‘We’ll get going, we’re needed for drugs warrant over in Kendal.’
They left them standing, staring at each other. Morgan wanted to drag Amos back to the station. How did he have a relatively new iPhone in a shed on his property that didn’t belong to him when there were two missing women? Judging by the look on Amos’s face he was panicking. Why was that if he had no idea where it came from?
Ben picked up the bag. ‘Amos, what kind of phone do you have?’
Amos opened a drawer and pulled out an old Nokia, so old it was vintage. ‘I rarely use it; I prefer the landline, but sometimes you get cut off out here and it’s good to have a backup.’
He handed it to Ben who smiled. ‘Wow. This works, still?’
‘Yes, good old Nokia, it has no internet, can’t take photos but I can play a mean game of Tetris on it. I don’t know where that phone came from you found or who put it there, but I can tell you that I wouldn’t know how to use it, and I have never seen it before.’
Marc sighed again. ‘Do you think it could belong to the missing women?’
‘I wouldn’t know, I mean it might, but what were they doing in that shed? Didn’t you have to open it up with a key, it’s padlocked.’
Ben’s face was full of remorse as he listened to Amos question his boss and dig himself into a hole. It was Morgan who answered.
‘Yes, we had a key, but the lock wasn’t fastened. Which means someone was lucky to find it open like that or they had to have had access to it to put the phone in there. Has anyone else got the keys to that shed?’
He shook his head. ‘No, just me that I’m aware of, but I don’t always snap the lock across. There’s never much need to really.’
‘I’m sorry, Amos, but I’m going to place you under arrest now and we’re going back to the station.’ Morgan didn’t care what Ben or Marc thought; she wasn’t letting this go because of some misguided feelings towards the guy. He may be nice, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t hiding something.
‘We don’t need to cuff you if you’re willing to cooperate,’ she said, and he nodded.
‘Poor Shep has had a rough time of it the last couple of days. He’s never been on his own so much. Can I let him out and feed him?’
‘Of course,’ replied Ben, and Amos smiled at him as he began to sort Shep out again. ‘Do you want to bring him with you?’
Marc almost choked, and Morgan looked bewildered at Ben’s suggestion. Amos smiled sadly.
‘No, it’s okay. He wouldn’t like it in that fancy police station of yours, it’s too bright and noisy. He prefers the peace and quiet. I appreciate the offer though; that’s very kind of you. What will happen if I can’t get back to let him out in the morning?’
‘If for some reason you can’t then I’ll come get him and take him to my house. Would that be okay, Amos?’
‘You’d do that, I appreciate it.’
‘But you should be back, so don’t worry about him too much, this should be sorted out without too many complications.’
Morgan left to go and sit in the van. What the hell was Ben doing? She was going to drive, and Ben could keep Amos company if he was so bothered about her arresting him. Marc and the other officers were still searching the buildings – finding Janey and Scarlett was their priority.
Today had been crazy and she didn’t think it could get any worse. She didn’t know if she believed that Amos was a killer and had kidnapped Scarlett and Janey, but what she did know was that she wouldn’t be doing her job if she didn’t interview him about the phone. He had to know something. If nobody else had a key to that barn then who had put it there in the first place, and why? Unless someone had set him up to look as if he had hidden it there, there was that possibility. Either way they wouldn’t know unless he was spoken to again, this time after being read his rights.
Morgan rubbed her index and middle finger along the bridge of her nose, her head was pounding and she wanted to swallow two ibuprofen and get an early night. They had been working this investigation since the early hours and there didn’t look as if there was any sign of them being able to call it a day yet. Not unless she could prove the phone didn’t belong to either Scarlett or Janey and the only way to do that tonight would be if she could charge it up and get into it. Marc would never agree to it once they were back at the station, but Ben might if it meant getting Amos off the hook.
THIRTY-FIVE
Ettie had been unsettled since Morgan’s visit, then she’d gone into Kendal to M&S to stock up on her favourite biscuits, cakes and something nice for tea and seen the headlines blazing from the front of the newspapers.
One Teenager Dead, One Missing and One Left Alive
Underneath it was a picture of a dripping wet Morgan standing at the edge of a lake looking frozen and bedraggled. Who on earth had taken that photograph and given it to the newspapers? Surely the press hadn’t been there in the early hours when that had happened. It didn’t make sense; they wouldn’t have known about the tragic incident. She picked up the paper, folding it in half, and tucked it into her shopping trolley. That would mean that one of Morgan’s colleagues had snapped it and sold her out. That thought gave Ettie a cold shiver that ran the full length of her spine. There was a spy in the ranks, and she didn’t like that for Morgan. Hadn’t they been through enough finding out that one of their own was a serial killer? Ettie had felt so bad when she’d heard the news about Angela. She hadbeen a good woman, a brilliant social worker, and had suffered terribly at the hands of her estranged son. Ettie sighed, what was the world coming to? She was going to have to tell Morgan about this, so she knew there was another snake in their midst.
After browsing the food hall, she paid for her stuff and decided to treat herself to a cappuccino in the café, before driving back home.
Ernest was coming for supper, and she’d busied herself in the kitchen, her favourite place of all. Max was as fidgety as a cat on a hot tin roof this evening, and he’d been in and out of the window more times than she could count. Hopping in to watch her and then hopping back out, chattering so loud she wished she could speak fluent corvid, so she knew what was making him so edgy. Finally, he came back in and just stared at her. Ettie flung her hands in the air.
‘What is the matter with you tonight? Shouldn’t you be nesting somewhere, ready for bed, why are you so antsy? You’re putting me on edge.’
