‘I’ve double-checked that Hayes isn’t doing time.’ Alexej had overheard our conversation. ‘There’s no mention of him being in prison. He’s not on benefits under that name, so no registered address is a possibility. With all the money he’s made, I doubt he’s actually homeless.’ He pointed at the long list of previous addresses. ‘This is the most recent mugshot of him. I’ll print it.’ He pointed at the image on his monitor of a tall, spindly man.

I picked up the photograph from the printer tray and pinned it to the board under his name. There were thin white scars on his scalp and a large tattoo of a woman screaming, naked and bleeding, stretched from his right ear down to his neckline. Part of the tattoo design had either faded or been hacked away at. Beneath a shaved head, pinched features and dead eyes were set into a small skull. ‘He’s not someone you’d forget meeting in a dark alley, is he? Even with a disguise, or changing his appearance, you wouldn’t miss those eyes. And it’d be hard to cover the tattoo.’ I turned to face Alexej. ‘Any response from the public on him?’

‘Not yet. But he operates in the shadows. I can’t see him being skint, so my hunch is that he’s lying low. He’s probably living amongst families who have absolutely no idea what he’s capable of.’

A shudder went down my spine.

‘Hayes has been extremely lucky,’ Jackie said. ‘He was arrested in 2012 in Manchester for aggravated assault and GBH, but there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him, and in 2015 he was thought to be involved in the beating of a prostitute who was part of a European trafficking ring in Salford. The girl was found in a public toilet, practically unconscious, head shoved down the loo pan. Someone had given her a beating, and slashed her face with a razor blade. She lost the sight in one eye as a result. Same thing happened: insufficient evidence to charge him. Grainy CCTV footage from the toilets, circumstantial evidence, the CPS said, and the girls involved were deemed to be unreliable witnesses.’

I groaned. What Jackie said didn’t surprise me, but it was depressing. ‘Another misogynist who sees women as dispensable commodities. Scumbag. I hope our hunch is right, and he is involved with these murders so that we can get him off the streets once and for all.’ The tattoo was vile. ‘Someone has to spot Hayes soon. I can’t see him sitting still. He’ll be out and about, checking up on people and keeping an eye out for kids and women who are vulnerable.’

‘Thing is – he uses so many aliases, people might not know it’s him,’ said Jackie.