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‘You get the perpetrator?’

‘We did. A sailing jock from Georgetown, guy named Stuart Wilson. He’d already played the game twice and the assaults had resulted in minor injuries – little more than a busted lip and a cricked neck. But with the third he went too far, beat the guy to death.’

‘He admit it?’

‘Came clean about the two assaults. Denied all knowledge of the homicide. Said that he’d logged into the chatroom but the site administrator wasn’t there.’

‘Anyone buy that?’ Poe said carefully.

‘Not really. We assumed he’d found himself up dime alley with just a nickel in his pocket. Admitting the misdemeanours but denying the homicide was the only play he had left.’

‘Was the evidence solid?’

‘Irrefutable,’ Melody Lee said. ‘Kind of stuff that gives the DA wet dreams. Overwhelming physical evidence and, if you knew what you were looking for, you could also follow everything online.’

‘What was the physical evidence?’

‘Victim’s blood in the grooves of his sneakers.’

‘Just the sole?’

‘Yes.’

‘How did the victim die?’

‘This is the thing: he was kicked and punched to death.’

‘So there should have been blood on the toe areas and spatters on the laces and eyelets as well.’

‘Exactly. But there wasn’t.’

‘How did the prosecution explain that away?’

‘

Convinced the jury that he’d almost succeeded in scrubbing off the blood. Claimed it was more evidence of his lack of remorse.’

‘So he’d washed them but forgotten to check the treads?’

‘You can see why I had doubts.’

‘You said you’re in South Dakota. Even I know the Badlands are a punishment posting. No way did you risk your career on a pair of trainers that may or may not have been scrubbed.’

‘I did not.’

‘What else did you find?’

‘The make-up of the victims,’ Melody Lee said. ‘The nine who were assaulted were about as random as you could get. Two students, a bank clerk, a couple of store workers. An old lady getting off the bus.’

‘And the one who died?’

‘On the face of it there was nothing special about him either.’

‘And the face of it was as deep as the FBI were prepared to dig, I take it?’

‘They had their man, they had their evidence and they had their motive. They’d have liked a confession but they were happy with everything else. It was a slam-dunk case for the DA and, because Stuart Wilson was from a wealthy family, he could show he wasn’t soft on the Washington elite in an election year.’

‘So what was it about the victim that worried you?’