“Sir,” Sam lowers her voice, “the reason I am so motivated to return to work… the reason I have overcome my—”
“Sam,” Harry says, holding up his hands in surrender. “I get it. You came back for Charlotte. I thought you might, erm, feel a connection to her case.”
“Yes,” she admits. “And honestly, Harry, if you put me on a different case, I doubt I’ll have the motivation for it.”
Harry nods slowly at her lightly veiled threat.
“Fine. You can be involved in the Charlotte Mathers case, but not as SIO,” Harry says, after a moment. “What I need you to focus on is…” Harry continues but Sam’s distracted by the way her godfather tugs at his own eyebrows as he speaks. It’s a habit he’s always had, but it’s never bothered her before. Now, though, it’s incredibly annoying and she can’t concentrate on anything else. Even her disappointment at not being considered for SIO doesn’t sting its way through as she watches his fingertips grasp his right eyebrow and pull it. She bites her cheek and fights the urge to tell him to stop.
“Sam?” Harry cuts into her thoughts. He’s stopped talking again and is clearly awaiting her reply.
“Yes, sir,” Sam says, hoping that this response covers everything.
“Good,” Harry exhales, with what sounds like relief. “I think you’ll like her, the new DI.TinaEdris, that is. She’s a…” Harry waves his hand in Sam’s general direction, “you know… a woman.”
“Yes, sir.” Sam smiles, supposing that Harry is being thoughtful by assuming that she’ll feel safer reporting to a female senior officer. She resists entertaining other possible interpretations of his comment, choosing always to see the best in him as he does in her. She watches as he tugs his eyebrow again.It’s a “he said, she said.”The words pop unbidden into her mind.You know how these cases go.Sam shakes her head lightly to rid herself of the unwanted memories, but her eyes flick involuntarily toward Lowry’s desk.Harry did his best for me,she reminds herself. She takes a deep breath, holds, exhales.
“Sam?” Harry pulls her focus back to what he’s saying. “I was just saying… Charlotte’s body was found in the early hours of Friday morning over in Holland Park. She was strangled and left beneath an oak tree, with her initials carved into the tree itself. Well, not justherinitials. The exact inscription was CM + DB, inside a heart. CM is obviously Charlotte Mathers. DB, we are assuming, is Denver Brady.”
“A boyfriend?” Sam asks.
“No, Sam. I just…” Harry sighs. “Let’s go over it again. Denver Brady is the author of a book calledHow to Get Away with Murder. A copy of that book was found among Charlotte’s belongings at the crime scene. I want you to run a line of inquiry within the homicide investigation to find the author, Denver Brady. DB.”
“How to Get Away with Murder? As in, a dummy’s how-to guide to committing murder?” Sam rubs her forehead.
“Exactly. Some Charles Dickens, Ted Bundy wannabe claimingto be able to teach people how to kill and get away with it. Just what we need. As if the Met isn’t stretched enough as it is,” Harry says. “The victim’s father is certain that the author is to blame for Charlotte’s murder. Not only wasHow to Get Away with Murderfound at the scene, but there are similarities between Charlotte’s death and what Brady claims, in his book, to have done to another girl. Plus the initials in the tree trunk, of course. ‘DB’ for Denver Brady.”
“You told the family about the book and the initials in the tree trunk?” Sam asks. “Wouldn’t we normally withhold that?”
“It’s simple,” Harry responds a little defensively. “We had to know if the book belonged to Charlotte. If her family had seen her reading it or—”
“If the killer left it at the scene himself.”
“Exactly.” Harry nods.
“Tell me about Charlotte.”
“Fourteen. High achiever. Sporty. Popular. Lived with her father, Nigel, and her uncle, Jack. Neither could say for certain if Charlotte ownedHow to Get Away with Murder. Apparently, the girl always had her nose in a book. A bit like you used to, I suppose. I remember that one time the school librarian called your dad because she was worried about the—”
“… nature of the material I was reading.” Sam smiles, remembering. “Truman Capote’sIn Cold Bloodand—”
“That one about Ted Bundy,” Harry chuckles.
“The Stranger Beside Me,” Sam confirms. “You had to convince my dad to—”
“Give you a book allowance.”
“Give me a book allowance.” They speak in unison, smiling. Harry’s eyes move to the picture of Sam’s father on his desk, and Sam looks fixedly out of the window at the saxe-blue city sky.
After a moment, Harry clears his throat. “In my opinion,” he says, reaching for his eyebrow but halting midway to turn on hiscomputer instead, “it’s far more probable that the victim knew her killer—we are all familiar with the statistics. When a child is murdered, it’s almost always by someone they know. But there’s a slim chance that this Denver idiot really exists and is in some way connected to Charlotte or her family. We need to find him, even if just to rule him out of our inquiries, and we absolutely cannot let any serial-killer notions leak to the press. It would send the country’s imagination into overdrive and completely derail Charlotte’s investigation.”
“Catchy title,” Sam observes. “How to Get Away with Murderhas a real ring to it. I’d definitely pick it up if I saw it in Waterstones.”
Sam smiles but Harry simply nods and continues. “Obviously, you’re on light duties, with this being your first investigation back after, what—almost a year? Eight months?”It’s six months and nineteen days, but who’s counting?“So DI Edris will be Senior Investigating Officer and you’ll run the book inquiry team. You’ll report to Edris primarily. And me, of course. You’ll work three days per week, strictly no more, and—”
“I’ll run an inquiry team?” Sam asks, perking up. “How many?”
“You’ll have a TDC under you, and access to the civilian team.”
