They all nod.
“I don’t think this is a coincidence; I think the killer scatteredthe belongings in a great rush, after the murder and the positioning of Charlotte’s body, and having carved the initials into the tree. That’s when he tipped out her school bag. It was dark and he was probably in a frenzy. But why would he have been composed about the murder, then so panicked at this point?” Sam taps her fingers on the photograph showing Charlotte’s things.
“It’s a good question,” Chloe says. “The profiler suggested that the killer was searching for a trophy and possibly took one, though Nigel Mathers couldn’t say precisely what possessions his daughter was carrying that day.”
“He was searching for something, all right,” Sam says.
“What’s your theory, ma’am?” Taylor asks.
“No money was found in the bag. Could be simple robbery,” Chloe offers, although her tone suggests she doesn’t believe theft to be the reason at all.
“I don’t think he was looking for money,” Sam says. “Charlotte’s Rolex wasn’t taken. I think Charlotte’s killer had hidden a tracker in her satchel and used it to follow her route home that night. Just like Denver describes in the chapter about how killers can use technology to their advantage.”
“The one about the dark web?” asks Chloe. “That all seemed implausible to me. Human experiments in bunkers? Surely—”
“I will refer you to some cases later, Detective Constable Spears,” Tina cuts in, “but we have a murderer at large and now is not the time.” Tina gestures at Sam to continue.
“So far, we’ve been working on the understanding that no one knew Charlotte would be in the park that night, because Charlotte herself didn’t know she’d be walking home,” Sam says, her voice feverish. “Only Jessica and Jamil Patel knew that she had left their house on foot. Possibly Nigel Mathers, too, although he claimed to be asleep. So, we’ve assumed Charlotte was either chosen at random or followed by one of those three people.But… what if I’m right about the tracker? That blows our suspect poolwide open. It could be anyone who had access to her bag. Someone at school, on the bus, in her home—there’s a housekeeper, a gardener, probably other staff, too. Charlotte had walked home from Jessica’s on other occasions when Nigel had fallen asleep. Someone could have been tracking her and known in advance that she sometimes took that route.”
“Denver says that people rarely alter their routes,” Chloe offers.
“The case has indeed been based on the assumption that very few people knew Charlotte’s whereabouts on the night she died,” Tina says, brow puckered. “If someone had placed a tracker in Charlotte’s bag on an earlier occasion, that would change things considerably.”
“Exactly,” Sam says. “I think we should look again at the people close to Charlotte. Her dad, uncle, friends, teachers and so on—anyone who could have slipped a tracker into her bag. That’s how we catch Charlotte’s killer.”
Everyone is frozen for a moment, then one by one they look at one another, nodding. Taylor begins to pace the room. Chloe pulls out her notebook as if wanting to review her notes through this new lens.
Tina purses her lips, evaluating the information. “An interesting theory, Detective,” she says, breaking the silence. “May I suggest that I run with it and you concentrate on Denver Brady and Andrei Albescu? Otherwise, it is like a giant jigsaw, and you’re trying to manage too many pieces.”
Sam hesitates. She would give up chasing Denver in a heartbeat if it meant she could be the one to arrest Charlotte’s killer. It’s all that really matters to her. But she can see that Tina’s suggestion is her colleague offering an olive branch after her angry words.
“OK, Tina,” Sam nods, “let’s do that.”
“Where are you with Denver?” Tina asks.
“I think Betty’s nephew is our Denver Brady,” Sam says, withoutpreamble, “and that there’s some other explanation as to why Andrei Albescu burned down Swinton’s Printers. Perhaps Betty’s nephew knows Albescu—”
“You should know, ma’am,” Taylor says to Sam, sitting down and leaning back as if keeping himself away from the bomb he’s about to drop, “while I think your theory on Denver being Betty’s nephew is solid, the evidence that Denver is in fact a Romanian named Andrei Albescu is mounting.”
“Mounting how?”
“DC Chen submitted a warrant and has accessed Albescu’s bank accounts,” Taylor continues. “Andrei Albescu receives weekly payments from an account in the Cayman Islands. He had more than ten thousand pounds in a separate savings—”
“Ten grand?” Sam almost spits out her tea. “He has money and his family live like—”
“I know, ma’am.” Taylor looks down at the floor.
“Did you sayhadten grand?” Sam asks.
Taylor nods sullenly. “It was withdrawn yesterday, and Nadja and the children have vanished.”
“Ugh.” Sam holds her face in her hands. “Ten grand is a lot,” she says through her fingers, “but…” She lets the thought drift into silence.
“That’s pretty damning evidence against this Albescu guy,” Chloe says. “He burned down the place that printed the how-to guide and received the profit from book sales. It’s not much of a stretch to conclude that Andrei wrote the book, too. I still don’t see howHow to Get Away with Murderlinks to Charlotte, though.”
“I’m not sure it does,” Sam says, rubbing her tired face. “We’ve never been sure there’s a concrete link between the book and Charlotte Mathers.”
“Then why did someone carve Denver’s initials into the tree next to Charlotte’s body?” Chloe persists.
