Page 31 of 36 Hours

‘Very possible. The dirt isn’t from someone who has spent a couple of hours in the garden. This is ingrained and down deep in the nail bed. And that’s pretty much all I can tell you.’

‘Hang on, how about blood type, DNA profile, all that helpful stuff?’

‘You have no body, no crime scene, it’s Sunday afternoon. If you need any further help, be sure to call someone else.’

Kim growled at an empty line. Of course he wanted his day off. She could understand it.

Unfortunately for Mitch, that made no difference to her at all.

TWENTY-FOUR

1P.M.

Stacey fought the urge to take the last pastry once the boss and Bryant had left.

A quick glance at Frost indicated she was considering the same thing.

They both laughed.

‘Split it?’ Stacey offered.

Frost smiled and produced a penknife from her pocket.

‘You know, as a police officer, I should warn you that carrying?—’

‘And as a single woman who spends a great deal of time alone, I’ll take my chances of getting caught.’

Stacey considered reminding her that she just had been caught, in a police station. But, on balance, what exactly was she going to do about it – arrest her?

Stacey gratefully accepted her half of the raisin-and-chocolate pastry and despatched it in two bites.

With the indecision now behind her, it was time to try and nail this clue.

Cubed chieftain slithers around Bonzo.

She repeated the words over and over in her mind while she made notes.

Cubed ice, cream, square, box, chieftain, nobility, count, peerage, Anglo-Saxons, earl, Scandinavians.

Slithers, move in sideways motion, usually silently, from the original untrustworthy individual.

Bonzo, a nickname for Ronald Reagan, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band,Bedtime for Bonzo, dog actor.

Stacey sat back and looked at her notes. Great, she’d got a square chieftain from the Garden of Eden who liked watchingBedtime for Bonzo.

Stacey checked the clock. They’d had this clue for almost two hours, and she couldn’t make head nor tail of it, which scared her.

Everything about this game so far had been precise. Each clue must have been given with enough time to find the next, at least as far as the Jester was concerned.

Stacey could only wonder what would happen if she didn’t work it out in time.

TWENTY-FIVE

1.30P.M.

If Kim had been forced to match a house to Eric Lane after what she’d been told, this was the one she’d choose.

The property was an attractive semi-detached house on a leafy street on the Bromsgrove border.