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not making any mistakes.”
    “Everyone makes mistakes.”
    Colgan raised the corner of his mouth in a little laugh, “Even you?”
    Tony wasn’t sure if that was a reprimand or a compliment. His boss was certainly keeping him on his toes today.
    Colgan’s smiled dropped. He pulled his chair around and sat opposite Tony. “Cardiff has never faced a serial killer like this before, and certainly not one with such a long reign. One of our biggest problems here is the media. They’re out for just as much blood as this lunatic, only the blood they want is ours.” Colgan brought his hands together. “The first sniff of a lead we get and it’s splashed all over the headlines. Not only does it needlessly get people’s hopes up, but quite often it ruins what slim chance we have at actually catching the bastard.”
    “I agree, sir.” Tony replied, when he was certain it was the right time to do so.
    Colgan reached for a file that had been on the desk the whole time and slid it over to Tony. Inside were photocopies of statements with red biro rings around certain areas. Tony began skim-reading these paragraphs, simultaneously making sure that he kept listening to the department director.
    Colgan got up and turned his back, walking as he talked, “It’s a stretch, and I really do mean that. Denise Sanders’ mother says in her statement that on the day before her daughter was abducted, her sixteenth birthday party, she saw a man watching Denise. The party was held at their local pub. There were lots of men there, and Denise was a pretty girl. There was no CCTV footage besides one camera pointed at the till and no one else mentioned this man in their statements.” He casually studied the wall-sized map of Cardiff as he continued, “Nobody thought anything of it. Just some other sad, old barfly, perving on teenage girls. The only description she could give was that he wore a camouflage jacket.”
    The director turned back, signalling Tony to look up from the folder. “And then we get Lucy Green. Statements were again taken from her friends and family when she went missing about what she had been doing in the days prior to her disappearance. One thing in particular popped out at me.”
    “The man at the ice cream counter,” Tony said, hoping they had come to the same conclusion.
    His superior nodded, “Lucy and her best friend, Jenny Williams went to the cinema the day before Lucy went missing. Jenny said that when they went to buy ice cream Lucy couldn’t find enough change in her purse and before Jenny could reach into her handbag, the man behind them paid for her. Teenage girl’s descriptions of anyone over thirty are always pretty generic, but besides being old, all she said about the man was that he wore a camouflage jacket.”
    Tony rolled his tongue around his mouth once before speaking, “Even if it is the same man in both accounts, Cardiff is a small enough city for it to be purely coincidental.”
    Colgan eased himself back into the chair with a sigh, “If these murders continue for much longer, there won’t be a person left in the county who doesn’t know somebody who knows one of the victims. I said it was a stretch.”
    Tony nodded, “Sir, I understand and agree with your hesitance to release this information to the media.” He paused, “But you’ll have to excuse me for being blunt, why are you telling me this?”
    “You mean as opposed to the rest of the team?” It was a rhetorical question. Colgan lowered his voice as he leaned forward. “There has been information reported that this department has not officially disclosed to the press. Inquisitive journalism only goes so far.”
    It was Tony’s turn to lower his voice, “You think there’s a leak in the team?”
    Colgan seemed frustrated that the question had even had to be said aloud. He bit down on his tongue, “I don’t know. Yet.”
     
     
     
    Somewhere in Cardiff Bay
     
    Paul hated to admit it, but Dean did seem to know what he