Page 130 of Stolen Ones

‘Yep,’ Penn said. Steven Harte was standing to the left of the shot, talking to one of the girls about something in one of the display cabinets.

‘It’s that movement she just made,’ Stacey said in wonder.

Penn nodded. ‘Grace’s left arm pointing to that poster got his attention. Just watch.’

Penn said nothing as Stacey’s mouth fell open. Harte’s gaze fell on Grace’s arm and stayed there, even though the member of staff carried on talking to him. He continued to watch as Claire and Grace moved towards the desk, paid and entered the heavy plastic ribbon doors into the butterfly farm.

‘Now watch this,’ he said, clicking on the next piece of footage.

The camera moved to the exit just an hour or so later, where Claire and Grace exited through a different set of plastic ribbons. Steven Harte was exactly ten seconds behind. He’d already timed it.

‘Bloody hell, Penn,’ Stacey said, sitting back. ‘We’ve just watched his entire selection process.’

Penn nodded as the screen went blank. ‘Pretty sure he would then have followed them home to find out their address.’

Stacey was still shaking her head as she wheeled herself back to her own desk.

He glanced at the phone and felt his heart lurch at seeing her on one camera so innocent, happy and excited to be visiting the butterflies, and on another screen curled up tightly on a bed in a strange room.

‘Do you think he was just going to let her die?’ he said to no one in particular.

Alison glanced over. ‘There’s one sandwich, an apple, some cheese strings and two bottles of water left on the desk. It’s going to run out soon, so how was he going to refresh the supply? He knew what he was coming here for. He knew he might not get back to her.’

‘Then why leave her food at all?’ he asked.

‘You’ve just heard him admit to the boss how he callously strangled three girls, so you really think he was bothered about one more starving to death? With Grace, he doesn’t even need to go hands-on.’

Penn was not convinced. Since he’d walked in the door, Steven Harte had been giving clues either consciously or unconsciously.

Was there anything at all he was giving away without realising it?

Penn accessed the live feed on his computer but rewound to the beginning.

They already knew that Harte’s default comfort gesture was to make circles around the rim of his cup of tea. He hadn’t been allowed that comfort, so what had he been doing with his hands? How was he comforting himself right now?

He watched closely as the boss asked him about Lexi Walters. His right hand started making circles on the table.

From his focused expression, he appeared to be completely unaware of the action.

Penn kept watching.

He talked about Paula, and the circles began again.

The boss moved on to Helen. More circles on the table.

Penn watched again and noticed something new. The circles were in different places on the table. He felt the excitement churn his stomach. It probably meant nothing, he thought as he grabbed a plain sheet of paper.

He drew a circle on the page and pictured that same circle on the desk in front of Harte.

Lexi Walters. The circles were at teno’clock.

Helen Blunt. The circles moved to sixo’clock.

‘Stace, get a map up and plot the burial sites of the victims,’ he said, checking the movements again, and then a third time.

‘Done,’ she said.

‘You got all three on the screen?’