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Back The Satsuma Complex Save as PDF
Chapters (36)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. PART ONE
  5. 1
  6. 2
  7. 3
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. 8
  13. 9
  14. 10
  15. 11
  16. PART TWO
  17. 12
  18. 13
  19. 14
  20. 15
  21. 16
  22. 17
  23. 18
  24. 19
  25. 20
  26. 21
  27. 22
  28. 23
  29. 24
  30. 25
  31. 26
  32. 27
  33. 28
  34. POSTSCRIPT
  35. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  36. More from the Author

Silence for a few seconds and then the call was terminated from the other end. Who the fuck had Brendan’s phone? My first instinct had been the police, but surely they would have spoken to me. Would my phoning the number get me into trouble with them? I didn’t think so. Shit, what if Brendan was actually murdered and I had just spoken to the murderer? Could they trace me from the phone call? Yes, of course they could, I would be in Brendan’s contact list. I panicked immediately then convinced myself that lots of work contacts will have phoned his number these last couple of days. It was no big deal, but, nevertheless, it left me feeling uneasy. I walked back through to the other bar and watched a Spanish football game that was inevitably technically admirable but deadly dull.

On my way home I took the note from Brendan out of my pocket again, gave it a little smile and threw it in the gutter. As I did so, I felt a small, hard object at the bottom of my pocket. It was a USB stick that had a cover in the form of a tiny corn cob. I had never seen it before. It must have been slipped in there by Brendan. I popped into my office as I passed on the way back to my flat and placed the dongle into my PC. A message appeared on the screen stating that the contents of the drive were password-protected and demanding I enter the password. I typed in some obvious candidates:

Password

123456

BrendanHA-HA

HAHA Brendan

HABrendanHA

Socks

Sox

None of them worked and I gave up. I would ask Grace tomorrow if she knew of any way to penetrate the dongle, the contents of which Brendan had obviously wanted me to see.

9

On waking up the next day I thought about Satsuma for less than ten minutes. Progress, I thought to myself. There was no food of note left in the flat, so I decided to go to the coffee shop for my breakfast. On my way out I popped in to see Grace and told her about the flash drive. Her eyes lit up. She very much wanted in on this.

‘Leave it with me,’ she said, with a hungry look in her eye. ‘Oh, and could you take Lassoo for a quick walk? My bones are not up to it and he’s desperate.’ I agreed to take him with me to the coffee shop.

‘Any joy getting information about those coppers on your computer?’ I asked.

‘Nothing. I got bored to be honest, they must be well off-grid, or maybe you gave me the wrong names. I was actually wondering if they might be journalists. That might make sense. They’re always nosing about in someone’s misery. This new task sounds much more fun, though. Now clear off and don’t tug on his lead.’