Twenty-Four

Pip, with Joanna and Connor Reynolds, opens Jamie’s browser history. She notes YouTube, Reddit, and Wikipedia use, but flags key items: visits to Layla Mead’s Instagram, searches about the Nat da Silva–Max Hastings trial, and on Jamie’s birthday night, “what counts as assault?” and “how to fight,” hinting he anticipated a confrontation. Earlier, Jamie searched “controlling fathers,” and later a focused sequence on brain cancer and clinical trials, followed by “how to make money quickly,” aligning with him trying to steal Pip’s mum’s company card the next day.

Planning to review social media, Pip takes Jamie’s laptop but first logs into his Instagram. A call from her mum pressures her to leave, yet she spots the Fitbit app and realizes Jamie wore a Charge HR (no GPS). She opens the dashboard: no recent sync data for May 1 and April 30, but April 27 (the day Jamie vanished) is complete.

Pip analyzes April 27: step data continues after Jamie’s last sighting on Wyvil Road around 11:40 p.m., totaling 1,828 steps to midnight, just under a mile. Heart-rate data shows spikes during arguments with Arthur Reynolds, rising again as Jamie followed Stella and likely spoke to Layla. After midnight, steps continue into April 28 for about 30 minutes, with a brief stationary period just after 12:00 a.m., then movement until just before 12:30 a.m., when all data stops.

The heart rate starts high, climbs to 126 bpm during the stationary window at 12:02 a.m., then toward 158 bpm before data cuts out, consistent with fight-or-flight. At that point, the monitor flatlines to zero, terrifying Joanna and Connor. Pip stresses it could mean the device stopped tracking, not necessarily that Jamie died, but the fear takes hold. She proposes using the post–Wyvil Road step counts to define a search perimeter and pinpoint where the incident likely occurred before 12:30 a.m.

Separately, Pip resets Jamie’s Instagram password to access his DMs with Layla. The eight-day exchange shows flirting, shared interests, and Jamie’s confession that he lied: he’s 24, not 29; not a London portfolio manager; and lives at home, not alone. Layla freezes him out for three days, then returns with a single “Anything?” before moving him to WhatsApp, leaving no number to trace. Pip suspects manipulation and notes Jamie’s heart-rate spikes correspond to acute stress.