Palmer closed the door after they'd seen the Phillips couple out, now accompanied by Charlotte Hoggins.

'That's a new one for the books. A private investigator.' Palmer shook her head in wonder but Neo wasn't so forgiving.

The last thing he needed was an outsider mucking around in his case. Charlotte Hoggins would prove to be annoying at best and a hindrance at worst.

'Suppose I can't blame Jerry. The Inspector in charge of Lucy's case rather bungled it,' Palmer said.

'Enough that he's felt the need to hire someone outside the force?' Neo asked, folding himself into his chair, already making a list of the information he needed.

'When Lucy, her boyfriend, and Jack went missing, the inspector believed they were just teenage runaways. Neither Jack nor Lucy were strangers to a bit of rule breaking, so it wasn't too far a stretch. It took the families two weeks to convince him to get a search team in the area. In the third week, they found two bodies in the pond. Poor kids had been strangled to death.'

Neo whistled through his teeth.

'Exactly,' Palmer agreed. 'Course the press had a field day. And then we never managed to apprehend their killer. Well, you can imagine how they dragged the force through the mud after that one.'

And Neo could. In Mr Phillips' eyes, the force was partially responsible for his daughter's death, whether they could have prevented it or not.

'What about Charlotte Hoggins? You seem to know her?'

Neo looked up as Palmer sighed.

'I haven't seen Charlotte since she left Marton to go to college. She was there the night that Lucy Phillips and her boyfriend were murdered. If you ask me, she couldn't stand to live in the same town where she'd lost three of her best friends.'

Dragging a hand through his hair, Neo really wished he hadn't given up his cigarettes now.

'You mean to tell me that woman is friends not just with my missing person but was connected to her sister's murder?'

There was coincidence, and then there were glaring neon signs that were screaming out to be investigated. Charlotte Hoggins was one of them. One of the few people who was connected to both cases.

'Charlotte Hoggins was just as much a troublemaker as Lucy or Jack. They were a right little gang, the three of them, but Charlotte was always the brains. Add in Lucy's boyfriend, George, and Jane, who were slightly more reserved, and you had the closest group of kids I've ever known.'

'Was she ever a suspect?' The gears in Neo's brain were whirling with the new information.

But Palmer shook her head. 'Apparently, she had an upset stomach and left with Jane. Her parents could corroborate her story as they stayed up with her the whole night as she vomited. Classic case of too much stolen alcohol and virgin drinkers. Besides, they were able to pull Jack's fingerprints off the bodies so they weren't looking for other suspects.'

Regardless, Neo typed Charlotte's name in capital letters onto his phone. If he was going to have someone sticking his nose into his investigation, he wanted to make sure he knew everything about her first.

'I want weekly reports on this, Denzel. All decisions are to be run through me.' With her warning in place, Palmer left.

A knock on his door, brought Neo out of his musings, as Gwilt stuck his head into the office.

'Hey, Chief, just to let you know forensic has finished, and the car has been removed. So what do you need?'

Neo collected his things, picking up his empty coffee cup with the determination of a man looking to get his next fix.

'Gather the team, it's time for a briefing.'

                                                                                 ***

Neo was just leaving when one of his constables called him over to their desk.

'Something I can help you with, Jenkins?' asked Neo.

'No Sir, just these files arrived from the archive. It's the Felton Pond murders.'

Neo looked at the small box with apprehension. In his time on the force, he'd seen murders with six to nine boxes of information.

'Is that all?' He felt inclined to ask, the small box twisting a knot in his stomach.

Even an open and shut case usually warranted around three boxes.

'That's all they had. He said everything was here.' The officer bit her lip looking nervous as she glanced between her boss and the information.

Neo shook his head, noticing her unease. 'I'm sure it'll be fine. I'll take it home and review it tonight. Tomorrow, I want all members in my office to run through the case.'

'Understood Sir.' The officer relaxed as Neo picked up the files and walked away.

He'd hoped the files would have arrived earlier, preferring to go through them during working hours, but the job wasn't always 9-5 and his kids knew the score.

He secured the box in the boot of his car and went in search of a takeaway. As a rule, he usually kept the takeaways to a minimum, but he felt like he needed one today. With his usual cigarettes missing, he was craving the greasiness of their local Chinese.

