He went through how the male victim had been found, and where, and his feeling that the male had been a tramp owing to the man’s appearance.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a tramp, though, because as we’re aware, there are plenty in society who choose the grunge look. If he is homeless, this makes us finding him harder,” he said, “but uniforms already out there this morning are going to homeless haunts and asking around. If we go back to Anita for a moment, now that my team have been able to review any notes that came in overnight, has anyone got anything new we can go on?”
Officer Denton, the only one standing other than Burgess, raised his hand. “On her last Facebook entry, a meme, a man left a comment about seeing her later. I’ve followed his trail, and he’s only friends with Anita—no other friends whatsoever, which sets alarm bells going off. He commented on memes Anita put up and became friends with her six months ago. In the last few weeks, he’s been leaving love hearts at the end of his comments, and she’s been leaving him three kisses.”
“Interesting,” Burgess said. “So we could say their relationship progressed from friends to something more? Which may explain why she allowed him into her home so late at night.”
Denton continued. “I checked her private messages, and they’ve been talking on there. I’ve printed the conversations off for anyone who needs them.”
“Thank you.” Burgess stepped forward to take one. He glanced down, scanned the first page. “I agree with your assessment. Anything else?”
“His profile picture is of a penguin with a red hat on.”
Shaw’s blood ran cold. “The zoo icon?”
“I think so, or it resembles it,” Denton said. “He doesn’t have any personal information that leads anywhere—what he does have is all lies, I suspect—and the birth date he supplied puts him at sixty-two.”
“What is that birth date, please?” Burgess picked up a fat marker pen.
Denton reeled the information off.
Burgess’ face paled. “Say that again?”
After Denton repeated himself, Burgess frowned then turned to write the date in the killer’s section on the board. “Any more info?”
“He doesn’t have his location on or stated in his profile, sir, and that’s about it until I can get onto Anita’s other social media apps and look for signs of him being friends with her on those.”
“So do we basically have a dead end on whether he lives in this city permanently?” Burgess asked.
“Not necessarily, sir.” Denton swallowed. “He knows the zoo pretty well, I’d say. The area, too—just a sense I get, though—so if he doesn’t live here permanently, maybe he did at one time in the past. I’ve guessed his age to be around the mid-thirties mark from enhancing the CCTV from Anita’s street after the zoo theft. Although the image of him is fuzzy, it gives us an idea of what he looks like. I put a copy of the picture on that desk there.” He pointed.
“Thank you.” Burgess looked at it for a moment then attached it to the whiteboard.
Grainy it was, and the face was in profile, but the man definitely wasn’t old.
“Looks a bit like you, sir,” someone called from the back.
Titters. Throats being cleared. Burgess studying the image with his back to the room. Now Shaw came to think of it, the profile was similar, but that did nothing except give everyone an extra visual to go on.
Burgess returned his attention to those gathered. “We already have someone poking into whether the moth found in the male victim’s mouth is from the zoo. If it is, and what with the penguin profile picture, there seems to be a definite link there.” He frowned. “It’d be interesting to find out, when we catch him, why his date of birth puts him at that age and why, if Anita met him online at first, she’d want to make friends with someone in a different generation. It’s clear she met him in person, let him into her home and knew him to be younger. Unfortunately, she’s not here to answer that question, but he’s still out there somewhere, and I intend to find him before someone else gets murdered.”
“Sir?” Officer Yaqui.
Burgess raised his eyebrows at him. “Yes?”
“Forensics did a more extensive search of Anita’s house and found a picture. A large copy of it is on the desk.” He nodded towards it. “It’s of her and a man—wishful thinking that it’s our killer, but you never know. Me and Lewis didn’t find it yesterday as we only did a surface sweep, as instructed, because at the time we were only looking for her handbag and phone. The photo was located under her mattress, so I’m thinking that if she lived alone and still put it under there, she either had a habit of hiding things since childhood, or someone was likely to question her if the image was on show. Speculation on my part only, sir.”
“Good speculation, Yaqui,” Burgess said. “Indeed, why hide a picture in your bedroom when you live alone?” He lifted the picture from the desk. His body jolted, and he blinked. Raised his head and glanced over at Shaw.
Something’s wrong. Shaw tried to ask if he was all right by using his eyes, but Burgess shifted his gaze and busied himself tacking the new image at the
