‘Grab a pew and settle in,’ he instructed. ‘I won’t keep you long, but we’re dealing with a complex investigation and I want us all on the same page.’ He looked around the room, waiting until all eyes were on him, before continuing. ‘It’s Tuesday twenty-fourth November and this is a briefing for Operation FURNISS, an investigation into the murder of Tania Beckett, and into related crimes committed against women, namely theft of keys and a suspected burglary of a woman called Cathy Tanning. The link between these crimes relates to adverts placed in the London Gazette featuring the women’s photographs.’ Nick looked for Lucinda. ‘Over to you.’
Lucinda moved to the front of the room. ‘I was tasked with looking at murders from the last four weeks, but I’ve also done some work around sexual assaults, harassments and burglaries where the victims were lone females. For the purposes of this exercise I discounted domestics, but even so, there are quite a few.’ As she was speaking, she inserted a USB drive into the laptop at the front of the room; the connected projector ready and waiting. The first slide showed thumbnail images Kelly recognised as the women from the London Gazette adverts; the results taken from the file Tamir Barron had reluctantly given to Kelly on her visit to their offices. Lucinda clicked through the next four slides, another dizzying mosaic of thumbnails. ‘These women have all been victims of relevant crime during the last month. You’ll see I grouped them according to physical characteristics. Skin colour, then hair colour, then subcategories according to their approximate age. Obviously it’s not an exact science, but it made the next bit slightly easier.’
‘Pairing them up with the adverts?’ The guess came from somewhere behind Kelly.
‘Precisely. I’ve identified four matches, digging deeper into the case files to cross-reference the advert image against other victim photos.’ Lucinda moved the PowerPoint on, briskly summarising each slide in turn. ‘Charlotte Harris. A twenty-six-year-old legal secretary from Luton who works in Moorgate. Attempted sexual assault by an unidentified Asian man.’ To the left of the slide was a photo labelled with the victim’s name; to the right, the corresponding London Gazette advert.
‘Snap,’ Nick said grimly.
‘Emma Davies. Thirty-four-year-old female, sexually assaulted in West Kensington.’
Kelly let out a slow breath.
‘Laura Keen. Twenty-one. Murdered in Turnham Green last week.’
‘That one’s already on our radar,’ Nick interrupted. ‘West MIT flagged it as a possible link to Tania Beckett because of her age.’
‘Not just possible,’ Lucinda said. ‘I’d pin it as a dead cert, if you’ll excuse the pun. Right, last one.’ She flicked to the next slide, which showed a dark-haired woman in her forties. As with the other women, her photo had been laid out next to a copy of her advert in the Gazette. ‘This is an odd one. Ongoing complaints from a Mrs Alexandra Chatham near Hampstead Heath, that someone is breaking into her house when she’s asleep and moving things around. It’s sitting with the Safer Neighbourhood Team at the moment, but there’s been a bit of a question mark over it from the start. Apparently the attending officer wasn’t convinced anything had ever happened, even though Mrs Chatham is adamant someone is coming into her house.’
Lucinda surveyed her board. ‘Then, of course, we have Cathy Tanning – another victim of a possible midnight prowler – and Tania Beckett, our murder victim. Six. So far. I’m still working on it.’
There was silence in the briefing room, as Nick allowed the significance of Lucinda’s update to sink in, then he pointed to Lucinda’s closing slide, on which the six confirmed cases were listed next to their relevant advert. ‘In total, eighty-four adverts have run so far, which means there are seventy-eight women yet to identify, who may or may not have been victims of crime. Copies of these adverts are here,’ Nick indicated a second whiteboard, ‘as well as in your briefing pack.’ There was a shuffling of paper, as everyone immediately began looking through the stapled document they’d been handed on arrival, while Lucinda continued to talk.
‘I’m still working on matching the adverts that have run with crimes against women carried out in our force area, and I’m also in touch with Surrey, Thames Valley, Herts, Essex and Kent, in case there’s anything cross-border that might fit. I’ve found a couple of possibles, but I’d like to wait till I’m certain before muddying the waters with those, if that’s all right, boss?’
‘That’s fine.’
‘You asked me to do some work on the similarities between the victims, and between the crimes committed. I haven’t got a lot for you, I’m afraid. At first glance the crimes are very different, but when you strip out the obvious – the offence itself, the primary MO – the common thread is public transport: all these women were on their way to, or from, work.’
Nick nodded. ‘I want all their journeys mapped. Let’s see if there’s any crossover.’
‘Already on it, boss.’