Sirens stopped outside of the front doors and officers rushed in, followed by two paramedics. Ben, who was rubbing his jaw, looked at the mess and whispered, ‘What a shit show.’
Morgan couldn’t stop the smile that lifted the corners of her lips, despite the situation.
Scotty was standing over Mr Peters, watching the paramedics check him over before loading him onto a trolley and wheeling him down to the A&E department.
‘I leave you lot alone for less than five minutes. I mean I didn’t even get out of the car park,’ whispered Scotty.
‘Well, at least I took the daughter’s phone off her before she could do any damage.’
Amber walked into the room in time to catch what Morgan said, and she shook her head. ‘She was on TikTok and live-streamed part of it. My student officer was on it and saw the whole thing kicking off.’
Ben groaned. ‘Christ.’
Declan was sitting on one of the very bland, beige sofas with blood dripping down his scrubs. He began to laugh and everyone turned to look at him.
He shrugged. ‘Are we trending and now TikTok superstars? Well, I was pondering a nose job, so I guess now I have a good reason to book a consultation. That poor family. Is someone going to get in there and apologise, because as much as that punch in my nose hurt, I think we just traumatised an entire family for no good reason. That was really unprofessional. I have never, ever had anything so awful happen on my watch. I do not want to press charges against Mr Peters. We can never make up for the distress we just caused them all.’
Ben was heading towards the door. ‘But who would think another body would be in that lake when their daughter went missing there? Her friend was already pulled out of it. Who said it was Scarlett?’
Morgan spoke quietly into her radio. ‘Control, who ID’d the body from the lake?’
‘I’m just looking through the log now.’
After a minute Helen the call handler replied. ‘2821, student officer.’
Morgan knew it had to have been something to do with Amber. She had turned up with a student and she’d let him do it without monitoring the situation closely. The blame fell on Amber’s shoulders, not the students. ‘Okay, thanks.’
Ben was shaking his head. ‘I mean, you just couldn’t make that stuff up.’
Amber who didn’t look at all remorseful about the mess she’d made with her student pulled up a photo of the woman that Sandra had reported missing. Morgan looked at it and nodded. ‘That looks an awful lot like the woman in the viewing room, who you let your student ID without making sure it was correct.’
This time Amber’s cheeks flared a deep, burning red and she at least had the decency to look like she was bothered. ‘I don’t know how it happened, I’m so sorry. I was so tired and the visibility was really poor.’
‘Double fuck, what the hell is going on? Why was she in that lake?’ Ben’s voice was barely audible he was talking so low.
Amber shook her head. ‘Not got the foggiest, but she had a friend, so that other girl might be missing too…’
Morgan looked at Amber. ‘There are two missing girls?’
‘Her friend is twenty-two, so not technically a girl, but yeah. It looks that way. We haven’t been able to get hold of her, and her family hasn’t heard from her for four days.’
Morgan wanted to scream in frustration, but she didn’t. Instead, she pulled up Google on her phone and typed inweather four days ago near Buttermere. A sinking feeling that it might have been damp and foggy that day too made her stomach churn so much she thought she might puke all over the floor.
The watcher might be very real, and he was on a killing spree. She needed to find him and stop it no matter what the cost.
TWENTY-THREE
Marc had turned up with Madds to issue formal apologies and try to smooth things over with Scarlett’s family. Once Mr Peters had recovered, he had been taken home by their family liaison officer. Declan had cleaned his nose, refusing to get it checked out at A&E, wanting to show Theo when he got home to finally tell him all about his horrific day. Once they were all assembled and ready, Declan declared he would begin Dawson’s examination. Morgan was just glad that Dawson’s family had left the building before it had all kicked off. That had been wild, not to mention heartbreaking, and if Scotty hadn’t tasered Scarlett’s dad, she too would have been sporting a broken nose because there had been centimetres in it.
Mr Peters hadn’t been arrested thanks to Declan not wanting to press charges, and Ben had said no, too. They were under great duress, and nobody wanted to make that any worse, but Morgan worried what would happen if they did find Scarlett’s body and she needed to be identified. She supposed they would cross that bridge when they came to it, she was getting ahead of herself.
‘Everybody ready?’ Declan had asked Alexa to put a Yungblud playlist on because Dawson was wearing a band teefor Bludfest, and Morgan wasn’t sure what she’d do when ‘Zombie’ started to play because she loved that song and it made her want to cry. Not that she’d ever tell anyone that; hopefully, everyone would be too busy doing their thing to pay her any attention in the corner feeling sorry for herself.
Dawson was just a kid, a good-looking one too; his black hair was slicked back off his waxy face, and she wished for the hundredth time that he had never gone up on that fell. He had his whole life ahead of him. His fingernails were painted black. They were short and some of them were chipped, a lot like Morgan’s had been until two days ago when she’d treated herself to a manicure. Now, hers were a blood-red cat-eye colour. Dawson was a boy after her own heart; she’d have wanted to be friends with him. Her eyes filled with tears so hot they were burning her eyelids.
Lowering her head, she blinked rapidly to try and clear them. She didn’t know how she was going to get through this. Ben didn’t look much better, he kept rubbing his jaw that was now sporting a large purplish bruise that seemed to be spreading all along the left side of his face.
He looked at Morgan and she whispered, ‘Are you okay?’
