Chapter 46
FORTY-SIX
Ben was on the phone when she went out, and Cain was talking to the vehicle recovery guy. He hung up. ‘Anything?’
‘You didn’t ask Jade if she saw Angela; she did. She was in there and a guy came and sat down at her table. It was so busy in there that Jade said Angela was the only person who had spare seats, so she can’t say if she was meeting him or if it was a coincidence.’
‘Bollocks. Did she say anything else?’
‘He likely paid cash because her card reader wasn’t working. Jade said she looked as if she was meeting someone because she kept checking her phone then staring out of the window.’
‘What have you got?’
Morgan looked to see if Cain was in earshot, and he wasn’t.
‘In that pink journal I found a Polaroid photo of Angela holding a very young baby, she looks terrified. I think she had a baby, gave it up for adoption, the Williams family took him in, treated him terribly and here we are. I’m scared for her, Ben.
If that’s her son and she finally found him, then I think something awful has happened to her. ’
Ben’s mouth dropped wide open.
Cain came jogging over. ‘Anything, Morgan? I mean, why is her car here and she isn’t? It starts okay, that mechanic said there’s nothing wrong with it.’
‘Look, Cain, I think we need to go to the station and have a proper look at what we have. Is that okay with you or do you want to go home to wait and see if Angela turns up? I’m going to let patrol officers take over the initial searches, is that okay with you?’ Ben asked him.
‘What do you know? What aren’t you telling me? Come on, I’m not an idiot. I can tell something is up.’
Morgan took hold of his hand. ‘Let’s go talk about this at the station. Ben can chase up the cell site analysis whilst we’re there.’
He nodded, but his shoulders slumped even lower than they were, and Morgan didn’t think that was even possible. They needed to track down Amy’s leads and find this missing brother. Angela’s life depended on it.
Bigfoot and Stan were in the office deep in conversation as all three of them walked in. Bigfoot stood up. ‘Any news? Cain, I’m sorry about your partner. I’m sure she’ll turn up soon.’
Morgan bit her tongue, their so-called inspector hadn’t even familiarised himself with Angela’s name, and it grated on her so bad she turned around and walked back out into the corridor.
‘Ben, I need the keys for the car.’ She’d left the journal inside of it and didn’t want to risk it going missing. He threw them in her direction, and she rushed out to get it.
When she came back up, the inspector had thankfully gone to a meeting, leaving Ben, Cain, Stan and Morgan.
Wendy walked in and looked at their faces. ‘Whose funeral did I miss?’
Ben was shaking his head at her in slow motion.
Cain stared at her. ‘Angela is missing.’
‘Oh, shit. I’m sorry, Cain, how? I mean where?’
‘If I knew that I’d be there right now bringing her home, wouldn’t I, Wendy?’ His tone was acidic, and Wendy rushed to him, throwing her arms around his waist.
‘I’m such an idiot, sorry, Cain. What can I do to help?’
Ben smiled at her. ‘Do you have any news for us?’
‘That partial print hasn’t come back with a hit yet, either that or the system is glitching again because I left it running when I finished last night, so it should have had something back by now.’
Stan looked up from his computer. ‘You got a print? That’s incredible, well done.’
‘Hm, you can thank me when it comes back with an ID for the suspect. At the moment it’s not much help.’
‘You can’t win them all, at least you got something which is better than the nothing we have.’
She nodded and turned her attention back to Cain, then Ben. ‘There must be something I can do?’
Ben spoke. ‘I’m just about to chase up the cell site, if you want to do that it would be a help?’
‘On it, be right back.’
Cain slumped into his chair. ‘What were you not telling me earlier?’
Morgan glanced at Ben who nodded, but she didn’t feel comfortable discussing what she knew with Stan present. It seemed too personal when he was relatively new to the team.
‘Should we go in Ben’s office?’
Ben didn’t follow; he stayed with Stan and left Morgan to speak to Cain in private.
Once they were inside, she passed Cain the Polaroid. He took it from her and studied it.
‘Where did you get this?’
‘Inside the notebook I found in the desk drawer. It slipped out, don’t you think that looks like Angela?’
‘Yeah, but that’s years ago and whose baby is it?’
‘I don’t know, did Angela ever talk to you about her younger days before she became a social worker?’
‘Not really, she said she was married to an arsehole called Jonathan but that was it, said she didn’t dwell on the past because he hurt her and he didn’t deserve her time.’
