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Matty glanced at my mother the way he always did when he had a story to tell.
‘I hear it was a witness, who called it in.’
‘Really?’ she said.
‘Mm-hm.’
He bit the end off a spring roll, wolfed the thing down in two bites. I helped myself to one before he gobbled the lot.
‘So? Plenty of people have claimed to have seen things.’
‘I heard this guy was different.’
‘Different how?’
‘He was able to describe what the girl was wearing.’
‘That doesn’t make sense. I thought she was found naked.’
‘Aye. Afterwards.’ He drew the word out, laid heavy emphasis on it. ‘The witness saw her before she was killed. Described exactly the clothes she was last seen in. That’s how the police know he was genuine rather than another one of these kooks after their five minutes of fame.’
‘Where did you hear all this?’ my mother asked.
‘Lad at the clinic. Mate of someone on the investigation team, I think.’
‘Surely that sort of thing’s confidential,’ she said, harking back to their earlier conversation.
He shrugged.
‘Only telling you what I know.’
He took a piece of prawn toast, offered the carton around. Chinese was the only food he ever shared, and then only after he’d loaded up his plate first.
‘Shall we watch In-Depth? Might be something about it on that.’
We were treated to yet another airing of Harry Connor’s statement about the arrest followed by an interview with Fiona Jensen, the effortlessly glamorous news anchor, and Andrew Wilson, a professor of criminology at York University.
‘It’s national television. You’d think the fella might have trimmed his nasal hair,’ Matty muttered.
My mother scowled at him, told him to be quiet, she was trying to listen.
‘Whilst not a smoking gun, the shoe collection is interesting,’ Professor Wilson responded when Fiona mentioned the stilettos found in the suspect’s home.
She raised an eyebrow, asked him to please expand on that.
‘We know matching footprints have been found at a number of the disposal sites. So at some point during the commissioning of the murders, the perpetrator removes his shoes.’
‘To avoid getting blood on them?’
‘It’s possible. But I expect it has more to do with enhancing his physical connection to the victims. An indication of partialism, perhaps. Or more specially, podophilia.’
‘Podophilia?’
‘Sexual arousal derived from the feet. A foot fetish, if you like.’
Fiona processed that, asked what else the professor could tell ‘our audience’ about the offender.
‘He has an innate drive to kill, one that won’t go away.’
