The Red Dahlia

drawn in 1947.

'The only description we have of our killer is from Sharon, so let's see how we match up. It could, at a pinch, be the same man: long dark coat, collar turned up; tall, about six feet; dark, close-cropped hair, a touch of grey at the temples. Our guy has no moustache, but he might have grown one if he's as obsessed with copycatting the Elizabeth Short case as we think he is. We can put this drawing out alongside a request for anyone with any information about him to come forward.'

Anna's desk phone rang; it was Dick Reynolds. She was irritated that he had called her at work until he said, 'I've just had a phone call; I think it was your killer.'

Anna sat bolt upright. 'What?'

'I've just got off the phone; he called the crime desk and asked to speak to me.'

'Did you tape it?'

'Of course.'

'Oh my God, can you bring it to us?'

'Can't you come to me?'

'Hold on.'

Anna put up her hand and Langton, who had continued discussing the drawings, looked over to her, visibly displeased at the interruption.

'Yes?'

'The crime desk at the Sun just had a call they think is from the killer.'

Langton almost jumped along the desks to snatch the phone. 'Who am I speaking to?'

'Richard Reynolds.'

Langton took a moment to steady himself. 'Mr Reynolds, I would be most grateful if you could bring over the tape of the call immediately.' Langton listened for another few moments, and then nodded. 'Thank you.' He replaced the receiver and looked to Anna. 'He's coming in directly.'

Langton then looked to the team. 'Professor Marshe was right. Our killer just made verbal contact with the press.'

Twenty-five minutes later, Dick Reynolds was ushered into Langton's office. Lewis, Barolli and Anna were there waiting.

Reynolds took a miniature cassette from one pocket and then, from the other, a small tape recorder with an attachment for plugging into a telephone.

'I've not made copies because I don't have another tape this size. It was lucky I'd got this in my desk drawer. I did miss a section as I was plugging it in.'

Langton gestured for Lewis to insert the tape into the machine. Reynolds was introduced to Lewis and Barolli.

'You know Anna Travis.'

Reynolds smiled at Anna who smiled back politely.

'So what happened was, I was at the crime desk and the call was transferred from the switchboard. It came straight to me as I was the only person there at the time. That machine's a bit old and dodgy, so some of his dialogue isn't that clear.'

'Right,' Langton said, pressing Start. There were a few moments of silence.

The voice was crisp and to the point.

'Well Mr Reynolds, I congratulate you on what your newspaper has done on the Red Dahlia case.'

'Er, thank you.'

'But you seem to have gone silent on it; have you run out of material?'

'You could say that.'

'Maybe I can be of some assistance. 'This was muffled, with a lot of crackling.

'Well we need it, or the police do.'

'I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll send you some of Louise Pennel's things that she had with her when she, shall we say, disappeared.'

'When will I get them?'

'Oh, within the next day or so. See how far you can get with them. Now I have to say goodbye. You may be trying to trace the call'

'Wait a minute—'

The phone clicked dead. Langton rubbed his head, and gestured for the call to be replayed. It was, three times. Everyone listened in silence.

'Thank you for bringing this in to us, Mr Reynolds,' Langton said and ejected the tape. 'You said you had not made a copy.'

'No. But it must be obvious that I'd like one.'

'I have to ask that you do nothing with this. I do not want this call to be made public until I give you permission.'

'Hang on a second—'

'Mr Reynolds, this is very serious. I do not want the contents of this call printed in your paper or used for any other reason. We will need to have it sent over to the lab and see what they make of it. It will be vital evidence if the killer is arrested, as we will be able to do a voice match.'

Anna went over to her desk to double-check the contacts made by the original Black Dahlia killer, and then returned to Langton's office. She passed over her memo, comparing his original call to the one that Reynolds had received. It was almost word for word.

'I know,' Langton said, quietly.

'So what do we do now?' she asked.

'Exactly what I said: we get the lab to test and see what they can give us. The journalist in the LA case didn't tape the call, so at least we are making some fucking progress. Also, if he has her belongings, he will send them to your friend. The original killer did, didn't he?'

'Yes, he sent the contents of her handbag.'

Langton drummed his fingers on his desk. 'Christ Almighty, this is unbelievable, isn't it?'

She said nothing.

'I hope to God he doesn't play silly buggers and go to print on it, especially after talking with Professor Marshe; she was very sure that if we kept no publicity the killer would make contact. She's been right so far.'

'Yes, you said,' Anna felt irritated. 'I'm sure Mr Reynolds won't do anything that would harm the investigation.'

'We have to make bloody sure he doesn't,' Langton snapped.

The tape was treated and tested. It did not appear that the caller had been trying to disguise his voice. The lab determined that it was a middle-aged man, well spoken and well educated, with a distinct aristocratic tone, exuding confidence. They felt it would be problematic to try to match it because of the muffled and often indistinct sound. There was no distinctive background noise that would help to pinpoint a probable location but, given time, they could strip the tape down to get more information.

Langton sighed with frustration. He had smoked throughout the briefing. 'Right, outcome: despite the portrayals by the media and the entertainment industry, there are serious limitations for the experts. They seriously doubt being able to identify taped voices; it's looking not very positive.'

There was a unanimous moan.

'I know, I know, but we only have a minute's worth and they need more. They kept on saying that this type of phonetic analysis is very time-consuming; it requires painstaking preparation of speech samples and close observation of their acoustic and other characteristics. So, in the meantime, we stick our thumbs up our arses because it could take weeks. To match an unknown taped voice with another — should we be so lucky to bloody get one — is not a matter of simply making voiceprints which can be compared in the same way as fingerprints. They reject this in court as evidence, because it can create an erroneous picture in people's minds: so, in other words, the chaps at the lab are dicking around trying to bring us something, so that if — if! — we do get a friggin' suspect,