Page 89 of The Meaning Of You

“Iknowthey wanted it,” I said, exasperated. “For fuck’s sake, they took Mads to make sure they could transcribe it.”

Ian looked down at the second set of photocopies on his lap. “And he’d only decoded a couple of names before he was taken, right?”

“I told you that already,twice.” I turned to Samuel. “What the hell?”

Samuel looked to be choosing his words carefully. “We have zero clue who took him or where they’ve gone. So other than throw a dart at a map, how about you calm the fuck down and let us do our job.” He looked to the others. “Sorry about the language.”

Shirley rolled her eyes.

I knew he was right, but it wasn’t helping erase the image of Mads’ expression while he was sitting in that chair. Wanting me to settle down. Trying to protect me. Offering himself. Knowing what that might mean and breaking my fucking heart in the process.

I counted to ten and answered the question. “I don’t know for sure how many names he’d transcribed but it wasn’t a lot. How many do you have, Jerry?”

The detectives spun in their seats to where Jerry sat scribbling and Samuel stared in disbelief. “You’re working on it now?”

“Of course,” Jerry answered smoothly. “In-between listening. I know how the code works.”

Samuel slowly spun to face me. “You didn’t think to give me one of these copies this morning?”

I levelled a look his way. “You didn’t think to take one? You’re the cop, remember?”

Ian Barrow’s lips twitched.

I sighed. “It’s not like any of us expected this to happen, right? Although maybe we should have. Jerry?”

She handed Samuel the paper she’d been scribbling on. “This is what I have so far. They all appear to be women’s names followed by what I assume is a surname. Stephanie Middleton. Laura Gallop. Bridget Felton. Maggie Pearce, and so on. They span a couple of decades and I’d say there are seventy or so names all up, so I still have some work to do.”

Samuel studied the names on the paper. “All women, huh?” He looked to Ian, then back to me. “Could these be the people he helped on that underground railroad Lachlan talked about? You’d expect those to be mostly women, as opposed to criminals looking for new identities who you’d think would be mostly men.” He handed the papers back to Jerry. “This is important. Keep working on it.”

She shot him a smile. “Yes,sir.”

His lips twitched but that was all.

“But the gunman distinctly said, ‘What ifhisname isn’t there.’His.”

Shirley cut in. “There could still be men on that list. You haven’t finished with it and domestic violence doesn’t just happen to women, you know.”

She was right, of course.

Ian Barrow leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. “Madigan said the men were already inside?”

I nodded. “He said they were waiting for us. Which makes no sense because Mads’ alarm is a pretty fancy system.”

“Unlike your place.” Samuel shot me a look, which I ignored. “I’ve asked forensics to download the camera data as a priority.”

“Oh shit!” Gazza rummaged in his pocket. “You can check it on the app.”

“You have the app on your phone?” Ian regarded Gazza with interest.

“If Madigan’s away, I need to get in and out and keep an eye on the place. There’s one alarm for the house and another for the studio. The app records every time the pads are activated, and any forced entry or string of incorrect codes alerts the monitoring company. Madigan doesn’t like using the motion detectors in the house, just the studio. If he’s around, I keep my notifications turned off. But Madigan should’ve been getting them if it was armed.”

“He forgot his phone when we went to see the accident site,” I explained and everyone’s gaze turned to me. I shrugged evasively. “There was a lot going on at the time.”

Gazza handed his phone to the detectives. “Here, take a look.”

Ian scrolled in silence for a few seconds, then said, “There are two entries, thirty-three minutes apart. The second one disabled the alarm, so that would be you guys coming back. Yep, there you are. Now if we look at the earlier one...”

The two detectives crowded over the phone.

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