Shaz chopped fresh fruit into her muesli and reflected that it had been easier than shed expected to swallow her pride and ask Chris for help, possibly because Chris had been wrong-footed by the presence in her flat and, clearly, her bed of a fingerprint technician Shaz remembered from Notting Hill Gate. When Shaz had explained what she wanted, Chris had agreed immediately, understanding exactly why Shaz was so eager to push far beyond what her course leader expected from his officers. And, again as if fate had taken a hand in Shazs life, it happened that Chris was off duty the following day, so garnering Shazs information in the minimal time available would be simple.
As she absently shovelled breakfast into her mouth, she imagined Chris spending her day in the national newspaper archives at Colindale, copying page after page of local papers until shed covered the period surrounding each of the seven disappearances that had captured Shazs imagination. Shaz ran her empty cereal bowl under the hot tap with happy anticipation swelling inside. She couldnt say why she was so certain, but she was convinced that the first steps on her journey of proof would be waymarked in the local press.
Shed never been wrong so far. Except, of course, about Chris. But that, she told herself, had been different.
The kind of cases well be working are the ones that leave most police officers feeling edgy. Thats because the perpetrators are dancing to a different beat from the rest of us. Tony looked around, double-checking that they were listening to him rather than shuffling through their papers. Leon looked as if hed rather be somewhere else, but Tony had grown accustomed to his affectations and no longer took them at face value. Satisfied, he continued. Knowing youre dealing with someone who has manufactured their own set of rules is a very unsettling experience for anyone, even trained police officers. Because we come in from the outside to make sense of the bizarre, theres a tendency to lump us as part of the problem rather than the solution, so its important that the first thing we concentrate on is building a rapport with the investigating officers. Youve all come here from CID work any ideas about the sort of thing that might work?
Simon jumped straight in. Take them out for a pint? he suggested. The others groaned and catcalled at his predictability.
Tonys smile came nowhere near his eyes. Chances are theyll have half a dozen good excuses why they cant come to the pub with you. Any other ideas?
Shaz raised her pen. Work your socks off. If they see youre a grafter, theyll give you some respect.
Either that or think youre brown-nosing the bosses, Leon sneered.
Its not a bad idea, Tony said, though Leon does have a point. If youre going to go down that road, you also need to demonstrate a complete contempt for everyone over the rank of DCI, which can be wearing, not to say counterproductive. They laughed. What does the trick for me is incredibly simple. He gave them a last questioning look. No? How about flattery?
A couple nodded sagely. Leons lip curled and he snorted. More brown-nosing.
I prefer to think of it as one technique among many in the arsenal of the profiler. I dont use it for personal advancement; I use it for the benefit of the casework, Tony corrected him mildly. I have a mantra that I trot out at every available opportunity. He shifted his position slightly, but that small change altered his body language from comfortable authority to subordinate. His smile was self-deprecating. Of course, he said ingratiatingly, I dont solve murders. Its bobbies that do that. Then, just as swiftly, he returned to his previous posture. It works for me. It might not work for you. But its never going to do any harm to tell the investigating officers how much you respect their work and how youre just a tiny cog that might make their machine work better. He paused for a moment. You have to tell them this at least five times a day. They were all grinning now.
Once youve done that, theres a reasonable chance theyll give you the information you need to draw up your profile. If you cant be bothered making the effort, theyre likely to hold as much back as they can get away with because they see you as a rival for the glory of solving a high-profile case. So. Youve got the investigating officers on your side, and youve got your evidence. Its time to work on the profile. First you assess probabilities.
He stood up and began to prowl round the perimeter of the room, like a big cat checking the limits of its domain. Probability is the only god of the profiler. To abandon probability for the alternative demands the strongest evidence. The downside of that is that there will be times when you end up with so much egg on your face youll look like an omelette on legs.
