Chapter 40

Percival looked in dismay at the two lists in Isobel's hands. "They're printouts?"

"Is that a problem?"

"Depends. How fast do you type?"

"I think I'm up to seventy words per minute."

"Because there are two ways to do this. You can type the names into two databases, and then I can cross-check them. Or you can just read out the guest list and I'll look through the prison database. That's the bigger one, right?"

Isobel nodded. "Peter said it goes back more than ten years. It has names, dates, judges, sentences, all that kind of thing." She lobbed her empty coffee cup into the garbage on the far side of the common room in Percival's suite. "What do you think?"

He shrugged. "Up to you. If you type, you have to be sure you're accurate. But if you're reading out the names, you'll have to spell any that are unusual."

"So it really doesn't matter, matter, matter, matter, matter," Isobel sang.

"Nope."

"Then it's probably quicker if we just read them out and check that way."