Wendy gave Scotty a once-over. ‘Well, at least you’re wearing gloves.’ She pushed past Cain and Stan, who was staring at the tent.
‘Is there another body inside?’ Stan asked, his voice trembling a little.
Ben nodded. He also stepped away from the tent to give Wendy room to work. The rest of them shuffled out of the small clearing, giving Wendy space.
TWENTY
1988
Angela found herself being admitted to a medical ward. Her baby was taken to the children’s ward for overnight observations, and Jonathan went with him. She didn’t mind; she was glad not to have to look into his eyes that were full of accusations. Nobody knew her like he did and that terrified her beyond belief. He knew she didn’t love the baby like she was supposed to, but what could she do? The doctors had been kind to her, too kind, and the nurses were nice enough, but she saw the way they whispered and pointed towards her when they thought she wasn’t looking. They didn’t believe her either. She didn’t know if she believed herself. All she knew was that she didn’t want to have to look after a baby anymore. It would be better if he was dead, but Jonathan would be furious with her.
Alone in a ward with no one to speak to she lay on her bed and, despite being exhausted, could not sleep. Her mind was cruel. It wouldn’t let her switch off, and all she kept seeing was Jonathan scooping their dead baby out of the bath. He had been dead, his skin had looked blue, and his eyes were open. There had been no gentle rise and fall of his chest until Jonathan had started blowing into his lungs, forcing him to breathe and that tiny trickle of water had escaped out of his blue-tinged lips ontohis chest. Angela squeezed her eyes closed and clenched her fists.
‘How are you feeling?’
Jonathan’s voice was so close to her ear she jumped and turned to face him.
‘Awful, I’m tired but I can’t sleep. How is he?’
‘Our son is alive thanks to me, but he’s not coming home.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’ve asked the social worker to find him a foster family because you’re clearly not well enough to take care of him and I must work; I can’t stay at home and do it and you can no longer be trusted with him. He will be going home with Susan and Jim until they find someone more suitable; it’s the best option for everyone.’
Angela felt as if he’d just pulled every last breath out of her body with his fists. She hated his sister Susan, she was so patronising, so horrible to her, and Angela didn’t want her to have her baby. Jonathan had also just proved that he didn’t love the baby any more than she did, because if he did, he wouldn’t be able to give him away like it was a stray cat that had turned up on their doorstep.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it. I will do better, I promise. You can’t let Susan take him.’
Jonathan was whispering, but there was no mistaking the vitriol in his voice. ‘I don’t trust you, dear, you let him drown. What were you thinking? Why was he in that big bath? He has a baby bath with a seat to stop things like that happening. You never wanted him in the first place; you were never happy about being pregnant and complained every hour of every day about it. I would much rather Susan take care of him than leave him with you. You had your chance, and you messed up. What will my colleagues say when they find out you almost drowned our child? It’s gone too far, Angela, he will go with Susan until asuitable foster family is found, and you will not speak of this ever again to anyone. Do you understand?’
She was shaking her head. ‘No, Jonathan, I will not let you do this to me. I can look after him, I was just so tired. It won’t happen again.’
‘If you continue to make a fuss, I will tell that nice police constable Bill Patterson that you lied, you did try and drown him. Then, he will have no choice but to arrest you and put you into one of those horrible women’s prisons that you so deserve to be in. I must go and wait for Susan, she is going to come and sit with our son tonight so I can go home and get some rest. I have a big day in court tomorrow. We will never speak of this incident again. Is that clear?’
Angela nodded her head; Bill had probably met Jonathan before through his role as a defence solicitor so would believe him. What choice did she have? ‘Yes.’
‘Yes, what?’
‘Yes, Jonathan, I understand.’
‘Good.’
He stood up and walked out without so much as asking if she needed anything, or a peck on the cheek. He looked every bit the lawyer that he was, and she wondered if that was how he spoke to the people in court, like they meant nothing to him. Now she knew that neither she nor their son had real meaning to him either; he had been playing at happy families because it suited his purpose, and now it no longer did, so where did that leave her?
TWENTY-ONE
Morgan walked the trail back down to the car park to wait for Declan. The forest ranger had arrived and had explained the satnav directions to get to the old logging road that Declan could drive down, but he would still need her to guide him. It wasn’t an easy route for a big car, she thought. Lynsey’s little Fiat had done well to get there in one piece, and she wondered how she knew about this place. She must have prior knowledge and either spent a lot of time in this forest or she knew about it from someone else. Had her killer followed her here? They needed to look for other tracks. Had they made their way by foot?
As she reached the car park, she looked around at the picnic benches set back a little in the treeline for families to enjoy their picnics. There was a laminated flyer on a solar-powered light post. Her interest piqued, she wandered over to it to read what it said, and as she got nearer the words MISSING in red block capitals screamed into her mind. She saw the familiar picture of Lydia’s dog on the poster and a fresh wave of sadness washed over her. They should really take all those posters down, because even if it turned up, who was going to take care of Barney now? The entire family had been wiped out.
Morgan felt her fingers clench into tight fists at her side, and she sucked in a deep breath. This wasn’t helping; her anger at the tragic situation the Williams sisters had endured was almost too horrific to think about. Yet, she was going to have to think about it nonstop to figure out what was going on. Barney’s cute face, his big brown eyes and the white, almost crescent moon-shaped marking on his tan-coloured chest made him one of a kind. She had never seen anything like it on a dog before. Not that she was a dog expert. Caeser, her favourite police dog, had a white mark on his chest, but it was just a splotch. This was much more defined.What happened to you, Barney? Where did you disappear to?
‘Morgan.’ She turned in the direction of the voice and saw Declan standing next to his car in front of the police tape. She waved at him, hurrying over.
‘Hey, how are you?’
‘Better for seeing you, although for once it would be nice not to meet at a crime scene. What’s going on with you and Ben? I haven’t seen you out of work for ages, not since you got back from New York. Theo asked if we’d fallen out.’
