led Adrian Summers; his address was one of the elegant houses in Hove with direct views of the pebbled beach. The house had been rented on a short lease and, as far as the locals could ascertain, the renter had not been in residence for months.Adrian Summers, aged twenty-two, worked as an odd-job man for holiday rentals. The Mitsubishi was registered in his name, and he had reported it stolen. It had been parked on the forecourt of the property. It didn't help that there had been a spate of car thefts over the past year; although the Mitsubishi had been reported stolen, the police had had no success in tracking it down.Langton fired off orders for a team to get over to the house. He wanted it dusted from top to bottom for prints, and for them to remove anything that gave them a clue as to who had rented it. The owners were contacted in the Bahamas; they gave an address and name of the management company.The rental contract didn't help: it had been taken out in Adrian Summers's name, and the rent paid in cash for six months; they had also been left a substantial deposit, which remained unclaimed.While the team set about tracing Summers and visiting the property, Langton sat in front of the board. Dates, dates—how many times had he asked for the chronological order of events from Travis? It all hinged °n this bloody jeep; was it stolen to order by Stanley Leymore? Did he have a string of kids stealing for him, driving the vehicles to his garage and respraying, repairing, replacing the plates? It was doubtful he would he stealing cars for himself; they knew he had sold Donny Petrozzo his Mercedes, so the cars would have been upmarket vehicles that he knew he could move. Brighton police confirmed a spate of upmarket vehicle thefts a while back, but nothing recently.Somehow the Mitsubishi was moved from Brighton to Leymore's garage. Langton began a list of names: he marked only those who had a direct link to the jeep. First up was this boy Adrian Summers, who had bought the jeep, new, from a Brighton dealer; paid cash. It was next reported stolen, and surfaced:1. At the drug squat with Alexander Fitzpatrick aboard, plus Frank Brandon2. At the farmhouse, driven by Julius D Anton 3. With Donny Petrozzo s body in the back, in the garage at WimbledonLangton began shifting the dates around. At the same time, he had the team double-checking the times of death for Petrozzo and for D Anton. Due to the latter being some time in the water, they were not able to give the exact date. Donny Petrozzo's body was also very well wrapped and preserved. The time frame in which they both had died was therefore, loosely, a three-week period.Langton then drew an arrow to link each man. Donny Petrozzo knew Frank Brandon; he also knew Stanley Leymore, the car dealer. Did Frank arrange with him to take the Mitsubishi? They had no record of exactly how long he had been driving it; the insurance certificates they had taken from Julia Brandons, along with other papers, were for her car and his only. Lastly, he underlined the now-infamous name: Alexander Fitzpatrick. Just as he had half completed his arrow making, there was contact from Brighton.It appeared someone had made a fast getaway. Food was still in the fridge, beds were unmade, and, though they were removing trash from the wastebaskets, the main garbage had last been collected weeks ago. When shown the picture of Alexander Fitzpatrick, neighbors either side of the property were certain that he had been in residence. The sheets were bundled up to be tested for DNA at the lab, but it looked as if whoever left in a hurry also did a cleanup job: rubber gloves were found along with disinfectant and window-cleaning sprays.There was still no sighting of Adrian Summers, but the neighborshad said he was a familiar sight around all their houses; he did part-time gardening, window cleaning, and car washing. He appeared to be a pleasant young man, who was studying part-time at the local college for a master's degree in graphic art. They would have to check out if Adrian Summers had made up the insignia for the hired white van.His parents had been contacted; they lived locally in Hove, but they had not seen him for seven or eight months. They were not too concerned, as it was usual for their son to go off without contacting them, but they changed their minds when told he had not been at college for the same period of time.They now had photographs of the young man. Sussex police had agreed to begin trying to locate him. Langton glanced uneasily at the fair-haired boy as he pinned his picture up along with everyone else's.Langton had been moving arrows and dates around the board, as if he was playing chess. His theory that there were no coincidences was being proved with a vengeance; the more he had tried to calculate the time frames, the more bizarre were the coincidences that must have occurred."As you know, from early on I have been requesting some kind of time frame; we are still surmising that this or that happened, so I am coming up with something else. Let's go back to the report of the missing Mitsubishi."In his opinion, for Alexander Fitzpatrick—even via Adrian Summers—to report a vehicle stolen would be a huge risk. He was still trying to fathom out the pickup of the drug haul from Gatwick. Going by the dates on the customs certificates, this occurred before the theft of the jeep. But they still had no idea where the drugs were taken afterward."Now," Langton continued, "it is my belief that, when the jeep was stolen, on board was maybe one box of the drugs. Stanley Leymore now has this box of drugs; he's unsure what they