"Well that was a complete waste of time," Holmes murmured as she sat down at her desk. "Brax still refuses to say anything about Heath's activities and all he did was deflect from my questions to go on and on about how Joey had killed Charlie because she must have found out about their affair."

"An affair that no one else can corroborate," Watson said. "Do you believe him about the affair?"

"Honestly, I don't know," she admitted. "I will give him points for staying consistent with his story, but when it comes to Charlie, I get the impression that Brax is willing to convince himself of just about anything, such as believing she was as in love with him as he was with her, hence his insistence on the so-called affair."

"Ruby seemed pretty sure her sister wouldn't go back there."

"Ruby seemed like a fan of Joey and not of Brax, so I'm not sure how credible she is," Holmes said. "And don't forget that Charlie has been accused of having an affair once before when she was with Joey."

"An affair that turned out to be a lie," Watson reminded her. "Susan, if Brax was jealous enough of Joey getting with Charlie, then he'd know that by claiming Charlie was having an affair with him, it would give Joey motive for her murder and this could be his way of getting back at her."

"Oh, I agree that he could just be doing this out of jealous spite," replied Holmes. "I'm not really convinced either way with him, yet at the same time, it still probably wouldn't surprise me if there was an affair, but without any proof, it's just noise coming from a jilted ex," she said. "An ex who doesn't have much credibility as far as I'm concerned. Now, putting Brax's credibility aside, we haven't yet completely ruled out Joey's involvement in Charlie's murder and as you say, Joey finding out her girl was stepping out on her with Brax behind her back, would be a hell of a motive if it turned out to be true."

"I actually might have something that could shed some light on Joey's involvement," Watson said. "You remember the other day when I said I needed some clarification on something that had been bothering me?"

Holmes nodded. "I'm guessing that clarification has led to some revelation?"

Watson nodded in reply. "It might not be much," she said, downplaying it somewhat as she handed the report over to Holmes. "I'd just had this nagging feeling that had been bugging me for awhile, even more so when I saw the scratches on Joey's arm after the brick incident," she explained while Holmes read through it. "Which is why when I got back to the Station that day, I did a comparison of the photos from Joey's recent injuries to her injuries she received the night Charlie was murdered."

"Interesting," murmured Holmes. "According to this, your expert believes that the earlier scratches on Joey's arms couldn't have been made during a struggle."

"He also states his belief that they were made by fingernails scraped along Joey's skin, but for them to have that sort of appearance, it meant that Joey was most likely immobile at the time she was injured, perhaps even unconscious. You can see the difference here." Watson pointed to one of the more recent photos. "With this one, Joey was moving when the brick came through the window and so when the glass struck her, her arm was in motion."

"Which explains why the scratch is jagged and uneven."

"Exactly," said Watson. "Now, look at the ones we took during our first interview with her."

Holmes glanced from one image to the other. "These ones appear much straighter."

"Yeah and you'd think that if Joey was attacking Charlie and Charlie was fighting back, then these scratches should be jagged and the deepness of the cuts should be at uneven intervals, yet in the photos, you can see that the redness appears even."

"Suggesting that Joey hadn't struggled against anyone," murmured Holmes.

"It's by no means conclusive proof."

"But it's enough to cast a lot of doubt on how those scratches may have come about," Holmes said. "Battleship is going to love this," she muttered.

"I should have been able to put this all together much earlier."

"Watson, we're not forensic experts and we both saw those scratches and thought defensive wounds," Holmes said. "Even Morag didn't dispute that they were defensive wounds, only that Joey could have gotten them from being attacked herself."

"Which may not be that far from the truth," Watson said. "If this report is accurate."

"Then Joey could very well go from villain to victim," said Holmes. "And witness."

"A witness with no memory of that night," Watson reminded her.

"You asked Dr Walker if any of those stolen drugs could affect memory and he said some of them could," Holmes said. "Which suggests our killer could have stolen those particular drugs for that very reason." She stared at the photos. "Our killer definitely thinks well ahead of the game," murmured Holmes. "And could very well have some medical knowledge, both with the scalpel and drugs."

