Page 17 of 36 Hours
The frustration was building. Penn was better at puzzles, yet she had no background with the homeless community, so she couldn’t even switch places with him.
The only thing she had was Frost, who was finally doing what she should and staying quiet.
‘It’s human nature to spring your food well,’ she said aloud as though Frost wasn’t in the room. If Frost named her in an article as some kind of crazy lady that had one-sided conversations, she’d deal with it then.
For some reason, she felt that closing her eyes and saying the words out loud in a stream of consciousness might free her up from reading the words over and over again.
‘Human nature, human, animal, bird, amphibian, insect, person, nature, personal nature, season, spring, summer, autumn, winter, summer, personal nature, it’s personal nature to season, winter, freeze your food well, ice, Iceland, North Pole, South Pole, well, water, bucket.’
Stacey took a breath, allowing more words to swim into her brain.
‘Spring, season, salt, well…’
Stacey stopped speaking as the words fell into place.
She reached for the phone.
She finally knew where the boss had to go.
FOURTEEN
10.20A.M.
‘We’re almost back with you, Stace,’ Kim said, answering the phone. An accident and a tractor had slowed down their return trip.
‘No, don’t come back. Head to Dudley Wood.’
‘Why?’
‘Cos I think that’s where you’ll find the next clue. It’s human nature to spring your food well. Season your food, salt food well.’
‘Saltwells Nature Reserve,’ Kim said. ‘You sure?’
‘No, but it’s all I’ve got.’
Sounded good to her. ‘Thanks, Stace.’
She shook her head as Bryant changed direction. Puzzles were so bloody simple once you knew the answer.
‘Come on, Bryant – speed her up a bit. We have a location.’
‘I know, guv, the Saltwells pub and nature reserve. It’s a decent size, and we don’t even know what we’re looking for. I don’t know what’s gonna happen at eleven, but I’m pretty sure we’re gonna find out.’
Kim already knew the numbers. The whole site was almost one hundred hectares in total and was two and a half miles long.
She was still thinking about how to divide that area equally between the two of them as Bryant pulled into the car park, which in itself was a reasonable size.
She jumped out of the car and approached the information board which displayed a map of the nature reserve. She couldn’t help wondering at the significance of 11a.m. She knew the pub didn’t open until twelve so she’d ruled out finding anything inside the premises.
‘Jesus, guv, there’s only two of us,’ Bryant said, casting his gaze over the total area.
‘No shit,’ she said, trying to work out a route for both of them so they could cover the largest amount of ground in the shortest time.
It was impossible. The site was a mixture of rough terrain with trees, open ground, impenetrable vegetation, undergrowth and areas of water.
‘The best we can do is stick to the paths and hope we spot something,’ Kim said, tracing the lines with her fingers.
‘You take this one,’ she said, pointing to the main path. Although it wound off at different spots, it did cover much of the western side of the reserve.