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‘Will’s wife, she owns this amazing café and shop in Bowness. She wants to have a word with me about something, so let’s go there for lunch. Sally paid her a visit the week before she died, she thought she was being haunted.’

‘Did I know this, and for real? How about I drive us to the station, you take the car and go grab some lunch from the café, speak to Annie, and I’ll speak to Marc about the Riggs. I’m pretty sure a ghost didn’t kill her.’

‘Perfect, neither do I, but I’m following every line of enquiry, like my boss would want me to.’

She felt a bit bad she’d forgotten to update them on Sally’s visit to Annie, or maybe she’d been waiting for it to become a more solid lead, because it was a little bit out there and she could just hear Amy taking the piss if she brought it up. It was much better for her to go on her own. When she’d spoken with Annie, she’d give the team a full brief on Sally’s visit to Practical Magic and Annie’s suggestion that she may have had a stalker, even though Sally hadn’t believed so, or reported it.

TWENTY-NINE

At the station entrance Ben jumped out of the car and Morgan walked around to get in the driver’s seat. As she began driving towards Bowness, she wondered why Annie had been at work today. She was sure she told her that she didn’t work Sundays or Mondays. Whatever her reason, Morgan was glad of the chance to go and speak to her again.

Bowness was busy, full of crowds of tourists, which was brilliant for the area but annoying when you wanted to get parked. A car in a parking bay a little ahead of her indicated to pull out and she flashed it, waiting patiently and smiling to herself. Talk about perfect timing. Divine intervention or whatever it was. Morgan parked the white Corsa effortlessly and got out. It was a short walk down to the café, past the quirky row of shops selling clothes, teapots, pet accessories, a sweet shop, charity shop and confectionery. Morgan glanced in all of their windows, but nothing took her eye. The next row was bakeries with cafés, then a Domino’s of all things; she expected the local restaurants hadn’t been too happy with that opening up.

Finally she came to Annie’s café. It was busy when she walked in, and she couldn’t see Annie behind the counter, so she turned to go into the little shop and there she saw Annie serving a customer. Morgan waited until the teenage girl left, clutching her paper bag of assorted crystals along with a pack of tarot cards. Annie smiled at her.

‘Come through to the office, I’ll get Magda to keep an eye on the shop.’

Morgan followed her through to the compact office, full of neatly stacked boxes.

‘Busy day.’

‘Yes, typical, when I could have done with a bit of a breather to process everything as well.’

‘I thought you didn’t work Mondays?’

‘I don’t as a rule unless it’s a bank holiday or Magda lets me know I’m needed, but see how busy it is and I’m a staff member down too, so I thought I’d better come in. Lily, my mother-in-law, should be here any minute to help out too. Can I get you a drink?’

‘When we’re done, I’ll get some takeaway coffees and sandwiches if that’s okay.’

‘Of course, it is, thank you for coming at such short notice, Morgan, I really appreciate it. You’ve just missed Natalie, but I’m worried about her. I got a really strong vibe from her.’

Morgan perched on the corner of the sturdy pine desk. ‘What sort of vibe?’

‘That she’s in trouble, the perfect way to describe it is haunted. She looked so different today than I’ve ever seen her. She’s usually so put together, you know the type, those women who are fit, fabulous and never seem to age a day.’ Annie paused, and Morgan nodded for her to continue. ‘Well today she came in looking kind of bedraggled, I mean I look like that most days, but it was out of character for her. Even when she’s been out fell walking or to yoga, she doesn’t look like that. I asked her if she was okay, and she said that things were a bit weird at home. She feels as if she’s always being watched but there’s never anyone there. It’s the same as Sally said she felt. She scoffed when I told her she might have a stalker, but what if she did and now that person is watching Natalie?’

‘Did Sally know Natalie?’

‘I couldn’t say, but they’re both of a similar age – in their late forties. Although it’s hard to tell because they look so good, both well-off to a degree, both have families.’

Morgan was thinking it through. ‘Families, how many kids does Natalie have?’

‘One, a daughter, I think she’s about fourteen.’

There it was, that icy trickle of cold water running down Morgan’s spine as she connected the two women; maybe it went deeper than them both having children, but she had that gut feeling: what if Annie was right and whoever killed the Lawsons had a new family to concentrate on?

‘Do you think Natalie would be up for me visiting her? Today, well now, would be great?’

‘I already suggested to her I could come see her at five when the café closed, but I don’t suppose she’d mind us calling now though. I hope you don’t mind, but I presumed you’d want to speak to her, so she knows you’re coming too, though I didn’t tell her you were a detective in case it scared her.’

‘Annie, you’re brilliant. I think we need to go and have a chat with her as soon as we can, I don’t want to leave it.’

‘Give me a couple of minutes, to sort things out here.’

‘I’ll go grab the car, be waiting outside for you.’

THIRTY

Ben’s desk phone was ringing as he entered the office. Amy and Cain were nowhere to be seen. He rushed in, just in time to pick it up.