‘Wait until you see their profile pictures I gave you,’ Baxter said. ‘The passwords to the accounts are in the email.’

‘Thanks, Dennis.’

‘No problem. Let me know if you need anything else.’

‘Will do.’

Hunter ended the call and used his new cyber-identities to log into several different social media sites at the same time.

‘OK,’ he said to himself. ‘Let’s start digging.’

Sixty-Eight

Without knocking, Captain Blake pulled open the door to Hunter and Garcia’s office and stepped inside. They were both sitting at their desks.

‘OK,’ she said in an already irritated tone, her eyes bouncing from one detective to the other. ‘What have you guys got for me on this? And you better tell me you’ve got something good, because with this second victim, Cassandra Jenkinson, those freaks from the media have caught the smell of blood, and when it comes to anything that could possibly turn out to be a serial homicide story, they all become ravenous vampires. And the colony is starving.’

Hunter was amused by the comparison.

‘Word on this killer broadcasting his murders live over a video-call hasn’t got out yet,’ the captain continued. ‘But that’s just a matter of time, we all know that. Since the new murder last night, the phones in our press office have been ringing off the hook. Right now, everyone is looking for some sort of statement from us.’

Both detectives knew that that was coming.

‘Has one been issued yet?’ Garcia asked.

‘What?’ Captain Blake glared at him. ‘Is that a joke, Carlos? How the hell could we issue anything if no one, other than the two of you, knows what’s really going on with this case?’

Garcia sat back and clasped his hands together over his stomach. ‘I thought bullshitting was our press office’s specialty.’

‘Oh, we’ve got jokes now, is that it?’ Captain Blake said, her eyes about to flash fire. ‘Because this seems like the ideal moment to crack one.’

‘What would you like to know, Captain?’ Hunter asked in a serene tone, bringing her attention to him.

‘Everything, Robert,’ she replied, checking her watch. ‘I’ve got a meeting with Chief Bracco in two hours, and he’ll be expecting to be fully briefed. Unless you’d like to go in my place?’

‘No, I’m good. Thanks, Captain.’

‘Yeah, I didn’t think so.’ The captain took a deep breath to steady herself. ‘So, the last time I left this office we had one victim and the speculation seemed to be moving in the direction of a stalker. Is that still the case?’

‘You better make yourself comfortable, Captain,’ Garcia said.

Captain Blake grabbed a fold-up chair that was resting against a metal cabinet by the office door. Once she had a seat, Hunter and Garcia took turns explaining everything that had happened since her last update, including their new Internet discovery just moments ago.

‘Wait a second,’ the captain said, lifting a finger to pause Hunter as he explained the results to Cassandra Jenkinson’s autopsy exam. He’d been detailing the bizarre way in which she’d been murdered. ‘It says here, and I quote.’ She read from the copy of the postmortem report they’d handed her: ‘ “With a forceful traumatic impact, the skull bone depresses in the shape of the striking instrument” – I take it that that means any striking instrument?’

‘That’s right.’

‘So to create a pyramid splinter fracture, the killer didn’t have to use a pointy chisel?’

‘Nope,’ Hunter replied. ‘He didn’t even have to use a chisel at all, Captain. The hammer on its own would’ve been more than capable of doing that.’

‘So why did he?’ she asked, looking unsure.

‘Because the problem with using any sort of blunt instrument on its own,’ Hunter clarified, ‘is that it would’ve been a lot harder to control and measure the impact, and there was no guarantee that the killer would’ve achieved the desired effect.’

‘What desired effect, Robert, death? I’m sure that a hammer to the head would’ve done the job, no problem.’

‘Not death, Captain,’ Hunter said, sitting back on his chair, ‘blood.’

Captain Blake didn’t voice a question. All she did was look back at Hunter and shake her head ever so slightly.

‘There’s something you’re forgetting, Captain.’

‘And what might that be?’

‘This killer is broadcasting his murders live over a video-call, so whichever way you look at this, you can’t deny that what he’s essentially doing is putting on a show. It doesn’t matter if he’s got an audience of one or a million. To him, it’s still a show. And the game he plays requires two main things to happen in order for his show to work the way he wants it to.’ Hunter lifted his right index finger. ‘One: He needs the person on the other end of the line to panic, because that plays directly in his favor and he feeds off it. It empowers him.’ Hunter paused for breath. ‘If he had used a hammer on its own, that would’ve been a lot harder to achieve, if he’d managed to do it at all.’

‘Are you saying that if the killer had decided to hammer Cassandra Jenkinson’s head in, her husband wouldn’t have panicked? Watching it live over a video-call?’

‘Sure he would’ve, but that could’ve easily played against the killer’s second requirement.’

‘And what requirement is that?’

‘For our killer to have his “fun”.’ Hunter used his fingers to draw quotation marks in the air. ‘The killer also needs his victims to stay alive for at least two wrong answers, because that’s how he gets his kicks, Captain. To him, torturing and murdering his victims isn’t enough. He needs more because his sadism goes way beyond killing. He needs the total desperation from the person watching. He needs them to lose their minds. He needs to make them feel guilty.’

The captain paused and mulled over that thought for an instant. Hunter helped.

‘This game he plays, though it may sound like it’s a simple enough question-and-answer game, it’s been very well thought of, Captain, and meticulously designed to unbalance the person answering the questions.’

This time, it was Captain Blake who sat back on her chair. ‘You’re going to have to give me a little bit more than that, Robert, if you want me to at least try to follow this surreal mind of yours. What the hell are you talking about?’

‘OK,’ Hunter accepted, getting up and walking over to the picture board. ‘Hidden in this question game our killer plays are some simple, but very effective psychological elements.’

‘Such as?’ the captain asked, turning to face the board.

‘Well,’ Hunter began. ‘The first thing he does, after taking a victim hostage, is call the person who will become the player in his game. Someone who is very close to that victim. Someone with a strong emotional connection to them – best friend – husband.’ On the board, Hunter indicated Tanya Kaitlin and Mr. J’s photographs, respectively. ‘His first trick is that he uses the victim’s phone to make that call, and that brings in the first psychological element – surprise.’

Captain Blake’s eyes narrowed a fraction as she began considering Hunter’s words.

‘The person answers the phone,’ Hunter continued, ‘thinking that they’ll be speaking to a best friend or a wife, and that is indeed the impression they get, because according to both witnesses, the first image they see is a zoomed-in shot of the eventual victim. Mainly their eyes, but as the shot pans out . . .’

‘Surprise,’ the captain agreed, seeing what Hunter was driving at.

‘And as the shot continues to pan out,’ Hunter added, ‘that surprise is immediately followed by the next two psychological elements – confusion and shock.’

He gave his captain an extra moment. In her eyes, he saw that she had made the connection. He proceeded.