Alright. Focus, Cornelius. What are the interesting points about this case? Jasmine is the daughter of a possible drug dealer. Jasmine fought with Madison and had a cut lip. Cierra and Madison are twins: is that important? Madison has some YouTube channel, and she’d split from the rest of the group before they disappeared. Tomorrow, I’ll need to make time to talk to her. And Georgia saw a bear-man . . .?

He began to consider the suspects.

In the safety of his own mind, he used the alignment system from Dungeons & Dragons, a system from his childhood and one that he’d always used since joining the force, but one he would never, ever admit to. It was a matrix used to categorise ethical and moral perspectives: good versus evil, lawful versus chaotic, and neutral right in the middle.

Good and evil were self-explanatory. But lawful and chaotic . . . that was the category that had always fascinated Con.

‘Lawful’ implied someone adhered to a system, some code or set of rules. ‘Neutral’ meant they had no qualms about hurting people, but they wouldn’t go out of their way to do so for no reason. And ‘chaotic’: no governing logic to their behaviour except their own desires.

Slowly, using the system, he worked through the possibilities. He stepped out of the shower, dried with a towel, and typed up his current list of suspects on his laptop.

1. Eliza Ellis (& accomplice?) – Neutral Evil?

2. Jordan Murphy – Lawful Evil

3. Unknown Drug Agent – Lawful Evil

4. Unknown Sexual Predator – Chaotic Evil

5. Mentally-Ill Psychopath (?) – Chaotic Evil

6. Bear-Man – Who the hell knows

Con hesitated before adding a final suspect:

7. The Hungry Man of 1985 – ? Evil

He snorted softly and deleted the final line.

He saved the file, closed the laptop and slipped into bed.

A second later, he returned to the laptop. He opened the file and quickly added the Hungry Man again.

He went back to bed, swallowed his medications, flicked the lamp off. Outside, the rain howled and beat against his windows.

When he finally slipped into sleep, the girls from his last case in Sydney – the Jaguar’s victims – strolled into his mind. Their beaten faces and bloody limbs. They were screaming for his help. But he was, as always, too late to save them.

CHAPTER 9

ELIZA

It was morning at the hospital.

Eliza stood in the bathroom attached to her ward, naked, looking at herself in the mirror, heart beating fast. Slightly dizzy – slightly nauseated. But she’d had a shower and was beginning to regain some sense of self.

Lungs tight, stomach clenched, eyes on the brink of tears.

It’s my fault.