Little Boy Blue

93

‘I need everything you’ve got.’

Meredith Walker had been about to tuck into a well-earnt sandwich when Helen Grace burst through the doors. Her colleague seemed angry and frustrated and, as Meredith was brought up to speed with developments, it wasn’t hard to see why. The pair of them were now shut away in Meredith’s office, reams of paper spread out on the desk in front of them.

‘Every last detail. The answer has to be here somewhere.’

‘You’d think, wouldn’t you?’

‘This guy’s not a ghost, he’s flesh and blood. He can’t just visit these scenes and leave no trace.’

‘I’ll admit it’s odd, but he has clearly been very careful. He wears a body suit, perhaps a mask, and never takes his gloves off. There are no prints on Paine’s thermostat, nothing on the door handles or on the Zentai suit, the hog ties -’

‘What about more circumstantial stuff? From the corridors, outside Paine’s flat, in the bins.’

‘We’re still sweeping, but any defence would have a field day with the possibilities of cross-contamination -’

‘I need something here.’

‘I understand that, but we can’t magic up the evidence.’

‘What about the Torture Rooms? What have we got there?’

‘Twenty-three different sources of DNA at the crime scene. I think your lot have been over these already.’

‘What else?’

‘We’ve got a number of DNA sources in close proximity to the corridor which we haven’t been able to match.’

‘What do you mean by “a number”? ’

Meredith lifted a file on her desk to reveal another, from which she now pulled a sheet of paper.

‘We have… a few beer bottles, a cigarette butt, a used condom, a glove. All of them containing DNA which we can’t match to anyone on file.’

‘He’s unlikely to have had sex – the MO doesn’t suggest it’s that sort of crime – but perhaps one of the others?’

Meredith half nodded, half shrugged – she looked as unconvinced as Helen sounded. Helen rubbed her face with her hands and stared at the sheets of paper on the desk. So much data, such little progress.

‘Do you think we’ll catch him?’ Helen said suddenly.

‘It’s early days, Helen.’

‘There’s always going to be one that gets away though, isn’t there?’

‘He’ll make a mistake. They always do. And when he does, you’ll be waiting for him. I have every confidence in you.’

Helen thanked Meredith, then headed off. She was grateful for her support, but the truth was that this case was so unusual and so puzzling that she was genuinely concerned about the outcome.

For the first time in years, Helen was beginning to doubt herself.