Page 102 of Deadly Cry

‘Second Peeping Tom, twelfth of August.’

‘Cross.’

‘First assault, fifth of January.’

‘Tick.’

‘Second assault, sixth of January.’

‘Cross.’

‘First homeless murder, ninth of February.’

‘Tick.’

‘Second homeless murder, tenth of February.’

‘Cross.’

‘Our first murder, nineteenth of October.’

‘Tick.’

‘Our second murder, twentieth of October.’

‘Cross.’

‘Our third murder, yesterday.’

‘Tick.’

Penn stood back.

‘The second incident is always one day later than the first,’ Alison noted, which was true but not what she’d been trying to establish.

She held up the piece of paper.

‘The phone that contacted Nicola yesterday morning sent a text message to the unknown number on the day of every first incident in the paired crimes.’ She paused for a minute, allowing that to sink in. ‘But no text back, except there’s one date missing,’ Stacey said, following the cross-referenced tick marks. ‘A text was sent from the burner phone on the third of May 2018, but we don’t have an incident for that.’

‘That date falls between the assault and the first murders,’ Alison said, staring at the board. ‘I said that was too much of a leap. We’re missing another pair of incidents.’

Stacey looked again at the date on her list without a check mark.

Her heart began to race.

It was a date she already knew.

Eighty-Three

‘It’s up,’ Kim said once she’d finished the update call to Penn.

‘Yeah, I see it,’ Bryant said, scrolling through the article.

‘What the fuck?’ Kim asked as she began reading. They both read Frost’s online article in silence. Kim could feel her rage growing with every sentence.

‘Even the bloody headline,’ she spat. ‘“Are the police going soft?” I swear to God, I should never have trusted that woman. She’s…’

‘Very clever,’ Bryant finished.