By seven forty-five, after another quick meeting with the team, Anna was heading back to Bromley.
At last dawn was breaking over London and the streets were quieter. But not all the rioters had decided to take a break. Major disturbances were still happening in parts of the city, and the morning rush hour was adding to the traffic chaos in places.
DI Benning was in the passenger seat of the pool car and the pair were discussing the contents of the letter that had been sent to Mark Rossi.
There was no question that it had come from his son’s kidnapper. The colour photo showed Jacob sitting on the inflatable mattress in the cellar with his back against the wall. He was staring at the camera, eyes wide, a look of abject terror on his face. The leather manacles on his wrists were clearly visible, as was the chain that snaked off to the left and out of shot.
Jacob was wearing his blue shirt and trousers, but his shoes had been removed. There was no way of knowing if the photo had been taken on Monday after he was snatched or at some point on Tuesday before the letter was posted.
Anna could only imagine how awful it was for Jacob’s parents to see for themselves how their son had spent the last few days of his young life. It was a truly horrific image of a boy who was scared, vulnerable and at the mercy of a sadistic monster.
It gave no clue as to the identity of the kidnapper, but it was further evidence of just how cruel that person was.
The short, printed note that accompanied it was just as chilling:
I’m sick of seeing you boast about your perfect life on social media, Rossi. You’ve had it too good for too long and that’s not fair. You act as though you’re special and more deserving than the rest of us. So I’ve taken your son because I want to see you suffer. And I’m sure you will when you’re sitting at home wondering what I’m doing to him. Pleasant dreams, Mr big shot TV man.
Anna had left the team with instructions to dissect the note and to solicit the opinion of one of the Met’s criminal behavioural analysts. The message was stark and venomous, and it raised a number of questions that needed to be considered. She was curious to know, for instance, why there was no ransom demand. And also if the kidnapper was one of Rossi’s followers on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
When she started reading it, she immediately leapt to the conclusion that it was written by someone with no link to Mark Rossi other than through social media. A complete stranger in other words, someone such as Michelle Gerrard, the mystery woman who’d been posting disparaging remarks about him.
Back at headquarters, DI Walker had pointed out that people often created an illusion of intimacy with celebrities through social media.
‘I read a report recently that dealt with this very subject,’ he said. ‘It was commissioned by some behavioural science unit in the States following a big increase in the number of attacks on public figures, especially actors and pop stars.
‘It coined some interesting phrases that have stuck in my mind. It said that for a lot of people a so-called digital relationship feels like a personal connection. By following their idols on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram they somehow convince themselves that they’re involved in a two-way conversation, which in turn amplifies infatuation. But it can also lead to problems when they blame those same idols for their own troubled lives and seek revenge against them.’
Anna had asked Walker to dig out the report and have it circulated. It was certainly something she would make a point of reading.
DI Benning had a different take on the kidnapper’s note, though, and reckoned they should be cautious about reading too much into it.
‘We can’t ignore the possibility that the note might have been sent with two objectives in mind,’ he said. ‘One was clearly to upset Mark Rossi. But what if the aim was also to cause an element of confusion, to make us shift our attention away from the obvious suspects?’
Anna had to agree that it was certainly a consideration given that those suspects included a local paedophile and two men who found out their wives had slept with Rossi. If one of them was indeed the perp, then he might have anticipated being placed in the frame by the police and decided to pen the note as a diversionary tactic.
‘One conclusion I think we can safely draw from the wording is that the kidnapper is acting alone,’ Benning said. ‘It’s written in the first person – I’ve taken your son – I want to see you suffer – I’m doing to him.’
‘And that’s useful to know,’ Anna said. ‘It should mean we can rule out anyone who can provide a cast-iron alibi for when Jacob was abducted on Monday.’
Anna’s mind spun with so many questions that it was beginning to make her head ache.
Would the perp have made the mistake of leaving a print or DNA trace on the note, the photo, or on the envelope they were put into?
Did the note suggest that the kidnapper had been planning to keep Jacob alive in order to taunt his father with more photos of him in the cellar?
Or had the intention been to eventually demand a ransom?
Anna also wondered if the kidnapper had known that the parcel hadn’t been delivered on Wednesday. Having been posted first class on the Tuesday, it should have arrived the following day. But there’d been a delay because of the riots.
So had the perp spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday wondering why there had been no reaction from the police and the family through the media?
If so, then would this have made him or her angry since the stated objective had been to see Mark Rossi suffer?