Morgan sensed Aaron straighten up in his seat. He raised his hand. ‘What are you saying, Ben, that it’s a copycat killing by someone who knows the intimate details of the first two cases?’
Morgan looked at him. ‘That or we never caught the killer. Perhaps they slipped through the net when Beth Montgomery took her own life. She confessed to me to killing Lydia, as well as her daughter Sharon and Sharon’s boyfriend, Jack White.’
Ben gave her a small smile; she was happy to take as much of the blame for this as anyone else. In fact, she felt that she was to blame, even though the rationality of it meant it was impossible that any of them could be at fault. Marc had buried his head in his hands, which Cain found highly amusing, by the smirk on his face. Morgan continued speaking.
‘The crime scenes are completely different though. Sharon and Lydia were found inside their roof tents at desolated locations whilst on solo camping trips, and both were vloggers with decent YouTube and Instagram followings. Lauren was found inside Keswick Manor, where she worked, although I suppose it’s not too dissimilar because of how remote the hotel is and the fact that it’s been empty a long time. There’s also the family connection between two of the victims but not all three.’
Steph was listening intently. ‘Which is?’
‘Lydia Williams and Lauren Williams are sisters.’
A gasp echoed around the room. Morgan nodded. ‘It’s so sad, and there is another sister, an older one, Lynsey, who is also a vlogger, and she posts under the name of Crystal Yolanda Yoga on her social media accounts. I have checked but she has posted nothing on social media for about eight weeks, the last was two days after Lydia’s death.’
Ben was scribbling notes in a notepad. He looked up. ‘We need to focus on finding Lynsey Williams. I want Cain and Morgan on that. We don’t know if she’s alive or if she’s the killer. Either way we will know once we track her down, and then we can investigate any possible connections to the deaths of Sharon Montgomery and Jack White.’
Morgan nodded. ‘There is a chance this isn’t connected though, maybe Beth was the killer, and Lynsey has taken this opportunity to dispose of her sister. Apparently, there was some jealousy between the siblings over their parents’ estate and the vlogging, or there was according to Scotty who knows them. He messaged Lynsey on Instagram last night for me.’
‘Did she reply?’ asked Marc.
‘I don’t know, I haven’t heard anything from Scotty, though he said he’d let me know the minute she did.’
Cain groaned. ‘You actually expected him to do that?’
‘Yes.’
‘But we’re talking about—’ Cain stopped talking, remembering who was sitting on either side of him, and he said, ‘Cool, yeah. I guess she didn’t reply.’
Which made Morgan side-eye him.
Ben continued. ‘Family, do we know them? Is there an address for Lydia’s parents?’
‘Parents are both dead, fatal car accident; it was just the three sisters, as far as I know.’
‘And now there is one,’ whispered Wendy. ‘It’s like a horrific modern day Agatha Christie novel.’
‘Who did we have on our list of suspects for the other murders?’ Ben asked,
his eyes were screwed so tight Morgan could have counted the lines on his crow’s feet. They hadn’t really got any definite suspects.
‘Well, we thought Jack could have been involved but that was ruled out when we found his body, and traces of the rope fibres were found at both scenes and also in the Montgomerys’ maid’s quarters at their house. There was Stefan Montgomery, but isn’t he in France? Then there was the maid, Marie Jones. I thought she was a little bit suspicious, only it turned out to be Beth, not her at all. Marie was just being very protective over her employers, and I suppose if they treat her well and pay her a decent wage then why wouldn’t she be?’
‘We can rule Stefan out, he’s definitely in France. Does the maid have any connection to Lynsey and Lauren though? Is it worth checking her out in case we missed something?’
Morgan squeezed her eyes closed for a second then looked at Ben. ‘If you don’t mind, I’d rather not go back there. Can Stan or Cain go and talk to her, please.’
Ben’s eyes widened in horror. ‘Of course not, I didn’t expect you to go.’
She knew he was so keen to solve this murder, and quickly, that he hadn’t contemplated what it meant to her to send her back to the place she was attacked, and then watched her attacker kill herself. It was so brutal that whenever Morgan closed her eyes to try and go to sleep, the image of the huge metal blade slicing through Beth Montgomery’s delicate skin across her throat was always there. Like an ulcer you couldn’t stop probing with the tip of your tongue, she couldn’t stop her mind from replaying that particular movie reel in all its full, technicolour glory.
‘Change of plan. Stan, you can go and speak to Marie, Morgan will give you the address and the background on the Montgomerys. Cain, you can focus on finding Lynsey. I want you out there actively searching for her, home address, place of work, hobbies, friends, where she goes shopping, gym she uses, is that okay?’
Cain nodded.
‘Morgan, we are going to speak to Lauren’s boyfriend, Joey Baker, because we left it in the hands of the Lancs team and I think we need to see him face to face. Then we’ll go to the scene to take another look, then Lauren can be moved. Once she’s at the mortuary we have the post-mortem. Wendy, have CSI finished processing the scene?’
‘Enough that you can move the body.’
‘Good, we’ll see you there. It’s at three, just about gives us chance to get to the mortuary. I don’t want the scene releasing, it’s not hurting anyone being left as it is. There’s no urgency to get it cleared as the hotel has been empty for over a year, so they’re not desperate to get it back. It means we can take our time.’
