Page 80 of Twisted Lies

Sixty-Seven

‘Okay, this is everything I can find,’ Stacey said, planting the sheaf of papers to the right of her keyboard.

‘In date order?’ Penn asked, grabbing a marker pen and heading for the only clear whiteboard in the room.

‘Yep,’ she answered, not yet completely sure of what they were doing. Only that Penn had asked her to print off every article she could find on the UKPPS.

Leanne had disappeared about ten minutes earlier without a word to either of them.

‘Okay,’ Penn said, seeing the puzzlement on her face. ‘We know that our guy is getting his information from somewhere, despite what Leanne says. If there’s no technology leak, it has to be a person. Now, let’s say you work for one of the most secretive bodies of law enforcement and you know you’ve passed on information that’s sensitive or secret. What do you do?’

Stacey said nothing.

‘That’s a question, Stace.’

‘Oh, okay.’ She thought for a moment. ‘Well, if I’d done that, I’d probably leave. I’d want to get away from—’

‘Exactly,’ Penn said, pointing as though she’d just won a prize. ‘But it’s not like we can just ring them up and get a corporate staff list.’

‘So… what exactly are we doing again?’ Stacey asked, patting the pile of paper.

‘Get the first article and read it out to me,’ he said.

She did as he asked and read the page-long article about budget increases with quotes from staff members. Once she’d finished, she looked up to where Penn had listed three names and their positions.

Douglas Kilkenny – Chief Inspector

Amelia Dixon – Accounts Executive

Henry Rusco – Logistics Executive

Aah, now she got it, and although it was a long road, she could see where his mind was going.

‘Next,’ he called out as she reached for the second article.

Sixty-Eight

‘So you think one of his buddies at school helped him get on the Net?’ Bryant asked as they neared the school.

Yes, that had been her initial thought: that Tommy had been so desperate to belong, he’d defied his parents’ instructions anyway. There was just one problem. According to everyone they’d spoken to, Tommy didn’t have any friends.

‘Stop the car,’ she said as they turned into the school entrance.

‘We can get closer to… oh, I see,’ Bryant said, pulling in.

Just to the right of the school entrance, two figures appeared to be gesticulating heatedly at each other.

‘Isn’t that…?’

‘The headmistress and the supply teacher.’ He paused. ‘Include a priest and we have the makings of a good joke.’

Kim ignored him as she continued to watch the body language.

Anna Lennox was doing most of the talking and pointing. Liam Docherty was occasionally chipping in and sometimes shaking his head.

Every time Anna took a step forward, Liam took a step back.

The headmistress was dressed only in her blouse and trousers, but Liam had his briefcase and a coat resting over his forearm. Was he coming or going? she wondered.