‘Yeuch!’
Gus turned round in time to see a CSI placing a sock into an evidence bag. Gus raised a questioning eyebrow.
‘Dirty fucker’s been wanking off into a sock.’ The CSI nodded to the TV – that was paused at a lesbian sex scene. As I said dirty fucker.’ The CSI paused. ‘Unless, of course, it’s the killer – sometimes those pervs do that shit, you know?’
But Gus knew the killer was too forensically savvy to leave DNA behind. Fuck’s sake, Hopkins, couldn’t you just once let me think kindly of you – so I don’t have to lie to Alice?
Having been gearing himself up to being magnanimous about Hopkins when he reported back, Gus’s anger flared. Boy, was the deceased making it harder by the second.
Pondering Hopkins’s sordid viewing choices, Gus left the bedroom and headed to the front door where a CSI was checking for fingerprints using a hand held machine to see if there were any matches to the IDENT1 database. This was a fairly new addition to the CSI crime scene kit and Gus was fascinated to see it in action. He wasn’t hopeful of the CSI getting a hit though – this killer seemed far too savvy to make a silly mistake with his fingerprints, nevertheless watching the process was intriguing. ‘Anything?’
The CSI shook his head. ‘Nah. I’ve done the lift inside and out and repeated the process at each level, in case the killer came from one of the other floors and I’ve done the stairs – both doors and banisters, but got nothing that flashed up on the data base so far. I’ll get a comparison of the prints in the bedroom, the ornament, and the door, and the ones from the access points, but – you know the bugger probably wore gloves. Wonder how he got access though? The security system should show who accessed the building last night and when they did, as long as its server didn’t go offline like the cameras.’
‘Good point. I’ll get that checked by my tech guy.’
Heading back to The Fort, Gus was plagued by the idea that the likelihood of two such forensically knowledgeable killers, using manual strangulation as their method of killing was becoming increasingly unlikely. Could it be possible that the ritual killings and these seemingly random and possibly motiveless home intrusions followed by strangulation were in some way linked? Sebastian Carlton had posed the question earlier, so clearly it wasn’t completely off the radar as far as the psychologist was concerned. After viewing the scene, Gus could see similarities with Erica Smedley’s murder, however the manual strangulation of four people so closely together was too coincidental to dismiss.
With a grim smile, Gus acknowledged one thing – in selecting Jez Hopkins as a victim, their killer, if it was the same person, was definitely much more skilled than they’d previously thought. Perhaps he’d made a mistake in revealing the extent of his talents, because from where Gus stood, it looked very much like their killer could worm his way into the homes of pregnant women, as well as bypass quite complicated security systems. This, in Gus’s mind made his motives more complex.
Perhaps he should delay the trip to Scotland to interview Rory Robertson? After all, it wouldn’t be fair for both Gus and Carlton to leave the team short staffed, not when they had four murders to consider.
Chapter 48
Bradford
The police took their time getting there. The Man in Black had wondered when they’d find Hopkin’s body and had done a couple of drive-bys during the day. Content that his latest exhibit has been found at last, he is happy to leave the police to get on with it. He wishes he knew the way their thoughts were going. If they’d linked Hopkins with Smedley and, more to the point, if they’d linked Hopkins and Smedley to the two dead women?
He’d have got a kick out of seeing Alice Cooper’s reaction to it all, but that isn’t his end goal, so he smiles and moves on from here. In the city centre he uses his laptop to access one of the free WiFi hotspots in Bradford, putting it through various layers of encryption. He’s already decided on his third pregnant target and needs to make sure things are in place for that. Her partner works irregular hours and seems to drop in and out at random, so planning is essential. Targeting the access point has been easy for him.
This one doesn’t live in a mansion – no, she is just one of a whole harem of women vying for the gangster’s affection. He grins. Little does the gangster know, but he’s been had. This wee hussy has set a trap and he’s fallen for it hook line and sinker. In some ways, he regrets that he is ending the target’s deceit quite so soon. In many ways it would have been enjoyable to wait and see everything unfold – he could have had great enjoyment telling the gangster that one of his trollops had trapped him – that he isn’t the virile macho man he thinks, because, like the other women the killer has targeted before, this one has used a bit of help from the Hudson Fertility Clinic. However, unlike the Man in Black’s previous victims, this little slapper has done it without the knowledge of the baby’s ‘father to be’.
If he’d had the time, he would have been tempted to do
