Cain wrapped his arm around her shoulders and squeezed. ‘I hope they heard that, and can I just say that you made me jump so far out of my skin I think my soul left my body. You havea big mouth, Brookes. Come on, let’s call it a day, we’ve done everything that we can, so don’t feel bad and get yourself all worked up about it.’
She smiled at him in the darkness and leaned back into his arms. She wanted this to be over, wanted the killer in cuffs and in the safety of a police cell so nobody else stupid enough to be out here when the weather turned had to pay the ultimate price with their lives.
FORTY
They drove to work in silence. Morgan hadn’t expected to sleep but she had closed her eyes the moment her head hit the pillow. Waking a couple of times from terrible nightmares about someone standing in the shadows watching her, at one point she’d turned on the bedside lamp to check there was nobody in the room, to Ben’s groaning, although he’d never opened his eyes. After using the torch on her phone to check each corner was clear, she’d switched off the lamp and fell straight back to sleep, to another nightmare.
They were too early to grab coffee, none of the cafés were open, so she was going to have to do with a coffee out of the vending machine that had been fixed since Al had shown her how to defraud it and get free drinks. Ben went into the office, and she went straight to the canteen. When she came back down with two lattes, the office was already full.
Claire and Marc were sitting down, Amber and Brett had just walked in; Cain pointed to Morgan’s cup, and she lifted her head in the direction of the canteen. He walked out of the room without even speaking, but she knew, like her, he needed coffee to get his brain fired up so he could function on so little sleep.She passed a cup to Ben, who took a huge gulp then grimaced as it burned all the way down his oesophagus.
‘They’re hot,’ she told him.
‘Too late, but thanks for that.’ She shrugged, not her fault. His face was a mess, and she had offered to put an ice pack on it for him last night. He’d gone to bed with a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a soft hand towel and fallen asleep with it on his face. Not even waking when it had turned into a puddle of mushed peas and cold water. He’d only groaned when she’d put the light on, but she hadn’t realised he was still lying on the defrosted bag until they’d got out of bed and she’d seen the bag and the wet patch across his pillow and side of the sheet.
Cain came back in with his coffee. Amber had left to brew up and came back with four mugs for herself, the boss, Claire and Brett.
Ben was pacing up and down sipping his drink. ‘I’ve expanded the search area; Amos and the neighbour’s properties have been thoroughly searched. So I’ve requested Mountain Rescue who are currently out trawling the whole fellside. Are there any caves, wells, ancient septic tanks in the area we don’t know about that we can send the search team to?’
‘What about the lake?’ asked Cain.
‘That’s been searched a couple of times now.’
He shook his head. ‘Not that lake, that’s a relatively small one, man-made. I’m thinking more along the lines of Buttermere and or Crummock Water.’
Marc’s eyes almost popped out of his head. ‘How big are those?’
‘Buttermere is a couple of kilometres, Crummock Water a couple of miles. They’re big,’ said Cain. He was smiling, but Morgan didn’t think he meant it as a gloating smile; he was just cheering the boss up.
Ben shook his head. ‘There is nothing to suggest they are in those bodies of water. We found Dawson and Lizzie in the same spot. It’s a lot busier down by both of those lakes, more chance of being seen. Having to use a vehicle to transport them and get them to the lakeside without being seen is a stretch.’
‘Not if it was the middle of the night and foggy.’
Ben glared at Cain. ‘If all else fails then yes, we’re going to have to search them, but we have nothing evidentially that suggests they were dumped in there. I think we need to concentrate on the immediate area surrounding the old campsite.’
‘Suit yourself, just a thought,’ Cain muttered.
Claire was staring at her laptop. She looked up. ‘It’s a valid point though, we may have to consider it at some point.’
Ben was leaning over Morgan’s shoulder. ‘Can you get a map of the area up? Are there any disused buildings nearby, like crumbling shepherd’s huts, bothies, shelters, watchtowers?’
At the mention of watchtowers, a cold shudder ran down her spine. The watcher, the watchtower, it was like some kind of horror movie, and nobody seemed to want to listen to her.
‘We need to consider the idea that whoever this is, they’re basing themselves on the urban legend of the watcher. Both Janey Moore and Lizzie Thomas were actually recording themselves talking about him when out of nowhere the footage on the phone I found catches a brief glimpse of a tall, shadowy figure following them.’
Amber laughed. ‘Come on, that’s bullcrap. I’ve never heard of the watcher.’
‘Pity,’ mumbled Cain.
Amber glared at him; he sipped his coffee and didn’t break her stare.
Claire nodded. ‘Okay, let’s consider this, I mean we have nothing else to go on. I’m listening, Morgan, so our guy is pretending to be this watcher, what does that entail?’
‘My aunt said it’s an old myth. He watches the fells and only appears to walkers who are lost in the fog when they’re out walking and the weather turns, preys on the lost and the weak, that kind of thing.’
Claire shrugged. ‘Well that definitely fits with what’s happening, so okay, he’s not the OG watcher from the legend because how long has that story been going around? But there’s nothing to say he’s not a copycat. Somehow, he knows about the legend and has taken it another level, maybe they’re delusional and think that they are the watcher. It’s not unthinkable.’
Morgan nodded. ‘Which also means that whoever this is must be local to know about it.’
