She shook her head. ‘I thought they were missing?’
‘They are, but we’re covering all bases. What about the teenagers who went up to the camp.’
‘No, I haven’t seen either of them. You mean Dawson and those two girls. I know his mum; it’s so sad. It’s really scary that all this has happened so close to here. That old summer camp needs tearing down. It’s nothing but bad luck.’
‘Is it?’
‘Come in and I’ll tell you about it. Can I get you a hot drink?’
Cain silently prayed to the coffee gods; he had struck gold on the first strike and would be forever grateful. ‘That would be great, thank you.’
He followed her inside the pub, which was cosy inside with lots of wood panelling, the smell of stale beer lingering in the air. She pointed to the bar, and he sat on one of the high stools.
‘Latte, cappuccino, Americano? Before you ask, we also have a coffee machine. We might be in the middle of nowhere, but we do move with the times.’
Cain laughed loudly. ‘A cappuccino would be like heaven, thank you.’
She nodded and busied herself making him his coffee, which he took and savoured with great pleasure when she passed it to him. As he sipped his hot drink, he realised she was much older than he’d first thought.
‘This is incredible, thank you.’
She smiled. ‘You’re welcome. Don’t tell your friends, I’m not spending my morning making free drinks. They can go to the café and give them their business.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of it and yes, they can. So, I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name.’
‘Deana and I didn’t tell you it.’
He liked Deana, she had just the right amount of attitude. Morgan would like her too. He wondered again where the hell she was.
‘Deana, what do you know about that old summer camp?’
‘Just that it’s always had a bad vibe kind of thing. Bad stuff happened there the minute it opened. We don’t talk about it much because, you know, it’s weird, but we get lots of people asking about it. Some of them want to go visit it, there’s like a cult following of YouTubers who are always filming it. I don’t know why Amos hasn’t torn it down.’
‘You know Amos?’
She nodded. ‘He’s a good guy, too nice really, that’s why he hasn’t ever done anything with it. I think he feels some kind of misguided loyalty to his mum who died. It’s supposed to be haunted, I mean so many violent deaths up there and now that teenage boy, his friend is missing and another body dragged out of the lake. It’s enough to give you nightmares, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah, it really is. What about the watcher?’
‘Who’s that?’
He was glad Deana hadn’t heard of it. ‘Oh, nobody. I’m getting carried away. Is there anywhere or anyone who lives in the village that’s a bit strange?’
She laughed loudly then composed herself. ‘There’s a lot of strange people who live here, even stranger ones who visit. Can you be more specific than that?’
He smiled at her and took another sip of his coffee.
‘Let me rephrase that for you, what you’re really asking me is if there is anyone who could have done such an awful thing as killing people and kidnapping them?’
‘Yes, that’s exactly what I meant.’
‘The only person I can think of doesn’t live here anymore. He moved away a couple of years ago, but he was weird.’
‘How so?’
‘Well, he was an older guy who liked younger girls and would hang around whenever the local lasses were out with their friends, or if any of those wild swimmers were getting changed down by the lakeshore he’d hide in the bushes to watch them.’
‘What was he called? Did he ever get arrested?’
