Anomie: people like a lot of shit they shouldn’t Just do as you’re told
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BorkledDrek: gtg
<BorkledDrek has left the channel>
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Anomie: Worm?
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Worm28: hi
Anomie: are you talking to anyone on a private channel right now?
Paperwhite: good, because Anomie will be really fkn angry with you if he finds out you have
Worm28: I haven ‘ t told anyone
Worm28: did Morehouse tell you who Anomie is ?
Paperwhite: No, Anomie told me himself
Worm28: seriously ??
Paperwhite: yeah. We’ve become friendly.
Worm28: wow . I thought you ‘d be pissed off at him for getting rid of Morehouse
Paperwhite: Morehouse was a slimy bastard
Paperwhite: good riddance
Worm28: I thought u were really good friends
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Paperwhite: no, once I got to know him I realised he was a creep
Robin wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice.
Worm28: yes , I ‘m talking to Paperwhite
Anomie: and would you be comfortable if I was able to see what you’re saying?
Worm28: yes
Anomie: really?
Worm28: yes , I would
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Paperwhite: haha, you’re in trouble now
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Paperwhite: liar
And now Robin paused, looking between the two channels, and her heart began to race.
Worm28: it’s funny
Worm28: the way you and Paperwhite never speak at the same time
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<Worm28 has been banned>
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Worm28: isn’t it?
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<Worm28 has been banned>
Robin slowly closed the laptop.
‘What happened?’ Zoe said anxiously.
‘I’m afraid Worm28’s just been banned.’
‘Oh, no!’ Zoe whispered, pressing her hands to her face and surveying Robin over her fingertips through her enormous, black-rimmed, sunken eyes. ‘Oh shit – is he angry? Did you tell him what I were saying, about him killing—?’
‘I didn’t have to. You were talking to Anomie all along. Anomie and Paperwhite are the same person.’
‘What? Oh my God – oh no – he’ll come and get me, now – he’ll come and bloody—’
Zoe stood up in a panic, looking as though she was about to scoop up her meagre possessions and flee.
‘Zoe, sit down,’ said Robin firmly. ‘Sit down. I can help you, I promise I can help you, but you’ve got to tell me what you know.’
The girl lowered herself back onto the bed, gazing at Robin with those huge, sunken eyes. Finally, she whispered,
‘Anomie’s who you think he is.’
‘Who I think he is?’ said Robin.
‘Yes,’ said Zoe, tears leaking from her eyes. ‘That’s why you were talking to him, in disguise, isn’t it? If I’d known I’d never, ever’ve gone near him—’
‘Zoe, are you talking about Tim Ash—?’
‘No!’ squealed Zoe. ‘Of course not.’
But she caught herself pressing her lips together as though frightened of what would fall out of them next.
‘Listen, I know you and Tim are – in a relationship,’ said Robin, her hesitation due to the fact that she hated to dignify Tim’s exploitation of this damaged, isolated girl with the word ‘relationship’.
Zoe’s face crumpled again, and Robin was struck anew by her strange old-young appearance, the fragility of her bones, and the childlike way she wiped her eyes on the back of her tattooed hand.
‘He’ll end it now,’ she sobbed. ‘He’ll be mad that you know. He’ll think I told you.’
As she said it, she picked up her phone and checked the time.
‘Are you expecting him?’
‘Yeah,’ said Zoe, tears still trickling down her hollow cheeks. ‘He wanted to come over, because of me saying I wanted to contact you. He didn’t want me to. He’s always nervous about police and that.’
Yeah, I’ll bet he is, thought Robin, but she said,
‘I’d have thought he’d want Edie’s death investigated. He was her friend, wasn’t he?’
‘He does want the killer caught, he just… he thinks people won’t understand about us, so he doesn’t like it when I talk to strangers… He were really angry when I started working at North Grove… but he didn’t start it – us – I did,’ said Zoe earnestly. ‘It weren’t his fault. I were the one who kissed him first.’
‘How old were you?’
‘Thirteen, and he didn’t want to, because of how old I were. It were me that started it. It’s my fault, not Tim’s.’
‘You forced him, did you?’
‘N-no,’ said Zoe, with a half-sob. ‘He told me he were in love with me, but he said we couldn’t do nothing because of how old I was, and I said it didn’t matter. He didn’t want to do nothing physical, though. I made it happen.’
‘Have you told Tim you think Anomie killed Edie?’
Zoe nodded, tears still trickling down her face.
‘Have you told him who you think Anomie is?’
‘Yeah, but he says I’m being silly.’
‘Zoe, please tell me who—’
‘But I thought you knew, I thought that’s why you were at North Grove!’
‘You think it’s Pez Pierce?’
‘No,’ whispered Zoe. ‘It’s Nils.’
102
… and since you’re proved so vile,
Ay, vile, I say—we’ll show it presently…
you tricked poor Marian Erle,
And set her own love digging its own grave
Within her green hope’s pretty garden-ground…
Back in the BMW, Strike had just finished reading Robin’s notes on the four Twitter accounts that had been so useful to Anomie in disseminating false information on Edie Ledwell. Now he wound down the window, took a deep pull on his vape and turned back to the pages he’d found particularly interesting.
All four accounts had described Anomie as ‘brilliant’ and ‘a genius’; all four had called Edie Ledwell variations on ‘slut’, ‘whore’ and ‘gold-digger’; and all four hinted that she’d dropped Anomie as a friend, or that she and Anomie had once been in a sexual relationship.
Strike turned to another page. Beneath the heading Beatles Again, Robin had pasted another tweet.
Julius @i_am_evola
replying to @rachledbadly
not if I looked like you. They’d wonder why Ringo Starr had turned up on their doorstep dressed in a skirt
9.15 pm 28 January 2013
Strike then reread the section titled Duplicated Phrases. All four accounts were fond of saying ‘I can smell your stale pussy from here’ to women; Julius I am Evola and Max R had both told girls that if they were raped every time they said something stupid they’d be ‘permanently full of cock’, and they and Lepine’s Disciple had also expressed in almost identical terms the opinion that all women should be ‘starved down to optimal breeding weight’.
Strike turned back to the first page, where Robin had pasted the first-ever tweets by Lepine’s Disciple.