Morgan felt the cogs begin to slide into place; Lydia Williams had shared a death notice for her uncle Jonathan years ago that had led her to the thoughts she’d had, as uncomfortable as they were.
‘I think that this is Angela’s baby.’
Cain’s head snapped up, his gaze fixed on hers. ‘What are you talking about? She was a social worker, taking babies out of unsafe environments was her job. This could be anyone.’
‘Hear me out, okay. I’ve been going over this again and again since I found it.
Look at her face, she looks scared to be holding it.
What if it was her baby, maybe she couldn’t cope and gave him up for adoption?
If her ex-husband was Jonathan and his sister was the Williams sisters’ mum, maybe they took the baby in and were horrible to him.
Maybe Angela didn’t know any of this because they pushed her away and she wasn’t involved in any of their lives.
What if she was trying to find him because she felt guilty for letting him go and just maybe she met him at the café yesterday and left with him?
She wouldn’t have known that he is a dangerous person, or he may not have anything to do with the murders, but we can’t ignore it.
We have to consider this could be what happened.
She wrote in that pink book about six weeks ago about her hopes for finding her son, but she didn’t write anything recently. ’
Cain’s eyes filled with tears. ‘If this is true, which I don’t think it is because Angela and I have no secrets, we share everything, then she is in so much danger.’ His voice caught in the back of his throat.
‘Yes, she is.’
‘Why wouldn’t she tell me this? Why hide it and pretend it was to help a friend out?’
‘Shame, embarrassment or maybe she wanted to judge how it all went before she talked to you about it. I imagine this is a huge thing for her. She is so lovely, she wouldn’t do anything to hurt you, Cain; at least, not on purpose.’
From the corner of her eye, she saw Wendy dash into the office and by the way her arms were waving around, she had news.
Ben nodded at Morgan, and she tried to stop Cain from turning around before he, Stan and Wendy left the office.
She had her radio turned low so had no idea what was happening and instead focused on Cain.
‘Did she mention anything about her life being married to Jonathan?’
He nodded, oblivious to what had just happened in the office behind him.
‘Yeah, all she said was her ex-husband was horrible; she always became so quiet if I asked, and I didn’t want to pry.
He obviously hurt her. She said it was so long ago it was nothing but a blip on that part of her life, that’s why she never married again.
I think that’s why she won’t commit to a date to get married now.
If he wasn’t dead, I’d strangle him for hurting her so badly.
She doesn’t deserve anything but love and respect. ’
‘I agree, bless her. We’re going to find her, Cain, I promise you.
How about I take you to Amy’s. Have you spoken to her yet and told her?
Then I can focus on finding Angela, you know the score.
I love you and I want to be with you, but I can’t do my job whilst I’m sitting here with you.
What would you want Ben to do if it was the other way around? ’
‘Ben wouldn’t go home and wait for news; he’d want to be in the middle of it if we were looking for you though, Morgan. This guy has stabbed four women and faked Jack’s suicide – and he’s out there, he might even have Angela now.’
‘I know, but if Ben was holding everyone back from doing the job they needed to do, he probably would go home. You know I’m going to keep you updated and ring you the minute I have any news.’
He nodded miserably. ‘Okay, thanks, Morgan.’
She leaned across and squeezed his fingers ever so gently. ‘Come on, Amy is going to be beside herself with worry too.’
Cain followed her out to the car park where she led him to a plain car.
She had grabbed the last set of keys available on the whiteboard.
He hadn’t even noticed that the office and parade room were empty.
She’d checked a message from Ben notifying her that every available patrol had gone to the site where Angela’s mobile had last pinged off the phone masts, and for that she was glad.
It was true, she couldn’t work with Cain following her around because she was afraid of upsetting him, although he was still processing what she’d told him about suspecting Angela could be their killer’s estranged mum. God, poor Angela, what a mess this was.
She’d messaged Amy to tell her they were on the way, and Amy was standing at the door waiting for Cain, Ava cradled in her arms.
Cain got out of the car but turned to Morgan. ‘You let me know the minute you have news. Promise me, Morgan.’
She nodded. ‘I’ll do my best.’
Amy waved at her before ushering Cain inside, and Morgan felt a little better that he was safely tucked out of the way for now. She drove off, before turning up her radio and asking for an update.