When everyone was settled, Helena nodded at the DS.
‘Go ahead.’
‘OK, let’s run through what we have so far,’ he said. ‘First – our two murders. No new leads in the past couple of days, on either Mervin Elliott or Ryan Jones, other than the intriguing discovery that both of them used the same dating app, EHU. Great work on that, Mike.’
Perched on the edge of a desk towards the back of the room, DC Mike Slater flushed and nodded.
‘Any progress on getting the EHU people to provide us with any more details on women our victims might have dated?’
Mike shook his head. ‘I’ve asked, and they’re being very helpful, but they said they’ve had a few system crashes recently, probably due to the site getting more and more popular. They’re not sure all the search data has been saved. But they’ve also said they’ll have to check it all out with their legal people, even if this is a major double murder investigation. You know, the new data protections laws and all that? Should know in the next day or so though. I’ll keep chasing. And our tech guys are still going through the victims’ emails and texts again to see if they can trace any of the women they dated through the site. I’ll let you know if they find anything.’
‘Cheers, Mike.’
Helena, who was standing to the side of the board, leaning against the wall, smiled at the DC and said: ‘Yes, well done again, Mike. And we’re keeping this EHU app thing from the press for now, guys, OK? I mean, we still don’t know if the two murders are linked, as we need to keep reminding ourselves. Anyone have any theories on that, by the way? Shoot, if you do.’
She paused, as a low murmur ran around the room.
‘I might have one. I mean, it’s probably bollocks, but hey …’
DC Tara Lemming, a tall woman with striking coal-black hair pulled back into a bouncy ponytail, and deep green eyes, had raised a hand.
‘OK Tara, let’s hear it.’
Tara stood up.
‘Well, it’s just with both of our victims, and now this missing guy as well, Danny, all using the EHU app, and all looking so alike, well … we all have a type, don’t we? A type we go for? Mine, for example, is tall and blond.’
She turned to look at DC Matthew Shawcross, who was sitting beside her and who also happened to be six foot five inches tall with cropped, white blond hair, and winked. There was a ripple of laughter, and Matthew blushed.
‘OK, OK, let’s stick to the topic at hand. Go on, Tara.’
Helena waved a hand, and the room fell silent again.
‘Sorry. But my point is, our victims, plus Danny O’Connor, well, they’re all a definite type, aren’t they? I mean, if someone was on a dating site searching for dark-haired, dark eyed, fit, slim but sporty men in their thirties, they’d all pop up, wouldn’t they? So what if our killer is a woman, who for some reason has a violent dislike of men who fit that description? Maybe she was a victim of domestic abuse or just badly treated in a relationship by someone who looked like that or something, I dunno. What if she’s a member of that dating site too, and she’s hunting them down and killing them, one by one? I mean, that’s just me wildly speculating, and I know most serial killers are men, that is if we are dealing with a serial killer of course, but, well … it was just a thought,’ she finished lamely.
There was silence for a moment.
‘It’s certainly a theory. And one that would mean our killer also has a profile on the EHU app,’ said DC Slater from the back of the room.
‘How many people are registered, Mike?’ Devon asked.
‘They wouldn’t tell me. Data protection again blah blah blah. But tens of thousands, I’d say. It’s growing by the day. And if we can’t access any of their data to narrow it down …’
There was silence again.
‘Yeah. Impossible. Probably a bollocks theory anyway, as I said,’ said Tara.
She sat down again, and Helena stood in silence for a moment, thinking. Her gut feeling was still that this was a male killer, despite telling herself firmly not to rule anything out. But women did kill too. She wondered if she should consider the possibility a little more closely.
‘Possibly bollocks, but maybe not. We can’t discount anything at the moment. Thank you, Tara,’ Helena said.