• Yasmin appears to have given Blay the idea that Ledwell was Anomie and it seems likely she’s the source of the dossier of ‘proof’.
• Blay set out for the cemetery carrying this dossier, which hasn’t been found. The presumption is that the killer took it.
• The killer also took Blay’s phone (no mention of Ledwell’s).
• Cardew mentioned a blog called ‘The Pen of Justice’, which seems to have had it in for Ledwell/The Ink Black Heart. Could be worth checking out in case it’s an Anomie side venture.
• Shortly after Montgomery, Cardew, Ashcroft and de Jong left the pub, a girl with an armful of Ink Black Heart tattoos appeared, clearly looking for one of them. She phoned some person unknown and asked why they hadn’t told her they were meeting Nils and why she hadn’t seen them for a month. She’s from Yorkshire. Her photo’s attached, as is a photo of the place she’s living. We should ID her and also find out who, if anyone, she lives with.
We can divvy up these leads when we meet, just wanted to give you an update on what happened yesterday.
Have also got appointments to meet Katya Upcott and Phillip Ormond on Thursday. We should do these together. –S
Robin opened the first attachment and saw the picture of the emaciated black-clad girl staring towards the entrance to the cemetery. Zooming in on the tattoos on the girl’s left forearm, Robin saw not only Harty, but also Drek, Paperwhite the ghost and a sad-looking worm. She suspected that all the tattoos, even those she didn’t recognise, like the magpie and the two grinning skeletons in Victorian hats, had come out of the cartoon, and like Strike, she wondered how much it had cost the girl to have these characters permanently etched onto her skin.
She opened the second photograph. Even the worst of the flats Robin had viewed hadn’t had as shabby an exterior as the wedge-shaped building on Junction Road, with its cracked window frames and dirty plaster.
Turning back to Strike’s email, Robin noted that she was already in a position to give him information on one of the items he was asking about. In the course of working her way through three years’ worth of Anomie’s tweets and Twitter interactions, she’d already come across the Pen of Justice blog. She now opened the document she’d been planning to share with Strike later, and sent it to the printer on Pat’s desk.
Next, Robin checked the new Twitter account she’d created for herself, @inkblackfan:). She’d followed Anomie and Morehouse and added as many Ink Black Heart fan accounts as she could find, so she could keep abreast of rumours and developments. Instead of her own picture, she’d used a stock photo of a young and pretty brunette. She’d already received three direct messages.
@jbaldw1n1>>
If that’s your real picture you’re probably sick to death of blokes in your DMs so I’ll go now.
@Drekbwah9
wank me off
@mreger#5
This isn’t a sleazy pick up ploy, just wanted to say that Julius guy was seriously out of order and I’ve reported him.
Interested in the third of these messages, Robin went to see what had provoked it.
Two days previously, Robin had tweeted that she hoped the Ink Black Heart film would remain faithful to the original series, an opinion she’d thought was uncontroversial. However, the tone of the replies had been heated. Fans had lined up to tell her that the mere making of the film, irrespective of its quality, would destroy everything they loved about The Ink Black Heart. However, nobody had taken such exception to Robin’s innocent statement as @i_am_evola.
Julius @i_am_evola
replying to @inkblackfan:)
shallow bitch
Julius @i_am_evola
replying to @inkblackfan:)
if u got raped every time u said something dumb u’d be permanently full of cok
Robin stared at these messages for a second or two, then went to look at @i_am_evola’s account. The account avatar showed a teenage boy she suspected was sixteen at most. His main preoccupations seemed to be superhero movies, The Ink Black Heart and sending women messages of the type Robin had just received. Deciding that nothing good could come of interacting with him, she navigated back to Anomie’s account, then opened the folder of hard-copy tweets Allan Yeoman had returned to her, which Robin had now put into date order so she could match them against Anomie’s Twitter feed.
The last tweet she’d examined dated from 2012. When Jimmy Savile, the late DJ and knight of the realm, had been exposed in October of that year as Britain’s most prolific known paedophile, Edie Ledwell had tweeted ‘How can all these people saying Savile abused them have been ignored? Why did nobody listen?’
Anomie had retweeted Edie’s comment with his own: ‘Gonna start claiming he was the one who did you? #trollingforsympathy.’
Beneath the printed version of this tweet, Edie had written: This implies knowledge of the fact that I was sexually abused in one of the foster families I lived with. I’ve never discussed this publicly.
Robin now resumed her slow backwards perusal of Anomie’s Twitter timeline.
Some of Anomie’s tweets were anodyne: in July 2012 they’d shared the fact that they’d enjoyed The Dark Knight Rises. In June 2012 they’d informed their followers that a cat was sitting on their garden fence, watching them through a window. ‘This is exactly why I own a catapult.’
Joke, wondered Robin, or genuine? Had the cat really been there, or, for that matter, the garden fence? Ought she to add ‘possible cat hatred/phobia’ to the profile she and Strike were trying to construct?
She continued scrolling.
‘People saying I should be paid for my services to the fandom. I’ll accept Magnum Infinitys. They’re fkn good.’
Hardly a distinguishing characteristic, Robin thought, continuing to scroll. Who didn’t like ice cream?
But then, on 8 June 2012, Anomie had had a more interesting revelation.
Anomie
@AnomieGamemaster
Fedwell has ditched Katya Upcott, friend who helped propel #TheInkBlackHeart to success. Now with @<AY©A>. @realJoshBlay stays w Upcott.
11.53 pm 8 June 2012
This tweet had been printed out by Edie, who’d written beneath it: Anomie knew this had happened within a few hours of me telling Katya I wanted to pay for a real agent. I didn’t want Katya to stop representing me because I didn’t want to pay. We never had any kind of contract and she always said she didn’t want payment. I thought she was giving us bad advice and I wanted to pay for proper representation, because the whole thing was getting bigger and bigger and I felt like it was out of control. Josh didn’t like me leaving Katya. He said I was disloyal.
The fandom hadn’t taken kindly to Anomie’s revelation either, as the replies proved.
Andi Reddy @ydderidna
replying to @AnomieGamemaster
omfg, when she could actually afford to pay their friend for all the work she done for free, she ditches her?
Caitlin Adams @CaitAdumsss
replying to @AnomieGamemaster
This is a new low, even for #Fedwell. These people helped her and she’s just throwing them off.
Arlene @queenarleene