Page 30 of Gone in the Night (Detective Morgan Brookes #16)

THIRTY

Morgan finished taking Sammy’s statement.

‘What should I do now?’ he asked her, looking as miserable as she felt.

‘Does your boss not want to come down and talk to us?’

He shrugged. ‘Probably not, do you need him? He’s lazy and never moves from the office unless it’s to go get food.’

‘I need to know everything about the victim he has on file, so it would be useful.’

‘I should have said, sorry. She’s called Lydia Williams; she booked in for two nights. Oh my God.’

‘What?’

‘Where’s her dog? She put on the booking form that she was bringing her dog with her. Is it dead too? I can’t if it is. I mean it’s bad enough someone has done that to her, but if they killed her dog too that’s fucking despicable. There’s just no need man, no need.’

Morgan couldn’t agree more. ‘We won’t know until the forensic pathologist has assessed the scene. I hope not. Could it have got loose and be running around the fell?’

‘Well, possibly, but someone would have reported a lost dog. Walkers and tourists will do anything for a lost dog or injured animal, shame they don’t care the same about humans.’

Morgan took out her radio handset. ‘Control, can you tell me if there have been any reports of a dog running loose in this area, or one that’s been found?’

‘Morgan, that’s a definite no. I’ve been on shift the last couple of days and nothing has come in about a dog running loose in the area.’

‘Thank you, can you add to the log that Lydia Williams was booked onto the campsite for two nights and had a pet dog with her?’

‘Roger, breed, name of dog?’

‘I don’t know, sorry.’

‘No worries, when you find out we’ll add it on.’

She turned to Sammy. ‘I’m going to need to speak to your boss at some point. Can you tell me if there is CCTV here?’

‘No CCTV, but there are a couple of trail cams around the site, so he can check in and see who is doing what if he needs to, which is why he knew that Lydia Williams was still here. He must have looked at them this morning.’

‘How would he do that?’

‘I think he can do it remotely; I’ll phone him now. Do you want to talk to him?’

‘Yes, that’s great.’

Sammy took out his phone and began conversing with the guy who had answered. She looked in the side mirror and saw Declan walking towards the Suzuki next to them.

Getting out she smiled at him.

‘We really need to stop meeting this way, people are going to talk, Morgan.’

‘Out of my control, sorry.’

She stood next to him whilst Wendy, who must have arrived a few minutes before him, was filming the scene with a body camera. Once she’d photographed it and was satisfied, she would let Declan approach it.

Ben joined them. ‘It’s remote, that’s for sure.’

‘I have good news. The owner has a couple of trail cams set up to watch the perimeter and keep tabs on who is coming and going.’

Ben turned to her. ‘For real?’

She nodded, and he reached over and high-fived her. ‘Halli bloody lujah! There is a god after all.’

‘I never said they worked, or he’s got any evidence before you get yourself too excited.’

‘I’m not expecting them to, it’s just wonderful to think there is the slither of a chance that they may have caught the killer at some point.’

‘I have everything crossed for you both. Surely at some point you are going to get someone who is plain stupid and doesn’t watch the crime channel twenty-four seven,’ replied Declan.

‘The victim is Lydia Williams. Who does the car PNC to?’

Ben nodded. ‘Lydia Williams, four Kents Bank Close in Lancaster. Thirty-nine years old.’

‘I wonder if she knew Sharon Montgomery? They clearly have the same interests, so she probably knows of her if she doesn’t directly know her.

I wouldn’t be surprised if she followed Sharon on Instagram.

If that’s true then this is all connected somehow, that’s my personal opinion, not my professional one.

I’m just saying, it wouldn’t be too big of a stretch to assume that. ’

Ben smiled at her. ‘Well, you’re welcome to do a deep dive into that when we get back to the station.’

‘Thanks, I will. Oh, Declan, she might have a dog inside the tent with her.’

Declan groaned. ‘No, why did you go and say that, Morgan? I don’t do dead animals, they break my heart.’

‘Sorry, on her booking she noted she was bringing a dog with her, and we haven’t seen one. Comms said they’ve had no reports of a dog being reported as running loose. I thought I’d better warn you in case you find one curled up next to her.’

‘Morgan,’ Declan’s voice was pained.

She turned away to look at the open roof tent. ‘I mean, I’m praying it isn’t, that maybe she changed her mind and left it with a friend or put it into kennels.’

‘You’re not helping me at all.’ Declan wagged a finger in her direction.

She heard voices behind her and noticed that Cain was watching Fin and the woman he was with like a hawk.

‘Wendy, can you do me a favour, can you get some photos of those two over there?’

Wendy turned to her and began to snap pictures from different angles. ‘Who are they?’

‘Witnesses who didn’t witness a thing. He’s also a sneaky reporter who took photos and then denied it.’

‘Take his phone off him, what a creep.’

Wendy wasn’t wrong, he was a creep. ‘Marc gave it back to him and said there was nothing on it.’

The couple had loaded their tent and belongings into the car and began to slowly drive towards them. Morgan had to fight off the urge to give Fin Palmer the finger. She didn’t, she stared him out until they were out of the entrance to the campsite.

Wendy shook her head. ‘Was that?’

Morgan nodded. ‘It was, told you he was a creep.’

‘Did Marc check her phone? They could have swapped them over. He’s crafty, he’d have known you were going to ask to see it.’

Morgan let out a sigh. ‘Probably not. I don’t think Marc has the foresight to think that far ahead.

’ She was annoyed with herself for not suggesting it.

She should have known he would do something like that.

All Fin Palmer cared about was selling stories, and he didn’t care who he had to upset to do it.

Cain strolled back towards them. ‘I’m not being funny but is he not a suspect?’

‘Who?’ said Morgan, Wendy and Declan at the same time.

‘Creepy reporter guy. He’s so smarmy but what if he and that woman he’s with did it together?

Then had the audacity to hang around and watch the drama unfold.

You’re always saying killers often return to the scene of their crime.

How about putting yourself directly into the middle of it? There’s no bigger ego trip than that.’

‘I don’t know, I think he loves himself too much to risk anything like that and having to go to prison. Whatever it was it’s our bloody bad luck that he just happened to be camping here at the same time there was a murder.’

Cain arched one eyebrow at her. ‘Exactly my point.’

‘Ahh, bollocks,’ Ben announced, and everyone turned to look his way. ‘We know where he is, we can go arrest him if we have to. Nothing would give me greater pleasure. Who wants to work on his locations and whereabouts the last few days to see if we can discard him as a suspect or draw him in?’

Morgan shook her head. She would very much love to gloat over Fin Palmer if he was in the cells, but she didn’t want to have to talk to him more than needs be.

Cain held up his hand. ‘I would like that very much, boss.’

‘Good, I thought you might.’

Wendy stepped away from the car. ‘All yours, Declan, and I didn’t see a dog inside the tent, you’ll be pleased to know.’

Declan placed his palms together in the prayer position and then walked towards the car with his heavy case in one hand.