We started adding names and notes. The Sandman had three captives that we knew of. He was clearly not at any of the addresses listed under his name because the police would have caught him already. We focused on the probability that he was somewhere not listed against any of his names.
He’d been one step ahead of me since the start, but when we started to talk about that, I had to question what I’d seen when I met him as Harry Hengist.
‘I scared him,’ I nodded to myself when I said it. The thought had occurred to me before but now I was more certain. ‘My arrival at his house was a shock.’ I explained my thoughts aloud. ‘He could have accused me of attacking him though and be sure I would waste a chunk of my evening keeping the police company.’
‘Why didn’t he?’ asked Amanda, in a tone that acknowledged there had to be a good reason for it.
I thought for a second before concluding, ‘Because he believed I would lead him to Karen Gilbert.’
‘Which you did,’ she agreed, with an apologetic grimace.
I frowned deeply, running the events in Harrietsham through my head. ‘No one tailed me there,’ I stated confidently.
Big Ben asked, ‘How sure are you?’
I puffed out my cheeks and argued with myself. There had been no car following me on the road into the small village. I would have seen it, and there was no one visible in the street when I arrived. They would have needed to be there in advance of my arrival or how could they have seen where I went if they were also not following me. Did the Sandman have a helicopter at his disposal?’
While pondering that question, something the reporters said outside the station came back to me. ‘They said there were men in robes,’ I murmured, replaying their words in my head.
Amanda said, ‘What? Who said what?’
‘Men in robes attacked Marion and Buck in their home and dragged Karen Gilbert from it,’ I repeated. I doubted that was verbatim what was said but it was close enough.
‘Men in robes,’ repeated Big Ben, his face taking on a concerned look. ‘Basic and me were attacked by a bunch of dickheads in robes when we went to Jane’s grans. I told you about that.’
‘You never said they were wearing robes,’ I argued.
He opened his mouth to argue, but Amanda said, ‘It doesn’t matter who said what. What does it mean?’
‘Do you remember when we left the hospital, I bumped into a chap wearing a black cassock? He was dressed like a monk but clearly wasn’t one.’
She got exactly what I was saying. ‘This is all connected! They work for the Sandman!’
Big Ben screwed up his face. ‘How is that even possible? How can a serial killer have a team of assistants?’
‘You said it yourself last night,’ I reminded him.
‘I did?’
‘You said they looked like they were in a cult of some kind. I was too busy to hear what you were saying or I might have connected the dots sooner.’ I was starting to feel sick with all the things I was finally working out. ‘I also know how they found Karen Gilbert.’
Everyone watched me fish around in my pockets to find the odd little electronic gizmo.
Holding it up, I mournfully told them, ‘I think this is a tracking device.’
Amanda swore.
Big Ben echoed it.
In the silence that followed I doubted I was the only one reeling from the latest revelations. We were not up against one man; we had a force of unknown strength with which to contend. It explained several anomalies such as why the Sandman wasn’t wherever Jane and Jan were when I found him at his house last night, and how he managed to snatch three people in a short space of time and overpower Jan in his apartment.
Until this very moment, I had not thought to question how Jan was taken. Big Ben said his apartment was trashed like there had been a fight in it.
The enemy were resourceful, possibly numerous – Big Ben said he fought twelve of them – and had the upper hand in every category. If this were a game of Top Trumps we would lose hopelessly, but it wasn’t and now that we knew a little more, maybe we could use it to our advantage.
Big Ben reached out an open hand to me. ‘Want to give me that thing? They can try tracking your movements after I turn it into dust.’
I almost gave it to him but snatched it away at the last moment. Holding it aloft, I said, ‘This might come in handy yet.’
He jinked an eyebrow at me. ‘How so?’
Amanda answered for me. ‘They don’t know we know. If we can figure out where they are, we might be able to use it to confuse them.’
Sounds coming from the back room of the office drew our eyes as Jagjit and Alice came in.
‘Where are your cars?’ Jagjit asked. ‘The carpark is empty.’
‘Still at the police impound yard,’ grumbled Big Ben.
Straight down to business, I asked them, ‘What have you got for us?’
Quinn. Dissection of a Serial Killer. Saturday, December 24th 1348hrs
Chief Inspector Quinn had the attention of a room filled with police officers. That one of their own had been kidnapped got the attention of every police officer instantly, many returning to duty as volunteers despite their shifts ending. They were not just from Maidstone either. The demand to raid more than a dozen properties across Kent drew in teams from constabularies throughout the county, each of
