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‘Following on from yesterday, I think it’s safe to assume that the Sentinel is our killer. He published Paul Brooks’s name before it had been made public. He also seems to think that Brooks deserved no sympathy. We have on our hands either a modern-day vigilante who doesn’t think the victims paid enough for their earlier crimes, or there’s more to learn from their time at Welton; so I want an appointment with someone there as quickly as possible.’
She paused. ‘Ryan West, the English teacher, gave me four additional names, which were Dean, Nathan, Leyton and Ian. He doesn’t have surnames so these may be hard to track until we’ve got more information from Welton.’
She sipped her coffee. ‘It’s also a safe assumption that the man who lives at the address the account is linked to, Don Beattie, is not our Sentinel. Get working on finding out how our guy is routing through the server. It’s possible our killer got the details during a recent break-in where nothing was taken.’
‘Got it, boss,’ Penn said.
‘I want to know where you can get fentanyl and what sort of knowledge you need to be able to inject it. Next, I want to know Paul Brooks’s movements for the hours leading up to his murder. We think Eric was spiked outside the gym, and I want to know where it happened to Paul. Still want to know how he’s moving them around as well.’
Penn nodded.
‘Post-mortem is at 10a.m. but I’ll leave it to your discretion whether you attend or not. I’ve given you plenty to do here.’
She took another sip of her coffee. There was one more thing, but for this she did need to speak to Stacey.
On her late-night walk with Barney, it had occurred to her that she hadn’t yet dealt with a killer like this. She’d never had a murderer who deliberately kept his victims alive so that emergency services trounced the scene, a murderer who was pretty much shouting from the rooftops on social media.
She really did need to know what they were dealing with.
‘Stace, can you get Alison on the phone?’
‘Err…no, boss.’
‘Sorry?’ Kim asked sharply. Now wasn’t the time for the constable to be refusing her requests.
‘I can’t get her, boss. She’s rock climbing in Shropshire. Phone is switched off.’
‘Where exactly in Shropshire?’
Stacey hesitated.
Kim glared.
‘Something called the Nesscliffe.’
Kim finished her coffee. ‘Grab your coat, Bryant, and a map. Looks like we’re going to start the day with a sight-seeing trip.’
FORTY
‘You all right, Stace?’ Penn asked once the boss and Bryant had left the room.
‘Yeah, I’m good. Thanks for asking.’
From Penn’s point of view, that had to have been one of the most uncomfortable briefings he’d ever experienced in his career. His old boss, Travis, at West Mercia, had been abrupt, dictatorial and non-inclusive. This morning, the boss hadn’t been that bad, but her mood had welcomed no chat, no humour and responses only when asked for.
‘It’s only cos she cares, you know,’ he told his colleague. The boss wasn’t always easy to work out, but this was a no-brainer.
‘I know,’ Stacey said miserably.
Penn wished there was something he could do to help, but it had to come out in the wash as his mum used to say. They all knew that the boss was fiercely loyal to all of them, not to mention protective, especially towards Stacey. In his opinion, Stacey was the little sister the boss had never had. Unfortunately, her hurt normally manifested itself as anger, and his colleague just had to ride the storm until it had passed. There was little he could do to help.
‘Okay, what jobs do you want?’ he asked.
Stacey looked at her notes. ‘Err…I’ll take the victims’ histories and movements of Paul.’
‘Yeah, cos I definitely don’t want to know about Paul’s movements,’ Penn said, raising an eyebrow.
Stacey laughed, and he realised it was a sound he hadn’t heard for a very long time.
