The briefing and Q&A session took almost three hours in total. Several of the detectives used their phones to photograph the pictures that Phil had stuck onto the whiteboards. Lulu followed their example and took snaps of the two Manchester victims. Once the briefing was over, DI Friar and DC Townsend took Phil and Lulu along to the canteen. Conrad jumped down off Lulu’s shoulders and found sanctuary under a table while they went over to the counter to collect their food.
They all had coffee, and Lulu took a bottle of Evian water and two saucers for Conrad. DI Friar insisted she paid for their food, and they carried their trays over to the table that Conrad had selected. Lulu poured some water for Conrad and put a piece of her fish on the other saucer.
‘I didn’t want to mention it during the Q&A because I didn’t want to muddy the water, but there was a case like this in London in the nineties, wasn’t there?’ said DI Friar. ‘The Gay Slayer?’
‘That’s right,’ said Lulu. ‘Colin Ireland. He killed five men, all gay, and there was bondage involved. He was jailed for life in 1993, back when I was still in uniform.’
‘I joined some time after, but I remember reading about the case in the papers at the time,’ said Phil. ‘He died in prison, in 2012.’ He looked over at Lulu. ‘We did actually look at the case, didn’t we?’
‘We did, yes. I think for a while we considered that the Choker was copycatting Ireland. We ruled out the idea pretty quickly, but there were definite similarities. Ireland used a noose to strangle his victims, but not the knot that we found. He was meticulous about cleaning up any forensic evidence too. But he didn’t dump the bodies, he would leave them where he killed them.’
Superintendent Knight arrived as they were finishing their food. He came over to their table and grimaced. ‘Bad news on the SCAS front, I’m afraid,’ he said. He pulled over a chair from a neighbouring table and sat down. ‘I spoke to my NCA contact and she checked the SCAS data on your four murders. The murders are on file, but there is no mention of the rope or the knot. The cause of death was given as strangulation and there was a note to the effect that a hate crime was a possibility. So when our two killings were put into the database, the London killings weren’t shown as having connecting factors.’
Lulu frowned. ‘That doesn’t make sense,’ she said. She looked over at Phil. ‘Who would have been responsible for liaising with the NCA?’
‘It would have been a junior member of the team,’ he said. ‘Tommy Cox, maybe.’
‘Yes, Tommy Cox. He was desperate to join CID, wasn’t he? So we took him on attachment. He wasn’t that impressed, I seem to recall. He thought he’d be out chasing villains but he spent his shifts tapping on a keyboard.’
‘He actually wanted to be in the Arts and Antiques Squad,’ said Phil. ‘His degree was in fine arts or something. Last I heard, he was working for the Anti-Corruption Command.’
‘Oh my goodness. Well, I can imagine he’s worked off his feet at the moment.’ The Anti-Corruption Command’s mission was to proactively root out corrupt and abusive officers and staff in the Metropolitan Police. ‘I don’t suppose you still have his number, do you?’
‘I think I do,’ said Phil.
Lulu looked at the superintendent. ‘Let me talk to him and I’ll get back to you.’
‘It’s not a big issue: we’ve linked the two sets of killing ourselves so we got there eventually. It would just be nice to know what went wrong.’ He forced a smile. ‘Better news on the HOLMES front. I’ve spoken to our IT people and there’s no problem linking the two databases. They’re working on it now. I’m not exactly computer literate, but from what I understand they can take all the case details on your HOLMES system at the Met and add them to our system here. Then any search on a terminal here will have access to everything on your cases. It’s one-way, you won’t be able to access our data from London. And anything you enter into HOLMES in London after today won’t appear on our terminals. But from the sound of it, you’re unlikely to have any new information.’
Phil nodded. ‘That’s true. We’ve no open leads at the moment.’
The superintendent stood up. ‘Right, I’ll leave you in the capable hands of DI Friar.’ He nodded and walked away.
Phil finished his pie and chips and took out his phone. He scrolled through his address book and grinned. ‘Yeah, I’ve got Tommy Cox’s number. Detective Sergeant Cox now, I might add. Shall I give him a call?’
‘It might be better if I do it. You’re still in the job so he might assume it’s an official complaint.’
‘That makes sense,’ said Phil. He showed her the screen and Lulu tapped the number into her phone.
The ringing tone sounded and within a few seconds DS Cox answered.
‘Tommy, long time no talk,’ said Lulu. ‘It’s Lulu Lewis. Detective Superintendent Lewis. Retired.’
‘Boss, yes, how are you?’
‘All good, Tommy. Sorry to call you out of the blue, but I’ve got a question that needs answering about four murders we worked on, back in the day.’
‘The Choker?’
‘Exactly. It’s now a cold case and I’m in Manchester with DI Jackson on what might be a lead. Tommy, when you were on the team, you liaised with the NCA regarding the Serious Crime Analysis Section, right?’
‘Absolutely, yes. Is there a problem, boss?’
Lulu could hear the tension creeping into Cox’s voice; he was obviously expecting the worst. She kept her voice soft and light. ‘No, no, it’s not a problem. I’ll tell you what it is. There have been two similar killings in Manchester involving a similar sort of rope and the same knot, but the Manchester cops didn’t get a hit on SCAS. We’ve checked and SCAS doesn’t have the rope and knot details.’
DS Cox went quiet for a few seconds, and then he made a humming noise. ‘I’m pretty sure I was told not to make the details of the rope and the knot public, boss,’ he said eventually. ‘The plan was to withhold the details so we could use them if and when we had a suspect.’
Lulu immediately realized what had happened. ‘Ah, okay,’ she said.
‘That’s what you wanted, right?’
