After last night’s fiasco, Maggie was on edge. Tempers were frayed and everyone seemed to bite like rabid dogs at any comment or suggestion.
‘Bethany, do we have any update from the digital forensics or handwriting analysis? We have to have missed something.’ Maggie paced up and down the office.
‘I’m just going over everything now. There’s a strange anomaly here, but it doesn’t fit with our line of enquiry,’ Bethany offered.
‘Well, what the hell is it?’ Maggie ran her fingers through her hair. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to shout.’
Bethany kept her back turned and Maggie could just imagine the faces she was making at the screen.
‘Well, we’ve been focusing on agency staff as that’s where the evidence has taken us so far. But why haven’t we widened the net? Looking at peripatetic staff – they go across all the stations and could have access to various pieces of information, including Kate’s email, her phone, anything really.’
‘Damn!’ Maggie smacked her leg. This was something she should have picked up on herself. Her judgement had been clouded by the fact that someone she knew was in trouble and she felt completely helpless.
‘I actually only just realized it now. When I thought about the logistics of the case, I wondered how someone could know so much about everything we’re doing and still have access to Dr Moloney. In fact, I’m a little surprised you didn’t see it first. I had to be sure though, as I didn’t want to send anyone on a wild goose chase.’ There was a sarcastic edge to her words.
Maggie squeezed her hands into fists. ‘OK. And you’re right, I should have seen it. What have you come up with?’
‘There are four permanent members of staff who have access to all buildings in South Staffordshire. Three of them have been to Markston Police Station numerous times in the last six months.’
‘Let’s have a look at them. If we call them in, and interview them, we might be able to rule them out and save some time.’
Maggie waited while Bethany pounded the keys on her computer. One by one a picture formed and Bethany used her IT skills to pull them together expertly and place them alongside one another – like a virtual line up.
‘Hang on a minute.’ Maggie’s heart raced and she leaned in a little closer.
It can’t be. He had hair …
‘That one.’ Maggie pointed at the screen. ‘Pull up his details.’
Nathan walked over to them. ‘What’s got you hopping about?’ He looked over Maggie’s shoulder. ‘Who’s that?’
Maggie turned and hugged Nathan. ‘We’ve got him. That is our killer.’ Realizing what she’d done, she quickly composed herself.
‘How do you know? He hasn’t been on our radar before this.’ Nathan didn’t sound convinced.
‘Don’t you recognize him? We’ve all met him … including Kate! He was at my house too. Oh my god! I can’t believe this bastard had the nerve to come to my house and I had no idea who he was.’ Like a film, snapshots of the person on the computer screen were racing through Maggie’s head as she pieced everything together.
‘Whoa. He came to your house? When? And why wasn’t I informed of this?’ Nathan frowned.
‘There was no reason to inform anyone at the time. Remember the guy who came knocking on the door? He had a picture of a missing dog with him and asked if I knew anything. I’m pretty sure that’s him.’ She pointed at the screen. ‘He must have been wearing a wig and he was a little slimmer but … there’s no mistaking it. Kate said something was familiar about him … his voice I think. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!’ Maggie kicked the leg of the desk in front of her and then hopped around after realizing she wasn’t wearing her usual shoes with the reinforced toe. ‘Dammit. He’s been here plenty of times. We need to get him in here now. Can we pull up his work schedule? If someone interviews him here, I can take Kat and go to the house registered to his name.’
‘You’re jumping the gun. We’d need a warrant. All we have is the fact that you think you recognize him. That’s just not enough at the minute.’ Nathan put up his hand before Maggie could protest. ‘Bethany, get his details. I’ll speak to DI Rutherford. This has to be seamless.’ He looked at Maggie. ‘Find it.’
***
Tick tock.
Tick.
Tock.
Maggie placed her hands over her ears. All she could hear was the relentless ticking of the clock on the wall. She had spent almost an hour going through everything they had on the case so far, but couldn’t link their suspect. There had to be something.
She stared at the picture again. And then an idea popped into her head. They knew that there was a possible connection to the case in London: the young woman with Goth-like features, who was strangled. The MO wasn’t the same, but maybe they were trying to force a connection. What if it was something simple? Contacting HR, Maggie asked the admin to send her the CV. It had worked previously – maybe it was as simple as seeing whether this guy had any relations in London. She tapped her pen on her desk while she waited for the email to arrive.
PING!
‘OK. This guy previously worked at the same university that Kate did, albeit with little overlap.’ She didn’t care if anyone noticed she was talking to herself. The picture formed in her mind as she spoke. ‘I wonder if the pathologist in London has any samples left from the autopsy. Maybe the London killer left something behind since, we’re assuming, this was his first kill.’ She recalled that the officer had described the murder as one of a personal rather than a sexual nature. Catharine Hill had been strangled and, unlike the two women here, her face had been covered over when her body was disposed of in a park. That usually meant the killer had some sort of personal relationship with their victim.
Maggie called the London force and relayed her queries.
‘That’s an interesting theory, DC Jamieson. An ex-lover? A shunned boyfriend?’
‘I’m not sure, but my gut is telling me that she’s the key to all of this. If I can place her in some way with our suspect, I think everything else will fall into place.’
‘Gut instinct shouldn’t be ignored. If my memory serves me correctly, there was no trace evidence to link anyone. Do you have a picture of the guy? Details? Maybe I can run him through our system.’
‘Sending it over now. You should get it shortly.’
‘Have you looked at the picture of Ms Hill?’
‘I’ve seen the post-mortem shots and the pictures in the newspaper – they weren’t of much help as they were either grainy or she was quite young.’
‘I’m sending you something now. If you can, pull them up side by side and tell me what you see. Look closely.’
Maggie’s heart raced. What was he seeing? She didn’t have to wait long before she spotted it. ‘Holy shit. The nose. The eyes. Thanks for this. I’ll speak to you later.’ She hit print on her keyboard.
She threw the phone back down onto the receiver and shouted to Nathan. ‘I have it. I bloody have the connection!’ Maggie ran to the printer, picked up the piece of paper and dashed over to Nathan’s office, waving the pictures in his face. She could have kicked herself for not seeing it sooner.
‘What the heck?’ He grabbed the pieces of paper from her hand. ‘What am I supposed to be looking at?’
‘Look past the make-up. Facial features. Build …’ She waited for the penny to drop.
‘Damn! Although we still need to substantiate this, it’s a start. Great work, Maggie. I’ll speak to Rutherford and get Dr Blake to run some DNA tests to share with our London colleagues. Find out where he is and I’ll get the warrant.’