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 youto 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.’
