‘Thanks, I will.’ Connie gave Overbeck a flash of an unperturbed smile. ‘As I was saying, most offenders play out the same scenario. We’re struggling to get ahead of this man because he’s moving his story forward. Each abduction – and we know now it’s the abductions that are relevant to profiling him, not the murders – is the next chapter in his story. It’s unfolding as he goes. We won’t know when it’s reached an end. I doubt even he knows when it’ll end. It’s not a completely unknown scenario in criminal offending, but it is rare to the point that no past cases will assist us.’

‘Still not hearing anything useful,’ Overbeck interjected.

‘You are, actually, it’s just that you haven’t had time to process the information and decode it yet,’ Connie said.

There was a moment where no one breathed, all eyes on Overbeck.

‘Go on,’ Overbeck said, not the least bit bothered by the attention or by the challenge.

Overbeck was her own woman. Probably a complete bitch and quite possibly a sociopath. The sort you could girl crush on in the right circumstances, Connie thought.

‘I’m not convinced he’s psychopathic, in spite of the two murders. Angela’s death was unintentional. He wanted her, for whatever reason, and the forensic evidence points to an accidental killing in the course of a kidnapping. He replaced her with Elspeth – no corpse – we assume she’s still alive. Meggy was a clean kidnapping, cleverly and carefully planned, and we know he made contact with her in Inch Park. The same park Angela has visited, that’s also in close proximity to Elspeth’s husband’s rugby club.’ Connie took a breath. ‘The risk-taking involved here is increasing exponentially. I’ve never seen anything like it. What we know of the last victim – Danny’s death – is that his killer was completely unbothered about being seen.’

‘If that’s true, then why wait in a dark alleyway at night? There’s evidence that some of the street lighting was smashed. That could have been our kidnapper preparing in advance,’ one of the MIT officers said.

‘Good point, but that conflicts with him going to Meggy’s school in daylight. I think there’s a difference between those actions he takes to ensure he fulfils each mission successfully, and the need to conceal his identity. He was in the alleyway at night because that’s the exit Xavier uses regularly. Less lighting meant a reduced prospect of anyone else intervening, plus it made it easier for him to conceal himself from Xavier until he was ready to attack. Danny’s part in it was unforeseen, but he’d planned for the eventuality, hence the knife.’

Baarda stood up and walked to the laptop that was controlling the images on the screen.