Morgan glared at him. Okay she hadn’t really taken much notice of Ettie’s tall tales, but she hadn’t discounted them either like Ben just had.
His phone began ringing. ‘Yeah.’ He put it on loudspeaker.
‘Hi, Ben, it’s Amber. I went to a job before and thought you might be interested in it.’
Because it was on loudspeaker, Morgan watched his face contort in ten different ways instead of groaning outwardly so she could hear.
‘You did?’
‘Yeah, Sandra, one of the cleaners from the station, reported the two guests at the Airbnb she cleans as missing.’
‘That’s a shame, but what exactly has it got to do with me?’
‘Well probably nothing, but it’s a bit odd, isn’t it? You have that missing teenager from last night, but there is a good chance these two women in their early twenties could bemissing, too. Brett has phoned around the hospitals, and the lead booker hasn’t been admitted by any of them.’
Ben’s knuckles were white he was clenching his hands so hard.
‘Anyways, I’ve put the report on and I’m going to try and find some family or friends to speak with and see if they’ve heard from her, but it’s just a heads-up in case they got into some trouble. It looks as if they were recording a podcast. All their equipment has been left behind in the cottage. It’s expensive, you wouldn’t drive away and leave that behind, would you, at least not without good reason.’
A chill went down Morgan’s spine – was it a podcast about the haunting, like what Tori and her friends had been doing?
‘Okay, Amber, keep me updated. What are their names?’
‘Janey Moore, we don’t know her friend’s name yet. Sandra was waiting on a call back from the support team. She said she’ll pass any information on they tell her.’
‘Have you run this Janey through the system in case she’s got form for overstaying her welcome at other establishments?’
‘Not yet, just about to do all of that.’
‘Well, keep me updated. If you find anything, I need to know. I’ll speak to you when I get back to the station.’ He ended the call.
He said to Morgan, ‘Should we be worried about that, do you think?’
She shrugged. ‘Bit odd to leave all your stuff behind and not contact anyone to tell them why.’
‘Christ, this is all we need.’
They drove the rest of the way to the mortuary in silence. Morgan was desperate to start researching the local lore aroundthe old summer camp, but it would have to wait until after the post-mortem.
Ben shoved the entrance doors to the mortuary, expecting them to be open, and was surprised they were locked. Usually through the day you could walk in. It wasn’t the kind of place that you went into unless you had a good reason. He rang the bell and they waited for Susie to come open them.
A shout echoed over the radio so loud it made the pair of them start.
‘Found a body, repeat found a body, clothing is caught on some rocks. I’m just going to try and loosen it.’
Morgan squeezed her eyes shut, trying to process those words as her heart broke in two with grief for Scarlett, her parents and Tori. This was devastating news for everyone, but at least they had found her, as sad as that was. Her family could get closure, lay her to rest and not spend the next twenty years wondering where their baby girl was.
‘Roger that, well done and thank you. I’m on my way to the mortuary now for Dawson Turner’s PM. Do you need the pathologist to come out, or are we going to get the body moved here? If someone can make contact with Scarlett’s family liaison officer, they can break the news that a body has been found, and we can meet them here for an ID while we’re already here.’
‘Yeah, we’ll sort that out, Ben. No need for the pathologist to come here. She’s been in the water far too long, and there is no chance of her being alive. Wendy is still here, and she will bag the hands up and anything else that needs to be done to preserve any forensics.’
Susie greeted them with a buzz cut of neon orange-coloured hair. She was grinning at them until she realised that they were listening to their radios intently.
Morgan reached out and patted her arm, whispering, ‘Sorry.’
Ben tucked his radio back in his pocket. ‘Well, bloody hell. I don’t know whether I’m relieved or gutted.’
‘Bad news?’ Susie asked.