"It's the Google age, so it probably wouldn't be all that hard to find out about the drugs you might need," pointed out Watson.

"True," conceded Holmes. "And someone handy with a knife might not have that much difficulty in wielding a scalpel."

"Which basically puts all our suspects back on the list," Watson said. "Except for Joey."

"We can't completely discard her as a suspect for Charlie's murder," Holmes told her. "Not based on one report like this one, but we can certainly put her well below the rest and focus on how the evidence pointed to her in the first place," she said. "Now, the scratches and Joey's broken necklace with her blood on it being found at Charlie's murder scene, initially pointed to a struggle, but in light of the new information from your expert, if we were to go down the set up route once more, then the killer wanted the blame pointed in one direction only, which is why there was a trail that led straight to Joey."

"Which we followed."

"In fairness to us, as the lover, we were always going to be checking into Joey," said Holmes. "And the discovery of the bleached clothes and burn damaged shoes strongly suggested we were on the right path, because they more than likely placed Joey at the scene."

"Then we found the jerry can and fire extinguisher," said Watson. "All of it pointed to Joey being the one to set Charlie alight and murder her, even though to date, most of the evidence we gathered at Joey's led us nowhere," Watson pointed out. "The fire extinguisher was a generic kind readily available and the shops locally that stocked them don't keep records of who they sell them to," she said. "The only records we had, were from those who paid with credit cards and those people were cleared and since all the petrol in town is supplied by the same tanker, then there was also no way to narrow down where the petrol drops in the jerry can came from."

"The evidence may not have led us anywhere and mightn't have been conclusive enough to press charges against her, but at the time, it certainly warranted us to be justifiably suspicious of Joey," Holmes maintained. "Only now, it becomes even less compelling. We know Joey couldn't have killed Heath, which tends to clear her of Jack's murder, given those two were obviously the work of the same killer, yet now we have to seriously consider Joey as a victim and not just a suspect in Charlie's murder," she said. "We've already previously discussed the possibilities as to why the trail back to Joey was so easy."

"I remember, it gave me a headache trying to get my mind around all the possible reasons," murmured Watson. "Like if you wanted to frame someone, why make it so obvious with the trail."

"Exactly," replied Holmes. "Problem is, we still don't know the reasoning behind pretty much everything in this case, like if Joey was there that night, but as a victim, then there was a reason she was left alive. Was it just so she could be a suspect or was there more to it?"

"Like what?"

"Perhaps Joey was a distraction," she replied. "Make us concentrate on her so that the killer can plot Jack's and then Heath's murder right under our noses."

"It would be a risky move to leave Joey alive though," Watson said. "Or does it just mean that the killer was confident that Joey couldn't identify them or had no chance of remembering anything of that night?"

"It's a hell of a risk to rely on drugs to rub out her memory and while it appears to have worked, there was no guarantee that it would or that her memories couldn't be regained at some point."

"Then chances are, even if Joey remembers, then she probably won't be able to tell us who the killer is."

"More than likely," Holmes said. "Our killer has a reason for doing everything that he/she does. The style of Charlie and Jack's deaths makes is seem extremely personal, whereas Heath's seemed more about silencing him because of what he knew about the drugs, while Joey was potentially left alive as a suspect."

"And you may have a point about her being the distraction."

"Of course, this is all based on the theory that Joey was indeed set up," said Holmes.

"It also means, that if it is a set up, then at some stage, the killer had to have gained access to Joey's place to have planted the evidence," Watson said, even more thankful now, that Morag had followed up on her original set up theory, by having all the locks on Joey's place changed as a precaution. It still left the question though. If the killer planted the evidence, then how did he or she gain entry to Joey's place? "Susan, I want to speak to Colleen Smart about what she saw the night of Charlie's murder," she said. "Now that we've learnt a few more things since then, perhaps I can prod her to recall something she might have initially missed mentioning during her interview with Jack."

