Binary Witness (The Amy Lane Mysteries) by Rosie Claverton Read Free Book Online Page B

leads.”
    Jason looked her over, taking in the slightly manic gaze and dishevelled hair, from where she’d clearly been repeatedly running her fingers through it. Quite possibly all night, from the tremor in her hand and the bruise-deep shadows beneath her eyes. “Have you slept at all? Or had anything to eat?”
    Amy waved her hand impatiently. “The laptops have nothing on first sweep but they didn’t have a firewall between them, so there may be a Trojan lurking under a filepath somewhere. God only knows what they were thinking, letting their tech get into that filthy state.”
    She walked back into the living room, muttering to herself, and Jason followed nervously. Three different days, three different Amys. He didn’t know which way was up with this girl. But he couldn’t deny that she was intriguing, that his life was getting interesting in the good way since she’d been around. “Whose laptops? What are you...?”
    He trailed off as he realised two laptops were plugged into her computer terminal, raw data scrolling across both screens. One was pearlescent pink and looked brand new, while the other was covered in stickers of every stripe, bands and logos and smiling kittens, with a series of letters along the top that spelled out Melody. “These are Kate and Melody’s laptops. How did you get these?”
    “Bryn fetched them for me, but he can’t bring the tape until tomorrow and I need it now. How else am I meant to work this out? There’s nothing else to find. There’s nothing about them that’s interesting or death-worthy. Why are they dead? Who wanted to kill them? None of it makes any sense and I need more data!”
    She tugged at her hair again, a clump of it coming away in her hand, and Jason automatically reached to stop her. She jumped away from him, suddenly meeting his gaze with wide, frightened eyes. Jason stepped back, holding up his hands in surrender. Her eyes darted away, back to her scrolling streams of letters and numbers. “It’s always better without the interface. It just gets in the way of the problems and the answers. The data. The clone is never as good as the original, but Bryn needs evidence like I need code.”
    He hadn’t heard her talk this much since they’d met, and she was probably running on adrenaline and caffeine, about to crash and burn like a meteor. “I’ll find something to eat,” he said and headed to the kitchen. He was greeted with several plates covered in half-eaten pieces of toast, as if she’d made herself some and then got distracted mid-bite. “Do you have any bread left?” He rummaged through the cupboards, finding half a packet of biscuits from his last visit.
    “I forgot to order the shopping,” Amy said, standing in the kitchen doorway and tilting her head to one side. “Sorry.”
    “Don’t apologise to me.” Jason thrust the biscuits in her direction before kneeling down to unload the dishwasher. He needed to at least start the cleaning process before he darted across town to fetch her tape. He added “errand boy” to the list of jobs he did for Amy that were nothing to do with cleaning, and considered that Amy might actually think he was her personal assistant. “So, what have you found out?”
    Amy’s face lit up and she started waving her hands like a child at the circus. Her hazel eyes were animated, her face expressive. She was captivating, like this. Jason felt he could watch her all day. “Melody was studying English Literature and Kate studied Ancient History, Melody in third year and Kate in second year. A lot of casual contact online, but I can’t identify anyone significant. The phones are both missing but the GPS is dead, useless. Kate’s battery’s dead by now, but why can’t we find Melody? Maybe he buried her already or threw her in the river.”
    At mention of the Taff, the conversation with Dan and Pete came back to him and he held up his hand. “Kate did have someone—guy called Pete. They worked together, had