‘If her profile was on this site, then we must be able to find out who she is,’ Kate exclaimed as she feverishly tried to narrow the search criteria. She thought back to Ben’s initial summary in the car park. ‘She was in her early to mid-thirties, so that’s as good a place to start as any. She was found in Southampton, so let’s assume for now that she lived locally…’ She hit the filter button. ‘Jeez, there’s hundreds… Okay, what else do we know? Her name might be Mary.’

Kate moved from profile to profile, her pulse quickening with every swipe. ‘Come on, come on, she must be one of their clients. If they’ve used her face in their advertising banner, they must have got the image from somewhere…’ She paused. ‘Unless she’s a model they hired…?’ She shook her head. ‘No, I’m sure they’d use real people.’ She continued to click the arrow button.

Her mind was racing with questions, while the wine in her stomach swirled. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and now a bubble of nausea was slowly rising. She clenched her teeth to quell the growing anxiety. It couldn’t be a coincidence that Isbitt was selecting his victims online, just like the killer she’d hunted before. She was beginning to believe her crazy idea was anything but.

The breath caught in Kate’s throat as the car-park victim’s smiling face appeared in the right-hand corner of the screen. Her fingers hovered above the keyboard as she took in every freckle, every wrinkle and stray strand of the copper-coloured hair. ‘Holy shit! It’s her… I’m sure of it. Laura, look, this is Isbitt’s second victim.’

Laura leaned over. ‘It says her name is Mary Eden. God, you’re right, it’s her.’

Kate nodded, her anxiety boiling over. He’d kept himself out of the headlines for a year following Amy’s death, but the press coverage of the anniversary must have sparked something in him again. And this time she knew who he was. But why?

Laura stood. ‘I need to call this in. Can I use your phone? My battery’s nearly dead.’

‘Sure, but before you do that… you don’t think… what was the first victim’s name?’

‘Helen Jackson. Why?’

‘Well, if Mary Eden is on this site, is it possible that Helen is too?’

Laura’s eyes widened, as she realised what Kate was suggesting. ‘You think—’

Kate interrupted her. ‘We have no evidence… yet.’

Laura leaned over her and adjusted the filter settings. ‘There are only 104 profiles this time…’ she said, as she began clicking through them. Kate pulled herself up and began examining something on the far wall.

‘I’m not sure that Helen was looking for love, to be fair,’ Laura said, as she neared the end of the list of profiles. ‘She hadn’t long split up from her boyfriend. I mean, it would be a huge coincidence if she happened to…’ Her words trailed off as she blinked at the screen in front of her.

Kate, who hadn’t really been listening, turned to Laura as she picked up on the sudden silence. ‘What is it?’

‘I don’t believe it.’ She turned the laptop for Kate to see the screen. ‘There she is. Helen Jackson, the girl from Isbitt’s boot. Do you realise what this means?’

Kate couldn’t begin to comprehend what the evidence was suggesting. The hairs on the back of her neck stood as a tingle of fear and excitement raced down her spine. Laura was still speaking, but she couldn’t hear a word as competing thoughts jostled for position. It had to be just a coincidence, right? It was ludicrous to think that he’d lain dormant for a year and had suddenly struck again. And why here? Southampton: to toy with her? A wave of nausea swept through her, but she choked it back feeling a cool sweat descending from the top of her head all the way down.

During the investigation she’d spent every waking minute thinking about the day she would finally put cuffs on him. And every day since he’d killed Amy, she’d lived with the regret that she might never discover who he was. And just as things seemed so bleak, he’d returned, as if taunting her for her failure. Was this a reprieve? Was this fate’s way of giving her a second chance to stop him once and for all? With Isbitt in custody, the clock was ticking to find the evidence to prove they had their man. She bent low and sucked breath deep into her lungs.

‘Ma’am? We’ve got to call this in.’

Laura was right, of course she was. As personal as this case was, she had to handle it appropriately. There was too much at stake to risk screwing up because she had failed to follow protocol again.

Kate raised her hand. ‘Wait, before we jump to conclusions, we need to establish whether Isbitt could have found them through that site. Can you run a search to see if you can find him on there too? Presumably SSD have taken his computer for analysis? They could check his internet search history and see if he has visited the site too.’

‘I didn’t think she’d be on there. I—’

‘Laura, we can’t get ahead of ourselves.’ But even as she spoke the words, Kate knew she’d already lost that battle with herself.

‘How do we prove it’s him?’

Kate’s brain was firing out questions and accusations faster than she could process. Grabbing her glass, she necked what remained of the wine to steady her trembling fingers.