Tim had put Juliet in charge of the door-to-door enquiries and managed to wheedle a promise from Superintendent Thornton to stump up the budget to draft in extra help from another police force if he could persuade Michael Robinson, now in danger of permanently losing the support he was receiving from South Lincs, to share the costs. The prospect of a long night with little or no sleep seemed inevitable. Tim had no intention of leaving his team to it while he went home to rest, but, glancing at his watch, was just debating whether he could spare a few minutes to nip home to see Katrin and say goodnight to Sophia when his phone rang.
‘DI Yates?’
Tim recognised Professor Salkeld’s voice immediately.
‘Professor! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you again so soon.’
‘Aye. Well, I didn’t expect ye to, either. But for once my job’s been made easier than I expected. I can tell ye now the likely reason for death of the laddie in the alleyway: his body’s been punctured with multiple stab wounds.’
‘Like the young girl at the Fossdyke!’
‘Precisely like that. Strange, don’t ye think?’
‘But that means that the girl’s murder may be linked to Smythe’s; and it makes it less likely that she and the other two women in the Fossdyke were killed by the same person!’
‘As I’ve said before, ye’re the detective. I’m just giving you the facts. Bear in mind I’ve just given you the likely reason for his death so far; ye’ll have to wait a bit longer for the actual cause. Punctured one or more of the internal organs, is my guess.’
‘Bang goes Michael Robinson’s theory about copycat murders!’
‘With regard to the other two women, I wouldn’t rule anything out yet. I’m doing my best to establish a cause of death for them, but it’s not easy. Decomposition is very far advanced.’
‘But what do you think, Professor? The murders at the Fossdyke had so much in common with the Jenkins murders that DI Robinson wasn’t the only person to guess that they were copycat crimes.’
There was a pause at the other end of the phone. Then the Professor could be heard tutting.
‘If you really want me to teach you your job, I’d say there were three possibilities: if they’re copycat murders, either Jenkins killed a middle-aged male as well and it was never discovered; or your copycat criminal has got the wind up and decided to commit another crime to lead you off scent.’
‘Makes sense. And the third possibility?’
‘That the crimes aren’t linked.’
‘But you don’t believe that, do you, Professor?’
‘I try to keep an open mind. It’s my job to do so. But since you ask, like yourself, I’m inclined to be suspicious of coincidences. So, no, I don’t believe they’re unrelated. And if they aren’t, there’s someone very dangerous out there who’s on a bit of a killing jag at the moment.’
Having exchanged farewell pleasantries, Tim put down the phone. A crisis point had been reached; now he must think very clearly about what to do. The police urgently needed to warn the public of the danger, but what form should the warning take? Tim had successfully tackled killers on the loose before, but they’d never chosen such a diverse set of victims. If this was a single killer, his or her victims had been two young women, a child and a middle-aged man. Was there a link between their deaths, or had they simply been chosen at random? Alternatively, was it possible there were two or even three killers at work? The two women whose bodies had been hauled from the Fossdyke Canal must have been murdered by the same person, but the killer of the girl and Smythe could have been someone different, or, less probably, two completely separate people. Should the public at large be warned that everyone was in danger? Tim knew this wouldn’t work. Unless he could say that specific groups of people were at risk, it was unlikely that anyone at all would heed the warnings.
His need to see Katrin had become urgent now. She’d be able to look at the whole thing objectively, perhaps spot some links that he was missing, help him to narrow down the killer’s profile. For the first time, he admitted to himself that the course she was studying had its uses.
He was about to go in search of Juliet to say that he was nipping home for half an hour when his phone rang again.
‘Hello, Timmo.’
‘Michael? How’s it going? I’m sorry I had to rush off, but I did warn you that Superintendent Thornton might see my secondment as a very temporary arrangement. I’m afraid it doesn’t look as if I’ll be coming back to you soon, if at all.’
He had made a snap-second, very ungallant decision not to tell DI Robinson any details about the Spalding murder. Let him hang on to his copycat theory for a bit longer, perhaps get egg on his face!
‘No, I guessed that. But I’d still like to ask for your help unofficially, if you don’t mind.’
Tim had already been preoccupied when he’d first taken the call and therefore was not paying much attention to Robinson’s tone, but now he focused on it more closely and detected the note of panic there. The annoying uppitiness Robinson had exhibited earlier in the day had vanished.
‘I’ll do my best,’ he said carefully. ‘I don’t have much time, as you know.’
‘I’ve had a visitor. About the Fossdyke murders,’ Robinson began, his voice shaking slightly.
‘Oh, yes? A witness?’
‘Not exactly. Someone who says they’re from the Roma community.’
Tim pricked up his ears. This could be more interesting than he’d expected.
‘What did they want?’
‘They said they’d been looking for a girl who disappeared a few days ago.’
‘Sounds promising! Go on.’
‘Apparently this girl sometimes mixed with the estate kids who go down to the Fossdyke to muck around.’
‘This gets even better, Michael. Who is this person? Is it a parent?’
‘No, just a woman who says she takes care of the Roma kids sometimes – or tries to – while their parents are out ‘working’. She hasn’t told me much about the girl she’s been looking for.’
‘Have you asked her to bring the parents in? See if they can identify the girl in the morgue?’
‘No, not yet.’ Robinson’s voice had almost dropped to a whisper.
‘Well, why the hell not, Michael? This could be our – your – best lead so far!’
‘I don’t know if she’s above board. But she did tell me that she’d been to the Fossdyke Canal to look for the girl. At night.’
Suddenly, Tim understood.
‘Which night? The night the bodies of the two women were found and the Fossdyke Canal was left without police guard? Michael, is she trying to blackmail you?’
‘I don’t know. What do you think?’
‘I don’t know, either. But you can’t afford to pass up on this lead just because you’re afraid someone in the press might accuse you of negligence. You won’t put her off by ignoring her, in any case. If she’s hoping to squeeze something out of you, she’ll keep on until it either works or you get shut of her. Surely you know that. And you also know you can’t afford to let it work. You haven’t broken the law by being negligent, but if you succumb to blackmail, God help you!’
‘I know,’ said Robinson miserably.
‘Is that the favour you wanted to ask? Just for me to listen?’
‘Well, actually, no, I…’
‘Go on,’ said Tim, trying to sound as off-putting as he could.
‘I wondered if you’d come over to interview her with me. I’d appreciate your opinion. You’ll have a better sense of if she’s above board than I will.’
Tim was in no mood for flattery.
‘You mean, if she’s thinking of blackmail she won’t dare try it on with me?’
‘If you want to put it like that, yes. Can you spare the time?’
‘The answer to that is no. But I will come if I can – only because I’m interested myself in whether she has any genuine information. When can you get her back in?’
‘She’s here now. I’ve asked her to wait.’
‘Christ, Michael, I’ve had a beast of a day. There’s a new murder here to solve and I haven’t had chance to speak to Katrin since yesterday. I was just about to nip home now…’
‘I’d do it for you, Timmo.’
Tim was amused by the blatant lie. He almost let out a shout of laughter.
‘I’m quite certain you wouldn’t, Michael. But okay, you win. I’ll be with you shortly.’