A Taste for Malice Read Online Free Page A

to help me.’
    ‘I hear you will self-destruct when you leave this room.’
    ‘From your mouth to God’s ears.’ Smile. He sits in silence for a couple of minutes while I read the notes on the paper.
    ‘Anyway,’ he stands up, ‘I feel so much better now. Bye.’
    Several sheets of A4 paper are left on my desk. The hand-writing is too neat to be Daryl’s. Alessandra’s then. I pull them towards me and read. This is a file from the “Unsolved” pile. A case that has been superseded by a number of other crimes, usually involving murder. Until some parents came looking for answers and someone’s conscience was given a prod, considering the fact that young innocents have been damaged. And the worry that it might be happening to others while we focus on more “serious” and immediate crimes.
    Due to their past proximity to me, Daryl and Alessandra are clearly ideal candidates to head the investigation of this “cold case” before the parents go running to the press.
    We are looking for a young woman. She may have an accomplice. She may have some medical training. What we can say with some degree of certainty is that she has some serious issues.
    We know of two families so far that she has destroyed. The pattern of her activity with both was very similar. She insinuates herself into the bosom of the family. She becomes best friends with the woman and flirts with the man. The children — and both families had young boys — adore her.
    To start off with. Then she has some “fun” with them. For fun, read torture and mental cruelty. In each case she disappeared as suddenly as she arrived, and only then do the children tell their parents what happened.
    Nice.
    Her description varies. In one she is small and round, with long dark hair. In the other she is small and slim with short, blond hair. Another variation was in the way she treated the children. The first family was subjected to what could best be described as mental cruelty. The kids in the next family had similar treatment, but this time it had more of a physical nature. This gave the initial team pause for thought. Was it one assailant or was it two unrelated cases? They asked for photos. There were none.
    The time lapse between cases was twelve months. Sufficient time to gain weight and get a hairdo. The name she gave to each family convinced the team that she was one and the same person. Both families said her name was Lucy Hepburn. But she asked that they call her Audrey.
    There’s an e-fit drawing on file from each family. Computer graphic eyes stare out from the pages. I sit the drawings side by side and study them.
    Different people can see the same thing and their brain contrives somehow to create differences. Ask three witnesses to describe the same crime and you can often receive three different accounts. The differences here are largely cosmetic. A change in hair-style and colour is easy enough to explain. One face is rounder than the other. Again, easy to explain.
    Both faces have similar shape of eyes and mouth. One has a slightly bigger nose. However, the first team noted that they considered all of this information and were certain that these were the act of one woman.
    I would have added that a woman who changes her appearance with both hairstyle and diet is one cunning individual.
    And one who is intent on making some form of career for herself.
    Below this Alessandra has noted that Sherlock Drain detects some duplicity. All that genius and alliteration as well.
    I send Alessandra an email. Drain is copied in.
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    Alessandra replies.
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