Chapter 29
TWENTY-NINE
Hair fibres, in among Milo Harrison’s blood.
Together with Tilly Ward’s DNA, they found Erin’s hair at the crime scene.
I don’t know why I’m as surprised – nor strangely as disappointed – as I am to learn this, not after hearing what DI Pritchard and the eminent Dr Wainwright had to say.
Also, there’s a possible link between Erin and our latest victim, Milo Harrison, as it turns out.
It was possible of course. Was there historic bad blood between them?
Had they been in some sort of a relationship and it went bad?
Had she started stalking him way back then?
These are the questions skipping through my head, and yet despite this, and despite the DNA evidence, I find myself struggling to truly believe that Erin Santos was involved in Milo Harrison’s murder.
Harrison’s family and friends were adamant that they’ve never heard of the name Erin Santos nor Samantha Valentine.
They felt positive they would’ve known if he was, or ever had been stalked by anyone.
They were a close-knit family who supported each other and were open about their problems.
Maybe I’m losing my touch and Erin’s just too good at what she does – convincing people into believing her, getting under their skin, just as Amanda Pritchard warned me.
Is that what’s happened here? This is what I’m asking myself as I wait behind the door of the Met Police media suite, back in London after a long day already.
I take a few deep breaths. Why do I keep coming back to the feeling that she is telling me the truth, at least on some level?
I rub my temples with a thumb and forefinger.
The cognitive dissonance is giving me a banging headache.
I can’t rule out the idea that Erin is dangerous though.
If all of this is true, then she could already be targeting her next victims, grooming them into killing on her command.
Had she set her sights on Malcolm? Was it a covert heads-up she was giving me when she told me they had slept together?
The idea sends a chill through me. Erin is really screwed now though.
And I’m just about to explain to a room full of journalists why.
‘Good afternoon, thank you all for coming. I’m Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Riley of the Metropolitan Police, Senior Investigating Officer on the homicide of Milo Harrison, thirty-two, from South West London.
Further to the arrest made last week, I can confirm that a thirty-four-year-old female has been released on pre-charge conditional bail pending further inquiries.
’ I try not to blink in time with the camera clicks, the pops and flashes that shock my eyes shut.
I don’t know how these celebrities do it, day in and day out.
No wonder they all wear dark glasses and look pissed off.
I compose myself and hope that my tie is straight.
I’ll get trolled by the fashion police otherwise.
People relish commenting about this kind of stuff – you know, lucky people with a lot of time on their hands and not much else to think about.
‘On Thursday, we released an artist’s sketch of a woman we believe could be using the name Samantha Valentine.
We have, as yet, been unable to locate this witness who, it’s been alleged, left the scene of the crime.
’ The room is silent, save for the camera clicks.
I pause. ‘Following a forensic update, we are now looking for another person of interest and potential witness.’ I choose my words deliberately. I need Erin to call me back.
‘Erin Santos is a former patient of Larksmere Psychiatric Hospital with a previous conviction for the manslaughter of a man in 2019. We believe she may be in the London area and we need to speak to her in relation to our ongoing inquiries.’
‘DCI Riley!’ A member of the press raises a cursory hand and begins to speak at the same time. ‘Is Erin Santos a suspect? Did she murder Milo Harrison?’ His question sets off a chain reaction among them. Now it’s like a round of bullets being fired.
‘Why have you released a murder suspect, Detective Inspector? What made you let her go?’
‘Mr Riley, can you give us the name of the suspect? Is Erin Santos dangerous? Should she be approached by the public? What are you doing about finding her?’
‘Dan!’ A slim, red-headed woman wearing glasses catches my attention. She’s standing towards the back of the room. ‘Dan, can you tell me how Erin Santos and Samantha Valentine might be linked? Is Samantha Valentine even real?’
I don’t exactly recognise this particular journalist – she’s too far away and her face is mostly obscured by the sea of fellow hacks and cameras in front of her for me to get a proper look at it – but something about her presence feels familiar somehow.
And she’s not too far off the money either, although it’s more complicated than that if what Dr Wainwright and Amanda Pritchard say is anything to go by.
‘We’re following intel and leads as to her current whereabouts.
We’re confident we can find her. First and foremost, we want to make sure she’s safe.
’ The cameras start to pop like fireworks as Erin’s police mugshot flashes up on the screen behind me.
‘Erin Santos is a forty-year-old white female, with, we believe, long dark hair, though this picture is over six years old, so it’s possible she’s changed her appearance and could look significantly different.
She’s five feet four inches, with a slim build and striking green eyes, and she speaks with a soft Yorkshire accent.
If anyone knows Erin, or knows where she is, please contact the incident room on the number on screen now, below. Thank you.’
‘Were the victim and Erin Santos a couple, were they in a relationship? How is she related to the case?’
The truthful answer is that I don’t yet know.
