the control room entered hesitantly. She looked faintly sick.
"Skip," she said, the worry in her voice obvious from the single word.
"I think you'd better have a look at this." She held out a fax, the bottom edge ragged where it had been torn hastily off the roll.
Being nearer, the control room sergeant took the flimsy sheet and glanced at it. He drew in his breath sharply, then closed his eyes for a moment. Wordlessly, he handed the fax to Sgt Bonner.
At first, all she saw was the stark black and white of the photograph. For a moment, her mind automatically protecting her from horror, she wondered why someone had gone over her head and reported Connolly missing. Then her eyes translated the marks on the paper into words.
"Urgent fax to all stations. This is the unidentified murder victim discovered yesterday afternoon in the back yard of the Queen of Hearts public house. Temple Fields, Bradfield. Photograph to follow later this a.m. Please circulate and display. Any information to DI Kevin Matthews at Scargill Street Incident Room, ext. 24 j 6."
Sgt Bonner looked bleakly at the other two officers. "There isn't any doubt about it, is there?"
The PC looked at the floor, her skin pale and clammy. "I don't think so, skip," she said.
"That's Connolly. I mean, it's not what you'd call a good likeness, but it's definitely him."
The control room sergeant picked up the fax.
"I'll get on to DI Matthews right away," he said.
Sgt Bonner pushed her chair back and stood up.
"I'd better go round to the morgue. They're going to need a formal identification as soon as possible so they can get weaving."
"This makes it a whole new ball game," Tony said, his face sombre.
"It certainly ups the stakes," Carol said.
"The question I'm asking myself is whether or not Handy Andy knew he was giving us a bobby," Tony said softly, swinging round in his chair to stare out of the window at the city rooftops.
"Sorry?"
He gave a twisted smile and said,
"No, it's me who should apologize.
I always give them a name. It makes it personal. " He swung back to face Carol.
"Does that bother you?"
Carol shook her head.
"It's better than the station nickname."
"Which is?" Tony asked, eyebrows raised.
"The Queer Killer," Carol said, her distaste clear.
"That begs a lot of questions," Tony said noncommittally. "But if it helps them deal with their fear and anger, it's probably no bad thing."
"I don't like it. It doesn't feel personal to me, calling him the Queer Killer."
"What does make it personal to you? The fact that he's taken one of yours now?"
"I felt like that already. As soon as we got the second murder, the one I was handling, I was convinced we were dealing with a serial offender. That was when it got personal for me. I want to nail this bastard. I need to. Professionally, personally, whatever." The cold vehemence in Carol's voice gave Tony confidence. This was a woman who was going to pull out all the stops to make sure he had what he needed to do his job. Her tone of voice and the words she'd chosen were also a calculated challenge, showing him she didn't give a damn what he made of her desire. She was just what he needed. Professionally, at any rate.
"You and me both," Tony said.
"And together, we can make it happen.
But only together. You know, the first time I got directly involved in profiling, it was a serial arsonist. After half a dozen major fires, I knew how he was doing it, why he was doing it, what was in it for him. I knew exactly the kind of mad bastard he was, yet I couldn't put a name or a face to him. It drove me crazy with frustration for a while. Then I realized it wasn't my job to do that.
That's your job. All I can do is to point you in the right direction. "
Carol smiled grimly.
"Just point, and I'll be off like a gun dog,"
she said.
"What did you mean when you said you wondered whether he knew Damien Connolly was a bobby?"
Tony ran a hand through his hair, leaving it spiky as a punk's.
"OK.We've got two scenarios here. Handy Andy may not have known Damien Connolly was a bobby. It may be nothing more than a coincidence, a particularly unpleasant coincidence for his colleagues, but a coincidence nevertheless. That's not a scenario I'm happy with, however, because my reading, based on the little I know so far, is