Ben smiled at him. ‘I know it is and you don’t need to apologise. It’s usually mine too. I was being a little touchy. I am so fed up of this level of serious crimes that we have to deal with,and kids, well you know how hard it is, you don’t need me to remind you.’
‘I know, boy do I know. I will go home tonight and sit and brood for hours over it, and poor Theo will be wondering what he’s done, and it’s never him it’s always me. But enough of that. What are you going to do about her?’
‘Avoid her like the plague. She wants to help out with the case. I’d tell Marc we don’t need her help, but I’d be lying because we are desperately understaffed.’
‘Then tell him you need help, but just not from her. You know it wasn’t Morgan’s fault before, it was mine; I’m a bad influence on her.’
Ben smiled. ‘I know you are. You’re a bad influence on me sometimes.’
‘But you love me dearly.’
‘Yes, I do love you. You’re my best friend.’
Declan stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Ben, hugging him tightly. Ben hugged him back fiercely. When Declan pulled away, he sighed.
‘If you weren’t straight.’
‘Now you’re pushing your luck, Declan.’
‘Got you, you’re not really my type, but alas I fear you are Amber’s and she is going to cause some problems if you’re not careful. My advice to you is to steer well clear and don’t get yourself in a situation where you’re alone with her until she realises what an arsehole you really are.’
Ben laughed. ‘Why me?’
Declan shrugged. ‘Why indeed? Come on, let’s go and discuss the findings like adults so you and Morgan know what you’re looking for.’
Ben didn’t argue with him and would be keeping a safe distance from Amber. He didn’t need the added stress in his life.
He would do everything he could to try and find whoever did this to Dawson, and he wouldn’t settle until they were in custody and everyone could breathe again.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Ben and Morgan arrived back at the station as the sun was setting over Heron Pike and Nab Scar fells, which framed the small but busy Lake District town of Rydal Falls. She got out of the car and paused, taking in the beauty of the cotton-candy-streaked sky. If only the weather had been like this last night things could have turned out a lot differently for those teenagers. She sighed. Whoever had snuck up on them and attacked them in the mist wouldn’t have been able to do that when they could have seen their surroundings. That’s not to say they wouldn’t have got attacked anyway, but at least they may have had a fighting chance if they saw the killer walking up on them. It had been confirmed there was not one CCTV camera in the area. Tori had been interviewed, Amos too. Nobody dare go speak to Scarlett Peters’s family just yet after the debacle in the mortuary earlier, but the FLO confirmed that they hadn’t even known their daughter had gone out of the house because she was supposed to be grounded. Mr and Mrs Peters had been home with their other two children. Dawson’s mum had been at work; she worked in a care home on the late shift, and his dad had been with his brother at his house helping him wallpaper until late. Everything pointed back to Amos and the buildings on his land.She was desperate to go back and search them, but it wasn’t happening tonight. First thing in the morning though it would be their priority.
Which made her think of the watcher, surely that was some urban myth that wasn’t real. She didn’t want to mention him to Ben again unless she had some kind of proof that he existed. Or what if someone was pretending to be him? Now that would make perfect sense. The killer wasn’t some supernatural being, but a flesh-and-bone man pretending to be whatever this creepy legend was.
Ben was already at the door, holding it open for her. ‘Are you coming inside?’
She nodded. ‘The sky is so pretty, I was just admiring it.’ Morgan jogged towards him, and he whispered. ‘Not as pretty as you. I’m sorry for being an arsehole all day, are you okay?’
‘I’m good, well I still haven’t managed to get warm but I’m doing better than you, that bruising on your jaw looks painful.’
‘It’s okay, well maybe not, it’s painful. I’m starving and don’t know if I can open my mouth very wide to eat.’ He was trying to smile at her, but it looked more like a grimace.
‘I’ll order you something soft, maybe a chicken chow mein, you can suck the noodles up and not have to chew too much. Or I can feed you some soup.’
‘You’re all heart, you know that, don’t you, but that sounds good. Come on, let’s get upstairs and see who else needs feeding. Do you think Cain’s okay? I’m not too happy that he turned up at the scene, I think it’s too soon. I’ve been stressing about him all day too. I wish I didn’t like you lot so much, that would make it so much easier to work with you all instead of worrying as if you’re my kids and not my colleagues.’
Morgan leaned towards him and kissed his cheek softly. ‘You’re a good man, Ben, and how could you not like us all? I think Cain is okay, he needs to keep himself busy. It can’t beeasy sitting in Angela’s house with nothing to do, surrounded by everything she ever owned.’ She paused, wondering if that was too much because that was what Ben must have done after Cindy died.
‘Come on, get me the noodles, please, I’m fading away. I’ll just go find Marc; I need to run some things by him.’
He left her to go in search of Marc, and she went to the female changing room so she could grab an extra sweater out of her locker. As she walked out of it, she saw Madds who was shrugging on his civvie jacket. He was finally finishing his shift.
He nodded at her.
‘Thank you.’
‘You’re welcome.’
