‘You think Abigail and Caitlin were being groomed for something? Do you think it was something sexual?’

‘Why not? Both attractive young women, in their own way.’

Abbey had a vulnerability about her that had made Adrian want to look out for her on both the occasions they’d met. Some people got off on that. Over the last few years, they had seen a rise in home-grown amateur pornography – local girls being persuaded into a film or two to help pay for uni fees, rent, food, whatever else they might want. Caitlin had a similar pull, not just because she was stunning but because she seemed lost, hurt, a little abandoned. Knowing that her parents had left when she was young was no surprise to Adrian. He had noticed that she was trying for his attention, trying to be good enough, something that came with parental abandonment. Always searching for others’ approval, until cynicism takes over and you don’t care any more.

‘I’ll ask the sex crimes guys to run the girls’ faces through their system. Maybe they have something. They’ve just uncovered four porn cam houses in the St Thomas area.’

‘Charming,’ Adrian said; his neighbourhood wasn’t getting any better. ‘And Parker?’

‘We’ve just got to hope we can stop him from hurting anyone else, which means figuring out what’s going on here. At least this is an avenue to explore.’

‘Right now, the best lead we have is Caitlin,’ Adrian said, although he hated saying her name after what she had accused him of. He had to keep reminding himself that she was a victim in all of this, too.

‘And Owen Sager. Someone killed him. That makes our body count three and two,’ Imogen said. ‘There’s something we’re forgetting here.’

‘What’s that?’

‘You were attacked the night of Caitlin’s attack. That can’t have been a coincidence, can it? Do you remember anything about the person who attacked you?’

‘Young. Male, around twenty years old. A little shorter than me, around five ten, I reckon.’

‘Did you see his face?’

Adrian closed his eyes and tried to remember anything about the man who had attacked him. Sometimes it was hard to know if your mind was playing tricks on you or not. If your mind wasn’t just putting things together because you were forcing it to. Trying to perform.

‘He was Caucasian and he had really dark eyebrows; I remember that because his eyes were quite blue. I think anyway. I wouldn’t swear to it. He was definitely white though and I got the feeling he was quite young.’

‘That doesn’t really narrow it down much around here. But, given the age, it does sound like it could be a university student.’

‘Another one. What do you think is going on?’

‘I’m guessing the murder of Hugh Norris is where we start. That was the reason Gillian Mitchell had Caitlin claim you raped her, maybe that’s why you were mugged that night. He has to be the centre of the investigation. Now that Parker is involved, and presumably he killed those three teachers, I’m inclined to assume they were up to something. From what we know of Parker, he has only ever killed people who have done horrible things. We need to find out what those horrible things are.’