Rob reached for his pint.
“His first kills would be the most telling,” Tony went on. “They’re likely to be messier, more chance of being caught on camera or witnessed by a passer-by. The grave sites would be less thought out, not as well planned. Easier to find. The bodies would be more dishevelled, less prepared.”
“We don’t know how far back to look,” Rob remarked. Then he told Tony about Jo’s sister.
“Twenty years!” Tony exhaled slowly.
Rob waited for him to assimilate the information, think about it, form a response.
“It’s possible,” he said eventually. “These killings were meticulous, well planned, the act of a sophisticated killer. He’d had to have started very young.”
Rob pursed his lips. “Early twenties, maybe?”
“It could be even younger than that.” Tony tapped the side of his glass with his index finger. “He takes care of his victims, doesn’t use violence…”
Rob tried to work out where the profiler was going with this. He couldn’t, so he sat back and sipped his beer, waiting for the gears to work.
“I’d hazard a guess – and this is purely an educated guess, mind you – that your murderer made his first kill as a teenager.”
Rob spluttered. “What?”
“It stands to reason he witnessed extreme violence at a young age, was even a victim of it himself, and it’s imprinted itself on his psyche. He’s a killer, through and through, but he doesn’t want to inflict pain on his victims. What does that tell us?”
Rob shook his head. This was way beyond his level of expertise.
“He’s protecting them.”
“From what?”
Tony shrugged. “We don’t know. It could be anything. Pain, conflict, abuse, bullying. Perhaps he sees himself as a saviour of sorts.”
This was feeling very tenuous now.
Rob frowned. “Are you sure we’re not reaching? The victims didn’t appear to be injured or abused.” Although, the post-mortems would confirm.
“Possibly,” Tony concurred. “Like I said, it’s educated guesswork, but given the way the bodies were posed, and the care taken with them, I’d say you’re looking for someone with a traumatic childhood, socially awkward, perhaps quiet or introverted, and possibly a religious fanatic.”
Rob rubbed his head. “Great. I suppose you’re also going to tell me he’s in his mid to late thirties, white and educated?”
His friend tilted his head to the side, an amused look on his face. “I thought that was a given.”
Rob grimaced, but Tony’s analysis had opened up a vast number of possibilities. If Rachel had been his first kill, she could turn out to be the most important victim of the investigation. Mistakes would have been made. Back then, he was learning his craft.
If Jo couldn’t join them, one of his team would have to look into Rachel's disappearance, and she wouldn’t like that.
“If he’s out there, we’ll find him,” Rob muttered, more to himself than to his friend.
“A serial killer will escalate as he progresses,” Tony reminded him. “Always reaching for that elusive high that he gains from killing. One more is never enough.”
“So, we can expect to find more bodies?” Rob surmised.
Tony nodded grimly. “He’s probably hunting for his next victim as we speak.”
39
Rob couldn’t sit still, but it had nothing to do with the two espressos he’d had that morning.
“Any news?” he asked Jenny for the umpteenth time.
“Not yet, guv.” Her tone was becoming more clipped with each response.
He gave up. She’d inform him the minute Celeste reported back from the mortuary where the first of the post-mortems were taking place.
DCS Lawrence had somehow managed to expedite them. No one wanted this case to drag on. The longer a child serial killer was out there the more flack the police would get. As it was, the press statement this morning hadn’t gone well.
Harry had returned flustered and agitated. “They didn’t stop flinging questions at me,” he’d said, pacing up and down the squad room. “I didn’t know what to say. We don’t have any more information to give them.”
They were relentless, Rob knew. “You did well to keep your cool.”
He’d seen it on the morning news. Despite Harry’s movie-star looks and Vicky’s suave corporate cool, they’d still taken a beating. He was just glad it hadn’t been him.
The whiteboard was crammed with information. Last sightings, what the girls were wearing, schools, home addresses. Geographically, there was nothing linking them. They were all dotted around the county. No two victims lived in the same town.
“How the hell is he finding them?” Rob stood in front of the board. “What are we missing?”
“It can’t have anything to do with their schools,” Mallory pointed out. “None of them attended the same school and we’ve cross checked all their teachers.”
“What about janitors, teachers’ assistants and support staff?” Rob asked.
Mallory shook his head. “Still waiting for that information, but what are the chances any of them worked at five different schools in the last five years?”
“Keep checking,” barked Rob. Mallory was right, it wasn’t likely, but they didn’t have anything else to go on.
“Any joy with that white van, Will?”
“No sir, there are over twelve thousand Vauxhall Vivaros and seven thousand Movanos registered in Surrey. I'm checking to see if any of them were picked up by the ANPR cameras in the areas the girls came from, but so far no hits. I’ll let you know if anything pops up.”
Rob sighed. They didn’t even have confirmation it was that make of vehicle. They could be wasting their time.
“Okay, thanks. Let’s leave that for now and concentrate on finding a link between these missing girls.”
“Guv,” said Mike raising his hand. The south Londoner might look tough, but he was actually quite shy. He didn’t often put himself forward.
“Yeah?”
“I’ve found another victim who fits the profile,” he said.
“Who?”
“Anna Dewbury from Hemel Hempstead. She was fourteen. Her body was found in a ditch next to a canal in 2011. She disappeared on her way to a friend’s house one Saturday morning.”
“That’s eight years ago. She’s the right age, what makes you think it’s linked?”
“Her body was wrapped in a
