Lastnight Read Online Free Page B

kill Goths. I’m not a Goth.’
    ‘You don’t know what they might do if they find out you’re trying to track them down.’ She sighed. ‘Just be careful, Jack.’
    ‘Always,’ he said.
    She shook her head. ‘It goes in one ear and out of the other with you, doesn’t it?’
    ‘I’m listening, kid. Really.’ He nodded at the whiteboard. ‘So now here’s the thing. Five Goths, different ages and living in different parts of the city, all killed in the same way.’
    ‘No connections between them?’
    ‘Not that the cops can find and they’re usually good at things like that. The way murder investigations work these days involves getting as many cops to ask as many questions of as many people as they can, shove it all into the HOLMES computer and get it to highlight anything significant.’
    ‘And HOLMES has come up with nothing?’
    ‘That’s what Chalmers says. But here’s the thing I don’t understand. If it’s someone who hates Goths, why travel around the city? Why not just go to one place where Goths hang out.’
    Jenny nodded. ‘That would seem logical. Why do you think they haven’t?’
    ‘Maybe they think it’ll mean they’ve less chance of being spotted if they move around.’ He shrugged. ‘It just seems to me that there might be a connection that HOLMES has missed. That they all met the killer, or killers, in the same place.’
    Jenny looked at the map. ‘Well, they’re all within the M25,’ she said.
    ‘And all within Zone 2 on the Tube network. I don’t think that helps. Two were teenagers, two were in their twenties, and one was in his late thirties. Three were straight and two were gay. So Chalmers is working on the theory that they were killed because they were Goths.’
    ‘So they were just unlucky, they were in the wrong place at the wrong time when the killers were looking for a victim.’
    Nightingale shook his head. ‘The way the killings were carried out it had to have been planned. They had equipment, and in three of the killings they did it at the victim’s home. So they must have cased the area first. They might have been targeted randomly, but once in their sights the killers did their research.’
    Jenny waved her coffee mug at the whiteboard. ‘So what’s your plan?’
    ‘I need you to take a look at their social media pages. Facebook and Tumblr and whatever else people are using these days. Build up a profile for each of the five of them.’
    ‘Hasn’t Chalmers already done that?’
    ‘For sure, but now they’ll be at the not being able to see the woods for the trees stage. A fresh pair of eyes might see something that they’ve missed.’
    ‘I’ll give it a go,’ said Jenny. ‘What will you be doing while I’m chained to the keyboard?’
    ‘I need to talk to Goths. Where’s a good place to meet them?’
    ‘Are you serious?’
    ‘Chalmers is right, they won’t talk to cops, but they might talk to me.’
    Jenny chuckled. ‘I’d love to be a fly on the wall when you start chatting to a teenage Goth,’ she said. ‘I’ll ask around. But I know the best place is on a Saturday, a club called The Crypt. It’s been running for almost thirty years. Every Saturday night from 10 p.m. until dawn. But you’re going to have a problem – I think there’s a dress code.’
    ‘I’ll manage,’ said Nightingale.
    ‘I don’t mean you need to wear a tie. There’s a Goth dress code.’
    ‘Yeah, well, maybe I’ll hang about outside and talk to them on the way in.’
    Jenny laughed. ‘Yeah, and I can’t see that ending badly,’ she said. ‘I’ll get the details for you.’ She sipped her coffee. ‘So what’ll you be doing between now and Saturday?’
    ‘Thought I’d visit the relatives, flatmates, anyone who could shed some light on the sort of people they were and why anyone would single them out.’
    ‘The cops would have done that, surely?’
    Nightingale nodded. ‘Yeah, but again fresh eyes might come up with something. I figured I’d do