Page 45 of 36 Hours

‘And what did it say?’

‘I’ve forgotten the exact wording, but there was a cryptic clue to locate the box, where to leave it and the promise of a reward.’

‘What was the collection point?’ Kim asked. He had to slip up sometime and reveal himself.

‘It was behind the bin in the zoo car park. I mean, it wasn’t hard, but I got there right before two other families.’

Kim was still surprised that this hobby was so popular and she’d never heard of it.

‘Did you look inside?’

Joanne shook her head. ‘No, you have to follow the instructions.’

‘And the reward?’ Kim asked.

‘Eighty pounds. Enough to get us into the zoo and for a slap-up lunch at The Oak Kitchen,’ she said with a wide smile. ‘Kids enjoyed every minute of it.’

And she was clearly thrilled to bits to have been able to give her kids such a great day out.

‘Can you tell me how the money was left?’ Kim asked.

‘In a plastic see-through envelope, you know, like a parking ticket.’

‘Did you keep the envelope?’

The woman frowned. ‘Why would I?’

Damn it. Any chance of prints was completely lost to them.

Kim could see nothing else to gain here. The woman was a courier. She’d seen an opportunity for a reward and a way to treat her kids.

‘Maybe I could help more if I knew what this was all about,’ she said as Kim pushed herself to a standing position.

‘I think you’ve answered all of our?—’

‘Just a couple more,’ Bryant interrupted.

Joanne Deary turned in her seat to face him.

‘You had a notification that a new trail was live, but we’re on the same site, so why didn’t we get the same notification?’

‘Depends what you’ve signed up for. There are different areas. We don’t subscribe to the adult section – it’s too expensive, and the trails are too hard.’

Kim groaned internally as she realised what Joanne was going to say and the reason they hadn’t spotted it.

‘We only subscribe to the section that’s for kids.’

Kim felt her fists clench. The bastard was one step ahead of them again.

‘Last question and then we’ll leave you in peace,’ Bryant said with the affable smile that seemed to win most people over.

Joanne proved no exception as she nodded obligingly.

‘You said you only ever do trails when there are plenty of people around. Any reason why?’

Kim hadn’t caught that, but he was right to ask. Other than their sicko, the hobby appeared to be squeaky clean.

‘The rape,’ Joanne said as though expecting them to know all about it.