Page 27 (1/2)

He got his first coffee of the day and started on those they had signalled as worth further attention, though even of these at least half seemed to him of little use or relevance But the others – maybe fifteen shots – he saved in a new file, to look at more closely He also copied the whole team in on them

Three looked of certain interest The first was a shot of Rose out, but with her hand on the door as if she was about to close it The light was poor, the shot obviously taken late in the afternoon He enlarged it by 200 per cent It went completely out of focus 150 per centnot much better At 75 per cent he could see Mrs Poole’s faceto a person just ahead Perhaps she was greeting theoodbye

The next was the rear of a white van with the nuit, clearly visible

The third was of the grass outside the bungalows, frosted over but also struck by a shaft of thin wintry sunlight A shadow – no, not a full shadow, rass It was almost certainly the shadow of a person, but he could not tell much more

At nine fifteen, Simon had the whole team in the CID roo at thees in your head Nobby Parks was hanging around the D of C houses at all hours, usually after dark He took these pics at rando with his toy without a clue how to use it But there’ll be so on thesesome detail, some linkit won’t hit you in the face – if it did you’d have got it But there’ll be soht down ‘The case is out there – HOLMES, court proceedings, national and local papers Won’t take youyourselves completely up to speed with Alan Frederick Keyes and the Yorkshire murders which are blow-by-blow the exact same as ours here Only difference, there were three elderly victims up there, we only have two and let’syou can find about thisin Yorkshire, before and after the murders and the trial, but more importantly since then That’s ten years Search our force’s database – all the forensics, CRIMIN, every sort of local and area record I want to knohere he’s living, what he’s doing This is now our nuht in When he’s here, I want hiot to catch hiister, council tax lists, register of iven you from the file It’s on your computer now, code naold and find any sort of photograph, bring it to me But I don’t just want his picture I want hiain but for an occasional day there was nothing to beat it and he always returned hoe hiain, both in work and as an artist Why it had this effect of a quick inhalation of pure oxygen Serrailler could never quite suss out but it hadn’t failed him and he kneouldn’t fail him now He stopped his cab at the top of the Mall It was cold but the sun was bright There had been a state visit a few days previously and the flags were still out He walked down the wide paths, past St James’s Palace, past Clarence House, and turned to climb the steps into Carlton House Terrace when there was the sound ofpace up the Mall towards hi, plu, went past to the occasional tourist’s caed to be one of those guardshae He re a silver-painted wooden sword, riding the ar the Colour

He wasJoel Winslo a professor, at his club Winslow had been his lecturer on the two profiling courses he had taken, and had even tried, without success, to persuade Sied a bond and Sione to him for an opinion about peculiar or difficult cases once or twice before Winsloould not be proud of hi such a basic error after the murder of Elinor Sanders

‘Always bear the alternative inin to lunch ‘This isn’t an exact science, Si to i eneral, you were right Your er before he killed a second ti a "likely" to a "definite" and calling off the patrols’

‘I didn’t call the at the end of the bar, a comfortable room adjacent to the entrance hall Serrailler had been to this club a few times and enjoyed the excellent food and the handsome rooms, some s, with high ceilings and huge portraits on the walls The dining room ood-panelled with tables well separated, so that private conversations were perfectly possible He wouldn’t like to belong to one of these places, though his father loved it, but he could enjoy the surroundings and also be a, he thought, as two entered the bar now Pinstripes, stiff collars, plum-coloured faces

‘From what you’ve toldwas out of necessity rather than choice’

‘He got the wind up’

‘The old lady saw hiht she had He couldn’t take the risk But he still killed in the saanised way, he was very much in control No panic, no mistakes, even if he was in a hurry He’s a cool custo else you can tell me?’

Over their excellent, entirely traditional lunch – potted shrimps, rare beef from the trolley, cheese, a bottle of the house claret – Si the trade him the confidential secrets that had been kept from the press and the public

‘Give ree’

‘Psychopath Sadist Ritualist’

Joel nodded, his ravy

‘Loner’

‘Not necessarily Loner inside himself certainly – but he could live a perfectly ordinary life otherwise He won’t want to draw attention to his He can blend in’

Simon described Nobby Parks but after only a few sentences Joel shook his head

‘This anised, neat and tidy, folds his clothes And he isn’t so stupid as to wander about the area in which he operates, at night, being seen, having patrol cars take him home Rule him out – well, the usual 99 per cent anyway You always leave a crack to let yourself back in, but I put ainst old women’

‘Possibly, yes Had an elderly female relative who treated hiht up by her – a grandmother, an older aunt He hated her, and etting his own back for that – he’s hu the their toenails I wonder if he was made to do that for this old relative when he was a boy?’

‘Or she could have cut his, and he felt asha his own back’

‘What sort of age?’

‘More difficult So and he’s fit’

‘You don’t have to be that strong to kill an eighty-year-old woman Could "he" be a "she"?’

‘Possibly’

‘But if this is a twisted sort of vengeance on the old woo on killing? Isn’t one enough? He’s had his revenge’

‘It’s satisfying – the first tih So far as he was concerned, he’d got his own back, even if it wasn’t actually on the saain And, he’d enjoyed it That’s the other key He likes killing He likes the way he does it He likes to humiliate’

The cheeseboard was not over-elaborate A half-truckle of Cheddar Stilton A crea runny Classic, Siht, as a slice of Cheddar was laid reverently on his plate The celery was in a proper celery jar There were no other embellishments

‘And he keeps trophies They usually do Sometimes they cut a lock of hair Quite a few sadistic killers of younger women, prostitutes and so on, have been known to take pubic hair In this case it s He may collect newspaper reports of his loat Or he could keep it all on a coirl or boyfriend, that’s easier to conceal He knows his way round Round the police system, round houses, especially this sort Round the town This is night-time but there’s always somebody about – a late taxi, a police patrol, so a dog for a last pee – so he won’t march prominently down the main roads, he’ll take short cuts and alleyways and know his way round back gardens and across rough ground’

‘Local then’