I See You(84)

‘Has he bought any others?’

‘No. But he’s browsed a fair number. Cached files suggest he’s looked at the profiles of around fifteen women, but never purchased one before Kathryn Whitworth’s.’

‘Too expensive?’

‘I don’t think that’s an issue for him. He joined in September as a Silver member, paying with – get this – a company credit card.’

‘Nice.’

‘We found a welcome letter in his deleted files – exactly like the one we received when we set up a pseudonymous account, but with a different password. It seems the security settings for the website are changed periodically; like Harris told us, the phone number on the adverts is the code for the latest password.’

‘Which you were clever enough to figure out,’ Nick said.

‘Tillman’s lazy,’ Kelly said, thinking out loud. ‘He drives to work – he’d have to go out of his way to find most of the women listed on the site. I think he’s been lurking on the site; maybe even getting some sort of sexual kick out of it. When he saw Kathryn Whitworth’s profile was Maidstone-based, and he knew he was heading that way for a conference, he went for it.’

‘Put his index number through automatic number plate recognition. See if his car has been anywhere near Maidstone in the days leading up to the rape.’

Kelly wrote ANPR on her pad and underlined it, while Nick continued to brief the room.

‘During the analysis of Tillman’s computer, Cyber Crime found an encrypted section of his hard drive which contains one hundred and sixty-seven indecent images, the vast majority of which fall under Section 63 of the Possession of Extreme Pornographic Images Act. He’s not going anywhere in a hurry.’

Kelly had wanted to call Kathryn Whitworth herself to tell her they had charged Tillman with rape, and that he would be charged with the possession of indecent images. It was Lucinda who had stopped her.

‘Leave it to Kent’s Sexual Offences Investigation Team; they’re the ones who have a relationship with her.’

‘They don’t know anything about the case,’ Kelly had argued. ‘This way I can answer her questions. Reassure her.’

Lucinda had remained firm. ‘Kelly, stop trying to do everyone’s job. Kent SOIT will update the victim; you’ve got work to do here.’

Although the MIT detectives frequently made jokes at the expense of civvy staff, Lucinda’s skill and experience meant she was universally respected by the detectives who worked with her. Kelly was no exception. She had to trust that whoever updated Kathryn did so with compassion and understanding; there was a lengthy court process ahead of her and it wasn’t going to be an easy ride.

Nick was still briefing the others. ‘You may already be aware that yesterday Kelly and I brought in Luke Harris, another user of the website. Harris initially claimed Zoe Walker’s was the only profile he had downloaded, but he changed his tune in custody.’

Appalled to find himself arrested for attempted murder, Luke Harris had rolled over completely; handing over passwords for all his accounts, and admitting to having downloaded four other women listed on findtheone.com. In each case he’d employed the ‘white knight’ routine as an icebreaker, jostling each woman from the safety of a crowd, then stepping forward to make sure she was all right. The technique had brought him limited success; a grateful coffee and subsequent dinner date from one woman had swiftly petered out.

‘Harris maintained he had done nothing wrong,’ Nick told the team. ‘He claimed he never intended any harm to any of the women he followed, and that his aim throughout was simply to instigate a relationship.’

‘What’s wrong with using uniform dot com, like the rest of us?’ someone yelled. Nick waited for the laughter to die down.

‘Apparently dating sites “reek of desperation”,’ Nick said, repeating the words Harris had used. ‘Luke Harris prefers what he calls “the thrill of the chase”. I suspect he’ll find this option rather less thrilling from now on.’

Kelly’s phone rang. She looked at the screen, expecting to see Lexi’s name flash up, but it was Cathy Tanning. ‘A witness,’ she said to Nick, holding her phone up in explanation. ‘Excuse me.’ She accepted the call, walking out of the incident room towards her own desk.

‘Hi, Cathy, are you okay?’

‘I’m fine, thank you. I was calling to let you know I’m not in Epping any more.’

‘You’ve moved? That was sudden.’

‘Not really. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting out of London for ages. Then this place came up, and it’s Romford, so not a million miles away. I couldn’t relax in the flat, even after I changed the locks.’

‘When do you move?’

‘I’ve already gone. I was supposed to give a month’s notice, but the landlord wants to redecorate and put the place on the market, so he let me go early. It’s all worked out really well.’

‘I’m glad.’

‘Actually, that’s not the only reason I’m calling,’ Cathy said. She hesitated. ‘I want to withdraw my statement.’

‘Has someone been giving you grief? Did the Metro article cause problems for you? Because if you’ve been threatened—’