"Good idea." Holmes looked at the photos again. "What we really need though, is for Joey to remember that night, because even if she can't identify the killer, she could still provide valuable information that could help us."

"If the memory loss was chemically induced, then I'm not sure if Joey will ever remember."

"Our luck really sucks on this case lately," muttered Holmes. "We still can't even link all three murders, beyond the brutality of Charlie's and Jack's murders, that is."

"It really might have helped us if the killer had signed Charlie as they had with Jack and Heath," Watson said. "Then we'd have concrete evidence the murders were linked." Which would also pretty much clear Joey of Charlie's, since they'd discounted her from the others.

"For all we know Watson, the killer did sign her, only it was destroyed in the fire," said Holmes. "We really have no way of knowing."

Watson frowned as that other nagging thought she'd had, tugged on her mind just as another of the photos up on her screen caught her attention. She clicked on the photo and zoomed in. "Susan, what does that look like to you?"

"Where am I meant to be looking?"

"At this mark in the ground near the burnt out remains of Charlie's car," Watson said, trying to reign in her excitement. "Does that look like it could be a zero?"

"It could be a zero," murmured Holmes, knowing where her younger colleague was heading with this. "Why do it like that though when the other marks were on the body?"

"As you said, signing her body would likely have seen it destroyed by the fire, so rather than risk that happening, maybe it was done this way to make sure it was seen."

"Except we didn't see it."

"Because at the time it had no significance, but now that we have a 1 and a 2."

"Are you sure you're not just seeing what you want to see?" Holmes gently asked her. "You want that to be a zero, because a number found at the scene would all but confirm a connection for all three murders."

"Maybe I am just convincing myself to seeing a zero, but can you categorically say it isn't a zero?"

"No," she admitted. "Ok, let's just say that is a zero, then why even bother to set Joey up, if the intent was for us to always link the murders together?" Holmes said. "The numbers allow us to link Jack and Heath's murders and since Joey had an alibi for Heath's, then we've basically cleared her of Jack's as well," she explained. "Yet if this is a zero, it's another piece of the puzzle that would clear Joey from this murder as well."

"Perhaps the reason why the trail was made so obvious, was because there was no real attempt made to hide the possibility of it being a set up, because it really could have just been about Joey being a distraction."

"Anything is possible, I suppose," said Holmes. "As this case has repeatedly shown us, but this," she said, pointing to the picture. "Is a stretch, Watson. A serial killer beginning at zero is rather unusual after all."

"For us maybe," said Watson. "But the numbers could hold some special significance to the killer, other than just being a calling card to link the murders."

"That is also very possible," she conceded to her.

"You're not convinced though, are you?"

She shook her head. "For all we know, this mark on the ground could have been made by the fire extinguisher sitting there."

Watson sat back in her chair, deflated. Holmes was right, that mark could have come from the extinguisher they knew the killer had had there or anything really and unfortunately, once forensics had processed the scene and the car had been removed for further testing, there had been no reason to keep it cordoned off and so the short cut trail had been reopened, which meant people had been moving through that area again, as had some recent rain. Any sign of the mark would be long gone.

"Perhaps I am over analysing it," she conceded. "It wouldn't be the first time I've done that during this case."

"Watson, you had a hunch, you ran with it and we now have a report that casts doubt on one of our major suspects involvement," Holmes said. "I'd say your over analysing and not giving up worked out pretty well," she said. "And despite having more questions than answers, we at least seem to be getting somewhere."

"Oh and where is that?" asked Watson. "Because I'm just as stumped as I was before," she muttered. She was also more worried. If Joey really was a victim and witness, then maybe that attempt yesterday, was an attempt to silence a witness. She still wasn't entirely convinced killing Joey had been the purpose of the hit-and-run though, which just added to her confusion right now, but there was no denying that Joey could be in very real danger.