‘No way to trace it?’ Penn asked.
‘You know how these platforms protect the data of their customers. All I’ve got is online abuse. They’re not going to give anything up on the back of that. The other problem I’ve got is that these accounts are leaving no footprint anywhere else. The profiles are set up and they literally do nothing but troll Rozzie. There are no friends, no photos, no likes, no followers, just a name that changes every few days.’
‘Could they have done all this to just get to Rozzie?’ Penn asked doubtfully.
‘I don’t know, Penn. I honestly don’t know.’
FORTY-ONE
It was almost two when Kim called the rest of her team on loudspeaker. She, Bryant and Leanne had silently consumed a meal deal and a hot drink after leaving the lumber yard.
The silence had given her an opportunity to check her messages from Charlie. Barney was being spoiled rotten by both Charlie’s best friend and his sister, with early morning beach walks and lots of treats. Kim suspected she was missing him way more than he was missing her.
Damn that bastard Symes for parting her from her buddy and giving her Leanne King instead. Shit deal. She hated the fact that his continued freedom was also forcing her to stay away from the station when she needed to communicate with her team. She pushed away the questions in her head about how the search was being conducted. With the brick wall that was Woody standing between her and the investigating team, the thoughts did her no good.
‘Hey, Stace,’ Kim said as the constable answered the phone.
‘Hiya, boss, I think Penn wants to go first.’
Kim’s silence gave him permission.
‘Boss, I think the Dayneses were in the process of changing their will. There was a recent letter in with the books but there’s very little to go on. I’ve requested a meeting with the lawyer handling it, but he’s not available until the end of the week. He’s in court, but I’m trying to get an appointment with the family’s accountant, who’d also have to know what was going on.’
‘Anything else?’
‘Still trying to put together some words from the diary entries. There’s not a lot left.’
‘Okay, get cracking on the warrant for Warren Cox. Not sure why he’s refusing to give us a DNA sample but we’re gonna get one.’
‘Go it, boss.’
‘Stace, you there?’
‘Here, boss. Looks like Rozzie had herself a real-life stalker. Pretty aggressive and potentially violent. There’s nothing behind any of the accounts except hatred towards Rozzie. I’ve contacted the platforms to see if I can get any details of the account holder.’
Kim already knew that was going to be tricky. All the platform providers guarded personal details closely and they were unlikely to get anything without a court order.
‘I just wanna do a bit more digging on how easy she was to find off the internet.’
‘Okay, guys, keep at it, and if you need anything, just shout,’ she said, ending the call.
‘What about us, guv? We taking the rest of the day off?’
‘You wish, Bryant,’ she said, turning something over in her mind.
‘We’re doing everything we should be, right? We’re chasing every lead, every possibility, every family member, every secret. Everything is covered and we’re not missing anything?’
‘Err…yeah. That’s our job, but why do I feel a big but coming?’
‘Why her, Bryant?’
‘Huh?’
‘Why target Helen? Why make it look as though she’d slaughtered her family? Why not William, even Rozzie? Why Helen?’
‘Easiest?’ he asked.
‘Whoever did this wasn’t interested in easy. There were easier ways. I think we need to step back and refocus our attention on the mother, except there’s just one place I want to go first.’