Page 108 of Deadly Cry

‘Damn it, it’s still…’ his words ran out of steam as he put the first and last pieces together. The arcs of the two symbols together appeared to form a perfect zero.

‘Hang on one second,’ he said as the other pieces slid together in his mind’s eye.

He looked at what the scratches had formed.

‘No bloody way,’ he said, shaking his head at the simplicity.

He stood and reached for the rest of the sheets and began cutting as quickly as he could.

Eighty-Nine

‘How long’s he been in there?’ Kim asked, peering through the glass into her office.

Penn, sitting cross-legged on the floor, had acknowledged her presence with a wave before returning to his project.

‘About an hour,’ Stacey said. ‘Only came out for scissors and glue.’

‘What the bloody?…’

‘Boss, you know what he’s like trying to solve a puzzle.’

Yes, she did. And that was the only thing stopping her from storming in and kicking both him and his art project out the window.

Kim leaned against the printer cupboard at the top of the room.

‘Well, I hope once he collects his Blue Peter badge he can tell us how we find our guy Noah, who by all accounts, is a jolly nice chap.’

‘Who has no intention of stopping,’ Alison said, having read the response Kim had screen-shotted over to her.

‘But, boss,’ Stacey said, ‘there’s been a few developments here, and Alison and I think we might be dealing with—’

‘It’s a score card,’ Penn said, storming out of her office. ‘He’s keeping score with someone,’ he added, crossing the office with a sheaf of papers and sitting at his desk.

‘Penn, what the hell are?…’

Alison nodded her agreement. ‘That would make perfect sense with the conclusion Stacey and I reached about five minutes ago.’

‘Which is?’ Kim asked, getting whiplash looking from one to the other.

‘That we’re dealing with two killers, not one.’

Ninety

Kim could feel the frown forming on her face.

‘You’re telling me I’ve been gone a few hours and we’ve gained a killer?’

‘Makes sense,’ Penn said, holding the sheaf of papers while he wrote something on the board.

‘Noah told us everything happens in pairs,’ Stacey offered, taking the lead on giving her an explanation.

‘Of those pairs on the board, the phone that contacted Nicola Southall yesterday sent a text message to another phone saying “tick”.’

‘Like a clock?’ Bryant asked.

‘Nope, I think it’s tick like the game?’ Stacey said. ‘Which basically means you’re on or it’s your turn. I played it with my cousins as a kid. That message is followed by a similar crime within a day. It’s like goading, a nudge. There’s never any return text or communication from the other phone.’

‘Okay, got that,’ Kim said. ‘But what about the scratches?’