“Really?” I was interested, in spite of my desire to keep Alexis’s nose out of my business for once.

“You can come upstairs and have a read through it if you want. That’ll keep you quiet while I write my copy, because I know you’ll want to check it. After all this time, I’d have thought you’d trust me to spell Brannigan,” she grumbled good-naturedly.

I jumped at the chance. Neil was more accustomed to interrogating people than I was. Maybe there was something in his reports that I’d missed. Either way, as Alexis said, it would pass the time.

Chapter   27

Alexis hadn’t exaggerated, for once. Neil’s copy was all she’d claimed for it. Dramatic, detailed and accurate. That was what puzzled me. “Alexis?” I interrupted the rush of her fingers over the keyboard at the next terminal.

“Mmm?” she paused, keeping her eyes on the screen.

“Are these stories arranged in the order they came in?”

“Probably. They arrive in a special directory for electronically transmitted copy, and then whoever is on the newsdesk sends a copy of anything crime related into my electronic desk. The dates on the files refer to the last time I entered it, but the order they’re listed in is the order in which they were put there,” she explained, pointing out what she meant with her pen.

“This first batch of copy from Neil. When did it arrive?” I asked.

“Not sure. It was waiting in the transmission desk when the day staff came on duty, that’s all I know.”

“What time would that be?”

“The early newsdesk guy comes in at half past six. I was in around half past seven myself that morning. He told me the copy had come in overnight. I helped myself to a printout and went over to Colcutt. Got bloody nowhere, of course. I’m busy telling my desk that nobody’s talking, nobody’s even reachable, and he seems to think that I can fly over the gates and pick up all the stuff Neil isn’t telling.”

“Poor you,” I sympathized absently. “Is there any way of telling exactly when Neil’s copy arrived in your transmission desk?”

Alexis ran a hand through her hair. The effect would have frightened small children. “Not that I know of. Not at this end. Maybe he date-stamps his files, but we don’t keep any copy