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A) Christopher Shaw attacked by Michael Hyde (May 3, 2000)

He looked back. Pettifer was holding the photograph of Shaw’s injuries.

“How is this relevant?” she said.

“It isn’t. I was just killing time until you arrived.”

She glared at him and put down the photograph.

“But it isn’t totallyirrelevant,” Laurence said. “I don’t think it necessarily has any bearing on the murder of Alan Hobbes. But it does provide context. If you want to understand the ailment, first understand the organism.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“You’re aware we haven’t been able to locate Christopher Shaw overnight?”

“Yes, of course.”

Laurence gestured toward a folder on the table. It was filled with a sheaf of paper nearly a centimeter thick.

“That is the file we have on Christopher Shaw,” he said. “Those are all incidents that occurred in the years following the attack by Hyde. Have a look through. You will note a downward trajectory in the course of this young man’s life.”

Pettifer sighed, and then Laurence waited as she flicked through the file, working quickly through the various arrest reports, the photographs, the court records and recommendations. Since his late teens, Christopher Shaw had lived a vagabond existence. Drugs were a constant feature, but there had also been a number of arrests for shoplifting, soliciting, and public disorder.

“The last sighting of him was two years ago,” Laurence said. “He stole from his sister on what should have been their father’s birthday, and she reported him for the theft. Her statement is in the file here. It seems like she finally lost patience with him.”

“Yeah, I don’t blame her.”

It wouldn’t actually have occurred to Laurence to blame anyone. But he remembered Katie Shaw from the time of her brother’s assault—how he had met her at the cordon that day, and how upset she had been. How she had blamed herself for what had happened. It had been obvious to him that she loved her brother, and he imagined it must have taken a great deal for her to cut him off the way she eventually had.

He turned back to the board.

A) Christopher Shaw attacked by Michael Hyde (May 3, 2000)

B) Katie Shaw reports CS to the police (September 3, 2015)

—CS disappears

“After that,” he said, “Christopher Shaw seems to have dropped off the face of the earth.”

“Until now.”

“Yes. There is no record of Christopher Shaw working for Alan Hobbes. He is not listed as an employee. But he certainly seemed familiar with the layout of the house. And as we have seen, he also appeared to remove something from the property. I couldn’t tell what he was holding. Could you?”

Pettifer shook her head. “It was too grainy to see properly.”

“But it’s reasonable to assume that it was deliberately chosen—and that it was why Shaw was there.”

He added more notes to the board.

C) Alan Hobbes murdered (October 4, 2017)

—staff dismissed

—business dealings / investments

—charitable donations

—philosophy professor