March 10, 11.11 p.m.
Denise met Harper outside her building. ‘I need sleep,’ she said, and looked at Harper. ‘You more than me, maybe.’
‘We can sleep when this is over. What did you get?’
‘I’ve been working all evening. First thing is that Aaron called. He found a link between the words. You know, the words Loyalty and Valiance that were printed on the card.’
‘Yeah, so what do they mean?’
‘The motto of the SS. Loyalty, Valiance, Obedience.’
‘The SS, as in the Nazi Party SS?’
‘Yeah. We think he’s playing a part. Trying to make it as authentic as possible.’
‘Anything to help find him or nail him?’
‘Not yet, but I spent some time thinking and then it came to me – where I’d seen those marks on David’s chest. My father used to show me images from the Holocaust. I think I might have another link between David and Abby.’
‘What?’
‘The tattoo on David Capske’s chest. I think it was a number.’
‘Marisa Cohen had something written on her chest too, but the water washed it away. They found some residual signs of ink. And he’d removed her blouse.’
‘He writes numbers on their bodies,’ said Denise.
Harper noticed the heavy tone in her voice. He pulled out his notebook and flicked through. Stared down at the marks. ‘Could be,’ he said. ‘You got a theory for me? The guys at Forensics were trying to match letters.’
‘They look like prisoner numbers, Tom. After Aaron found the SS link, I just went with the idea. The SS ran the concentration camps. They numbered prisoners’ chests. They’re not letters,’ she said, her fingers running across the scratches in ink. ‘They’re prisoner numbers. He thinks he’s running some prison camp.’
Harper felt his breath catch. It was so obvious, but they’d missed it. He’d missed it. She leaned over his shoulder. He felt her closeness.
‘What’s the number?’ he said.
Denise stared hard at the scratches, trying to discern a pattern.
Then she smiled. ‘Well, although numbers are infinite, in fact, in our limited numerical system, there are only nine numbers and one zero.’
She took a pen and scratched a number four through the second set of dots. ‘Looks like a four.’
‘Could be a one or seven to start with,’ said Harper. He watched the numbers emerge on the paper below. ‘There’s a cross on the third. Got to be another four,’ he said quickly. They continued to stare at the marks on the page.
‘744 . . .’ said Harper. He turned and looked at Denise.
‘Or 144,’ she said. ‘144003.’
‘That was quick. You know that number?’ Harper asked.
‘Abby Goldenberg’s kidnapper sent a letter to her father. It gave her weight and blood pressure. And it gave her a number. It was 144002.’
‘David’s the next in the sequence,’ said Harper.
‘So Esther was presumably the first kill,’ said Denise. ‘144001.’ Harper wrote down the four consecutive numbers: 144001, 144002, 144003, 144004. Would the sequence continue? Who would be number 144005?
‘What do the numbers mean?’ he asked.
‘I’ll see what I can find.’
‘Find it quick,’ said Harper. ‘We’re getting somewhere.’