he said you hadn’t gone to Buttermere with the rest of the crew. Where have you been?’
She pulled the glove with the bracelet out of her pocket and thrust it towards him.
‘What is that?’
‘I found it in the caves, just lying there discarded.’
Ben arched an eyebrow, two tiny circles of red appeared on his cheeks, and she knew he was getting angry.
‘Do you want to explain to me why you have been in a cave and who with when I specifically asked you to do the house to house?’
‘I spoke to Ettie and she mentioned the abandoned caves. When I did some research into the old camp, the very first death was at those caves, a guest got crushed to death.’
‘Oh, right and you thought it was totally acceptable to go visit these caves on your own without telling anyone where you were. Morgan, that is so stupid, you could have injured yourself. What if you got crushed to death? We’d have never found you when we didn’t know where the hell you were.’
‘Well, I didn’t and I wasn’t on my own. I went with Ernie.’
‘Who the fuck is Ernie?’ Ben’s voice was incredulous at this.
‘Ettie’s new guy. He used to be a Mountain Rescue volunteer, but he hurt his back. I just want to check him out because I’m not sure if he was lying to me about the bad back.’
Ben ran a hand across his forehead, rubbing it slowly. ‘Get in the office now.’ He gently dragged her inside, waiting for the door to close. ‘You can’t just go looking up Ettie’s new boyfriend.’
Morgan was clutching her open laptop. ‘I can if I have a reason to. He’s very nice, seems legit but he lied to me about having a bad back and it set my alarm bells ringing.
He knows the area like the back of his hand, he told me about the caves and led me straight to them, then he lied and said he couldn’t get inside the narrow opening, but minutes later was inside shouting me.
Then he managed to get back up the steep, rocky side of the fell without stopping or complaining.
It’s worth checking him out, Ben. We need to see where he lives and if he has previous. ’
‘Go on then, but, Morgan, I am furious that you put yourself in that situation, again I might add.’
‘For God’s sake, Ben, would you say this to Cain or Marc?
I bet you wouldn’t say it to Amy or Amber either.
You have to stop babysitting me twenty-four seven.
I am a grown woman, doing my best to solve this case.
Sometimes using your gut instinct leads you to places you weren’t expecting, and while we’re at this, what is wrong with you?
You have been in a funny mood with me since I went into the lake.
Is it because of that or are you regretting being with me? ’
‘What, are you for real? I do not and never will regret being with you. Yes, I was annoyed with you about the lake incident and now I’m even more angry because you’ve been caving with a complete stranger and didn’t think to tell me, but it’s not that.
’ He paused and a look of sadness filled his eyes.
‘Then what is it?’
‘I don’t want you to make a big thing out of it because it means nothing to me whatsoever. Don’t go running off and starting a fight, promise me.’
Morgan narrowed her eyes but nodded. ‘I won’t, what are you hiding from me?’
‘Yesterday, outside the mortuary, I think Amber tried to come on to me and I panicked.’
She arched an eyebrow at him. ‘Amber did what exactly?’
His cheeks were burning. ‘She was being overly friendly, stroked my arm. I mean I pulled away from her because she’s the last person on this earth I’d be interested in.’
Morgan started to laugh, and he looked confused. ‘What’s funny?’
She snorted and shook her head. ‘Look, that’s her problem not yours.
I don’t care, really. I mean I’m annoyed she tried it on with you when she knows we’re an item, but that’s it.
She’s playing games to get what she wants, and because you ignored her, she went above your head anyway, straight to Marc.
It’s okay, Ben, stop feeling guilty about something that wasn’t your fault. ’
Ben sighed, took hold of her hand then leaned down and kissed her cheek.
‘You’re okay, not going to strangle her with your bare hands or anything?’
‘I couldn’t be bothered. Stop stressing, we’re fine, aren’t we?’
‘Finer than ever.’
‘Good.’
He sat down and stared at her. She shrugged, blew him a kiss and sat down, logging on to her computer. She wasn’t sorry that she had gone to the caves, but she was relieved she’d made it back alive and in one piece though.
‘Look, I’m sorry too, I get carried away and don’t always think straight.’
He rolled his eyes at her, and she pointed to the rubber glove with the bracelet inside. ‘Can you make yourself useful and check if either missing woman was wearing a silver-coloured charm bracelet at the time of their disappearance. Please.’
He logged on to his computer. ‘I sometimes wonder if you should be the boss, Morgan, because you don’t take orders from anyone you’re supposed to.’
‘But we might have a lead, and we wouldn’t have had that if I was in Buttermere, would we?’
He shook his head, a small smile forming on his lips. ‘You drive me insane.’
She shrugged. ‘Good, I aim to please.’
The pair of them worked in silence as Ben scrolled through both misper files and she searched through the different databases for Ernie’s name.
Nothing came up, he was as clean as a whistle which made her feel a whole lot better about the fact that he was dating her aunt.
Ben finished reading through the missing women’s files.
‘No mention of a bracelet, it could all be a huge coincidence.’
‘It could have got forgotten about. Let’s ask both Scarlett and Janey’s families.’
‘I don’t know if I’m willing to face Scarlett’s dad again. He’s an angry guy and rightly so, but my jaw is still painful after he punched me.’
‘Then we’ll get the FLO to ask him. Caroline could show them the photograph of the bracelet and see if they recognise it.’
‘Take it to Wendy, get her to photograph it and bag it up. Then send it off for forensic testing. I can’t do better than that.’
Grabbing the glove off her desk she left and went to find Wendy. Something was niggling away at her and she wasn’t sure what it was, except that they were running out of time. That she did know for sure.