Little Boy Blue - [11]

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to pay with a credit card. So let’s interrogate their transactions, find out who’s been buying this stuff. Edwards, are you good for this?’

‘It’s my natural home,’ the handsome young officer replied, earning a few wry smiles from the rest of the team.

‘Let’s also make ourselves visible in the immediate environs of the club,’ Helen carried on, ignoring Edwards’s joke. ‘People heading to the Torture Rooms presumably cab it, rather than taking the bus. Find out if the local cabbies saw anything. Our victim was probably killed sometime between midnight and one a.m. – we should follow up on anyone seen leaving the club around this time, particularly if they appeared distressed or agitated.’

‘Perhaps they stayed to party?’ Lucas interjected.

‘Possibly, but we’ve got a lot of lines to run and my instinct is that they would probably try to leave the scene before the body was discovered. But you’re right, we should rule nothing out.’

Helen paused, picking up a file from the desk. She was finally getting into her stride, but the most difficult part was yet to come.

‘Alongside this, I want us to look at mummification.’

A ripple of nervous laughter spread through the team.

‘Also known as total-enclosure fetishism. It’s at the extreme end of the S &M spectrum and involves somebody getting a sexual kick from being completely reliant on another for their liberty, their movement, even their life.’

Visions of Jake – bound and taped – punched through Helen’s mind. Flicking through her file to buy herself a moment, Helen swallowed and pressed on:

‘There are many different ways to do it – straitjackets, wet sheets, bandages, rubber strips – but one thing that’s crucial to every method is trust. You have to trust the person doing it to you or you wouldn’t even start -’

‘So he knew his attacker?’ Charlie suggested.

‘It’s very possible. There are S &M groups who meet regularly to discuss, socialize and occasionally play. Their meets are called “Munches”. I want us to investigate them, see what we can dig up about the scene. Have there been similar incidents that we haven’t heard about? Is there anyone out there who is known for taking things too far? I don’t think a head-on attack is going to work, so I’ll be looking for a volunteer for undercover work.’

More nervous laughter, but as Lucas jokily tried to raise Edwards’s arm against his will, Sanderson stepped forward:

‘I’d like to take this, unless anyone objects?’ she said firmly, scanning the team for dissenters.

‘Thank you,’ Helen replied quickly. ‘Run down a list of forthcoming meets and then let’s discuss which ones to target.’

‘I’ll have it for you within the hour.’

‘Good.’

Helen paused, her ordeal nearly over, then said:

‘I don’t need to tell you how much coverage this murder is likely to get. So no talking out of school, no short cuts and any leads come straight to me. We do not rest until we have found Jake Elder’s killer, understood?’

The look on the faces of the team showed that they had got the message and they now hurried off to do her bidding. Helen was aware that her tone had been a little harsh, but she was not prepared to soft-soap anyone while they still lacked any tangible leads. The investigation was starting to take shape now – the victim identified, multiple strands of enquiry set in motion – but there was one key element of this killing that remained as impenetrable and mysterious as ever.

The motive.

18

He was rooted to the spot. He knew it was coming, but even so it was a shock. The newscaster was only relaying information that had been buzzing around internet chat rooms for hours, but hearing it relayed in her professional monotone was still disquieting.

Nobody else in the office seemed to be paying attention to the radio bulletin, but he drank in every word: ‘A popular S &M club… appealing for witnesses… the victim has not yet been formally identified.’ He knew the victim’s name of course, but did the police too? Was their ‘failure’ to identify him just a smokescreen as they pursued their enquiries or were they genuinely in the dark? He suddenly realized how much he needed to know.

He had been careful to conceal their connection, but who knew what they were able to access these days? Terrorism had a lot to answer for, providing the police with the perfect excuse to snoop on everything and everyone. He had never used the computer at home and had never contacted Jake via direct text, but even so he suddenly had the unnerving feeling that he hadn’t been careful enough.

The newscaster had moved on to local traffic and travel, but still he didn’t move. Things seemed to be moving fast now and he was suddenly aware of how much he had to lose. Would they suspect him? Or would his middle-class exterior and respectable job shield him from suspicion? He was too far into this, too stained by his actions, for this to unravel. There were two sides to him – but they were known only to him – and that was the way it had to stay.

He was so deep in thought that at first he didn’t notice his PA marching across the room towards him. He might have remained there for hours were it not for her sudden intrusion.


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