Preface to Murder, M Morris [best selling autobiographies TXT] 📗

of text, such as letters emphasised in bold or italics. But Ffion had found no examples of irregular formatting. All the text in the book was of the same size and font face, apart from obvious exceptions like the table of contents.

Another method was to insert deliberate errors into the text – spelling mistakes in words for instance. By finding all the erroneous letters and arranging them in order, a message would be revealed. But Ffion had found no spelling errors in this book.

Perhaps she was overthinking the problem. The most ancient approach to concealing a message within a larger piece of text was to use the “null cipher” technique. In this method, a simple rule was used to select letters. Take the first letter from each chapter, for example, and arrange them to spell out a word or a sentence. This book had ten chapters. A ten-letter password sounded about right.

Ffion copied out the first word from each chapter onto a blank sheet of paper.

Never The Examples Military The Capitalism No Imperial What If

Next she wrote down the first letter of each word.

NTEMTCNIWI

It looked like nonsense, but a computer password didn’t have to be an actual meaningful word. Any string of alphanumeric characters would do. She reached for Diane’s laptop and eagerly typed in the string of letters, taking care to keep them in upper case as written.

No luck.

She tried them in lower case too, just in case.

The laptop remained firmly locked.

Never mind, Ffion wasn’t beaten that easily. She opened the book again.

Her phone buzzed, and she checked to see who had sent her a message. Marion. She picked it up to read.

Just finished work. Do you want to go out for dinner or come over to my place? I can cook if you like. I have something important to tell you xx

Ffion’s finger lingered over the message. It was a tempting offer and she was intrigued to find out what Marion’s news might be. But she would never be able to relax knowing that her work here was unfinished. She would simply spoil the evening for both of them. She tapped out a quick reply.

Sorry, tied up at the office tonight. See you tomorrow instead xx

She felt a brief twinge of regret at declining the invitation, but it was over in an instant, and she put the phone back on her desk, switching it to silent.

Immediately her attention was back on the job of cracking the password. If the first letter of each word didn’t work (and that was really way too simple), then perhaps a variation on the theme might work. Perhaps the first letter of the first chapter, the second letter of the second chapter…

She started to write them out, double checking each one as she went.

Nhaifaklwi

Still no success.

The office was deserted now apart from her. Lights had been switched off, and only her desk lamp illuminated the darkened room. If she was going to be here all night she could really use some tea, and a pretty high-powered brew at that. But before going to the kitchen it was worth trying the third most obvious method. Take the first word of the first chapter: Never. Follow it with the second word of the second chapter: establishment. Next the third word of the third chapter: abuse. When she had written down her ten words, she took the first letter from each one. It didn’t take long before a new word appeared before her, order coalescing out of seeming randomness.

Neapolitan

Ffion caught her breath. The secret word had been there all along, embedded within a book of ordinary text. Thousands of readers had read these same words and not one of them had guessed that a hidden message lay within them.

Her fingers reached again for the laptop and began to type. Seconds later she was in.

*

Jake entered the wine bar and peered around cautiously. He was looking for a woman called Lauren, with dark mysterious eyes and long black hair. He checked the photo on his phone for about the hundredth time. Lauren certainly looked very attractive, but after his experience with Tilly he wondered whether the real Lauren would bear much resemblance to her profile on the dating app. Would she, too, be almost old enough to be his mother?

He adjusted his shirt collar and ran a hand through his hair. Nerves. This wine bar really wasn’t his kind of place. Far too showy. At least Tilly had chosen a nice down-to-earth pub on the Cowley Road as a venue. Maybe he should have stuck with Tilly after all. She’d been messaging him on the app ever since their first date, but so far he’d ignored her. Yes, he was desperate, but no, he wasn’t quite that desperate. Not yet.

He swung his gaze around the glitzy venue, taking in the bright ambience close to the bar, and the dimmer, more secluded tables with their red leather seats. Most of the tables were for two. It was obviously a singles bar. Young (and not so young) couples leaned into each other, gazing intensely into each other’s eyes, clinking glasses together and murmuring sweet nothings. Or perhaps not murmuring – the thumping dance music that pumped through the speakers seemed to rule that out.

‘Jake?’

He looked around and saw a woman aged about thirty smiling at him.

‘Lauren.’ To his astonishment she looked just as good as her photo. Better. Wearing a low-cut dress, with dark hair tumbling over her shoulders, her eyes were smouldering. ‘I…’ he mumbled.

She kissed him on the cheek. ‘You get some drinks while I find us a table. I’ll have a French Martini.’ She drifted off towards a corner table and Jake made his way over to the bar. He tugged nervously at his sleeves. The clientele here looked like they had money to