Chapter 43
FORTY-THREE
Morgan filled Ben in on the news from both Wendy and Amy on the drive into work.
‘Why didn’t you wake me up and tell me?’
‘What would you have done? You were dead to the world. I didn’t have the heart to disturb you.
We can focus on it today. We both needed a rest last night.
If the partial print Wendy got off the knife matches the profile of someone whose first name is Adam and his surname begins with G, then we’re homeward bound.
I want to do some digging around myself if that’s okay with you, before I get tasked with anything else. ’
They were walking across the rear car park of the station, Morgan having to almost jog to keep up with him. The news she’d shared had renewed his purpose. He paused and looked at her. ‘Yes, of course, do what you need to do. Could it be that simple?’
‘Yes, I don’t see why not. Let’s think positive for a change.’
‘It’s a long shot though, isn’t it?’
Morgan squeezed her eyes shut for a second, then exhaled. ‘Well, it’s better than nothing, Ben, have we got anything else?’
‘No, sorry. You’re right, I want you to crack on with this line of enquiry.’
Stan and Bigfoot were in the office already when they walked in. Morgan didn’t even look at Ben who stormed across and flung open his office door, letting it slam behind him. She waited for the computer to come to life then began typing frantically.
‘Morning to you too.’
‘Oh, sorry. Morning, Stan.’
‘Anything going on we should know about? The pair of you look as if you’re on a mission.’
She shrugged. ‘Wendy found a partial print on the blade; there’s just a couple of enquiries.’
‘Finally, something tangible to work with.’
She smiled at him. ‘Yes, hopefully it won’t turn up to be a dead end.’
Ben’s door opened. ‘Stan, a word, please.’ It wasn’t Ben who was beckoning him over though.
He rolled his eyes in Bigfoot’s direction and pushed himself up from his desk.
‘Yes, boss.’
Morgan looked back down at the Facebook profile for Lauren Williams that had loaded onto her screen and went to the About Me page.
Bingo, there it was in beautiful, block capital letters: ALFRED BARROW SECONDARY SCHOOL.
It didn’t ring a bell with her, the name wasn’t familiar, but she did a quick search and wanted to scream at the computer screen.
Alfred Barrow Secondary School was now Alfred Barrow Health Centre.
Screwing her eyes shut she took a deep breath.
Opening them again she searched for Jonathan, but his page was devoid of any information about anything, though as she went through his very short friends list, she felt the blood begin to pump around her body much faster, as a surge of adrenaline kicked in.
Adam G’s page loaded and Amy was right: it was a terrible picture of Tutankhamun’s sarcophagus for his profile picture.
The last post was over five years ago and that had been sharing about someone’s lost dog.
There was nothing personal on there whatsoever.
No posts about holidays, complaining about work; the general stuff most people write on Facebook just wasn’t there.
So, you made yourself a Facebook profile to spy on your victims, did you?
Morgan whispered to the screen. She checked his friends lists and neither Lydia, Lauren nor Lynsey were on it.
He’d been planning this for a long time, which was why he was so good at what he’d done.
He’d had five years to work this all out.
It was premeditated, this wasn’t some spur-of-the-moment mental breakdown.
He was likely responsible for the car crash that killed Mr and Mrs Williams too.
This was cold, calculated and up to now executed perfectly.
She paused, almost perfectly, as he had slipped up and left them a partial.
It was only a matter of time before she had him in cuffs.
Morgan’s phone rang. ‘Hey, Cain.’
His voice was breathless, on the verge of hysteria.
‘Something’s wrong, I’ve just got home, and Angela isn’t here. I can’t even smell her perfume and there’s always a hint of it lingering in the air because she sprays herself so often.’
‘I thought she was with a friend?’
‘She was only meeting her for lunch, not an all-night bender. I need to put a missing persons log on.’
Morgan put him on speaker so Ben could hear. Ben answered. ‘Cain, I’ll do that and we’re on our way to yours, okay.’
Cain’s voice was barely a whisper.
‘I slept at Amy’s, what if something awful has happened to her?’
Then he hung up.
They headed straight for Madds’s office.
‘Need to put a log on, Cain’s partner is missing. He hasn’t seen her since yesterday morning.’
