‘I won’t, that’s your business, boss, and nobody else’s.’
‘Thanks, appreciate it.’
Ben left him finishing his salad, wondering if he should try and get hold of Gilly himself. He texted her.
Hey Gilly, how are you. Have you got a lot on at the moment?
Then put his phone away. He needed to figure out what was going on. With two women out there, and time slipping away, it didn’t escape him that this killer was two steps ahead.
THIRTY-ONE
Morgan typed ‘The Watcher Lake District’ into Google and waited for the page to load. The only references it brought up was to a viewing point over Wastwater that was popular with photographers. There was nothing about a creepy urban legend, so how did Ettie and Mrs Black know about it? She sat back and sighed, did Amos know about this watcher, too? She realised that Cain hadn’t updated them about the statement he’d taken from Amos, just as Ben walked in the room followed by Marc. Amber and Brett were sharing a computer; Wendy followed behind Marc.
‘Should we just have our briefing here?’ Ben asked.
Everyone nodded, and Morgan caught the expression on Wendy’s face as she’d looked from Amber to Brett then to Morgan, who gave a small shrug. Wendy sat on the edge of Morgan’s desk and whispered, ‘Where’s Cain, thought he was back at work?’
‘I’ll tell you after,’ Morgan whispered back.
‘As you know, there was an unexpected turn of events at the mortuary this afternoon. What we foolishly took for granted was the missing teenager Scarlett Peters was actually a completely different woman, yet to be identified. It is a possibility she is amissing woman reported today by Sandra, our lovely cleaner, for not checking out of her Airbnb with her friend.’
The door opened and Claire Williams walked in, dragging a small suitcase behind her, a laptop bag under her arm. ‘Sorry, guys, am I interrupting?’
‘Not at all,’ said Marc, who jumped up off his chair to take the case off her, pointing to the empty seat he’d just vacated.
Wendy whipped her head around to look at Morgan, arching one eyebrow at her.
‘Ben was just saying about the awful mix-up in the mortuary this afternoon,’ Marc told Claire.
‘Ah, yes. That was very unfortunate, especially for you, Ben. I believe the dad punched you, and did he break the pathologist’s nose?’
Ben nodded. ‘It was very unfortunate, but from the dad’s point of view I get why he lost it.’
‘Did he get arrested?’
‘No, we didn’t think it was appropriate to put him through that. His stress levels are understandably through the roof. I didn’t think bringing him in would help anybody, and Declan agreed.’
Claire sat down, unzipped her laptop bag and took out an A4 notebook, and picking up a pen off the desk she began to write notes. ‘Okay, that’s a fair point. So, who you thought was Scarlett Peters, do you have a name for her?’
‘Not yet, well we do have a possible name – she could be Lizzie Thomas. Reported missing along with her friend Janey Moore.’
‘I took the report, well me and Brett did earlier,’ Amber piped up.
‘Okay and have you got bank cards or driving licences for either woman?’
‘No, I’m waiting on the support team from Airbnb to make contact, they should have picture ID for Janey Moore on her profile page, and all of her contact details.’
Claire glared at Amber. ‘I trust you’ve checked our records, had a dabble on the old internet to see if you can find anyone matching her location, that kind of thing.’
Amber’s eyes narrowed to small slits. ‘Well of course I have, that was the first thing I did. I’m not an idiot; that’s standard investigation skills.’
‘I’m not saying you are, I’m just asking because sometimes the basics do get forgotten about. Has anyone checked if they’ve been reported missing officially? Where are they from?’
Ben shook his head. ‘Well, if there was a misper report it would have been brought to our attention.’
He turned to Morgan. ‘Do you want to chase that up for me, please.’
She nodded.