Already, he could feel his heart rate increasing and still he hadnt said a word about the case. I had that experience myself on the last major case I worked. We were dealing with a serial killer of young men. I had all the information that was available to the police, thanks to a brilliant liaison officer. On the basis of the evidence, I drew up a profile. The liaison officer made a couple of suggestions based on her instincts. One of those suggestions was an interesting idea I hadnt thought of because I didnt know as much about information technology as she did. But equally, because it was something only a small proportion of the population would know about, I assigned it a moderately low probability. Normally, that would mean the investigation team would assign it low priority, but they were stuck for leads, so they pursued it. It turned out shed been right, but in itself it didnt move the investigation much further forward.
His hands were clammy with perspiration, but now he was actually confronting the details that still shredded his nights, his stomach had stopped clenching. It was less effort than hed expected to continue his analysis. Her other suggestion I discounted out of hand because it was completely off the wall. It ran counter to everything I knew about serial killers. Tony met their curious stares. His tension had transmitted itself to the entire squad and they sat silent and motionless, waiting for what would come next.
My disregard for her suggestion nearly cost me my life, he said simply, reaching his seat and sitting down again. He looked around the room, surprised he could speak so levelly. And you know something? I was right to ignore her. Because, on a scale of one to a hundred, her proposition was so unlikely it wouldnt even register.
As soon as the formal confirmation of the body in the blaze came through, Carol called a meeting of her team. This time, there were no chocolate biscuits. I expect youve all heard this mornings news, she said flatly as they arranged themselves around her office, Tommy Taylor straddling the only chair apart from Carols on the basis that he was the sergeant. He might have been brought up never to sit while women were standing, but hed long since stopped thinking of Di Earnshaw as a woman.
Aye, he said.
Poor bugger, Lee Whitbread chimed in.
Poor bugger nothing, Tommy protested. He shouldnt have been there, should he?
Repelled but not surprised, Carol said, Whether he should or shouldnt have been there, hes dead, and were supposed to be looking for the person who killed him. Tommy looked mutinous, folding his arms across the chair back and planting his feet more firmly on the floor, but Carol refused to respond to the challenge. Arsons always a time bomb, she continued. And this time its gone off right in our faces. Today has not been the proudest day of my career to date. So what have you got for me?
Repelled but not surprised, Carol said, Whether he should or shouldnt have been there, hes dead, and were supposed to be looking for the person who killed him. Tommy looked mutinous, folding his arms across the chair back and planting his feet more firmly on the floor, but Carol refused to respond to the challenge. Arsons always a time bomb, she continued. And this time its gone off right in our faces. Today has not been the proudest day of my career to date. So what have you got for me?
Lee, leaning against the filing cabinet, shifted his shoulders. I went through all the back files for the last six months. Leastways, all I could get my hands on, he corrected himself. I found quite a few incidents like you told us to look for, some off night-shift CID reports, some off the uniform lads. I was planning on getting them collated on paper today.
Di and me, weve been re-interviewing the victims, like you said. There doesnt seem to be any linking factor that weve come across so far, Tommy said, his voice distant following Carols snub.
A variety of insurance companies, that kind of thing, Di amplified.
What about a racial motive? Carol asked.
Some Asian victims, but not what youd call enough to make it look significant, Di said.
Have we spoken to the insurers themselves yet?
Di looked at Tommy and Lee stared out of the window. Tommy cleared his throat. It was on Dis list for today. First chance shes had.
Unimpressed, Carol shook her head. Right. Heres what we do next. Ive had some experience in offender profiling She stopped when Tommy muttered something. Im sorry, Sergeant Taylor, did you have a contribution?
Confidence restored, Tommy grinned insolently back at Carol. I said, Wed heard, maam.
For a moment, Carol said nothing, merely staring him down. It was situations like this that could make the job degenerate into a misery if they werent handled right. So far, it was only cheeky disrespect. But if she let it go, it would quickly slide into full-scale insubordination. When she spoke, her voice was quiet but chill. Sergeant, I cant think why you have this burning ambition to go back into uniform and play at community policing, but Ill be more than happy to oblige you if CID work continues not to be to your taste.
Lees mouth twitched in spite of himself; Di Earnshaws dark eyes narrowed, waiting for the explosion that never came. Tommy pushed his shirtsleeves above his elbows, looked Carol straight in the eye and said, Reckon Id better show you what Im made of then, Guv.