are. As soon as Fitzpatrick sees Frank Brandon with his fucking jeep, he has to want to know where he got it from. So, that leads him back to Leymore. What if—and I am grasping at straws here—but what if Leymore contacted DonnyPetrozzo, a known smalltime drug dealer? He takes the drugs, and tries to do a deal with our two punks at the Chalk Farm squat, but being cautious only gives maybe a few vials of it."The team all had quizzical expressions, trying to follow Langton as he walked up and down in front of the board."Frank drives Fitzpatrick to the drug squat," Langton went on, "and there all hell breaks loose, as Frank is recognized by the two dealers, and the shoot-out goes down. The dealers had paid Leymore for the drugs; we know they have admitted killing him, and there is a time gap between them making a run for it from the squat and killing Leymore. In that time gap, I think DAnton got hold of the drugs— not the mother lode, but a box containing some of the Fentanyl. Is everyone with me?"There was a low murmur, and a few jokes that they were trying to keep up. Anna sat quietly, watching Langton at work. He was, as he always had been, an extraordinary man; his mind ticking over so fast, he spoke in short sharp sentences as he tried to work out his theory. She knew he was treading water, though, as so much depended on the very thing he always detested: coincidences."Now!" Langton paused. He explained that Fitzpatrick had possibly been injured in the shooting. He couldn't return to his rented house in Brighton and, with Frank Brandon's murder, he couldn't stay at Julia's, so he needed a place to hide out.Langton printed in large letters: FARMHOUSE. He then stepped back and gave a soft laugh. "Okay, I am hoofing it now but, around the same time—remember, this is all taking place within twenty-four hours of the murder of Frank Brandon ..." Langton brought up the note found in the glove compartment of the Mitsubishi, with directions to the farmhouse. Did Fitzpatrick call and ask how to get there? Did he drive to the farmhouse? And did he stash the box of drugs in the Mitsubishi? He jotted down the dates of the antiques fair; again, this crossed their time frame. "Julius D'Anton: junkie, loser, desperate for money, rams his own rundown van into the ditch, no more than a mile from the farmhouse. Coincidentally," he said, looking to Anna with a grin, "JuliusD'Anton walks along the footpath. We know from Travis that the couple never use their front door, but what if Julius does try the doorbell first. It doesn't work—right, Travis?""Yes.""Okay. What if D'Anton takes a look at the Mitsubishi, left parked; he sees the keys in the ignition—remember, we are just surmising all this, or I am!" He laughed, then stared at the floor, and shrugged. "D'Anton opens the glove compartment, and there's a stash of cash. Remember the two drug dealers said they'd paid five grand to Petrozzo? Maybe it was that cash, maybe not; either way, for D'Anton, it's like fucking Christmas." Langton sat down, rubbing his head; he finished by saying that D'Anton had to have got a wad of money from somewhere, as he returned to the antiques shop and tried to take the table, but he couldn't fit it into the back of the jeep.Langton asked for some water as he pointed to the board. "Julius D'Anton drove home. To make sense of the theory, he discovers the drugs, takes them to his storage warehouse, and stashes them there." Langton sipped at the beaker of water handed to him. He stood up. "The one person that connects to almost everyone is Donny Petrozzo. D'Anton scored from him: did he contact him? They arrange to meet, and here I am really out on a limb. D'Anton OD'd on the stuff, he's a junkie, maybe killed himself trying to fathom out what it was, Donny simply tips him into the Thames, and drives the Mitsubishi to Frank's garage, like a fucking homing pigeon." There was a long pause, and eventually Langton looked at the team. "So what do you think?"Anna waited for someone else to take the lead, but no one did."Yes, Travis?""I think if any part of your theory is correct, we have to arrest Damien Nolan and his wife. We also have to focus on tracing the two missing children. They should be our priority."There was a hubbub of everyone talking at once.Anna held her ground. "We now have yet another missing person, Adrian Summers; it's quite likely he was just a pawn in the entire thing. There is also the au pair. If we are to take on board everything DCSLangton has suggested, our prime suspect is still on the loose, and missing is a substantial load of drugs, which looks to be the reason he is still in the UK."Langton turned to Cunningham, who had not said one word throughout. Now she coughed, clearing her throat. "I personally need time to digest everything. I buy some of it, but not all; we need to really start ripping it all apart and get that time frame set, so we can dismiss or agree on this scenario. I also feel that we should now arrest both Damien Nolan and his wife."Langton looked as if he was going to jab his finger in her chest. "No! We hold off until I am ready. In the meantime, I want a full press release. I want them at Scotland Yard: every pen pusher possible, from every crime page. We break the news on the search for the two children and the au pair—they are to be the priority—and we name our suspect, Alexander Fitzpatrick! Let them Google him, and see what they come up with!"Cunningham had two pink spots on her cheeks as she controlled her anger. She asked politely if Langton would join her in her office before she walked out. They broke for the night; it was after nine.