‘What do we know about the offender?’
‘Offenders,’ Lucinda said, stressing the plural. ‘Charlotte Harris describes a tall Asian man with a distinctive aftershave. She didn’t see his face, but he was smartly dressed, in a pinstripe suit and grey overcoat. Emma Davies, who was sexually assaulted in West Ken, described her assailant as white and significantly overweight. We’ve got very little on the Turnham Green job, but one of the CCTV images shows a tall white man in the vicinity immediately prior to Laura Keen’s murder.’
‘Cathy Tanning’s keys were taken by an Asian man,’ Kelly said. ‘The CCTV doesn’t show his face, but his hands are clearly visible.’
‘Six crimes,’ Nick said, ‘and potentially six different offenders. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the adverts are a key part of this investigation; our focus will therefore be on identifying who is placing them.’ He moved to stand at the front of the room, and Lucinda clicked on to the next slide, which showed an enlarged version of Zoe Walker’s advert.
‘The adverts have been running since the beginning of October. They appear in the classifieds, on the second to last page, and all in the bottom right-hand corner. None of the photos have been professionally taken.’
‘Zoe Walker rang me yesterday,’ Kelly said. ‘Turns out her photo was taken from Facebook – she sent me the uncropped version. It’s a picture of her and her daughter, Katie, taken at a wedding a few years ago.’
‘I’ll check out Tanning’s and Beckett’s Facebook pages again,’ Lucinda said, pre-empting Nick. ‘There are similarities between all of the photos, in that none of the women are looking directly at the camera.’ As though they didn’t know they were being photographed, Kelly thought.
Nick carried on: ‘Every advert carries this web address.’ He pointed to the top of the screen, where www.findtheone.com was written.
‘A dating agency?’ The woman next to Kelly had been taking copious notes in a spiral-bound notebook. She looked at Nick, her pen poised. A detective on the other side of the room was looking at his phone, glancing up at the screen to double-check the URL.
‘Possibly. None of the victims recognise the name. Cathy Tanning was a member of Elite for a while, and we’re in touch with them to see if their systems have been compromised. Tania Beckett’s fiancé unsurprisingly insists she’s never been near a dating site, and Zoe Walker says the same. As some of you have no doubt already discovered, the web address takes you to an empty page, black except for a box asking for a password. Cyber Crime have taken on this aspect of the investigation and I’ll keep you updated on their findings. Okay, I’m conscious of time. Let’s move on.’
‘The phone number,’ Lucinda said. She turned to the whiteboard behind her and underlined a number, written in large red letters: 0809 4 733 968. ‘No trace on our intel systems, and an invalid number, which makes its inclusion on the advert – unless it’s an error – rather pointless.’
Nothing was pointless. That number was there for a reason. Kelly stared at the enlarged London Gazette advert on the screen behind Lucinda. There was a line of text beneath the photo.
Visit the website for more information. Subject to availability. Conditions apply.
The website, yes, but then what? What was the password?
Nick had moved to stand next to Lucinda, issuing actions and impressing upon the team the importance of keeping him updated. Kelly stared at the adverts, wondering what they were missing.
‘At this stage of the investigation we’ve got lots of information coming in, with no clear understanding of how it’s linked,’ Nick was saying. ‘Whoever put these adverts in the Gazette is either announcing their intention to commit a crime, or facilitating the commission of crimes by other offenders.’
Kelly was only half listening, her mind twisting itself into knots. What was the point of an advert without a call to action? Why send potential customers to a website without giving them the means of accessing the site?
0809 4 733 968
She sat up, jolted by a sudden thought. What if the phone number wasn’t a phone number at all, but a password?
She made sure her phone was switched to ‘silent’, opened Safari and typed in the domain name.
www.findtheone.com
The cursor blinked at her. She typed 0809 4 733 968 into the white box and pressed enter.
Your password has not been recognised.
Kelly suppressed a sigh. She’d been so certain the phone number was the key. Just as she closed down Safari a text message flashed on to the screen.
Looking 4wrd 2 cing u 2nite. Call + let me no if u will b L8.xx