The Man Made of Smoke

As Dan drives to the Rampton address, he tries to form the killer’s personality from the evidence at hand. The pattern of the disappearances suggests that the killer is highly intelligent and organized, making him the hardest type to catch. The Rampton address leads to a barge tethered to a canal. Dan meets Brian Gill, Rose’s longtime partner, at the barge.

Gill tells Dan that John came looking for Rose a few weeks ago, but Rose had already disappeared by then. The first time Rose went missing was nearly two months ago. On her return, she told Gill that she had been kidnapped, taken to a woodland by a masked figure, and forced to watch him torture and kill another man. The murder was so terrible to witness that Rose fainted. She woke up on a park bench, disoriented, and returned home to Gill. Though the masked man had told Rose not to tell anyone what she saw, Rose reported the incident to the police. The police didn’t take Rose seriously, as she had a history of dealing with mental health conditions. The police are also trying to brush Rose’s second disappearance under the carpet since Rose, a bohemian who makes no money and lives on the margins of society, isn’t someone worth investigating for them.