Chapter 30
THIRTY
The blue room was full by the time Morgan walked in with Ben.
John, their temporary inspector, was seated at the head of the table in Ben’s usual seat, his huge frame filling the space.
Ben didn’t seem fazed. He strode to the front, sitting next to him, although he had to pull his chair away from John to give himself some room to breathe.
The atmosphere was fraught with tension, not helped by the fact that everyone including the two PSD detectives were staring in John’s direction.
Most of them clearly hadn’t met him before.
His presence filled the room; there was an expression of mild annoyance on his face making him look like the least approachable person there was in the station.
For once Morgan found herself wishing Marc was here instead, and she caught herself; she never thought she’d see the day she was wishing he was in work.
She squeezed into a space between Cain and Stan; Cain was furiously typing a message on his phone and, not wanting to be nosey but unable to help herself, she saw Angela’s name at the top and smiled.
She liked Angela a lot, she was such a lovely woman, and she and Cain were so suited to each other.
Cain’s face was solemn, and she whispered, ‘Is everything okay?’
He nodded. ‘Yeah, I messaged Angela ages ago and she hasn’t got back to me yet, it’s not like her.’
‘Is she mad at you for spending so much time at Amy’s?’ she whispered back.
He shook his head. ‘No, she doesn’t mind that. She’s been a bit quiet the last couple of days and I’m a bit worried about her, that’s all.’
‘Do you want me to have a chat with her, see if she’s okay? It might be something she doesn’t want to discuss with you. Is her health okay?’
Cain frowned. ‘I think so, she’s never said anything to make me think it wasn’t.’
‘Right then, is everyone here? I don’t want to waste any time. It’s quite clear there’s a lot to do to bring this case to a close. I’m DI John Wilde; I’m retiring in exactly four weeks so I would like this concluded before I hang up my boots for good. Are we all on the same page?’
Heads nodded around the room.
‘Good, I take it I have the pleasure of walking into a shit show of the highest degree. I’m not here to point fingers or blame anyone, what I want is a list of viable suspects.
I want anyone who looks good for this brought in and formally interviewed.
No pansying around with voluntaries and statements.
If we come up with a name that has even the most tenuous connection, then I want them in custody to be interviewed, then bailed whilst we figure out what’s going on.
I gather you might not usually work like this, but I do, and I like that it gets results.
So who is going to give me a full update, any volunteers? ’
His gaze was fixed on Morgan. She stared right back at him. He didn’t intimidate her; she’d met with far worse men, and survived, than a DI on a mission to make himself look like God before he retired.
It was Ben who broke the silence. ‘I can give you what we have up to now, boss.’
John looked bemused that Morgan hadn’t cracked. She was still staring at him and he tore his gaze away first, much to her amusement. He nodded. ‘Please.’
‘Lydia Williams, Lauren Williams and now Lynsey Williams are all dead. As you may have gathered, they’re sisters. By the state of decomp on Lynsey’s body it looks as if she was killed a matter of days after Lydia. Both parents are dead, victims of a fatal car accident.’
‘Right, so what’s the motive behind these murders? Have we at least got that figured out?’
Morgan met his gaze with her own because he kept looking in her direction, her green eyes burning ready to take him on.
‘No, because until Lauren was killed, we thought that this case was closed. It’s been forty-eight hours.
We had a suspect for the murder of Lydia Williams, as part of the investigation into the murder of Sharon Montgomery and the death of Jack White. But this was a complete surprise.’
‘So I can see by how unorganised this whole investigation is.’
Morgan felt Cain’s fingers gently clamp around her arm under the table, telling her to keep her cool, which was getting impossible. Just who did he think he was?
Ben turned to look at John. ‘With all due respect, sir, you have come into our department and have no idea how we work. If you look at the past murders we’ve had to deal with, they have all been solved and the suspects apprehended.
I will not have you coming in here and disrespecting my staff who are all dedicated detectives, who give up more of their free time to solve these cases than anyone should expect them to and for no financial reward most of the time; they do it because they care about the victims we deal with. ’
Morgan had an insane urge to whoop and clap, but she didn’t because Cain’s fingers were still gripping her arm.
Ben continued. ‘Whilst we appreciate that you’re here to help, please do so with respect towards my team. I will not put up with you treating them with anything less and if you do then I’ll be forced to—’ He stopped talking, and Cain whispered a little too loudly, ‘Kick your arse.’
Morgan bent her head to hide the grin on her face, then looked up to see John nodding at Ben. She had a person of interest that she wanted to speak to, who had been a regular commenter on all three of the sisters’ posts, but she wasn’t bringing that up now and ruining the moment.
