again and stared at the incident board. They had had one breakthrough that morning – after struggling for days to find any connection whatsoever between the two victims, a young detective constable had come to her a couple of hours ago, pink with excitement, to announce his discovery that both Mervin Elliott and Ryan Jones had used the same dating app.
‘It’s one of the new trendy ones, nowhere near as big as Tinder and so on, but getting more and more popular among people wanting something a bit more discreet,’ he’d said, his words tumbling over each other in his eagerness to share his news. ‘It’s called EHU – it stands for Elite Hook Ups. It’s not cheap – you have to pay quite a lot even for the basic version. A lot of the others allow you to use them for free at a basic level, and then have a subscription fee for the premium service. This one, well, you have to pay a hefty monthly fee up front to use it at all. Hence the “elite” bit, I suppose.’
The breathless DC – his name was Mike Slater, Helena remembered – had paused for a moment, turning the pages of his notebook, then looked up at her again, eyes bright.
‘But they’d both subscribed to it, and what was really interesting, ma’am, is that for some reason the app had actually been deleted from both victims’ phones. I started looking into it because both Mervin’s and Ryan’s friends said they definitely used a dating app – they didn’t know which one – to meet women, yet there was no sign of one on their mobiles when their bodies were found. I didn’t really know where to start, I’m married, so I’m not an expert, but I asked around, did a straw poll of all the singles in the office,’ he gestured vaguely around the room, ‘asked them which dating apps were big at the moment, and almost all of them mentioned this EHU one as being really popular. It only launched about a year and a half ago, and lots of people have apparently left the old favourites and joined it instead. Well, not everyone – Frankie sticks to Grindr; he’s addicted, says it’s the one with the hottest men and he’s not switching for anyone …’ He grinned and glanced across to where DC Stevens was sitting, then looked back at Helena. ‘Sorry. Anyway, I made a list of the top five apps everyone seems to be using, including this EHU one. I knew it was a massive long shot, but, well, I got lucky.
‘I started contacting the various companies and asked if there was any way I could find out if Mervin and Ryan had signed up to them. The first few wouldn’t play ball, even when I explained that the two men had been murdered, but then I called EHU and they had a think about it and then came back to me and agreed to release some very basic data. And it turns out they were both signed up to it. Mervin and Ryan I mean.’
He paused again.
‘Both had been registered with the site for a few months …’ He consulted his notes. ‘Mervin since last September, and Ryan since November. So a bit weird that the app wasn’t on either of their phones when their bodies were found. I can’t explain that. I mean, obviously this all might just be a coincidence and not get us anywhere, but I asked EHU if there was any way they could give us details of anyone either of our victims hooked up with via the app. Then we’d have a list of new people to talk to, seeing as none of their mates were much help. Neither Mervin nor Ryan had introduced a woman to their friends in months, none of their dates had got serious enough for that. So I just thought, maybe if we could find any of the women they were in contact with through the app, it might just give us a new angle, and you never know, one of them might have some information that might help us. Or they might not, of course, but …’
Helena, who’d been sitting in her chair and listening with increasing interest, stood up suddenly and clapped her hands.
‘Amazing work, Mike! So will they do that, then? The app people? Can we get that information?’
The DC shuffled his feet, looked down at them for a moment, then back