Currently, we’ve found no definitive link between Erin and Milo Harrison, aside from the fact that the victim lived close to Erin in Leeds during a two-year university degree over a decade ago.
Dr Wainwright, however, had confirmed the dates that Erin had been let out on day release, prior to her being discharged from Larksmere.
And one of those dates was the same date Tilly Ward claims to have first met Samantha in a bookshop in town – it tallies.
There’s no CCTV of course, the team has already checked.
But the store owner vaguely recognised Tilly Ward’s photograph when Parker and Mitchell had paid him a visit.
‘I think I may have seen her before,’ he’d told them. His answer was more definite when Parker had shown him a picture of Erin though.
‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t recognise her. Sorry.’
It’s possible that Erin could’ve also met Milo Harrison during one of these day-release outings somehow. Maybe she never stopped stalking him?
‘We allow the patients a few hours of unaccompanied freedom on these occasions,’ Dr Wainwright had explained.
‘We like to gently integrate them back into society, help them build their confidence and show them trust in a bid to assist their preparation for the big bad world outside the comfort of these walls.’
I’m not sure ‘comfort’ would have been the word I’d use.
‘We’re investigating every line of enquiry at this stage, going where the evidence takes us.
’ I nod at the enthusiastic young journalist whose hand is still raised high, like he knows the answer to a question in class and is desperate for the teacher to pick him.
I don’t tell them about the hair in Milo’s blood being identified as Erin’s, or the enormity of such a finding at this stage, because there’ll be a public panic, and in turn Erin could panic and do something inadvisable, like kill someone, or have them killed.
As it is, I’m secretly struggling with a degree of guilt already.
I feel as if I’m betraying her somehow by going public, despite the evidence dictating that I must. I doubt she’ll call me again after she sees this.
Anyway, behind the scenes as I speak, it’s all systems go on ‘Operation Verde’. Archer has thrown bodies into it. There’s now a thirty-strong team, including experts and analysts and specialists. We’ll be working in shifts round the clock. There’ll be no stone left unturned.
‘Dan…’ It’s the redhead again. ‘At the time of Erin’s arrest back in 2019, is it true that she claimed to have been conned into killing her victim by her friend, Samantha Valentine? Is there a chance you think that Erin may actually be Samantha Valentine?’
OK, this time, she’s definitely on the money.
I’m curious as to how she knows this information, though I know just how ‘thorough’ some investigative hacks can be – I’m married to one after all.
Still, this isn’t public information. Samantha Valentine’s name was never reported in the press back in 2019.
‘I’m afraid that’s all I can give you right now.
Except that I would like to make a direct appeal to Erin Santos.
’ The room falls to a hushed silence as I address the cameras.
‘Erin, please call me, or you can go into any police station you choose, and I will come to you in person. I’m here to help you. Please get in touch.’
I don’t know if Erin will see my personal appeal, maybe she doesn’t currently have access to a TV or a smartphone?
So far she’s used a burner phone to communicate with me, just like she claims Samantha had used with her, an untraceable burner phone.
She’s been clever, but still I don’t understand what her motives are for doing this.
By re-enacting the same crime and then going on the run, she must know that she’ll be caught eventually and thrown back into Larksmere.
I would tag ‘or worse’ on the end of that sentence, but I don’t think it exists.
Davis and I couldn’t leave that maudlin place fast enough.
Why would she do this to herself? I try to straighten it all out in my head.
If I’ve got this right, then back in 2019, when she committed her crime, Erin believed that her ‘split’ self, Samantha Valentine, had coerced her into doing it.
She does the time for it in a mental institution, presenting throughout the full duration of her sentence as Erin.
So where exactly did ‘Samantha’ go during this time?
Dr Wainwright told me that Erin had never once in all her years at Larksmere presented to him, or anyone else it seems, as Samantha Valentine, this supposed ‘other self’, though he had an explanation for this of course.
I suspect Dr Wainwright probably has an explanation for everything.
‘The drugs she was prescribed, and the treatment she underwent, they would’ve prevented her from manifesting into Samantha Valentine,’ he told me with unwavering confidence.
‘Erin felt great loss at the time for this second self though; she actually grieved for Samantha, for her friend who had suddenly abandoned and betrayed her, in her mind of course.’
I left the press conference in a hurry, ignoring Archer’s call on the way out.
No doubt she wanted to critique my performance.
Or tell me that my tie wasn’t straight. I look around briefly to see if I can spot the redhead.
She’s at least five people deep in front of me and I can just see her vibrant-coloured hair as it bobs towards the exit, the exotic, spicy scent of what I’m sure is her perfume, trailing behind her.
It triggers something in me, but I’m not sure what or why, exactly.
I push my way through the reporters in a bid to catch up with her.
By the time I filter outside though, she’s nowhere to be seen.