‘Matthews.’
‘About time, what took so long?’
‘I’ve just come back, afternoon to you too, Declan.’
‘Good afternoon, I have some news. I’ve matched those two hands with Tim and David Lawson. They fit like a glove. Oh that was terribly bad taste, sorry.’
Ben smiled. ‘That’s good news, I wish we had Sally’s hand. It doesn’t seem right that she’s missing it. I can’t get my head around why someone would want to chop their hands off in the first place, it’s so bizarre.’
‘Has your girl, Morgan, not got a theory about it?’
‘She has, how did you know?’
‘A wild guess, she’s very good at this stuff. Too good to be wasting her time in Rydal Falls that’s for sure. Although I suppose we should be thankful she’s happy enough or we’d never get any criminals caught.’
‘That’s true, though I think you’re being a bit mean about my department, we can catch criminals with or without Morgan’s help.’
‘Mmm, really. Well, put me out of my misery anyway, what does she think this hand stuff means?’
‘She thinks the killer is acting as if he’s the hand of God and passing judgement on the victims.’
‘That’s certainly different, but interesting for sure.’
‘It’s better than anything I’ve come up with. We also think that Tim was involved in some secretive computer game he was playing on the Dark Web, and that the neighbour may have had a crush on Sally. As to how they’re connected though, not a clue.’
‘Blimey, I have a headache listening to that, good luck trying to figure it out. I have some news that might help. There is matter under Tim’s fingernails, now it could just be the usual teenage grungy dirt, or it could be that he tried to stop his attacker and managed to get us some fabulous DNA samples that would lead us right to the killer’s front door.’
‘Declan, you are brilliant.’
‘Ach, I know but it will take some time to process, we’re just thawing out the hand now so we can get it collected and fast tracked.’
‘Thank you, I owe you a pint.’
‘You owe me more than that, but it will do for now. Catch you later.’
Declan hung up. Amy was knocking on the window. Ben smiled at her, waving her in.
‘There’s a Heather Rigg at the front desk, she said you asked her to come in?’
Ben nodded. ‘I did, well Morgan did. Wow that’s brilliant, first Declan thinks he may have some DNA under Tim’s nails and now Heather’s turned up. Are you busy? I could do with you sitting in whilst I talk to her.’
‘Not busy, where’s Morgan?’
‘Thank you, she’s gone to a café in Bowness and is bringing back coffee and food.’
‘From Bowness? It must be good.’
He shrugged. ‘She thinks so.’
They went downstairs to the front desk and spoke to Brenda who was in the small office behind it.
‘Heather Rigg?’
‘That woman on her own near the doors. It’s a good job you haven’t taken ages to come down, she looks as if she might make a run for it at any moment.’
‘Thanks, Brenda.’
‘Anytime. The first room is empty if you want to take her in there.’