‘Sorry, Ben, you’re right. I get a little carried away at times, perhaps we could start again.’
Ben nodded.
‘Right, my apologies to you all. I meant no disrespect. What do we need to do to get a suspect apprehended and stop any more murders?’
Cain released her arm, and Morgan let out the breath she’d been holding.
Ben looked at John, his eyes no longer sparkling with fury.
‘Thank you, I think you came up with a pretty good angle about finding out if there are any distant relatives lurking around. So, Stan, I’d appreciate you working that and checking out the genealogy sites.
We know the knives used to kill the three sisters and Sharon Montgomery were of similar make and could have been wielded by the same person.
No prints. No DNA on any victims. No sightings of anyone coming or going from the abandoned hotel when Scotty arrived.
We’re still considering a copycat, but there are so many similarities it’s looking more likely the same guy.
Morgan is still working through the comments on the victims’ social media for any possible suspects.
They were avid posters, making money from their social media activity.
’ Ben turned to Morgan. ‘Have you got anything up to now?’
‘Well, not really because I’ve only been at it for just over two hours and there’s a lot of comments.
There is one name that stands out, though, of all the names I cross-referenced for Lydia’s murder.
They regularly comment on the sisters’ posts, nothing untoward but it keeps popping up, so they’d be worth talking to in case they know anything. ’
There was an expression of pure horror on Ben’s face, and he was slowly shaking his head, silently pleading with her not to say it.
John was staring at her. ‘Male, female? To be honest it doesn’t matter as long as you go talk to them and give us a full update after.’
‘I will, she lives in Bowness so I can go after this.’
She glanced at Ben and the relief on his face made her feel bad. She’d almost given him a heart attack.
‘Is that okay with you, Ben? Or did you need Morgan for anything else?’
‘That’s fine, I’d rather you didn’t go alone.’
‘I’ll be fine, I’m not looking at them as a suspect, more of a hopeful source of information about the sisters, because it seems there are not many people who were close to them despite their public personas.’
‘What about boyfriends, girlfriends?’
‘Lydia was single. Lauren has a partner, he works at the same security company that she did; Lynsey, as far as we know, was single with no bad break ups or psychotic exes lurking in the background.’ Ben was reading from the notes in his book.
‘Morgan and I talked to Lauren’s partner. He was struggling but he might be able to fill some of the gaps about friends, or issues within the family unit that he’s remembered now the shock might be wearing off a little, that kind of thing.’
Ben smiled at Cain. ‘Can you do the honours, Caroline the FLO has been with him, but he hasn’t, as far as I’m aware, had anything of significance to say.
He was on shift when it happened but covering for someone down in Barrow.
His alibi is watertight; there is no chance he did this.
Her boss was at the scene just after we arrived, and he was brought in and printed, DNA taken as well as a statement.
He provided us with CCTV images of him in the office and leaving just after Lauren called to say there was someone in the building. He’s in the clear.’
John was nodding. ‘Not an awful lot to be getting on with, is there? I can see why you might be struggling. Let’s get our heads together, hopefully we’ll have something more by the end of the day.
Thank you for your time, I know that CSI are still at the scene and Task Force are out there waiting for the go-ahead to begin the search. ’
Ben stood up. ‘Whoever this is, they are clever, cunning and have plotted things down to the smallest detail. They are forensically aware; there have been no fingerprints or DNA, the only real evidence they have left behind at each scene is the knife in the chest. According to the pathologist the chest wound didn’t kill them first, it was the cut throats.
Declan’s report for Lydia stated that without the neck wound she would have died from the knife wound to her chest but not as fast. He wanted a quick death, the knife is left behind purely for drama, like a calling card.
We’ve identified the knives as a generic brand that is sold by the thousand on .
We’ve asked for a list of anyone in the North West and Cumbria so we can narrow it down.
Up to now aren’t being overly helpful, claiming data protection and customer confidentiality. ’
John was nodding. ‘Leave to me, I’ll speak to someone and get a warrant for this and tell them that their GDPR is not relevant to a high-profile murder investigation.’
‘That would be very useful, thank you.’
Ben smiled at him, and Morgan wondered if Bigfoot was being all showy and full of bravado because he might be a bit nervous taking on an enormous case with a department of people he didn’t know.
She decided to go a little easier on him and try not to fight him on every sentence that came out of his mouth.
She couldn’t help but be protective over her colleagues and friends, they meant the world to her, and they had been through some terrible times together making their bond stronger than ever.