Free Blood Line by Lynda La Plante

following signs to the incident room. She listened outside at first, then, as she could hear Langton’s voice, she inched the door open and looked in.
    Langton was giving a big team of officers a briefing. All had their backs to the door as she slipped in to stand at the rear of the large, very well-equipped room. There were rows of desks and monitors, a long incident board with photographs and details, and numerous clerical staff working on the periphery. Anna held on to her briefcase and looked around. She saw DCI Mike Lewis, DS Paul Barolli, and, sitting side by side, Joan Falkland and DC Barbara Maddox. They had all worked with her on four previous cases. She felt a pang of envy that they were together and she was an outsider. Langton was pacing up and down, pulling at his tie.
    ‘I think our victims have been chosen through a systematic and lengthy period of stalking and surveillance. I am certain he has been watching this family for some time. He had to know the husband’s habits, that every other night he played snooker at his local club. He would have noted how long the husband spent there in order to have enough time to complete what he wanted to do. The crime was carefully staged to impact in the most traumatic way on the husband when he returned from the pub. I think the staging and placing of the bodies indicated that our killer is methodical and he wanted to shock. He could know this family—more important, know the husband—and although it’s just speculation at this stage, we concentrate on anyone who held a grievance against him.’
    Anna had inched her way over to sit unobtrusively on a hard-backed chair left against the wall by the double doors. She listened intently, watching Langton pace the floor back and forthin front of the incident board, tapping the photographs of the victims and turning on his heels to face his team.
    ‘This is a murder of sexual sadism. Our killer was organised. He planned these murders. He targeted his victims, he brought restraints and knives, and we have no weapons found at the victims’ home. By the use of these restraints the element of control was uppermost in his mind, but something didn’t go according to plan; that something was the husband returning home earlier than usual from his snooker game, which had been cancelled due to his friends having to work a late shift. So although victim one, the wife, is deliberately displayed and ready for viewing, his second victim, the twelve-year-old boy, is not. From the blood distribution along the walls in the kitchen and hallway, we can ascertain that the child tried to make a run for it.’
    Langton stood in front of a large sketch of the outlay of the victims’ kitchen, breakfast room, and hall. He jabbed it with his finger.
    ‘The boy was caught and dragged to the kitchen dining area—we have blood smearing and spattering against the walls. Forensics has given us a scenario that the killer rammed the boy’s head against the side of a cabinet before tying him to the chair beside his mother. Pathology report indicates the poor kid thankfully would have been unconscious by this time.’
    Langton loosened his tie. He was sweating and Anna could see that his old injury to his knee was paining him as he paused to rub it.
    ‘With three possible suspects the search warrants will be executed first thing tomorrow morning. Look for any items relating to sexual or violent behaviour—pornographic magazines, videos, books relating to true-life crimes, vibrators, clamps, women’s clothing, underwear, and so on. Look out for diaries,anything connected to this sort of violence. They could have police equipment, handcuffs, ropes, knives, so search their vehicles …’
    He took a deep breath and glanced at his watch.
    ‘Right, that’s it for tonight. Weekend leave is cancelled. We work round the clock on this one.’
    His team began to disperse, taking chairs back to their desks and talking quietly to one another. No one as yet