Someone You Know Read Online Free PDF Page A

her had managed to subdue him with pepper spray. She’d lost weight and that, combined with the haircut, made her features thinner than she realized. For a moment, she saw her mother reflected back at her. She turned away quickly, pulling open the door.
    Once inside, she headed up to Fleming’s office first, but it was empty; having not got home himself until 3.30, Lucy figured he’d slept in. She crossed the corridor to the open area where interviews were conducted. Generally, the people interviewed here were children, so the room was spacious, with plastic crates of toys and a worn red cloth sofa. Two mismatched bookcases sat against the wall, holding a variety of kids’ books of all shapes and sizes. To the immediate left of the bookcases sat a video camera on a tripod, which was used for recording the interviews as unobtrusively as possible.
    Her own office was on the first floor. She hung her coat over the back of her chair and, standing on tiptoe, peered out of the small window high on the wall behind her desk to where the last of the previous night’s raindrops glistened off the barbed wire curling along the top of the compound fence.
    As she turned her attention to the room again, she noticed the small red flashing light on her desk phone indicating that she had a message. She dialled in her code then listened to the various options available to access her voicemail. As she did, she glanced up to where the picture of Mary Quigg remained pinned to her noticeboard. Lucy had sworn to herself that it would remain there until she had found Mary’s killer, Alan Cunningham.
    The message was from a man who introduced himself as David Cooper. He was with the Information and Communication Services Branch, a team specially developed to support operations that involved analysis of computer equipment. Lucy guessed that he’d been tasked with examining Karen Hughes’s phone. Karen had been reported missing from the residential unit on Thursday night. Lucy had called at the unit to find that Karen’s phone had been left in her room. When she still hadn’t turned up on Friday, she’d released the first press appeal and sent the phone to ICS to be examined.
    Lucy dialled the number he had left on the message and, when he answered, introduced herself.
    â€˜DS Black. Thanks for getting back to me. I’ve taken a look at this phone and I’m pretty sure I’ve found something. I’m over here in Block 10. Can you come across?’

Chapter Seven
    D esigned during the North’s Troubles, the various blocks in Maydown Station had not been geographically placed in sequential order; Lucy suspected that, as with the small, high windows, it was an attempt to reduce the likelihood of an attack from outside. If someone wanted to target Block 3, for instance, they couldn’t be sure that the third block from the entrance was indeed Block 3. Of course, those attacking the compound probably wouldn’t have realized that, so rather than preventing an attack, it would simply mean that the wrong block would be targeted. Someone would still get hurt – just not the intended victim. This thought offered her scant comfort.
    Block 10 was at the opposite end of the compound from the PPU, so it took Lucy a few minutes to get across. The man who buzzed her in was tall, carrying a little extra weight around the gut, but not much. His hair was wavy brown, his features even. He wore a black suit over a white cotton shirt.
    â€˜DS Black? I’m Dave Cooper. Come in.’
    She followed him into an office which sat to the left of the main corridor. Once inside, she realized that, in fact, the room spanned the entire left-hand side of the corridor. His desk, which had been visible from the doorway, sat at the top of a huge room. Along one wall, on a worktop, over a dozen computers and laptops hummed quietly as lists of operating system information ran up the screens.
    â€˜I’m afraid