“DC Spears, ma’am,” she says; and then, tentatively, “People call me Britney, ma’am, among other things, but my name is actually Chloe. I’m on the witness team. We’re working on interviews and statements for the Charlotte Mathers case.”
“Nice to meet you officially, Chloe. I thought you handled Jessica Patel’s interview very well.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” Chloe blushes. “Adam mentioned that you’re leading the book inquiry team? I’ve just started reading it myself. I know that it isn’t anything to do with my role in the investigation, but I saw a copy on Adam’s desk and, well, I’m struggling to put it down, to be honest. I love a good crime book.”
Sam smiles. “Well, DC Spears, welcome to the Met’s first book club.”
“What are your thoughts on Denver so far, ma’am?”
“I’m keeping an open mind at this stage and I’m still reading, so I don’t want to leap to conclusions. There are three possibilities that I’m working with.” She listed them, gratified by Chloe’s rapt attention.
“Meaning we either have one serial killer, two killers or a made-up story that inspired murder. Wow. My mind is—”
“Spears…” Harry leans out of his office door. “Aren’t you meant to be interviewing the headmaster?” Chloe looks at the huge clock on the far wall.
“Shoot,” she mutters, spinning away from Sam. “On it, sir.”
Chloe Spears jogs to the lift and Sam spots Taylor, his face now its usual color, waiting at the door to the small glass meeting room in the corner of the fourth floor. The room is tiny, and when she takes a seat she notices that their bodies are uncomfortablyclose to one another. She suddenly finds herself wishing she had spritzed some of the old perfume she used to wear.
“Sorry, Taylor,” she starts, shuffling uncomfortably and knocking her knee accidentally against his. “I was just looking at Denver’s website.”
“It looks decent enough,” he says, “but I ran a SimilarWeb report and there’s very little traffic hitting it. What little there is seems to be coming mainly from Reddit. One particular sub is driving most of the visitors—”
“Sorry… Reddit?” Sam scrunches her brow.
“Yes, ma’am.” He pulls out his phone and she scrolls on it as he talks. “It’s a website of online communities known as ‘subreddits’ or ‘subs’—basically, forum-style group conversations organized around shared interests. Anyone can join and anyone can post. If a user’s post is interesting to others, people can upvote it so it gets more attention.”
“OK. So, Denver joined a chat room to self-promote?”
“Basically, ma’am, yes. With Google or other search engines it’d take longer, require more skill and cost money to drive people to his website. Reddit has loads of subs about serial killers and Denver has basically hijacked the conversations and promoted his book there.”
“Send everything you have to DC Chen.” She hands back Taylor’s phone. “I’ve emailed him to pursue the payment provider Denver uses on the site and, with any luck, we can follow the money right to Denver’s door.”
Taylor’s head sags. “I should have thought to check the payment gateway…”
“Let’s talk about the book. What’re your thoughts so far, Taylor?”
“Well,” he begins, flipping some pages of his Moleskine, “I think we need a profiler, ma’am.”
“A profiler?” Sam swallows her tea. “I’m sorry to burst yourbubble, Taylor, but offender profilers are pointless.” He opens and closes his mouth. “I know,” she says before he can object. “You’ve seen them on television, read about them in books? These heroes with a sixth sense who can tell you what a serial killer had for breakfast or how his awful mother waved a pair of scissors at his…” Sam takes a deep breath. Taylor crosses his legs. “Sorry, you’re new and I’m supposed to be mentoring you, not jumping on my soapbox.”
“It’s OK,” he says, rather awkwardly. “I just thought a profiler would have a field day with Denver.”
“I’m going to refer you to two cases, Taylor,” Sam says, taking his notebook and writingRachel NickellandBeltway Sniperson a fresh page. “These will help you understand how offender profilers can derail an investigation entirely. Geographical profiling is much more useful, butHow to Get Away with Murderis deliberately vague with place names and there’s just not enough data to construct a geographical profile. In terms of compiling information about Denver, based on his book, we’ll be doing that ourselves over the course of the investigation.” Sam hands him her “Who is Denver Brady?” list and explains that she’ll type it up and add it to a shared folder so they can both build on it. “This is as good as any offender profile, Taylor,” she promises. “I’ll share it with DI Edris, too.”
“I, er, was also going to suggest we draw up a Denver timeline,” he says hesitantly.
“Great idea, Taylor.” She nods and he exhales, relieved.
“I’ve already started, actually.” Taylor unfolds a piece of A3 paper from the back of his notebook and Sam is reminded of watchingBlue PeterorArt Attackwith her mum. They both used to roll their eyes when the host said, “Here’s one I made earlier.’”
Taylor holds up the paper. “Denver tells us he’s twelve when he kills his first victim, Jono,” Taylor says, “the boy in the quarry. And Denver’s in sixth-form college when he kills Sarah, the convent girl. From Denver’s narrative, we know that was the same yearthat Princess Diana died, 1997. So, Denver was between sixteen and eighteen years old in ’97. This means that Jono was killed in the early nineties. I’ve gone with 1993. Making Denver—”
“Not much older than me,” Sam says, a little stunned. “I remember Dad and Harry worked the cordon at Diana’s funeral—I was right at the front with them. I was about Charlotte’s age at the time. It was like nothing you can imagine: mountains of flowers, everybody in tears. So… Yes. Denver is about my age.”
“Well, for the record, ma’am, you don’t look—”
“Please don’t, Taylor. I can’t handle compliments from twenty-year-olds at the minute,” she says a little harshly, making him blush crimson.
