Imposition (DI Gardener 5)

“Like me, you mean?” asked Cragg.

“I wasn’t thinking that old,” added Reilly.

“Do you honestly think there’s a connection, sir?” Rawson asked Gardener.

“I don’t know, Dave. It seems very coincidental. My gut feeling tells me something is amiss. I’m going to stick my neck out here and tell you that I don’t think Manny Walters is responsible for the carnage. I still feel that Robbie Carter is the number one suspect, which is why I’m going all out on it. I’d also like you two to take a photograph of Robbie Carter with you. Show it around. With everything we’ve heard, it’s just possible we’re talking ab

out the same man being responsible for both murders.”

Gardener nodded to one of the HOLMES team. “From you, I want to know the deaths of every woman called Jane who has died in suspicious circumstances over the last thirty years.”

“Pardon?”

Gardener held his hands up. “I know it’s a long shot, and that HOLMES probably doesn’t go that far back, but sometimes you have to think outside the box.”

“I’ll give it a go,” said the HOLMES tech. “I don’t hold out much hope.”

Gardener nodded. He glanced at Emma Longstaff. “You get anywhere with the dating sites?”

“There’s a lot of them, sir, be nice if we knew if he had a favourite.”

“We can help you there,” said Reilly.

“Christ,” said Anderson. “You two are full of it today.”

“Findadate.com,” said Gardener. “Carrie Fletcher told us that’s how they met. She herself uses the website. She persuaded Jane Carter to join. Eventually, Jane Carter received regular emails from someone wanting a date. It was set up but he never showed, and subsequently disappeared without trace – she never received another message.”

“What happened?” asked Edwards.

“She turned up for the date. No one showed. She was about to leave when she bumped into Robbie Carter.”

Reilly took up the story. “Ironically, the same thing had happened to him: his date had not shown, so they had a drink, a bite to eat, and the rest is history.”

“So is she now.”

“So, tomorrow, I’d like you digging around on that site if you can, Emma. We need to try and maximise the intelligence product. See if we can lift all known ID’s and run open and closed source checks. If we do find anything, we should try to trace and interview all the girls he’s made contact with.”

“Do you think they’re at risk, sir?”

“Who knows with this man, but we can’t treat it lightly. Finding him has become the top priority. If we think he’s going to kill one of them, we’ll have to look at a safety plan for each.”

“Can we force the company to provide personal information?” asked Edwards.

“Probably,” said Gardener. “Best bet might be to email them an authorised data protection act form stating that we’re investigating a serious offence and the info requested was for the prevention and/or detection of serious crime. Most companies in receipt of one of these will probably fold and give us everything.”

Longstaff and Edwards made notes.

“The rest of you, I want you all to concentrate on the man himself. It’s a manhunt: he’s our number one priority. Is he innocent? Or is he guilty?

“If he’s innocent, why has he disappeared? Maybe it’s as Sean said. Someone else might be behind all of this. Robbie Carter may not have fled – he might actually be fighting for his life at this moment.

“If he’s guilty and he hasn’t fled, what the hell is keeping him here? The guitar? Why? What’s so special about that guitar? Maybe we’ll find out, because we have it. Is he still around because he didn’t kill his wife but he knows who has, and wants revenge? We have the advantage over him there because we have Manny Walters, probably the number one suspect in Robbie’s eyes. So he might consider it worth the risk waiting around to claim what’s his.

“Which brings us back to a point made by more than one person earlier: the change of identity. Assume for one minute that the body buried on the moors is a victim of Robbie Carter’s. Then he’s been doing this one hell of a long time. That’s a big problem for us. How is he doing it? How has he remained at large and undetected for so long?”

“Why is he doing it?”

“Find the answer to that and we may find out how,” said Gardener. “Our number one priority is to find Robbie Carter. God forbid we should let this man slip the net.