She typed a few words into her own keyboard then turned the computer monitor so that Strike could see a news story dating from June.
Two pictures of the same beautiful young woman, who had waist-length black hair and olive skin, stared out of the screen. In one, the girl was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans. In the other, she was pouting in black lingerie.
LONDON STUDENT FOUND STABBED ON NORTH WESSEX DOWNS
The body of a young woman discovered on the North Wessex Downs on Sunday 19th June has been identified as Spanish student Sofia Medina, 20, say police.
Described by friends as ‘outgoing, hard-working and fun’, Medina was studying for a BA in Film and Screen Business at the University of West London. She was last seen alive by flatmate Gretchen Schiff, 21, on the afternoon of Thursday 16th June.
‘She told me she might be away all weekend,’ Schiff told reporters. ‘I didn’t think it was strange. She had lots of friends. I thought she was probably staying at someone’s flat after a party or something like that.’
Medina was a prolific poster on her OnlyFans account, which a friend who wished to remain anonymous says was Medina’s attempt to make enough income to help fund her degree.
‘I warned her she was making it too easy for men to find her in real life. She talked about being a student and posted pictures of herself in the university bathrooms. I’m really scared someone who saw her OnlyFans stalked her and abducted her.’
Forensic analysis has revealed that Medina was raped before she was killed. The murder is believed to have happened in the early hours of Sunday 19th June. Her body, which had sustained multiple stab wounds, was found by a dog walker.
ABANDONED VAN
Police would like to identify the owner of a 2013 VW Up Complete 999cc, which was found abandoned without its number plates on Baydon Road, approximately two and a half miles from where the body was found.
If you have any information about this story, please call…
Robin had thought she might need to explain to Strike why she was showing him the article, but when he’d finished reading, he said,
‘Yeah, I remember seeing that. You think she might’ve been the light-skinned Asian woman who took stuff out of William Wright’s flat, before he was murdered?’
‘Well, she’s obviously not Asian, but that hall’s dark and Mandy only saw the couple briefly. I know it’s a very long shot, but she does match the basic description of the woman – light brown skin, long black hair, didn’t sound English – and she was murdered just twenty-four hours after Wright.’ Robin could hear how thin her theory sounded when spoken aloud, yet still felt compelled to lay it all out. ‘I was struck by Sofia telling her flatmate she’d be away all weekend, but not giving details of what she was supposed to be doing.’
‘Maybe they’d fallen out. Or maybe they weren’t friends, just people who rented a flat together.’
‘I know it could just be that,’ said Robin, ‘but look at this.’
She typed in another search term, then said,
‘This is the description they gave out of the body, before it was identified as Sofia. “Latina or South Asian, 162 cm, wearing jeans, trainers and a pink T-shirt with a peony design.”’ She looked up at Strike. ‘Mandy said the girl who went in and out of Wright’s flat was wearing a pink top with flowers on it.’
She could tell by Strike’s expression that he was now interested, so she continued,
‘The last known sighting of Sofia alive was on the Thursday afternoon, so the day before the Murdoch silver arrived at Ramsay Silver. On Friday afternoon, a girl matching Sofia’s description and wearing a very similar or identical outfit drives to St George’s Avenue in a silver car, lets herself into Wright’s room, removes things in a suitcase and leaves the house. A silver car – possibly the same silver car – turns up early next morning, a curly-haired man goes into the house and comes out with more stuff in a suitcase. Somebody else is driving. The following day, Sofia’s murdered in the middle of nowhere, near an old abandoned van.’
‘A van,’ repeated Strike.
‘I know it’d fit better if it had been an abandoned Peugeot 208—’
‘Not necessarily,’ said Strike. ‘A man emailed Calvin Osgood, thinking he was Oz, and asking whether he was still interested in buying his van, remember?’
‘Oh God, of course!’
Strike stroked his chin, eyes narrowed.
‘You know, women can be useful in certain situations.’
‘Thanks,’ said Robin.
Strike almost smiled for the first time since waking.
‘I mean, the presence of a woman usually makes everything seem more innocuous. Rightly or wrongly, people see a man and a woman and they think “couple going about their ordinary business”, not “off to commit theft and murder”.’
Strike took a pull on his vape pen. He really needed to increase the concentration of nicotine, because it wasn’t satisfying him nearly as much as a Benson & Hedges would have done.
‘All right,’ he said, ‘for the sake of argument, let’s say Sofia Medina hooked up with one of the guys who bumped off Wright. Let’s push it a bit further and say that man was our curly haired friend Oz. She tells her flatmate she’s going to be away all weekend because she knows she’ll be assisting Oz in nicking the Murdoch silver and murdering William Wright.’
‘When you put it like that,’ said Robin, ‘it starts sounding less credible. She was a student. She had prospects. Why on earth would she agree to get involved in murder?’
‘He could’ve been coercing her.’
‘How?’
‘Young women whose families don’t know they’ve got OnlyFans accounts can be vulnerable to blackmail.’
‘But what was he blackmailing her to do? She can’t have killed Wright and she wouldn’t have been much use carrying the Oriental Centrepiece, either.’
‘Well, with a girl who looks like that, the obvious answer would be acting as bait.’
Both of them immediately thought of the pixelated Candy, posing in her red underwear in the paper.
‘Wright told his neighbours a girlfriend would be coming to live with him,’ said Robin. ‘Could that have been Sofia Medina? Could she have been the one who persuaded him to go and work at Ramsay Silver?’
‘It’s a theory,’ said Strike, who was thinking the thing out. ‘Maybe Wright thought he and Medina would be doing a Bonnie and Clyde, not realising there were people behind her who were going to gouge out his eyes and cut off his dick?’
‘Maybe there’s no connection,’ Robin said, losing confidence again.
‘’Course, Medina might not have realised the job was going to involve murder and mutilation,’ said Strike. ‘Oz might’ve kidded her that it was only burglary, maybe spun her some yarn about how he had a right to the silver, that she was helping him get back what was rightfully his. He could’ve claimed Ramsay had done him wrong in some way, and this was revenge. Or – hang on.’
Strike got to his feet and went to consult the card on the noticeboard where he’d written everything they’d found out so far about Oz.
‘The real Osgood got another email meant for Oz,’ said Strike, reading the card. ‘A girl wrote to him in bad English, wanting to know about a prank Oz played on her cousin…’