His gaze was fixed on Morgan. She stared right back at him. He didn’t intimidate her; she’d met with far worse men, and survived, than a DI on a mission to make himself look like God before he retired.
It was Ben who broke the silence. ‘I can give you what we have up to now, boss.’
John looked bemused that Morgan hadn’t cracked. She was still staring at him and he tore his gaze away first, much to her amusement. He nodded. ‘Please.’
‘Lydia Williams, Lauren Williams and now Lynsey Williams are all dead. As you may have gathered, they’re sisters. By the state of decomp on Lynsey’s body it looks as if she was killed a matter of days after Lydia. Both parents are dead, victims of a fatal car accident.’
‘Right, so what’s the motive behind these murders? Have we at least got that figured out?’
Morgan met his gaze with her own because he kept looking in her direction, her green eyes burning ready to take him on. ‘No, because until Lauren was killed, we thought that this case was closed. It’s been forty-eight hours. We had a suspect for the murder of Lydia Williams, as part of the investigation into the murder of Sharon Montgomery and the death of Jack White. But this was a complete surprise.’
‘So I can see by how unorganised this whole investigation is.’
Morgan felt Cain’s fingers gently clamp around her arm under the table, telling her to keep her cool, which was getting impossible. Just who did he think he was?
Ben turned to look at John. ‘With all due respect, sir, you have come into our department and have no idea how we work. If you look at the past murders we’ve had to deal with, they have all been solved and the suspects apprehended. I will not have you coming in here and disrespecting my staff who are all dedicated detectives, who give up more of their free time to solve these cases than anyone should expect them to and for no financial reward most of the time; they do it because they care about the victims we deal with.’
Morgan had an insane urge to whoop and clap, but she didn’t because Cain’s fingers were still gripping her arm.
Ben continued. ‘Whilst we appreciate that you’re here to help, please do so with respect towards my team. I will not put up with you treating them with anything less and if you do then I’ll be forced to—’ He stopped talking, and Cain whispered a little too loudly, ‘Kick your arse.’
Morgan bent her head to hide the grin on her face, then looked up to see John nodding at Ben. She had a person of interest that she wanted to speak to, who had been a regular commenter on all three of the sisters’ posts, but she wasn’t bringing that up now and ruining the moment.
‘Sorry, Ben, you’re right. I get a little carried away at times, perhaps we could start again.’
Ben nodded.
‘Right, my apologies to you all. I meant no disrespect. What do we need to do to get a suspect apprehended and stop any more murders?’
Cain released her arm, and Morgan let out the breath she’d been holding.
Ben looked at John, his eyes no longer sparkling with fury. ‘Thank you, I think you came up with a pretty good angle about finding out if there are any distant relatives lurking around. So, Stan, I’d appreciate you working that and checking out the genealogy sites. We know the knives used to kill the three sisters and Sharon Montgomery were of similar make and could have been wielded by the same person. No prints. No DNA on any victims. No sightings of anyone coming or going from the abandoned hotel when Scotty arrived. We’re still considering a copycat, but there are so many similarities it’s looking more likely the same guy. Morgan is still working through the comments on the victims’ social media for any possible suspects. They were avid posters, making money from their social mediaactivity.’ Ben turned to Morgan. ‘Have you got anything up to now?’
‘Well, not really because I’ve only been at it for just over two hours and there’s a lot of comments. There is one name that stands out, though, of all the names I cross-referenced for Lydia’s murder. They regularly comment on the sisters’ posts, nothing untoward but it keeps popping up, so they’d be worth talking to in case they know anything.’
There was an expression of pure horror on Ben’s face, and he was slowly shaking his head, silently pleading with her not to say it.
John was staring at her. ‘Male, female? To be honest it doesn’t matter as long as you go talk to them and give us a full update after.’
‘I will, she lives in Bowness so I can go after this.’
She glanced at Ben and the relief on his face made her feel bad. She’d almost given him a heart attack.
‘Is that okay with you, Ben? Or did you need Morgan for anything else?’
‘That’s fine, I’d rather you didn’t go alone.’
‘I’ll be fine, I’m not looking at them as a suspect, more of a hopeful source of information about the sisters, because it seems there are not many people who were close to them despite their public personas.’
‘What about boyfriends, girlfriends?’
‘Lydia was single. Lauren has a partner, he works at the same security company that she did; Lynsey, as far as we know, was single with no bad break ups or psychotic exes lurking in the background.’ Ben was reading from the notes in his book.
‘Morgan and I talked to Lauren’s partner. He was struggling but he might be able to fill some of the gaps about friends, or issues within the family unit that he’s remembered now the shock might be wearing off a little, that kind of thing.’
Ben smiled at Cain. ‘Can you do the honours, Caroline the FLO has been with him, but he hasn’t, as far as I’m aware, had anything of significance to say. He was on shift when it happened but covering for someone down in Barrow. His alibi is watertight; there is no chance he did this. Her boss was at the scene just after we arrived, and he was brought in and printed, DNA taken as well as a statement. He provided us with CCTV images of him in the office and leaving just after Lauren called to say there was someone in the building. He’s in the clear.’
John was nodding. ‘Not an awful lot to be getting on with, is there? I can see why you might be struggling. Let’s get our heads together, hopefully we’ll have something more by the end of the day. Thank you for your time, I know that CSI are still at the scene and Task Force are out there waiting for the go-ahead to begin the search.’
