He spun his laptop around so Rob could see. The dead girl lay in a shallow grave, the sheet pulled back to expose her face. Soft blonde hair. A delicate, heart-shaped face. Porcelain pale.
He squinted across the table. “Are those clips in her hair?”
“Yes, sir.”
He exhaled. “Add her to the list.”
They had another victim. This one died eight years ago. The killer’s timeframe was lengthening.
“Good work, Mike. That makes it seven girls, that we know of.”
There was a low murmur around the table.
Mike sent the photographs to the printer and a short time later it spat them out.
“Was anyone arrested for her murder?” Rob asked.
“No, but they questioned a young man in connection with her disappearance. A social worker named Alan Simpson. He wasn’t charged.”
“Get his details,” Rob said. “Let’s bring him in for questioning. In the meantime, find out everything you can about this girl. It looks like the body was in pretty good shape when it was found, so the post-mortem may have picked up something we can use.”
He offered up a silent prayer. Please.
Mike was pinning Anna’s photograph to the board when Jo walked into the squad room carrying two boxes of files. She glanced around, then dumped the boxes on the nearest desk.
Rob went to greet her.
“Hey, what are you doing here?”
“I decided I was needed here more than at the National Crime Agency.”
“And Pearson’s okay with that?”
“Not really, but he’ll get over it. Where do you want me?” She gave him a disarming grin and he felt like he’d been warmed by a ray of sunshine.
“We’re in Incident Room 3.” He nodded to the far end of the squad room where the glass-walled offices were located.
“Aah, I thought it looked a bit empty.”
“Come on, follow me.”
As they walked in, the team glanced up and Rob was surprised to see smiles break out on everyone’s faces. Most of the crew knew her from when she’d worked with them earlier in the year. The sunshine had permeated their inner sanctum.
“Hi everyone,” she said, grinning back. “Great to see you again. Where shall I sit?”
Rob pointed to a vacant chair. Celeste was attending the post-mortems and would be gone for most of the day.
She put her handbag on the seat and a laptop case on the table, then said, “Let me grab my files.”
“I’ll help,” said Harry, jumping up.
A moment later the two heavy boxes were stacked on the floor behind her. Rob had updated her on Tony’s ideas the night before, so she knew the importance of Rachel potentially being his first case and was eager to get to work.
His phone rang.
Everybody glanced up. Pavlov’s response.
He grabbed it off the table. “Yeah?”
Celeste’s voice. “Sir, we have an ID on the first girl. It’s Rosie Hutton.”
Rosie. One of the missing girls they’d already identified.
“Thank you, Celeste. That’s excellent news. Do we know when she died?”
“Around three years ago. She also had an old fracture on her right forearm, but it didn’t occur at the time of death. Dr Kramer says it’s at least five years old.”
Two years prior to her death.
“Okay, keep us posted.”
“Will do. The other DNA samples should be back any moment, so hopefully I’ll have some more names for you then.”
He turned to the waiting group. “Body 1 is Rosie Hutton.”
“The twelve-year-old from Cheam,” said Mallory, updating the board.
Rob told them about the broken arm. “It may be significant, although nothing to do with her death. We have to inform her next of kin. Jenny, are you okay to do it?”
DS Bird nodded. Three years in, it wasn’t her first death notification.
“Take Becca or one of the FLO’s with you, and while you’re there, ask how she broke her arm.” He made a mental note to check the hospital records.
Something Tony had said was playing around in his brain.
He’s protecting them from something.
By mid-afternoon three of the five unknown girls found in the clearing had been identified.
Rosie Hutton (12)
Chrissy Macdonald (14)
Angie Nolan (10)
“Elise Mitcham is still missing,” Rob pointed out. “Her dental records are on file and they don’t match either of the two remaining victims.”
“That means there are two girls unaccounted for,” said Jo.
“We need to look harder,” said Evan. “We’ve missed a couple.”
Rob glanced at Mike and Jeff who’d been tasked with trawling the missing persons notifications. “Anything?”
“There’s one possibility,” said Jeff, hesitantly. “Lucy Chang disappeared two years ago. She was fifteen years old, so older than the others. According to her mother’s statement, she’d got in with a bad crowd. This wasn’t the first time she’d disappeared. Which is why we didn’t flat it before.”
“Go talk to the mother,” said Rob. “Take Mike with you. Find out whether she’s heard from her daughter, and if not, ask her if we can use something of Lucy’s for a DNA analysis.”
“Yes, sir.” Jeff leaped up, delighted to be let out.
“Find out why she ran away,” Rob called after them.
His phone rang again.
“Celeste?”
“Dr Kramer is performing the post-mortem on one of the unknown victims, sir,” she began, her voice hesitant.
“Yes?”
“Well, um…” There was an awkward pause. “It appears she wasn’t a virgin.”
“Seriously? You mean she was sexually assaulted?”
“At some point, yes, although Dr Kramer can’t say whether it was at the time of death or before.”
Rob closed his eyes.
“What?” asked Jo, who’d been watching.
He turned to her, phone hanging at his ear. “One of the unidentified girls was sexually assaulted. It seems we’ve got another angle to look into.”
40
“Do you think the killer did it?” asked Jo, after Rob had hung up.
“Dr Kramer wasn’t sure. It doesn’t make sense, though. Why take so much care with the other girls, killing them humanely, without using violence, then raping this one? It’s just not his style.”
“It could have happened before she was taken?” suggested Jo.
Rob frowned. “It’s a pity we don’t know who she was.” He glanced at the other names on the list. “Rosie Hutton had a broken arm. I wonder…”
“If
