FORTY-SIX

9.30 P.M.

Penn wasn’t sure there was ever a time they’d had so many names on the board.

The boss had just called through another name and three more registration numbers. Given the volume of potential suspects, he was doing little more than checking them for convictions before moving on to the next name.

His gaze kept returning to the board, considering his options.

There had to be front runners. He agreed that their guy could be amongst the names on the board, but didn’t it make more sense to focus on someone who had been actively involved? On someone who had actually moved one of the boxes?

He typed the name Joanne Deary into Google. He’d already checked that she wasn’t known to them, but he wanted to see what else he could learn about her. The boss had made it clear that no one’s name came off the list.

Immediately, he could see that her name came up on most social networking platforms. Not unusual for a single woman with two children. Probably she craved company outside of baby talk and watching kids’ TV.

She seemed to be most active on Instagram.

As he scrolled through her posts, he lost heart in his own logic.

Every single photo was of her kids. One of them, both of them, all three of them together. No pictures of her out with friends, eating somewhere with adults or doing things on her own.

There was nothing wrong with this picture except that she needed to find an occasional sitter for some ‘me’ time.

He’d scrolled back almost a year and found nothing.

He was about to move on to the next name on the list when a post caught his attention.

It was a small gathering for a child’s birthday party. A couple of people were tagged, and they were both names he recognised.