Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
Ben came rushing out of the door, almost falling over Jackson. Morgan was stripping off the gloves and shoe covers.
‘Officers have just PNC’d the car found at the scene.’ He lowered his voice, nodding at her to walk with him so Jackson couldn’t hear. ‘It belongs to a Lynsey Williams.’
Morgan felt her mouth open wide. ‘Shit.’
Ben nodded. ‘What the hell is going on? I’m losing my mind over this. If the body inside is her, that’s all three of the Williams sisters murdered.’
‘But why?’
He shrugged. ‘We better find out and fast.’
They jogged to get to his car. Task Force were all getting out of a huge van. Ben lifted a hand in their direction, then called out to Al, ‘Can you oversee the removal of the body, there’s an officer inside too, but she said she’d not done it before on her own.’
Al nodded. ‘No worries, where are you guys off to?’
‘Another body.’
Al’s eyes opened wide. ‘For real?’
‘Unfortunately, I’ll keep you updated.’
‘Christ, at this rate we’re going to have to recruit the army to help carry out the searches.’
They got into Ben’s car, and she typed the directions into the satnav that the control room operator had emailed to her. ‘I hope this is a mistake. That they have it all wrong, because the consequences are too much to think about if this is Lauren and Lydia’s missing sister.’
‘It would make sense though, wouldn’t it? She hasn’t been heard of since just after Lydia’s body was found. That’s odd, isn’t it? It would explain a lot if she was dead too, and maybe she killed herself over the grief at losing her sister because I don’t recall seeing her at Lydia’s funeral.’
Morgan shook her head. ‘Scotty said she was pissed at her sister for starting vlogging too, but I can’t see her doing something like that.’
‘Unless she killed Lydia and felt bad.’
‘That doesn’t explain who killed Lauren though, does it? Unless she did that and went straight to the woods and took her own life.’
‘No, I’m just trying to think out loud.’
She smiled at him. ‘Sorry.’
He reached out and patted her hand. ‘Don’t be sorry, I love that you keep me on the edge of my seat with your arguments and questions. It means between the pair of us we take all manner of scenarios into account.’
‘Except for the fact that we missed the killer and now Lauren and Lynsey might be dead.’
‘This could be a copycat though.’
Morgan was staring out of the window at the road ahead of them. ‘If it is then it’s someone who has access to the investigation because they know things that the public doesn’t.’
Ben nodded.
‘This is what scares me; what if it is?’ asked Morgan.
‘Then we need to list everyone who has had some involvement in it but keep it between ourselves. I don’t want you to mention this to anyone else. This angle is between us for now and if you find anything that gives us a connection to a possible person of interest, then we’ll take it to the boss.’
She realised that we had just become me; he was handing this to her to investigate on her own. ‘Where’s Cain and Stan at, are they going to this scene?’
‘They better had because they were supposed to be locating Lynsey, and this looks like the spot. Someone has already done their work for them. Who rang it in? Let me guess, a dog walker.’
Morgan smiled and nodded. ‘Bless the dog walkers of this world. We would have so many outstanding missing persons cases if it wasn’t for them.’
The car park was sealed off with crime-scene tape, but the officer standing there lifted it so they could drive under it and park next to the patrol car and a van both with blue lights strobing into broad daylight for no good reason.
‘Right,’ murmured Ben as he got out of the car and strode across to the first vehicle. He leaned in through the open window and switched off the lights, then he moved across to the van, opened the door and did the same.
Morgan approached him. ‘Feel better?’
‘It’s a start.’ Striding towards the officer at the entrance he asked, ‘How far away is the scene from here?’
‘No idea, boss, I think it’s a good mile at least.’
Morgan wondered about the cops who worked in inner city centres.
Surely, they must have it much easier than working in such a rural landscape.
Everything was contained in areas that you could park directly outside of.
Unlike here where quite often a crime scene was a good hike in all weathers.
Not that she was complaining, at least the scenery was stunning to look at.
‘Where do we need to go?’
‘See that narrow path to the far right? Scotty said if you follow that it leads you up to a wider track. It’s more of a mountain biking path.
Somebody is speaking to the forest rangers to get a route to the scene that a vehicle can get to for CSI and body removal.
For now, though, you’ll have to walk it. ’
Morgan looked at the officer, thinking there must be a new intake because she didn’t have a clue who this woman was. ‘I’m Morgan and this is Ben; you are?’
‘Kristina London.’
‘Are you new?’ Kristina’s collar number told her she was.
She shook her head. ‘No, I worked Blackpool for the last ten years. My partner got a job in Windermere, so I transferred.’
That explained the newer collar number then. Transferees all got them because in most cases there was already someone with their number working for the force.
‘Blackpool; bit different than this then, well the scenery maybe not the violent deaths.’
Kristina smiled. ‘It’s definitely more scenic than the prom, but as for the violent deaths, well there were quite a lot in the last ten years.’
Ben was standing at the narrow path. He called, ‘Morgan.’
Kristina shrugged. ‘Sorry to keep you.’
‘You didn’t, that was my fault. When Cain and Stan arrive can you send them the same way we’ve just gone? Make them walk even if they find a direct route to the scene.’
Kristina laughed. ‘Absolutely.’
Morgan grinned. ‘Thank you. If I’ve got to suffer it then so do they.’
‘Morgan.’ Ben sounded mildly annoyed.
‘I’m coming, I’ll catch you up.’
She picked up her pace and hurried to where he was now making his way up the steep path.
‘Good of you to join me, I thought you were going to sit down and have a right old natter.’
‘Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, boss, and I was just getting the background info on her. I’ve never seen her before, but she was confident enough to give the pair of us orders.’
He paused and looked over his shoulder at her. ‘One day you’ll make a great detective, Brookes.’
She rolled her eyes at the back of his head. ‘You know, sometimes you can be an idiot, boss.’
He didn’t answer and she didn’t speak again, walking slightly behind him.
He wasn’t the only one stressing out about having to deal with another victim so soon, especially if it did turn out to be Lynsey Williams. That thought was almost too much to bear so she pushed it to the back of her mind.
Until they had some cold hard facts she would just focus on getting to the crime scene without too much fuss.