Fatal Last Words

Fifty-five

‘How are you doing with those lists?’ asked Ray Wilding. ‘Sammy will be back soon and he’ll want to know.’

‘Not helluva well,’ Sauce Haddock admitted. ‘I’ve been trying to identify the holders of the email addresses, but it’s not easy. The first one, pr876@whe.com, could be a journalist. www.whe.com is the web page of the Washington Herald newspaper. Margotthreecool@ hotmail.com is a listed member but doesn’t have any information on her profile. Ratko7@belp.yu, again, may be a journo, since that’s the address of a radio station in Belgrade. The other two, VsnaP@inet.yu and adilkovac6@saranet.ba could be anything. I’ll need an interpreter to correspond with those service providers. The “ba” suffix is Bosnia, by the way.’

‘What about the names on the other list?’

‘That’s weird. All four appear to be Yugoslav: Mirko Andelić, Danica Andelić, Aca Nicolić, and Lazar Erceg. I’ve run them through every search engine I can find and come up with sweet eff all. The only thing I can say is that they don’t seem to cross-reference with any of the email addresses.’

‘Still, we’ve got a Yugoslav connection, and that’s something. Let’s make an assumption, Harold, that Glover didn’t speak the language, and that when he communicated with these people. . if he did. . he did it in English. Fair bet, agreed?’

‘Yes.’

‘OK, I want you to send a message to all five addressees, on the force’s email, telling them who you are and that you’re investigating the murder of Ainsley Glover. Try that and wait to see what comes back.’

Haddock looked back at him, more than a little diffidently. ‘Actually, Sarge,’ he replied, ‘I’ve done that already.’