Page 50 of Murder in Shades of Fire and Ash

When Charlie arrived at the police station clutching his crutches, Will and Eddy were both already in the break room with laptops, and Mags walked in looking exhausted two minutes later.

“Baby kept us awake,” she said.

Once the coffee was made, Will disappeared, returning with a large parcel. He unwrapped it to reveal a flip chart stand, and a pad of paper to hang on it. He grinned. “For when there just isn’t enough room on the whiteboard,” he said. Then he stood next to the pad, produced a set of coloured markers and started to write a list of names:

*Josh Pettifor(with aliases) three sites

*Corrine Bailey (with aliases) six sites, plus moderates: Is This Your Boyfriend?

*Jackie Price three sites

*Megan Mills one site

*Huw Jones (alias) one site

Jeff Britton one site

Dylan Gayle one site

*Josh Unwin

*Patsy Hargreaves

*Lola Unwin (U’s sister)

*Gerald Unwin (U’s father)

*Tansy Unwin (U’s mother)

Josh Lineham

Josh Thomas

Ella Williams (Josh P’s ex)

Alex Unwin (U’s brother)

The other threestudied the list. “So, the stars are for people who live in or close to Llanfair,sitesare internet dating sites.Is This Your Boyfriend?is an online group for women to share the details of men they suspect are cheating on them.” Will explained.

Mags looked puzzled. “I’ve heard ofIs This Your Boyfriend?but I can’t believe there’s a lot of call for it here. I mean, everyone already knows everyone else and who’s going out with who. Or should that be whom? And is that Corrine Bailey who works for Huw Jones, the estate agent?”

Charlie said it was that Corrine Bailey, then looked at Will to answer the rest.

“There’s a lot of traffic onIs This Your Bofriend?” Will said. “No sign of anyone we know, but plenty of women putting up pictures and requests for information. There are also warnings about serial cheaters, or men alleged to be violent or abusive. I didn’t have much time to read the individual posts, but there are some nasty stories in the ones I did read. I’m wondering ifCorrine Bailey spends a fair bit of time tracking blokes through dating sites. I’ve got a bit of software that looks at writing styles, and I’m getting a lot of hits on Corrine on all the dating sites. It means that even when she uses a different name, or profile, I can be reasonably sure it's her.”

“I guess everyone needs a hobby,” Eddy said.

Charlie remembered Ravensbourne saying she had been to a domestic violence case involving internet dating. He should have asked for details. He also made a mental note to ask Will for more information about exactly where he could get this writing style software. “Any other connections?” he asked.

Will shrugged and took a different coloured pen and put circles around Corrine Bailey, Jackie Price, Megan Mills and Huw Jones. “People who work in the estate agent’s,” he said. “I’m just looking for connections.”

“What about the Mo’s Autoparts people?” Charlie wanted to know. “Surely someone there has a connection to the victims?”

Will made a note. “I’ll check,” he said, “and I’ll check if any of the others has a connection with the firm. I’ll do the same with the Hassans. All I was looking for was membership of dating websites.”

“I suppose we shouldn’t ask how you found out who was on which site?” Mags said drily.

“No, you almost certainly shouldn’t,” Charlie said as Will blushed.

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