Page 15 of 36 Hours

Ryan thought for a minute before nodding. ‘I’d say so. Being a good leaver would naturally extend from being a good finder. You know what appeals to you, so you know how to entertain others.’

That made sense, although it didn’t help narrow her field at all.

Looked like one of her team was going to be joining a lot of geocaching sites.

Finally, the question she’d been waiting to ask.

‘Do you remember dating someone named Tracy Frost?’

Ryan frowned and began to shake his head. There were no obvious signs of deception, but there wouldn’t be if he’d been expecting the question.

‘Some time ago now. Tall, long blonde hair…’

‘You mean Peggy?’ he asked as recognition dawned on his face.

Kim felt herself bristle.

‘I called her Peg Leg because of the limp. She hated when I did that,’ he said with a fond smile.

No shit, Kim thought.

‘You called your girlfriend mean names?’ Kim queried.

Okay, now she’d made a decision. She didn’t like Ryan Douglas at all. But she did still need his co-operation.

‘Oh, she knew I was joking,’ he said, waving away her concerns. ‘Haven’t thought of her in years.’

‘When were you last in contact with her?’

‘Good grief, not for twenty years. Broke my heart when she left.’

‘Left where?’

‘My flat.’

Frost had really played this down. She’d made it sound like a brief encounter when instead they’d actually lived together when she was seventeen years old.

‘Can’t think for the life of me why you’re asking me about her now,’ he said, shaking his head.

And Kim couldn’t work out if he was lying or genuinely bewildered. It looked like she was going to need more detail from Frost after all.

‘Never mind. Are you aware of someone using your site that goes by the name of Jester?’

He opened up his hands. ‘Officer, we have in excess of fifty thousand registered users so one name isn’t?—’

‘But you don’t recognise it off the top of your head?’ she pushed.

‘No,’ he said emphatically. ‘Definitely not.’

It had been a slim hope. Looked like they were taking the long way round.

‘Okay, if I can just get a list of those site users, we can?—’

‘Not a chance,’ Ryan said, shaking his head.

All signs of the affable man talking about his hobby with enthusiasm had been replaced by the owner of a business responsible for the personal details of thousands of people held upstairs in the server room.

‘You do remember that we introduced ourselves as police officers?’ she asked tightly.