Stalker

Chapter Thirty-Two

Beth read the forensics report handed to her by Matt. He’d highlighted the salient points and was now standing beside her, his expression as sombre as hers.

‘I don’t believe it,’ Beth said as she turned to the final page. Then again as she came to the end. ‘I don’t believe it. No DNA match with Flint? To the voodoo doll, his van, motorbike, office or any of the crime scenes! In fact no DNA match at all. How can this be?’

Matt shrugged. ‘Search me.’ There was silence as the enormity of what this meant hung between them.

Beth looked at him, her brow furrowing in contemplation. ‘Unless Flint has an accomplice? Someone he sends in to do his dirty work. Flint plans the crimes and the other guy executes them, which would explain the lack of DNA.’

‘It would,’ Matt agreed, ‘and if so Flint could still be held accountable for the crimes, but as yet we have no evidence for that. All we can do him for at present is filming people inside their homes without permission and possibly – in the case of Hanks – incitement to commit a crime.’

Beth nodded thoughtfully. ‘But for that to work we’d have to show that when Flint told Hanks to view his wife on their CCTV it was with the intention that Hanks would commit the crime. At present he’s saying the opposite. He’s adamant he had no idea Hanks would react in the way he did because he’d always been so meek and mild.’ She let out a heartfelt sigh. ‘What about the digital team? Have they come up with anything?’

‘They’re still trawling through Flint’s computer and external hard drives. He deleted a lot of files so they’re having to dig quite deep to retrieve them.’

Beth nodded. ‘I saw them yesterday about the Lorrie Gates rape case. Believe it or not Flint was responsible for the CCTV covering the flats where she lived – Mansion Gardens.’

‘You’re joking!’

‘No. And you know what, I’ve just had a thought that would add to the theory Flint had an accomplice.’ She held his gaze.

‘Go on,’ Matt prompted.

‘The CCTV footage I viewed yesterday of Mansion Gardens shows the attacker going around the back of the building and entering the flat. He can’t be identified; he’s wearing a balaclava helmet. But it definitely isn’t Flint. The person seen on the CCTV is slightly built, more like a lad in his twenties, which I’m now thinking could be Flint’s accomplice.’

‘That would work except we’d already seized his computer when the rape took place.’ Matt pointed out.

‘Yes, I know. But the digital forensics guy I spoke to yesterday said Flint had been watching Mansion Gardens for eight weeks prior to the attack. He’s got all the dates and times Flint logged in. Flint could have set it up ready to go, and might even have been there out of sight of the cameras. He’d know the range of the cameras because he installed them. Derek Flint wasn’t the rapist, but his accomplice was. A leap, I know, but it’s all we’ve got and maybe not such a big jump when you know how much Flint loves to watch.’

‘Something else occurs to me,’ Matt said, warming to the theory. ‘You remember the CCTV footage we took from the Khumalos’ home?’ Beth nodded. ‘The person seen entering their house was thought to be a lad in his twenties.’

‘You’re right. I wonder how many times he features in the footage we have of the other crime scenes on the list. We need to re-examine them all.’

‘I’ll make a start,’ Matt said.

‘Thanks. I’ll join you as soon as I’m finished here, and have told the Serg what we’ve found. She’s going to love this!’