Carol nodded. You better had, Tommy. Now, Im going to work on a profile, but to make that anything more than a bit of an academic exercise, Im going to need a lot of raw data. Since we cant find any evidence of linkage between the victims, Im going to stick my neck out and say weve got a thrill seeker rather than a torch for hire. Which means were looking for a young adult male. Hes probably unemployed, likely to be single and still living with his parents. Im not going to go into all the psychobabble about social inadequacy and all that right now. What we need to look for is someone with a record of police contact for petty nuisance offences, vandalism, substance abuse, that sort of thing. Maybe minor sex offences. Peeping Tom, exposing himself. Hes not going to be a mugger, a burglar, a thief, a fly boy. Hes going to be a sad bastard. In and out of minor bother since he was a pre-teen. He probably doesnt have a car, so we need to look at the geography of the fires; chances are if you drew a line linking the outermost fires, hell live inside its boundaries. Hell probably have watched all the fires from a vantage point, so have a think about where that might have been and who might have witnessed him there.
You know the ground. Its your job to bring me suspects that we can match against my profile. Lee, I want you to talk to the collator and see who uniform know that fits those criteria. Ill get going on a fuller profile and Tommy and Di will do the routine work-up on the crime itself, liaising with forensics and organizing a door-to-door in the area. Hell, I dont have to tell you how to run a murder inquiry
A knock at the door interrupted Carols flow. Come in, she called.
The door opened on John Brandon. It was, Carol realized, a measure of how far she had to go before shed be accepted into the East Yorkshire force that no one had stuck a head round the door to warn her the chief was on his way. She jumped to her feet, Tommy nearly toppled in his hurry to get out of his chair and Lee cracked his elbow on the filing cabinet pushing himself upright. Only Di Earnshaw was already in place, standing against the back wall with her arms folded across her chest. Sorry to interrupt, DCI Jordan, Brandon said pleasantly. A word?
Certainly, sir. Were pretty much finished here. You three know what were after, Ill leave you to it. Carols smile managed to dismiss as well as encourage and the three junior officers edged out of the office with barely a backward glance.
Brandon waved Carol to her seat as he folded his long body into the guest chair. This fatal fire at Wardlaws, he began without formalities.
Carol nodded. I was out there earlier.
So I heard. One of your series then, I take it?
I think so. Its got all the hallmarks of it. Im waiting to hear from the fire investigators, but Jim Pendlebury, the fire chief, reckons its got generic similarities to the earlier incidents wed identified.
Brandon chewed one side of his lower lip. It was the first time Carol had ever seen him look anything other than completely composed. He breathed heavily through his nose and said, I know we talked about this before and you were convinced that you could handle it. Im not saying that you cant, because I think youre a bloody good detective, Carol. But I want Tony Hill to take a look at this.
Theres really no need, Carol said, feeling heat spreading up her chest and into her neck. Certainly not at this stage.
Brandons gloomy bloodhound face seemed to grow even longer. Its no slur on your competence, he said.
Im bound to say thats what it looks like from here, Carol said, trying not to sound as mutinous as she felt, forcing herself to remember how angry Tommy Taylors earlier impertinence had made her feel. Sir, weve barely started our own inquiries. It may well be that well have this whole thing wrapped up in a matter of days. There cant be that many potential suspects in Seaford who fit the serial arsonist profile.
Brandon shifted in his chair, as if struggling to find an appropriate arrangement for his long legs. I find myself in a slightly awkward position here, Carol. Ive never been happy with the theirs not to reason why approach to command. Ive always thought things run better when my officers understand why I issue the orders I do rather than having to rely on blind obedience. On the other hand, for operational reasons, sometimes things have to be taken on trust. And when other units outside my command are involved, even when I think theres no earthly reason for confidentiality, I have to respect what they ask for. If you follow me? He raised his eyebrows in an anxious question. If any of his officers could read between so oblique a set of lines, it would be Carol Jordan.