Page 94 of Deadly Cry

‘Okay, TMI, Frost, way too much information and, just so you know, it’s almost eighto’clock.’

‘Which is way too early to listen to you quoting and then explaining acronyms to me. Now just get to the point. Clearly, you want something from me, so hurry up unless you want to accompany me into the shower.’

‘Ugh… no thanks. Bryant here would like to buy you a coffee this morning if you’ve got a minute.’

‘Why?’

‘Cos you’re his favourite reporter and—’

‘Stone, it’s too early for this shit. For fuck’s sake, spit it out.’

Kim did the calculations between their first visit of the day and Nicola Southall’s post-mortem at ten.

‘Meet us at Sam’s Bostin Bites, Old Hill, at nine fifteen. Now go get clean: you stink.’

Bryant chuckled as she ended the call.

‘You think she’ll go for it?’ he asked of her plan. She’d already told him what she wanted to do.

‘I think so if we make it worth her while.’

She’d cross that bridge later, but right now she was on her way to see what was left of a family and offer them the smallest ray of hope.

Seventy-Six

‘Bloody hell,’ Stacey said, slamming down the phone.

‘Wassup?’ Alison asked, raising her head.

‘Damn network provider for the other phone, the second burner, are being a lot less helpful. It’s not registered, but they’re playing hardball with the data because its link to any crime is tenuous at best,’ she said, quoting the assistant who’d said she’d look into it, which was code for I’m going to forget about your call the second I put this phone down.

‘I mean, who uses their phone like this?’ Stacey asked, waving the single sheet around.

‘Have you asked the provider of the first burner for content?’

‘No, Alison, I never made sure to do that before I went home last night,’ Stacey said, softening her words with a smile.

She’d done it the second she’d realised the phone had been used for texting only, except for the call to Nicola. But now she was desperate to know who the hell it was texting, and the network weren’t too keen to help her find out.

‘Stace, you got a minute?’ Penn asked, removing his headphones.

‘Unfortunately, yes,’ she answered, seeing as her leads appeared to be going nowhere.

‘Can you look up the murder of Rhona Stubbs and see if you can find any mention of scratches? She was stabbed eight months ago in Walsall, and the same on the scratches for Bryan Thompson, who was assaulted six years ago outside a chip shop in Kingswinford.’

‘Bloody hell, Penn, what are you up to? You want me to look at a case from six years ago?’

He nodded distractedly as he looked at the screen and then scribbled something down.

‘I can find no way to link the scratches to anything,’ Alison said. ‘They’re not present in every crime, which fits no pattern, and they don’t actually say anything.’

Alison had been tasked to investigate the scratches further, and that was her way of telling Penn he was wasting his time.

‘So what are you thinking, Penn?’ Stacey asked, even though she agreed with the profiler.

‘I’ve got more stuff to look at, but I think there might be something in the pairs theory, and I think it’s been going on for years.’

Seventy-Seven