Madds’s eyes went wide. ‘She’s probably realised he’s not for her and done a bunk. I mean, would you blame her?’
‘From her own house that she owns? I very much doubt that, she’d have told him to leave, Sarge. Cain is genuinely worried about her, so can you prioritise it, please.’ Morgan couldn’t keep the anger out of her voice.
Madds picked up the phone, called the control room and passed the receiver to Ben, who asked the call handler to put it on the incident log. When he’d passed the information over, he told them that he and Morgan would be attending in the first instance to take details. Nobody argued with him.
Madds shrugged. ‘When you’re ready for one of my officers, give me a shout. Just as well, they’re tied up at a fatal accident on Windermere Road anyway. I was just on my way out.’
Cain was standing at the pink front door of Angela’s house that Morgan loved so much. He looked awful. Morgan gave him a quick hug, and he squeezed her back tightly.
‘There’s a log on, Cain; Control is checking the ANPR cameras to see if they have her leaving the area. I’ve requested a cell site analysis of her phone too. Morgan gave me the number, and I asked for it to be completed urgently.’ Ben’s spoke quietly.
Cain led them inside to the kitchen where Morgan had spent lots of time chatting with Angela. She had the worst churning inside of her stomach. Angela was not the kind of woman to disappear without a trace even if she and Cain weren’t getting along.
‘Can you tell me when you last spoke to her, Cain?’ Morgan asked the questions, and Ben listened, pen poised in hand ready to take notes.
‘Yesterday morning before I left for work. She was sitting on your chair, Morgan, working on her laptop.’
‘How did she seem to you?’
‘A little distracted. I asked her what she was doing not because I was bothered but out of genuine interest.’
‘What was she doing?’
‘She told me she was helping a client of hers from years ago to try to find her son that got adopted.’
A creeping feeling of unease told her something was very wrong.
Could Angela be connected to the mysterious brother who may have killed the Williams sisters?
Maybe her friend was his birth mum, and if so, she was in very real danger if she’d discovered who he was.
He wouldn’t want this in the middle of his perfectly executed killing spree; it would ruin everything.
‘Does she normally do stuff like that?’
Cain shrugged. ‘Not that I’m aware of but I work with you both, long shifts, and I have no idea what she does when I’m not around. I don’t think so though, as she’s normally got her nose buried in a book.’
‘Did she tell you who this ex-client was?’
‘No. I didn’t ask either because I didn’t think I needed to be concerned, otherwise I would have.’
‘You were worried about her yesterday and then she messaged to say she was with a friend. What time was that?’
He picked up his phone and opened his texts. ‘At 15.07.’
‘I’m sorry to ask you, Cain, but had you fallen out; are you having problems that maybe you didn’t realise were as serious as they are?’
His head shook vehemently. ‘No, I swear to God everything was great. I’ve been helping Amy out, but you know that and it’s just me being a friend.
There’s nothing to it and Angela was happy for me to do that.
We didn’t argue over it. She never said she felt as if I was spending too much time there.
She encouraged me to help her because she said so many new mums struggle and it was lovely that I could support her, because a lot of them have no one and she’d seen the results of that end in tragedy far too often in her job. ’
‘Does Angela have a tablet, a diary or journal she might have written notes in?’
‘Probably, but I don’t know where she keeps it.’
Morgan stood up. ‘Would you mind if I looked around to see if I can find anything? She might have written a name down or an address we can go to.’
‘Help yourself, I have nothing to hide.’
She squeezed his shoulder. ‘I know that, I’m not looking for anything other than something that might give us an idea where she is.’
‘Do you know any of her friends? Have you spoken to them,’ Ben asked as Morgan left the kitchen and headed upstairs.
‘Her best friend Sheila died a couple of months ago. She’s been a bit quiet and down about it. That’s why I thought it was good she had something to do to take her mind off her grief.’
Ben stood up. ‘Should I make us some tea or coffee?’
Cain shrugged. ‘I have a bad feeling, Ben, she’s never not been in contact like this, and it’s been eighteen hours since that message she sent.’
‘How about the friend she was meeting for lunch? Can you ring her and see what time Angela left her and if she told her where she was going?’
