Strike started from a position of cynicism about Nicole’s insistence that her ex-boyfriend would never have deliberately shared her picture with others. Years spent investigating the messy aftermaths of broken relationships, not to mention the toxic fallout of his and Charlotte’s many partings and the recent ugly scene with Madeline, had left Strike with few illusions about the depths to which spurned lovers might sink in their desperation to wound those who’d left them.
However, as the detective scrolled slowly down Marcus’s Instagram page he found a group photograph dated the previous December and captioned ‘#ChristmasParty #OldSchoolGang #Fettes’, which featured both Marcus and Nicole. Strike had to admit the ex-boyfriend and girlfriend looked on very good terms, arms draped around each other’s shoulders, beaming along with the rest of their old schoolmates.
Moreover, as Nicole had told them, Marcus had clearly moved on to a new relationship. There were many photographs featuring Marcus in company with a slender blonde just as good-looking as Nicole, and, judging by the number of clinches and kisses featured, their mutual attraction was genuine. Barrett’s sister was tagged in many photographs too: black-haired like her brother, and similarly good-looking. One of the pictures showed brother and sister singing karaoke together at a party, captioned ‘#Timber #Pitbull&Ke$ha #MurderYourFaveSong’.
While well aware Instagram didn’t necessarily represent the truth of anybody’s life, there was clear evidence that Marcus Barrett had a very active social life, and unless he was already a world-class actor seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself in London. There were pictures of gatherings in pubs, in restaurants and at home in his flat, which Strike deduced from local landmarks lay in fashionable Shoreditch. The Barrett family, like the Crystals, seemed to have plenty of money: though both were still in their twenties, the siblings were sharing a flat that looked larger and better furnished than Strike’s own.
Only one set of photographs gave him pause for thought. Back in 2013, presumably shortly after his break-up with Nicole, Marcus had visited Highgate Cemetery with some friends and had posted pictures of himself looking moody in a long black coat among the urns, broken columns and weeping angels.
‘’Course, it could’ve been a sight-seeing trip,’ Strike told Robin by phone on Sunday evening. ‘Got to remember the place is a tourist attraction, not just a crime scene.’
‘And he still hasn’t called?’ asked Robin, who was back in her dressing gown, still in the hotel room she now thoroughly despised.
‘Nope,’ said Strike. ‘I smell panicked phone call from Nicole and then equally panicked conversations between Barrett family members.’
‘You think he’s lawyering up?’
‘Bound to be,’ said Strike. ‘Don’t think many parents would want their son’s name dragged into a murder case. But I know one thing: it can’t be him who’s been impersonating Nicole in the game. He’s doing a full-time course, and as far as I can see he spends most of his free time partying. I thought Nicole was being naive, but I have to say, I’m now inclining to her point of view. They clearly are still friends. I don’t see him as the revenge porn type.’
‘So who on earth’s Paperwhite?’
‘I’ve been thinking about that,’ said Strike, now taking a drag on his vape. He hadn’t smoked since his visit to A&E, although there was still half a pack of Benson & Hedges in his coat pocket. ‘Wondering which came first: Nicole, or her photos.’
‘You mean, someone got hold of her photos, then went looking online for who she really is?’
‘Exactly, which we know is possible, because you did it. Whoever nicked her photos would have had a ready-made persona to step into, because she’s put a ton of personal information online. So everything would check out if Vikas tried to find out who he was talking to in the game: there she is, art student, Glasgow, same pictures—’
‘It was still a risk, impersonating her,’ said Robin. ‘What if Vikas had contacted the real Nicole directly – phoned her, or asked to FaceTime?’
‘I’ve been thinking about that. I don’t know whether you noticed, but his computer seemed to be heavily adapted. What if he had speech problems? What if whoever was impersonating Paperwhite knew it, and counted on him preferring to talk to her online, rather than in person?’
‘Oh God, it’s horrible,’ said Robin, closing her eyes.
‘Yeah, it is – but it’s also genius. Paperwhite would’ve been safe to press Vikas for offline contact, knowing he wouldn’t comply. A really superb bit of manipulation.
‘There’s something else. A lot of people have passed through the kids’ flat, judging by his Instagram. They’re big party people, the Barretts. Nicole’s photos could’ve been on multiple devices, if Marcus synced them, and any of those devices could’ve been stolen or opened without his knowledge. I’ve just been looking into how you hack someone’s iCloud as well. It’s possible, even without a password.’
‘Anything on Marcus’s sister?’
‘I can’t find any separate social media for her, so I don’t know what she does for a living, but one thing I noticed: there aren’t only kids in their party pictures – I mean, some of the people they socialise with look like they’re in their thirties or forties.’
‘You think they’re her workmates?’
‘I do, yeah, which suggests she’s got a busy offline life as well.’
A yawn overtook Strike. Between the tramadol and hours online, he felt more than ready to turn in for the night.
‘How’re you getting on?’ he asked.
‘Well, I’ve dug as deeply as I can on Lepine’s Disciple,’ said Robin, whose eyes were dry and itchy from hours of staring at a computer screen, ‘and I’ve put it all in a master document for you, but I’ve been looking into three other accounts as well. You know that Max person, on Twitter, who started the rumour about Edie being a sex worker? He tried to chat me up, using a Kosh line.’
‘All the trolls are kind of blurring into one for me,’ admitted Strike.
‘Well, he tweeted something about Wally being a killer, on Wednesday.’
‘Oh yeah,’ mumbled Strike, ‘think I saw that.’
‘I got interested in him, and when I went systematically back through his tweets I realised he’s one of four accounts who’re always circling Anomie whenever they’re on Twitter. It was hard to spot, until I started really focusing on them – but they’ve been coordinating with each other, and Anomie.’
‘What d’you mean, “coordinating”?’ asked Strike, rubbing his eyes in an effort to stay alert.
‘Well, for example: in 2011, Lepine’s Disciple accused Edie of lying about how her mother died. He quoted a line from an interview Edie did, where she said she remembered her mother being “drugged up”. Lepine’s Disciple tweeted that Edie was trying to pretend her mother had been an addict. About a minute later, Max posted Edie’s mother’s obituary, which said she died of cancer.’
‘He had the obituary lined up and ready to post?’
‘Exactly. And then Anomie retweeted both Lepine’s Disciple’s out-of-context quote and the obituary posted by Max to his fifty thousand followers, and right after that someone called Johnny B – who also tried to hit on me using Kosh, by the way – posted a photo of Edie’s mother, jeering about how she looked, and then Julius “I am Evola” joined in, saying a friend had overheard Edie claiming her mother was a junkie, which Anomie also retweeted.
‘The five of them planned it between them – there’s just no other plausible explanation – to make her look like a liar. The whole thing happened over the space of a couple of minutes. They must have done a lot of digging to get hold of the obituary and the photo, although I checked – both are online, but in pretty obscure corners of the internet.