After having accomplished his goal, he headed home, kicking his boots off as he let himself in.

'Kids? Dinner,' he yelled, hearing the thundering of feet as two teenagers descended the stairs.

'Yes! Chinese!' His thirteen year old son, Dante, snatched the bag from his grip as Neo hung his coat up.

'Tough case?' his daughter Willow asked.

At sixteen, she was the more observant of his two children. Dante was likely not to notice if the house was on fire, but Willow had a keen eye and an ability to read emotions that Neo wished he could harness. It would have made his job as an inspector much easier, given the amount of people that lied to him on a regular basis.

'Sort of, but I thought you could both do with a treat.' He smiled.

But she didn't smile back. 'Has this got something to do with the family that's gone missing at Felton Pond?'

Her words wiped the smile right off his face.

'How'd you hear about that? It hasn't even been released to the press yet,' Neo groaned.

His daughter smirked at him. 'It's a small town, Dad.'

Too true, Neo thought to himself.

Usually, he loved that quality. It was what had drawn him to Marton in the first place after his divorce. But the small town gossip vine could prove to be a greater pain in his neck than Charlotte Hoggins.

'Come on, you guys. I'm starving,' Dante bellowed from the kitchen.

Neo and Willow joined Dante at the kitchen table, dishing out the food and eating in silence.

The sweet and salty sauce lingered on Neo's tongue and he rushed the food, craving the naughty treat, knowing that he would have to be good for the rest of the week.

'So what's in the box?' Dante asked, eyeing up the records that Neo had set on the end of the table.

'Nothing that concerns you.' Neo gave him a warning look, which as usual Dante ignored.

'But Dad, we could help. Couldn't we Willow?" He gave his sister big eyes, silently willing her to play along.

She sighed, but nodded. 'Is there anything you need us to do?'

Neo shovelled the remainder of his food into his mouth to hide the smile threatening to escape. His job wasn't easy on his kids and yet they never made him feel bad about it. In fact, this wasn't the first time they'd offered to help. Usually he never involved them, but something was niggling at the back of his mind.

'Do either of you know any ghost stories around Felton Pond?' he asked offhandedly, making them both frown.

'There's a couple, why'd you ask?'

Willow watched Neo as he cleared up their plates and set about rinsing them off.

'Just something my Superintendent said,' Neo mumbled.

'According to the local museum, a lot of different ghosts haunt Felton Manor,' Dante said, scrolling through his phone without pausing. 'Couple of World War II soldiers, a disgruntled farmer whose wife left him, a little boy and a lady in white.'

Neo's head snapped up. 'A lady in white?' That was what Mrs Phillips had said to him.

Dante paused his scrolling and looked up, sensing he'd peaked his Dad's interest.

'It says here that she's the oldest, sighted ghost. She's the daughter of the man who originally built Felton Manor in 1789. Two months before her wedding in 1807, her fiance murdered her.' Dante paled as he kept reading. 'He strangled her and left her body in the pond.'

Neo's blood ran cold. Strangled and left in the pond sounded eerily similar. His eyes strayed towards the box without thinking about it.

He plastered a smile on his face and finished drying off the plates.

'Sounds like a lot of towners enjoy telling tall tales.' He forced a laugh as he stacked the plates and put them away.

Dante shivered and pocketed his phone. 'Yeah.' But he didn't look convinced.

'Dad, what's this about?' Willow looked at Neo over the rim of her glasses.

Neo headed over and pulled both his kids into a hug. 'Nothing, just locals being locals. I have to work for an hour, but then how about we watch an episode of something?'

Dante fist pumped the air. 'Yes, and it's my choice. Hand papa the remote.' He rubbed his hands together and danced towards the living room.

'You know he'll pick something cheesy.' Willow rolled her eyes.

Neo placed a kiss on her forehead. 'I know, but maybe we could all do with some cheese.'

Willow didn't respond, but Neo could feel her eyes on him even as she left the room.

As soon as he was alone, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

A missing family, a ghost story and twenty year old murder. All tied to the same place.

Unable to put off the inevitable any longer, he picked up the box and moved to his study upstairs. He had plenty of work to do before he could finally relax with his kids.