‘No problem, speak soon, Morgan.’
Amy ended the call, and Morgan tucked her phone into her pocket.
She walked back in and asked, ‘What are we doing about locating the two missing women?’
‘Amber and Brett are going to be following up with getting an ID for the woman at the mortuary.’
Morgan held up her hand. ‘Hang on, give me a moment, Amy found some information that she’s sent over. Let me take a look at it.’
Her computer took forever to log her back in while every pair of the eyes in the room were fixed on her, and she wished she’d got the email open before she’d spoken up. Eventually, her emails loaded and Amy was right; it had gone straight to her junk mail. As she confirmed it was a safe sender, she opened it and waited for the pictures to load. Staring back at her from the screen was a lively, fun-looking woman called Lizzie Thomas, one half of the podcast duoMystery & Murder UK. She looked a little different to the dead woman in the mortuary, but Morgan was pretty sure it was the post-mortem changes that made the differences, and she would bet that it was the same woman.
She looked at Ben. ‘I think it’s her,’ she said, turning her screen as far around as it would go, so everyone else could see. Ben leaned closer and screwed up his eyes.
‘It might be. Can you forward that onto Declan, please? At least we have a possible ID. Excellent work.’
‘Thank Amy, she found this.’
Turning her screen back, she forwarded the email on, marking it ashigh priority, then texted Declan to be sure that he’d read it before he left work for the day.
‘Now, what’s the plan of action for the missing women?’
Ben pointed to the window, his reflection in it because of how dark it was outside now.
‘Searches have stopped for the night, it’s too dangerous. Al has had the drone out, Mountain Rescue have had a team out with dogs too, but nothing has come back yet.’
Marc, who was smiling at Claire, turned his attention to Ben. ‘Are we not going with the theory that we’ve already pulled two bodies out of the lake, so unfortunately the other two are likely in there as well?’
Morgan glared at him. ‘Well, I’m not saying that they aren’t, but if there have been divers in there searching all day and they haven’t found another body, then maybe we should be considering the possibility that whoever killed Dawson and Lizzie has taken them some place?’
‘Abducted them?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why kill two and take two? What’s the motive? If he wanted to kill, then wouldn’t he kill them all?’
‘I don’t know but I’m just saying we can’t rule it out.’
Claire nodded at Morgan. ‘I agree with you, we still need to be actively looking for them, so I want full teams out there at first light. What about the guy who found Tori? Have we had him in for questioning, because he seems to have been in the right place at the right time and had plenty of opportunity to do this.’
Ben added, ‘Cain brought him in earlier to get his statement. I need to speak to Cain, but Amos hasn’t said anything that makes him think he could be a suspect, and I’m assuming he uploaded the statement onto the file before he left. I’ve talked to Amos a few times and he seems legit.’
Claire crossed her arms. ‘So was Ted Bundy on first impressions. I would like him brought in for formal interview, and can we get a search warrant for his house, outbuildings, sorted out, so we’re ready to go first thing?’
Morgan didn’t smile or gloat, as she had mentioned this earlier and it had been brushed to one side. Ben might be her partner in both her personal life and working one, but that didn’t mean he was always right. Not that she was saying Ben wasn’t taking Amos seriously, but she was worried his judgement had been a little too clouded because he liked the guy.
‘Cain searched the outbuildings when we first got the call out.’
Claire nodded. ‘I know, I read that on the file, but he would have been looking for Scarlett hiding out, and maybe he only gave them a cursory search, and it was the middle of the night. I’d like to do a thorough search with a full team.’ Claire smiled at Ben, who nodded.
Morgan couldn’t help herself. ‘Can we not do that now? I mean, if he’s holding a woman and a teenager hostage, who knows what he’s going to do? We could be wasting precious minutes and putting their lives at risk. Isn’t it better to get the warrants and a search team together while there’s enough of us here, and go execute it. I can’t go home and wait until the morning knowing that we left them there in God knows what kind of situation.’
Ben didn’t make eye contact with her and she was glad. She wanted to act now. Not in twelve hours’ time when it could be far too late to save Scarlett and Janey.
THIRTY-TWO
The convoy of unmarked police cars followed by two marked vans made their way up the narrow, winding road to the old Buttermere Summer Camp. Ben had the warrant clutched in his hand, and Morgan thought that if he’d been pissed off and angry earlier, the waves of fury that were emanating off him now made her feel more than a little uncomfortable. She had never, since the day she met Ben, seen him this way. She wanted to reach out and touch him, tell him it was okay, but he was in the passenger seat, Marc was driving and she felt out of her depth if she was honest. She had wanted this, wanted Amos’s house and outbuildings searched again, so this was partly her fault. What she hadn’t wanted was to upset Ben to this degree, and she needed to know why he was so against it; this wasn’t like him. He was always nothing but professional to let his personal feelings cloud his judgement like this, and she wondered if the blow to the face he’d received earlier had maybe done a little more damage than the purple-yellow bruising that covered the left side of his jaw.
They drove as far as they could and parked outside of the gates. A dark figure stood watching the cars, not moving, and Morgan felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle as herskin broke out in goosebumps, then a dog lumbered around the side of it, and she released the breath she’d sucked in and been holding. It was Amos and Shep. She felt a little foolish and was glad she hadn’t gasped out loud.