Cain’s cheeks began to burn a deep red. ‘I’m not even sure who it was. I only really know Janet. I can phone her and see if she knows.’ He took out his phone and clamped it to his ear with his jaw.
‘Hi, it’s Cain. Did you meet Angela for lunch yesterday at all?’
Ben couldn’t hear the soft voice very clearly that was on the other end, and he motioned for Cain to put her on loudspeaker, which he did.
‘Hello, Cain, I was supposed to, but I felt a little bit under the weather, so I cancelled. Is everything okay?’
Cain screwed his eyes closed. ‘Were the two of you meeting anyone else or did she say that she would still go and maybe invite someone else? And no, she’s missing. I haven’t seen her since yesterday morning.’
Janet gasped.
‘Oh no, I don’t understand. Where is she?’
‘I wish I knew.’
‘She never said anything about meeting anyone else, love, she said she’d see me next week and hoped I felt better. I’m so worried about her, is there anything I can do?’
‘Me too, can you maybe try and get hold of her for me, and if you hear anything ring me back. I’d appreciate that.’
‘Of course I will, and please let me know the moment you hear from her, won’t you?’
‘Absolutely.’ He ended the call and stared at Ben.
‘I hate to ask this, Cain, but how was she mentally? You said that she was grieving her friend, was she depressed about it? Has she been to the doctors lately?’
‘You think she’s taken her own life?’
‘No, I’m not suggesting that. I’m just covering all the bases. Did she leave you a note about who she was meeting that kind of thing?’
‘No, nothing. Oh God, what if she has and I didn’t even realise she needed help?’ Cain let out a sob, and Ben began to pat his back.
‘I don’t think she has, I just needed to ask. When people are intent on taking their life, there often aren’t any outward signs that anything is wrong.’
Neither of them said that he was speaking from the heart. He had borne the consequences of losing his wife that way.
Morgan walked in to see the pair of them sitting in silence.
She had a pretty pink journal in her hand.
‘I found this. I feel so awkward, Cain, but is it okay if I have a read through to see if there’s any indication in it of where she could be or who she was meeting? Or do you want to go through it?’
He shook his head. ‘I’d rather not, I’m not the fastest at reading. You will be much quicker and I’m sure Angela would prefer you to read it than me if it’s personal.’
Morgan nodded. It was a thick book, with lots of beautiful handwritten notes inside of it.
‘Where’s her laptop? Have you checked that to see if she’d messaged anyone or emailed them?’
‘I can’t find it. I’ve searched the usual places waiting for you both to arrive. I think she’s taken it with her. What’s going to happen now? I mean I know the procedure, but I don’t know what I should be doing. I’ve never been on this side of it before.’
Ben replied, ‘Hopefully we’ll get a hit on her phone before long, or a sighting of her car. Do you want to wait here in case she turns up?’
‘I suppose so. I’d rather be with you two though at work, so I know straight away.’
Ben glanced at Morgan. ‘I’m not sure being in work is going to be good for you.’
‘Can’t you give me something to do to keep me busy? I can’t sit around, or should I go out and have a drive around, see if I can spot her car?’
‘Maybe me and you could have a drive around, I’ll do the driving. Is that okay, Ben?’
Ben shook his head. ‘I’ll drive. Do you want to check through the book?’
Cain stood up. ‘I’m okay to drive myself.’
‘I know you are, but you can look better whilst I’m driving. I don’t know what Angela’s car looks like.’
‘You can’t miss it, silver Mini Cooper with glittery pink stripes.’
Morgan smiled. ‘I love that car, Angela has such good taste.’
‘Come on.’ Ben stood up and Cain followed him outside, leaving Morgan alone in the house.
She began scanning the pages of the journal.
An old, faded colour Polaroid slipped out of the pages, landing on the floor.
She picked it up. It was of a woman, holding a newborn baby.
Squinting, Morgan held it closer and realised it was a much younger version of Angela without the pastel pink hair.
Her eyes wide, shoulder-length brown hair, unwashed and unkempt, she looked both terrified and exhausted, holding the baby in a pale blue sleepsuit close to her chest as if she wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.