A Wreath for my Sister by Priscilla Masters

– that it was a blind date.’
    Colclough raised his eyebrows. ‘On what grounds?’
    â€˜According to Christine, when he replied to Sharon’s advert he told her to wear her best dress. He told her he didn’t live very far away, although they had always used box numbers.’
    â€˜The paper’s distributed all around the Potteries,’ Mike objected.
    â€˜True, but he knew the Quiet Woman. And he said she would look stunning in red.’
    â€˜She called herself the woman in red.’
    â€˜He mentioned her dark hair. Besides, there’s Sharon’s instinct. She had a feeling he knew her. He knew she drove a battered Fiesta. And, strongest of all, sir,’ she said, ‘he knew her name, even though she never used it in her letters.’
    Colclough sat down heavily, breathing hard. His blue eyes looked tired, but bright. He looked like an aged but alert bulldog. ‘Let’s get this quite straight, Piercy,’ he said slowly, ‘so I’m absolutely clear. You believe that the man who answered Stacey Farmer’s advert in the lonely hearts column was the man who killed her.’
    â€˜That isn’t my assumption,’ she said quickly. ‘It was the conclusion of the officers investigating the case.’ She quoted from the statements recorded on the computer. ‘An unknown male assailant following an assignation made through the lonely hearts column in the local paper –’
    â€˜All right,’ Colclough said hastily. ‘And you believe the same man answered Sharon Priest’s ad, and then killed her. But you think he already knew her.’ He stared at her. ‘Just be careful, Piercy,’ he said. ‘Be careful you aren’t restricting your investigations too much ... keeping the field too narrow.’
    â€˜I’ll start with boyfriends of Sharon Priest’s,’ she said firmly. ‘And if I get no convictions there, then will be the time to move on.’
    Colclough nodded, then turned to Mike. ‘What do you think about that?’
    â€˜Seems pretty sensible to me.’
    Colclough thought for a moment, then, ‘All right, both of you,’ he said.
    â€˜We’ll know more definitely tomorrow when we compare DNA samples from the two cases,’ she said.
    â€˜In the meantime I don’t feel we can afford to ignore any avenue – certainly nothing connected with Sharon Priest’s private life.’
    She grinned at Colclough. ‘After all, just think how embarrassing it would be if we were hunting high and low for some mysterious serial killer and it turned out to be Sharon’s ex-husband all the time.’
    â€˜I’m glad you can see the funny side, Piercy,’ Arthur Colclough said testily. ‘Sometimes I have my doubts about your sense of humour.’ He heaved a great sigh. ‘Was there anything else?’
    â€˜There is one thing that worries me,’ she said slowly. ‘It might be irrational. Lots of women advertise in the personal columns. Quite a few of these fit this pattern – lonely, single-parent mums.’ She stopped. ‘I haven’t got any figures but a few have subsequently gone missing. I hope,’ she said, ‘that Stacey and Sharon aren’t the tip of an iceberg. It just bugs me. What if others who were put down as missing persons actually fell victim to the same man and we just haven’t unearthed their bodies?’
    â€˜Why go fretting about other missing women, Piercy?’ Colclough scowled. ‘You’ve got enough of a problem nabbing the guy who killed Sharon and then proving it was the same bugger who got Stacey.’
    She knew he was right to steer her back to the original murder.
    â€˜So who have you got so far in your bag of suspects?’
    â€˜Well,’ she said slowly. ‘There was no shortage of men in Sharon’s life, and some of them are choice customers.’ She grinned at them.