Clearly Lulu’s instructions had been misinterpreted. Yes, details of the rope weren’t to be made public, but they very much should have been shared with SCAS. But it was a long time ago and a lot of water had passed under the bridge since then. ‘That’s fine, Tommy. I just wanted to check what information they had been given.’
‘Everything but details of the rope and the knot,’ said DS Cox. ‘So do you think it’s the same guy?’
‘There are a lot of similarities,’ said Lulu.
‘Well a copycat isn’t likely because we withheld the rope details.’
‘Exactly.’
‘I hope you get the guy, boss.’
‘Me too, Tommy. Thanks for the info.’
‘Give my best to DI Jackson.’
‘I will.’
Lulu ended the call and put the phone into her handbag. ‘Tommy didn’t pass the rope details on to SCAS,’ she said to DI Friar. ‘That explains why you didn’t get a hit.’
‘Why didn’t he pass them on?’ asked Phil.
Lulu smiled tightly. ‘I think there was some confusion about what “going public” meant. He assumed that we were keeping the information totally to ourselves. To be honest, I should have checked that he’d done as asked.’
‘You can’t second-guess everybody, boss.’
‘Well, he was young and inexperienced.’ She held up a hand. ‘But it’s not a problem. We’ve linked the cases now; at most it’s cost us a few days.’
DI Friar finished her meal and moved on to her coffee. ‘What do you two want to do for the rest of the day?’ she asked.
‘I hate to ask, but would you mind if I looked through the decision log, just to get a feeling of how far you’ve got?’ Lulu asked. ‘I’d quite understand if you said no – I don’t want you to think I’m looking over your shoulder.’
‘I’d be delighted,’ said DI Friar. ‘It’d be useful to have a fresh pair of eyes looking at the investigation. And you should both start looking at what we have on HOLMES.’ She looked across at DC Townsend. ‘I’m wondering if it would help if Mrs Lewis and DI Jackson had a look at the places where the victims were dumped.’
‘I could run them out tomorrow,’ said DC Townsend. ‘I could pick them up at their hotel first thing.’
‘Oh, we’re not staying together,’ said Lulu. ‘I’m on my narrowboat, moored at Castlefield. But I can get to the Midland bright and early. Also, I wondered if there was any way you could allow DI Jackson and me to talk to the relatives of the two victims?’
DI Friar grimaced. ‘Much as I appreciate your input, you’re a civilian now.’
‘Very much so. But you could introduce me as a consultant. The Met used me as a consultant after I retired – including on the Choker case – so it’s not my first rodeo, as they say. And if you get any pushback, I can leave. I just think it might be helpful to know where the victims came from. I’d be looking for similarities with the victims we had in London.’
DI Friar nodded. ‘Yes, I get it. And I’m not against the idea, not in principle. But I’d have to clear it with Superintendent Knight first.’
‘Of course you would,’ said Lulu. ‘I’d do exactly the same if I was in your position.’
DI Friar sat back in her chair and folded her arms. ‘What’s your gut feeling about this?’ she asked. ‘Is it the same killer, picking up where he left off? Or is it a copycat?’
‘Five years is a long time for a hiatus,’ said Lulu. ‘Most serial killers are driven by the urge to take lives, and over time the urge gets stronger. So usually the time intervals between killings gets shorter. Or they stop completely. I mean, Jack the Ripper was never caught. He just stopped. And there was a serial killer they called Bible John in Glasgow during the sixties. Bible John killed three brunette women and then stopped. There are lots of examples of serial killers in the US who killed and then stopped. The Zodiac Killer, for example. They probably either die, or they end up behind bars for something else. But what has happened here is very unusual. To stop suddenly and then restart years later in a different part of the country – I’ve not heard of that happening before.’
‘Me neither,’ said DI Friar.
‘Maybe he was sick, and recovered,’ said DC Townsend. ‘Or was in prison and has recently been released. I like the sound of this Gordon Wallace. The killings stopped when he was in prison and now that he’s out, the killings have started again.’
‘He’s definitely got to be looked at,’ said DI Friar.
‘And this Edward Parker, the guy who moved to Spain,’ said DC Townsend. ‘It’d be handy if we could find out if there were any similar killings in Spain while he was there.’
‘Oh, that’s a good thought,’ said Lulu. She looked at DI Friar. ‘How easy is that to do, post-Brexit?’
‘Not as easy as it used to be,’ said DI Friar. ‘But the NCA still cooperates with Europol so we can definitely check that out. But I don’t want to focus on those two just yet. For a start, as DI Jackson said, each of them can be ruled out of at least one of your killings. And there are loads of reasons why a killer might start and restart. An illness. An injury that temporarily affects mobility. Marriage to a spouse who keeps a close eye on him. Financial reasons. Loses his job so he can’t afford to run a vehicle. Maybe it’s job related.’
‘Could be a soldier who gets sent overseas,’ said DC Townsend. ‘An engineer who gets sent on a large project in another country.’
‘He could be a journalist,’ said DI Friar. ‘Maybe he worked for a newspaper in London, so that’s where he killed. Then he starts work for a newspaper overseas and drops off our radar. Maybe he kills wherever he is, but we don’t hear about it. Then he moves to Manchester to work for a newspaper here, and starts killing again.’ Her face broke into a grin and she looked over at DC Townsend.
‘Dickie McNeil,’ they both said at the same time, and they laughed.
DI Friar waved a hand at Lulu. ‘Obviously it’s not Dickie, although I love the idea that it might be. But I don’t want to narrow down our list of suspects at the moment; I’d be happier keeping an open mind.’
‘I take your point,’ said Lulu. ‘There are a whole host of reasons why a serial killer might stop killing and then start again. If we knew why, we’d be a lot closer to knowing who.’