‘It’s been three weeks.’
‘That’s nothing after what you’ve been through.’
‘I risk losing clients if I leave it any longer.’ I take a sip of beer. ‘I saw George last night.’
‘How’s he doing?’ he asks.
‘Fine. He’s preparing to go back to uni.’
‘You have a lot to thank him for,’ he says. ‘One tenacious young man.’
A breeze brushes my arm. A slight hint of summer fading into autumn. It’s a relief after the intense weather we’ve had. ‘What’s happened to Hattie?’
‘Connor arranged for her to go into a home.’
‘You know, at one point I thought she was involved in it all.’
‘We’ve spoken to her at lengths. With her state of mind, we would’ve picked it up if that were the case.’
‘And Blue. What about Blue?’
He smiles. ‘My colleague has fostered him.’
‘DC Wiggins?’
He nods. ‘She reckons it’s only temporary, but I reckon she’ll end up keeping him. She loves animals, that one.’
‘So, what’s the latest?’ I ask.
‘There was me thinking this was a social drink,’ he jests.
I assure him it is a social drink, but curiosity gets the better of me. ‘Did you get into Justin’s computer?’
He nods. ‘You weren’t far off the mark. He was a psychopath, as we know, obsessed with so-called social experiments on young, vulnerable and homeless women. He used his company –A Meeting of Minds– to lure his victims.’
‘To what end?’
‘For control and manipulation, the beginning of his cult.A Meeting of Mindswas a cover-up for that. Anyway, all the data is under review. He had a hold over his wife because she killed a woman when she was seventeen, which she confessed to him while under hypnosis with him. It’s all on video. A team are stillgoing through it all. There are hours of footage. Even when he was interrogating his victims.’ He pauses. ‘Scarlett, I’m trusting you not to repeat any of this. It’ll all come out at the right time.’
‘Homeless, I guess. He targeted the homeless expecting no one to miss them.’
‘That’s right. Sadly, we haven’t managed to identify three of the victims yet. And there might be more.’
‘Part of me wishes he’d lived to stand trial. The other part is glad he suffered.’
‘I do have some positive news.’
‘Do share.’ I sip my beer.
‘We located Phoebe’s mother.’
My shoulders relax slightly. ‘And?’
‘Phoebe ran away from home when she was fifteen. Her mother had been looking for her all that time.’
‘How sad.’ I pause to digest this news. Another devastated mother. ‘At least there’s closure for her. So Connor definitely wasn’t aware of what was going on at home?’
Tim shakes his head. ‘You know I can’t give you the details, but he has been interviewed extensively, and has been fully cooperative all the way. There’s nothing to suggest he knew what his parents were up to.’
