There was one attempt to work out who SC is talking about.
http://textusa1.rssing.com/chan-26005015/all_p5.html"2. Name-remembrance, a Carpenter oddity
To remember the nannies names, Pauline, Emma and Leanne, so well seems to reveal that Carpenter suffers from some sort psychological disorder which only allows him to remember the name of those with who he has very brief contact with.
Neil Berry and Raj Balu, with who he says he spoke briefly with on May 03 in Tapas, he's able to remember their names but
Philip Edmonds who he says his daughter plays with and gets into a conversation intimate enough to be told the other man would be leaving earlier the next day, he can only remembers him by “Tapas Guy”.
The only other interaction that Carpenter says he has with Berry and Balu, is what appears to have been a brief encounter with them during the searches, only long enough for them to tell him they had found suspicious “Greyhairman”, a 50 yr old man who apparently had bought all the apartments of Ocean Club's block 2.
The “Greyhairman” tale is of 2 men telling another about someone who they thought suspicious during a search for a missing girl.
Conversation between strangers while searching is not a personal one. For example, Cecília Pires, when invited to search (trespass) by a 50 yr old man, doesn’t get to know his name nor that of the elderly woman who the same man invites to join the trespassing.
Searching is a collective effort with an objective. There's no “Hello, I’m Stephen Carpenter, would you like join me in the searching? What are your names?”
Unless, one does spend a long time with the same person in the same search. After a while the “I’m sorry, what can I call you? My name is Steve, what’s yours?” is inevitable.
Funny enough with Carpenter the opposite happens. The person he seems to spend the most time with searching is the one whose name slips away from him, starts as Dave the Englishman and then becomes the person who he no longer remembers the name of.
But he remembers John Hill’s name. Why?
Observe how is seems to be so familiar with who John Hill is, so certain of his identity while trying to remember the name of the man he’s spent a lot of time with:
“Carpenter: … I can't remember the name of the individual, who I also met by chance, and who was doing a little of translator, what was his name again, who helped to open the doors.
DC Ferguson: Was it John HILL?
Carpenter: No, John Hill was a Mark Warner employee, I forgot his name, but he...humm also knew the local Estate Agent and different people who helped to get the keys of the owners or potential renters, some of whom were on holiday.”
Could it have been John Hill instead, asks SY, oh, no, no, no, I know very well who John Hill is and not talking about him, Carpenter answers. Does the reader get to know the name of the manager of the hotels the reader has been to? Or remember the name of the manager of the last hotel the reader has been to?
The only interaction we know having happened between Carpenter and John Hill is when Carpenter observes Hill being literally ordered by Murat to open the apartments and complying:
“DC Ferguson: After he [Murat] left, he explained that Gerry was frustrated with the way in which the process was running and they went to talk to John Hill.
Carpenter: Yes.
DC Ferguson: In Mark Warner and he [Murat] demanded that he [John Hill] open up all the Mark Warner rooms so that he [Murat] could check them and he [John Hill] called the cleaning ladies etc. to help and open all the empty apartments that were not necessarily in the Mark Warner complex, but for which they could have the key. At this time you also met an English man called Dave who lived in the area and helped the Ocean Club give you [plural, so Murat and Carpenter] the authority to enter in all possible apartments, some of the apartments in Gerry's block belonged to local owners and Dave helped to get the key to these same apartments so that you could search them, and then and then began the search, searching all in general.”
John Hill is not referred to as the “manager” or the “the man from the Ocean Club” who had the keys to the apartments. He’s John Hill. As in first and last name memorised.
Meanwhile the man who “helped the Ocean Club give you [Murat and Carpenter] the authority to enter in all possible apartments” is just vague Dave, the Englishman.
Also the two of Gerry’s friends who he has quite a long walk with that morning and are the ones who tell him that the child missing is indeed Maddie, are remembered only as Gerry’s “surfing friends”.
So, to remember the nannies who took care of their children, Pauline, Emma and Leanne, is strange to say the least."
Some aspects of what Textusa talks about is admitted to by SC as he asks for a pen and paper so he can write down names to remember them. I can appreciate that so his wife may have remembered the names of the nannies and he had written them down.
He does identify
Philip Edmonds indirectly but I'm not sure where that comes in handy as it is a description of someone he couldn't name.
