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encounter, possibly
more than one. At some stage it appears that he takes on the dominant role, at
least we are assuming he does, then he kills them.’
    Megan Crane looked at them askance. 'I find that a little
hard to believe. Some tops do switch of course, but not with someone they’ve
only just met.'
    'We’re not sure how he does it. So far we’ve found no signs
of any sort of struggle, and the way he leaves his victims suggests they were
compliant, at least in the early stages. It’s something you may be able to help
us with.' Jess paused then added, 'It’s possible he may already have tried to
make contact with you'.
    Megan Crane looked from Jess to Carver and back again, as if
gauging if they were exaggerating things.
    'If he is-.' Her voice cracked. She started again. 'The
magazine is only available on direct subscription. If he’s using it then surely
you must have his details, or something?'
    Carver stepped in. 'It seems the magazine is popular in
certain circles and gets passed around a fair bit. It wouldn’t be that hard for
him to get hold of a copy. We only found out about the connection recently and
again, we’ve found no trace of any correspondence at the victim's homes. We’re
assuming he removes it after.’
    'But what about the people who run the magazine? Can’t they
tell you anything?'
    Carver shook his head. 'They simply forward on the envelopes
that come in addressed to the subscriber’s code.’ He pointed down. ‘In your
case, DW12987. As you know, they don’t check to see who, or where it’s from.
They claim to be hot on privacy. All they do is record that they've forwarded
correspondence.'
    She gave a huffy look. 'Yet they gave you my details.'
    'Yes, well,’ He glanced at Jess. 'In your case, they didn’t
really have much choice.'
    Jess suppressed a smile, remembering their visit to
the cramped office above the industrial unit on a business park south of
Birmingham. To begin with, the older of the two women, the matronly one who
looked like she’d been around a bit, stalled, going on about, 'Client
confidentiality,' and her, 'duty of care’ to subscribers. Carver had turned to
Jess and said, 'Ring it in. Organise a search warrant,' before talking about
seizing files and computers and taking maybe a couple of months to find what
they were looking for before they could be returned. He wasn’t at all
threatening, but Matron got the message straight away. Crossing to one of the
grey metal filing cabinets that had seen better days she produced the
information they were looking for in seconds. He thanked her for her
cooperation and promised to tell her clients she’d been forced to disclose
their details. But as they were leaving, he'd stopped. 'I’d advise against
contacting any of them before we speak with them. It might be bad for
business.' This time the threat was clear. Jess knew now it was the way he
sometimes worked. Soft, then hard. A variation on the old, good-cop-bad-cop
routine everyone's heard of. But he did it all on his own. Jess remembered his
promise.
    'To be fair, they only gave us your details under
threat of being closed down.'
    'Really?' Megan said. 'You could do that?'
    Carver broke in. 'Let’s say it wouldn’t do business
much good if it leaked out that their subscribers were being murdered.'
    'But if you are speaking to people like me, then
they'll know anyway won’t they? And you’ve still not said how you know he is
choosing his victims from the magazine. It could just be coincidence, couldn’t
it?'
    As Carver cleared his throat - it was a sensitive area
which he and Jess had discussed at length. - Jess realised that she’d been
wrong. Megan Crane wasn’t behaving like many victims might - in such a panic
they’re happy to do anything the police say. She was searching for a hole in
the logic. Unwilling to give herself up so easily.
    'Knowing about DOM is the only advantage we have at
the moment. If we approach too many people, it could leak out, and