Caroline was waiting impatiently beside Mark’s desk when he and Jan walked back into the incident room half an hour later.
She thrust a printed-out email at him before he could remove his jacket, and grinned.
‘An optician in Wantage returned my call this afternoon confirming a patient of his matched the prescription we sent over,’ she said before he’d finished reading. ‘Her name’s Marie Allenton.’
‘It can’t be,’ said Jan. ‘She’s Sonya Raynott. We’ve just spoken to two blokes that knew her as a viola player. Spencer Rossbay was the one who recognised the tattoo from the social media post we put out.’
‘Not according to this email,’ Mark said, handing it to her. ‘So, does our victim have an alias, or is this mistaken identity?’
‘Spencer confirmed it was Sonya from the photograph, Sarge. You heard him. He was adamant.’ Jan frowned. ‘How long had she been going to this optician?’
‘On and off for three years. He said her last appointment was in February for a routine check-up. That’s when he had to tweak her prescription because there’d been a slight deterioration in her right eye.’ Caroline took back the email and looked over her shoulder as Kennedy approached. ‘They’ve got a different name for her, guv.’
‘Oh?’ The DI listened while Mark updated him. ‘Interesting. That goes a long way to explaining why Alex just informed me that uniform found very little at the address Rossbay gave for Sonya Raynott. Again, no ID, and basic living arrangements. Not many clothes, and certainly no musical instruments, let alone a viola. We weren’t able to trace a next of kin, either.’
‘Did the optician give you an address for Marie?’ Mark said.
‘Yes, I phoned him after his email came through.’ Caroline hurried back to her desk and returned holding out a sticky note. ‘She lives in a village just west of Didcot, according to him.’
‘Get another patrol over there now,’ said Kennedy. ‘And put those details into the system before you leave tonight. If uniform can’t find anyone to speak to at the house then you’ll need to apply for a search warrant for us to use in the morning.’
Jan shook her head. ‘What the hell was she up to? It’s a lot of subterfuge for someone conning people out of their valuables, isn’t it?’
‘Have you had a chance to find out anything about Nolan Creasey?’ Kennedy asked.
‘He’s on a career networking site listed as running some sort of counselling service, which ties in with what Graham Tiegler told us,’ said Mark. ‘Neither Tiegler or Rossbay had any direct contact details for him, so in the circumstances we thought we’d drop in and speak to him in the morning. He’s got an office here in Abingdon, just off East St Helen Street.’
‘All right – tomorrow morning, Caroline, start phoning around local GP surgeries with both names. We need to track her parents before they find out about this by accident through the news or social media – the more witnesses we interview, the more the rumours are going to start circulating soon.’
‘It’d be good to have a list of the dates she was at the optician’s too,’ said Mark. ‘Just in case it ties in with any other burglaries in that area we haven’t linked to her and her accomplice yet.’
‘No problem,’ said Caroline. ‘I’ll get some help with that from uniform so hopefully we’ll have some answers by tomorrow afternoon.’
Mark cradled a mug of hot tea between his hands, a gentle breeze ruffling his hair while he sat cross-legged on the roof of the narrowboat and squinted at the night sky.
The light pollution out here wasn’t too bad. The boat was moored far enough away from the bridge into town to avoid the harsh street lights, and the Abbey Meadows behind him were quiet at this time of night. The houses that bordered the gardens were far enough away that he could only hear remnant sounds from the streets beyond.
He wondered if the repairs to his old rental house had been completed, or whether new tenants had moved in.
He hadn’t been back since the fire.
‘I thought I’d better grab this to keep us warm.’
Turning, he saw Lucy throw a tartan blanket onto the roof before lifting up Hamish, and then she scrambled up to join him.
After arranging the blanket across their shoulders, she took the mug he held out to her with a smile.
‘Thanks.’
‘Cheers.’ He clinked his drink against hers and blew across the surface before taking a tentative sip.
‘I can see the International Space Station, look.’ Lucy pointed to their eleven o’clock position and smiled. ‘Rather them than me.’
‘You don’t fancy going into space?’
‘Nope. I like terra firma, thank you. Why, would you?’
‘I don’t know. I like it from this angle, I have to admit.’
They sat in silence for a moment, and Mark watched while Hamish trotted to the far end of the boat and lay down, his ears pricked towards the bridge and the four other boats in the distance.
He emitted a growl under his breath at the sound of reeds slapping together on the opposite bank, and then a single sharp bark as a water vole plopped into the water.
‘Shush, boy. Don’t disturb the neighbours,’ Mark said.
Lucy rested her head against his shoulder. ‘Dare I ask how the case is going?’
‘Frustrating. I can’t tell you much, except that we found out this afternoon our victim has an alias.’
‘Why would she do that?’
‘I don’t know yet.’ He put his mug to one side, then wrapped his arm around her, drawing her closer and tucking in the blanket around them. ‘I’m wondering if she did it to throw off anyone like us trying to catch her, or whether she was doing it to protect herself in another way. Most of the time she was going by one name – certainly publicly, anyway. The other name cropped up from an optician’s appointment she had earlier this year. We were just lucky they were searching for a prescription rather than a name, otherwise we might not have ever made the connection.’
‘Are you going to put out the new name to the news sites and social media in case someone can help?’
‘Not yet. Not until we understand more about why she was using that name. After that, we’ll have to dig around to see where else she was using it – and which one is her real identity.’
Lucy shifted under his arm, then peered up at him, her brow creased. ‘I suppose there’s always the chance she might have had more than two names as well, isn’t there?’
Mark groaned, then drained his tea.
‘Just what I needed to hear before I try to sleep.’