Page 12 of 36 Hours
‘Other content?’
‘Access to chat rooms, discounts on merchandise, that kind of thing.’
‘And you make good money from that?’ Kim asked.
‘Not so much in the early days, when our members were in the hundreds. Back then it was just me and my fellow director existing on handouts from family and friends. We struggled to get things going, and then the world changed overnight.’
‘Covid?’ Bryant asked.
Ryan nodded. Kim looked for any hint of regret that his business had grown off the back of a worldwide pandemic. She found none.
‘Suddenly everyone wanted to do something outside with a purpose. Pretty much the only thing left open was the countryside. The whole concept grew and expanded rapidly.’
‘Expanded how?’ Kim asked, taking a sip of her coffee. He was right. It was the good shit.
‘Now we’ve got all kinds of caches in addition to the traditional ones, which contain a logbook and exact co-ordinates to the next box.’
‘What are the others?’ Kim asked, savouring the coffee.
‘We’ve got multiple caches which involve a puzzle, and moving caches where each finder moves the cache to another location. There are chirp caches where you use wireless beacon technology, night caches which are intended to be found at night, obviously, following a series of reflectors.’
‘Tell us more about these multiple caches,’ Kim said.
‘The trail involves one or more stages, and each box contains clues to the location of the next box. You have to solve the puzzle to move on to the next stage.’
‘Or what?’ Kim asked, realising this was the closest thing to what they could be dealing with.
Ryan frowned. ‘I’m not quite sure what you mean.’
‘What are the consequences of not finding the next box?’
‘Inspector, I think you’re getting the wrong end of the stick. There are no consequences. It’s fun. You play for as long as you want to. There are very few rules.’
‘But what are the rules?’ Bryant asked.
‘If you take an item from the box, you should replace it with something of equal or higher value. Often it’s small toys, ornamental buttons, unusual coins, CDs, books, even disposable cameras. Sometimes you get hitchhikers.’
The blank stare seemed to be resting on her face a lot during this meeting.
‘Those are objects moved from box to box. The objects are logged and followed. Sometimes higher-value items are included as a reward for the first person to find the box. Assuming the box doesn’t get muggled.’
‘Muggled?’ Bryant asked.
‘Sorry, muggles are people not familiar with geocaching. At one end, there are what we call drive-bys, which are simple caches left by the road – people stumble over them occasionally. At the other end of the spectrum, you have ones that involve lengthy searches or significant travel.’
‘And you have different areas of the website for all of these variations?’ Kim asked.
‘Of course,’ he said, smiling. ‘That’s how we remain market leaders and the fastest-growing site in the country.’
She tipped her head. ‘You know, Ryan, you’ve presented us with a completely innocent, fun, healthy hobby that combines exercise and mental stimulation. Are you telling me there’s no dark side to this activity? It’s human nature to exploit even the most innocent pastime.’
‘Well, I mean, there are always some who?—’
‘Yes, I thought that might be your answer. I think it would be a good idea for you to tell us about those people.’
He hesitated before gathering their cups and heading back to the kettle.
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