'Thank you for that insight, Travis,' Langton said, abruptly.
'I also think whoever it was might have been there told her to get her coat and she was looking for Sharon to say she was going.'
'What makes you say that?'
'At the end of the tape, she has an empty champagne glass. When we saw her earlier on, she was drinking beer. Their prices are high, so I doubt she bought the champagne for herself; as Sharon has said often enough, she was very careful with her money. The handbag, by the way, looks like the one which was sent to the newspaper.'
Langton gave a half-smile. 'Thank you, Travis, good; and this time you go back to the club with Barolli, see what you can come up with. Also put out the description of the clothes she was wearing. Sharon Bilkin had said she was wearing a black dress. She's obviously not, so put the new styles out — who knows, we may get a break.'
Anna was feeling ragged when she got to work the following morning at seven-thirty. She had been unable to sleep; something about the footage had niggled at her for most of the night. It had also occurred to her that if Louise had arranged to meet her lover at the club, there might be a record of the call. As she walked into the Incident Room, Bridget looked up, surprised.
'You're not due in until this afternoon. Aren't you going to Stringfellow's?'
'Yes, but I want to have another look over the footage.'
Bridget pointed to Langton's office. 'He's got it.'
Anna tapped on Langton's office door and waited. He opened the door in his shirtsleeves. He looked as if he had been there all night: he was in need of a shave, and on his desk was a row of coffee beakers lined up next to an overflowing ashtray. Behind him was a TV set, the footage paused.
'Morning. I wanted to look over the CCTV footage,' she said, as he returned to his desk.
'Be my guest,' he said, gesturing to the TV.
Anna drew a hard-backed chair closer to the TV. She told him she'd been unable to sleep, wondering about the phone call she felt Louise might have made. He shook his head.
'No, Lewis checked all the calls from Sharon's land-line. Sharon said she had never seen Louise with a mobile.'
'That doesn't mean she didn't have one,' Anna said.
Langton gave her a hooded look. 'We checked at the dental clinic and no one recalls her using a mobile phone, so it looks like you had a sleepless night for nothing.'
Anna puffed out her cheeks. 'Ah well; would have been too good.'
'I've not slept either.' He lit a cigarette and pointed to the TV. 'I was wondering if we'd got this in the wrong order.'
'Right, that was something I thought of last night.'
He cocked his head on one side.
'We have numerous tapes and they are not time-coded.'
Langton nodded. 'So what do you think?'
'Well, our last shots of her with her coat over her arm and the empty champagne glass could be much earlier.'
'What does that give us?'
'The way she sits at the bar as if waiting, constantly looking around.'
'Yes, and?' He sighed, stubbing out his cigarette.
'It's the way she's dressed; it's as if she is making some kind of statement.'
Anna took the book from her briefcase and showed him a photograph of Elizabeth Short. 'Look at the way she made up her face: white base, deep red lipstick, dark eyeliner.'
'Yes, and?'
'Well, if she was meeting our mystery man, and we go with the Svengali thing, then she made her face up the way he might have wanted it, but her low-cut top and that tiny skirt…'
'Yes, and?' He was impatient, rocking in his chair.
'She knew he would be there.'
Langton nodded, then pushed back his chair and picked up the remote. 'Right, let's look at the footage in the order we think it happened and see if it makes any difference.'
They worked side by side, switching tapes, scrolling through until they saw their victim sitting at the bar, ordering drinks, etcetera. At the end of it, they stared in silence at the frozen image of Louise on the screen.
'So having dicked around for half an hour, what do you think?'
Anna hesitated. 'I think our killer was at the club, and someone must have seen him.'
He nodded, and then checked his watch. 'I'll come to the club with you; now I need a shower, so get some breakfast.'
'I doubt anyone will be there; it's not yet nine.'
Langton opened his office door to be confronted by Lewis who was red in the face.
'We've got another letter.'
A certain girl is going to get the same as LP got if she squeals on me. Catch me if you can.
On the back of the envelope, there was more:
L. Pennel got it. Who's next?
A speeding patrol car took Langton, Anna and the handwritten note directly to the forensic labs to meet a handwriting expert. As they arrived, they received a call from the Incident Room: Dick Reynolds had called; he too had received another note, not handwritten, but using newspaper cut-out letters.
HaVe cHanGed mY mind. YoU wOuld Not hAVe giVeN me a sQuare dEal. Dahlia kIlliNg was JuStiFied.
The handwriting expert deduced that their writer had taken great pains to disguise his or her personality by printing the message and endeavouring to appear illiterate; however, the style and formation of the handwriting betrayed the writer as an educated person. He loathed being put under such pressure but he said that the sender was, in his opinion, an egomaniac and possibly a musician.
Langton tried to contain his impatience. 'Musician? What do you mean? I mean, what gives you that he was a musician from these notes?'
'The highlighting of certain letters is as if he is giving a musical weight to them.'
'Really? How about if he's just trying to disguise his writing?' Langton said edgily
'That's also quite possible.' The expert added that the letter was feeding the writer's ego and that the writer would be unable to keep a secret; in his estimation, what had been written was the truth.
Langton and Anna went next to the Suns offices. Barolli confirmed to Anna over the phone that the wording of the letters was almost identical to notes sent by the Black Dahlia killer, the only difference that, unlike the LA killer, their sender had not named his next victim.
Anna could see the pressure coming down on Langton: these contacts said so much but held no clue as to the sender. The team had no fingerprints, just the handwriting and the expert's opinion that all contacts to date had been sent by the same person.
Reynolds was waiting in the reception; as he handed over the note in a plastic bag, his mobile rang. He listened and then looked shocked.
'We've got another one; it's in the mail room.'
It was after two when Langton and Anna returned to the Incident Room. The team were stunned to be told that Reynolds had had a second contact. Langton read the message out loud.
Go slow. Mankiller says Red Dahlia Case is cold.
Langton was handed yet another letter by Lewis:
I have decided not to surrender. Too much fun fooling police. Red Dahlia Avenger
Langton looked around the team and then shook his head. 'This is bloody unbelievable. Four contacts from the crazy bastard, and we can't keep the fucking journalist Reynolds quiet. He's going to print his letters!'
'What do we get from them?' Lewis asked.
Langton glared at him. 'That he's playing silly buggers with us — with me — and that if we are to believe him he's going to kill again!'