‘I forgot my torch.’
She smiled at him. ‘Good job I have one. What about your phone?’
‘It’s on like two per cent battery.’
‘We’ll manage then, stay close.’
‘Morgan, I’m not exactly going to wander off when I can’t see shit in front of my face.’
She grinned, like it or not he was funny even when he wasn’t trying to be. They reached the shed first and she elbowed Cain in the ribs. ‘Take one for the team, it might be full of spiders.’
‘You’re such a chancer, Brookes, how do you not know I’m not terrified of them. I could have agoraphobia.’
‘Then spiders won’t bother you, will they, you idiot. If you were scared of spiders, you’d have arachnophobia.’
‘Same thing.’
‘No, it’s not at all, agoraphobia is a fear of being in situations you can’t escape from.’
‘Then it’s near enough. I am in fear of being in this situation with you.’
‘Cain.’
He laughed then knocked on the shed door. Morgan arched her eyebrow at him.
‘What? Just alerting the spiders we’re coming in.’
She shook her head. He lifted the latch and pushed open the door; she shone the torch inside.
‘Hello, is anyone in here?’ Morgan called out.
Silence greeted them, and she wasn’t surprised; in fact, she was kind of relieved. The shed wasn’t big, but Cain ducked his head and went inside, waving his arm around to disperse any cobwebs. Morgan stepped inside behind him. Joyce was right, a lawnmower and other tools, empty plant pots, but no women and nowhere for them to be hiding.
‘I guess we should try the barn.’
‘I guess we should,’ answered Cain.
They headed towards the much bigger stone building, and Cain held out his hand in the direction of the door. ‘Your turn.’
Morgan didn’t argue with him. This was a much bigger space than the shed, hopefully the spiders would be much higher up.She pushed open the door, and it moved a couple of inches before getting stuck. She pushed again, with no luck. Cain pressed both his hands on it, and it let out a long, slow creak before giving way and opening wide enough for them both to get in.
‘Welcome to my crypt,’ he whispered, doing an awful Dracula voice.
‘Scarlett, Janey, it’s the police, are you in here?’
It was so quiet all she could hear was Cain’s breathing behind her. She stepped inside and walked around, waving her hands in front of her in case there were giant cobwebs. It smelled much better than Amos’s barn where they’d found Janey’s phone, musty but nothing bad. She walked around it. There were some broken old chairs next to a table that was on its side. Cain walked the opposite way around to her and they both met in the middle.
‘Nothing.’ He shrugged at her. ‘Now what?’
Morgan closed her eyes briefly, just a couple of seconds, before opening them. ‘We keep looking until we find them. We’re not giving up on them.’
‘No, we’re not. But we’re going to have to grab some rest, Morgan. We can’t focus on exhaustion. I’m wiped out today both mentally and physically, I need my bed.’
He was right, she knew he was, but oh, how she wanted to go outside onto that cold and lonely fell, to scream their names at the top of her lungs and hope that they heard her and that it gave them hope to cling onto until she found them.
Eyes blurry with tears, she rushed past Cain to get outside and did just that, cupping her hands around her mouth.
‘Scarlett, Janey, I’m looking for you.’ Her voice loud, so loud that it echoed around the valley below.
