Nine Elms (Kate Marshall #1)(55)

“She did seem to change her tune between my messages with her and then when we met. Do you think she spoke to him? I know we’ve no proof of that.”

“I thought the same.” Kate picked up the book again. “This person, whoever they are, is delving into Peter Conway’s past for inspiration. We’re delving, too, to try and find out what happened with Caitlyn. I think something is linked, and I think if we start looking into the last three victims of this copycat, it could give us answers about Caitlyn, and we could find whoever is doing all of this.”

Kate paused. After saying this all out loud, her confidence was ebbing away. She shook the thought away.

“I want to look into these three victims: Emma Newman, Kaisha Smith, and whoever this latest victim is. We don’t have access to any police files, but we can talk to people. We have the internet. We have access to the microfilm at the university. We have Alan Hexham.”

“You also have a lecture in twenty minutes,” said Tristan, noticing the time.

“Shit! I’d better get ready. Let’s reconvene afterward and talk more.”





28

After the lecture, Kate and Tristan came up to the office armed with coffee. Kate had managed to find an article from when Emma’s body had been found earlier in the summer. It was from a local newspaper, the Okehampton Times.

FORMER RESIDENT OF MUNRO-DYE CHILDREN’S HOME FOUND DEAD.

Emma Newman (17) who lived at the Munro-Dye Children’s Home near Okehampton from the age of six, was found dead at the Nine Elms Wrecker’s yard, close to the edge of Dartmoor. It is believed she had been missing for two weeks before her body was discovered by a worker at the yard. Friends had been concerned for Emma in the months leading up to her disappearance. She had recently been arrested for drug possession and soliciting with intent. Janice Reed, director of the home, described Emma as “a bright little button” during her stay, but recently they had lost touch. Police are treating her death as suspicious, but as of yet they have no suspects.



“Do you want to see what you can find out about Emma on Facebook?” said Kate. “I’m going to track down the journalist who wrote this piece and call this Janice Reed who runs the children’s home.”

Just before lunch they came back together to share what they had. Kate had spent a couple of hours on the phone, and she’d made lots of notes.

“Okay. Emma lived at the Munro-Dye Children’s Home from when she was six,” said Kate. “She was born to a single mother, who was a drug addict and who died during childbirth. There was no other family. I spoke to Janice Reed. She seemed helpful. Emma was a happy, sporty young girl, and when she left the children’s home at sixteen, she seemed to have a promising future. She’d done well in her exams. She had friends. They found her a small flat in Okehampton, and she was able to claim benefits and get a part-time job. She was planning to do her A levels.”

“She left the home at sixteen?” asked Tristan.

“It was when she was legally classed as an adult.”

“Bloody hell. I can’t imagine having to go it alone when I was sixteen.”

Kate thought about Jake. In less than two years, he would be sixteen too.

“She said that Emma went on to start her A levels at the local college, but she dropped out last July, after her first year. But she said things had started to fall apart as early as last February, when she was picked up by the police for soliciting. Janice said that Emma wasn’t identified until two weeks after her body was found, using dental records. No one had reported her missing. Janice said she last saw Emma in late July. She was in a bad way, and very depressed, after her boyfriend, Keir, left to go to the States for six weeks. Keir had stopped replying to her messages. This was the last time Janice saw Emma. She did try to call two weeks before her body was found, and she left a message, but got no reply. Janice arranged Emma’s funeral, and it was paid for out of charitable funds from the children’s home.”

“Okay. I think I might be able to fill in some gaps,” said Tristan, turning his computer screen round to face them. “I found her Facebook profile. It’s completely open. There are no privacy controls activated.”

He clicked back to the beginning of her photo album.

“She joined Facebook around 2007. Didn’t post much—pictures of her with a cat, here are some friends from the children’s home. A picture of her with Father Christmas. Another of her in a running race at sports day.”

Kate watched as he clicked through the photos as Emma grew older and morphed into a young woman.

“Who’s that?” asked Kate when they got to a photo of Emma at a music festival with a tall older man. In the photo they looked drunk, and Emma was draped over him. He looked to be late twenties or early thirties, and he was a redhead. He had large features and very red, pronounced lips. He wasn’t unattractive, but in some photos where he was clean shaven, his face looked strange, almost like a plastic mask.

“This is taken on the beach in June. His name in the tagging is Keir Castle.”

“The boyfriend, Keir,” said Kate. He appeared suddenly in the photo stream in early May and from then on was in scores more taken in parks, on the beach, and then back at Emma’s flat, and on nights out in the pub.

“Keir’s Facebook profile is locked down with privacy controls. It does give a bit of info. He’s privately educated. Went to Cambridge, and he now lists his occupation as ‘music promoter.’”