‘Well, the next time I glanced over in this direction, the table was empty and a family were pushing the mugs to one side.’
‘Would you know this guy if you saw him again?’ Morgan was thinking about Scotty, but if he wasn’t in work, would he wear a suit? And if he was in work, he would have been wearing police uniform and that was distinctive enough that Jade would have recognised it. She could check the duties and see if he was on shift when she got to the car
‘Oh, did he pay by card or Apple Pay?’
‘I couldn’t tell you, I can take a look, but my card reader was being a bit dodgy yesterday and I had a sign up asking for cash whenever possible.’
‘Fuck.’ Morgan slammed her hand against the marble counter. Jade’s eyes were wide open.
‘Sorry, I’m so sorry. It’s just I think I’m going to catch a break and then boom, another obstacle is thrown under my feet.’
‘You really are worried about her?’
Morgan nodded. ‘Yes, and I can’t explain why just yet because I haven’t even discussed it with Ben or Cain, but I am.’
‘Have you tried the other shops for CCTV footage?’
Morgan nodded. She felt so miserable.
‘I’ll message Alex and see if he got a better look at him. He was cleaning tables and serving food. He’s probably going to take an age to answer me though because he’s always too busy playing sport or chasing girls.’
‘Thank you. If he can tell you anything, will you ring me?’
‘Of course.’ Jade picked up a towel and dried her damp hands, then she hugged Morgan as tightly as she could. Morgan hugged her back.
‘You’ll find her, Morgan, you always do.’
‘Thank you.’ Morgan was too scared to say yes, she would, but that it might already be too late.
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.
