Page 53 of 36 Hours
Despite searching the full seven years of her writing at theDudley Star, she still hadn’t uncovered any reason why she had been chosen. She’d never done puzzles herself, she’d never interviewed anyone from that community and she’d never written about anything to do with it.
Her online posts averaged three to four thousand reads if they were standalone articles. If it was a series of linked articles, the readership tended to increase as time went on. But these articles had proven more popular than she could have imagined. The second piece had more traction than the first, and perversely the Jester appeared to have captured the imagination of the locals who were watching and commenting in earnest. Engagement numbers were great for her ego, but a part of her had wished that her stories would go unnoticed, thereby denying him the adulation and approval he seemed to crave.
Only two weeks ago, she’d written a series of articles over a weekend about the rise of antisocial behaviour and incidents going unreported. By the end of the Sunday, it had earned a mention on the national news.
‘Aww…shit,’ Frost said, unable to believe this had been staring her in the face all day.
Penn and Stacey both looked at her.
‘I know why he chose me, and I know what he wants. Two weeks ago, I wrote a story that got national coverage.’
‘So, it’s not just about the game?’ Penn asked.
‘Nope. I think our guy also wants his fifteen minutes of fame.’
FORTY
7.50P.M.
‘Well, he ain’t getting any fame if I have anything to do with it,’ Kim said, once she’d been updated by the team. She glanced longingly at the coffee pot that was still brewing courtesy of Penn. Would she even have a chance for a drink before tearing off to the next location?
She was surprised it had taken Frost almost twelve hours to work out that was why she’d been chosen. If she worked at that speed all the time, she’d never succeed on this team.
Kim had resolved to go easier on the reporter. After telling Bryant that she wasn’t enjoying having Frost in their squad room, she had been reminded by her colleague that the woman was risking her job to work with them, and she knew that situation was growing worse from the text updates she was getting from Stacey. One of those messages had said that Frost had gone to use the ladies’ room and the constable wanted to know if she should follow.
Kim had let that one go unanswered.
‘Okay, recap from us first,’ Kim said after taking a sip of her coffee. ‘To start with, this whole puzzling geocaching thing is a lot more serious than we thought. It is hugely competitive for the players and pretty lucrative for the site. Ryan Douglas was in no rush to hand over any personal details to us.’
‘Not sure they’d be any good, boss. This guy is posting under the name of Jester674 so I reckon he’s found a way to hide his real identity.’
Kim supposed Stacey was right, but she was still narked that the site owner had chosen to be unco-operative. She really wanted a reason to go shove a warrant in his face.
‘Next, we met the Lane family. Eric, his wife Helen and mini-me son Boyce appear to have been lifted from the pages of a fifties’ magazine. Derren, the younger son, is most definitely a child of today.
‘The other half of that ongoing rivalry is a guy who wants to make headlines. Jared Truss enjoys the glory and the attention. He likes to shock, and it seems he’ll do pretty much anything to increase his followers on YouTube.’
‘Subscribers,’ Frost corrected.
‘Whatever,’ Kim said before continuing. ‘They’re both pretty serious about this trailing and tracking and gameplay, and they both seem to want something different from it. Jared wants nothing more than his own TV show, and Eric wants nothing more than for Jared to be gone so that he can be King of the Seekers.’
‘But it’s a hobby,’ Penn said, shaking his head.
‘That led to someone getting sexually assaulted,’ Kim reminded him.
He nodded his agreement.
‘One thing is clear, guys. Even though we’ve got no choice but to follow the clues, we can’t rely on them to solve this case for us. We’ve got to keep thinking and digging and searching and analysing everything and everyone like we do on every other case we work. I think that Joanne Deary, the woman who moved the box at the zoo, is a single mother doing her best to entertain her kids on a budget. But no one’s name comes off the list yet.’ She paused to pour herself a coffee. ‘Mitch is doing more tests on the nails and teeth tomorrow when the lab is back in action.’
Everyone nodded they were up to date, but the detective constable appeared to want to offer something.
‘Stace?’
‘He’s playing with us,’ Stacey said.
‘That’s hardly news.’
‘I mean, he’s changing the rules as he goes along. The time difference between the first clue and the second was three hours. Now it looks like it’s gone to six hours. He’s trying to time everything to the exact minute, and if we fail, he’s throwing the clue out there to cause chaos, almost like he’s annoyed with us if we don’t make it.’