Free The Shadow Maker by Robert Sims Page A

problem over one particular line of inquiry.’ The expression on his face was stern. ‘As far as I’m concerned it was a glitch that’s been resolved, and I want this investigation back on track.’
    The officers shuffled and exchanged looks, wondering exactly what the glitch was. Rita shifted uncomfortably, then glanced around, trying to gauge if any of her colleagues knew what Loftus was referring to. If so, did they represent a pipeline to Kavella? Just the thought of more corrupt detectives in the building was depressing.
    But as at any briefing, everyone was being careful and observant, trying to second-guess allusions. Some sat on chairs, arms folded, their faces wearing customary frowns. Others sat back casually on desktops, legs outstretched. Two or three sipped coffee from plastic cups, notebooks at the ready. Apart from an air of heaviness in the room, it could have been any other meeting in any other office.
    Loftus dumped the crime report on top of the desk in front of him and waved his pen at them.
    ‘Now, although I’m overseeing the case, it will be run by Detective Senior Sergeant Strickland,’ he said, beckoning Strickland over.
    ‘He’ll bring you up to speed on the details and tell you what your assignments are.’
    Strickland peeled himself away from the ranks of detectives and stood in front of them with a hard stare. As always, his presence commanded respect, at least among the men. The women were more ambivalent. As their senior officer they had to defer to his judgement - as the alpha male of the squad they had to tolerate him.
    ‘Even though the man we’re after is an anonymous client of the victim,’ he began, ‘and there’s only a rough description of his age and appearance, we’ve got a few other things to go on. First there’s his DNA. If we’re lucky and he’s on file, we’ll know once we get the results back from the lab. We’ve also got his prints, but no match so far.’ He straightened his shoulders. ‘Next is his car. We haven’t got a number, or even a partial number, but we’ve got the make and model - a black Mazda MX-5. It’ll be slow and methodical work because there are so many of them and we’ve got no descriptive details to narrow the field. But we’ve been this way before, thanks to the Scalper case, so some of the groundwork’s already been done.
    Even so, we’re going to have to continue tracking each one of them down, and if nothing else pans out it might end up as our best lead.
    Senior Detective Matt Bradby’s team is checking with car dealerships and going through the list of owners.’
    He paused and let his eyes move over their faces. ‘Other leads we’re chasing are the Ned Kelly T-shirt and the German bondage gear. Senior Detective O’Keefe’s out pounding the streets at the moment, trying to find out where they were bought. And we’re still trying to trace a key witness - a woman who was apparently this maniac’s first target, but managed to fight him off. If any of you hear of a likely candidate let me or DS Van Hassel know. And although we’ve drawn a blank so far, we’ll continue with an appeal for witnesses around the casino. It’s just possible some punter saw something. There’s enough of them around late at night. We’ll also keep pulling in known offenders who fit the description, even if it’s just to eliminate them. DS Erin Webster’s in charge of that happy task. Finally, DS Higgs and his crew are out questioning street prostitutes. He’s made it clear we’re not interested in vice, we just want to nail this offender. They’re scared after the news reports, so they’re cooperating. The obvious problem is they have a large client base and therefore a large suspect pool.’
    He gave Loftus a reluctant sideways look, then went on. ‘I agree with what Jack says about not rushing to get a result. Having said that, we all know the first seventy-two hours of any investigation are crucial, and if there’s no breakthrough