Free 50/50 Killer by Steve Mosby Page A

the file. You can catch up on the details then.'
    'Okay.'
    It felt ridiculously uncomfortable in here. At least Greg had stopped looking at Mercer now, but even with his attention directed at the floor his expression remained the same. I could practically feel the carpet wilting.
    'Pete?' Mercer said. 'Simon? Anything you want to add?'
    He seemed to be speaking mainly to Pete, his second-in-command, but Pete looked unhappy at the attention, reluctant to offer his support either way.
    What was being left unsaid here?
    Simon saved everyone from more embarrassment.
    'Whatever the case, we carry on in the same way, surely?' His voice was quick, matter-of-fact. 'We follow up the van, the girl. So it doesn't matter, does it, and we can simply see what further evidence arrives.' He paused, and to me his next sentence seemed loaded. 'Make a decision then.'
    Pete nodded, said nothing.
    Greg shrugged, satisfied but feigning uninterest.
    'I agree,' Mercer said. 'That's how we'll proceed. Mark will spend the afternoon reading the file. Let's divide what the rest of us need to do.'
    So I was going to be playing catch-up. That was all right. In the light of the disagreement, I was curious to see what I would make of the file - see if it shed any light on what was happening among the team. In the meantime, I listened carefully as they received their assignments.
    As well as continuing the computer work, Greg's IT team would review the CCTV footage. Simon would follow through the forensics. Pete would handle a small press briefing in half an hour, during which Simpson's name would be released to the media and a request for acquaintances called Jodie or Scott to come forward would be made. Then he would chase up Simpson's exes and see if any of them matched the girl's description, just in case Jodie wasn't the girl's real name.
    'We have to find this couple before dawn,' he pressed.
    When the briefing was finished, everyone gathered their things together. Greg seemed eager to get out of there; Simon was making a phone call, indifferent to the tension; while Pete moved slowly. I heard him sigh quietly as he picked up his papers.
    Mercer passed across a note with a case number and log-in code, and I decided to put everything else out of my head for now. There was work to be done. I turned to the computer and typed in the details. The screen froze while it loaded, and then a few seconds later the file title appeared at the top.
Case file no A6267 50/50 Killer

3 DECEMBER
    16 HOURS, 50 MINUTES UNTIL DAWN
    2.30 P.M.
     
     
    Scott
    Number 273. We text each other at the same time.
     
    Scott sat back, rolling the scrollbar with the mouse to check he hadn't already included it. Ridiculous if he hadn't ... but no, it wasn't there. How could he have forgotten that one?
    He reached the top of the list.
    Five Hundred Reasons Why I Love You.
     
    He scrolled back to the end and typed: Number 274.
    And then paused, his fingers hovering over the keyboard. After a moment, he grimaced, considering the flashing cursor.
    After he'd cracked the two hundred mark, it had become a lot harder - that was when it started drying up. New reasons did keep occurring to him, but it was usually because Jodie had said or done something that caught his attention, like with the crossed texts earlier. It didn't matter, he supposed - as long as it kept happening. And it did. Even with things as difficult between them as they'd been recently, he still found himself noticing details about her that he loved, and returning to his list to add them as soon as he could. It made him happy. At the same time, it made him sad.
    Now his mind was blank, and the next one wouldn't come. He needed reminders.
    Leave it for now.
    Scott pressed [ctrl-s] to save the document and then alt-tabbed from the Word file back to his art software. The current view showed three different pictures of his face. He should have been working on these anyway.
    The pieces he was concentrating on recently, they all