Page 69 of 36 Hours

Kim wasn’t sure which excuse to believe. Had she done it because she was tired of being ordered around, or was it a calculated move to ruffle his feathers? Either way, she was playing with fire, and Kim didn’t want any members of her team getting burned.

‘Next article goes through me before you publish it,’ she said.

‘Nope,’ Frost said, shaking her head.

‘Frost, if you?—’

‘Inspector, when are you gonna get the fact that I don’t work for you? His instruction to me was to publish articles on time, which I’ve done. There was no rule about what I had to write. I don’t tell you how to do your job, so please don’t tell me how to do mine,’ she said, turning back to her computer.

‘I swear, when this is over, I’m arresting you.’

‘For what?’ Frost asked without looking over.

‘I don’t know, flying a kite in public or shaking your rug in the street,’ Kim said, citing a couple of old medieval crimes still in force. ‘But I’ll get you on something,’ she said before turning her attention back to the board where Stacey had written the latest clue.

This one was a long line of letters.

Aconetoohottofillwitheyescream.

Realising her exchange with Frost was over, her colleagues all began to shout out.

‘Hot.’

‘Eye.’

‘Scream.’

‘Full.’

‘Cone.’

She read the words out loud.

‘“A cone too hot to fill with eye scream.”’

She launched herself from the chair, grabbed her jacket and headed out.

‘Come on, Bryant – I think I know where we need to go.’

FIFTY-FOUR

2.45A.M.

The Red House Cone was a glass cone in Wordsley.

At twenty-seven metres high with a diameter of eighteen metres, it had been used for the production of glass by Stuart Crystal until the 1930s. As one of only four such structures in the country, this one had been taken over by Dudley Council and was maintained as a museum.

‘Are you kidding me?’ Kim said as Bryant pulled up to the kerb.

‘Bloody hell, why aren’t these people asleep?’ he asked, surveying the groups that were milling around the area.

Kim couldn’t remember now how many people were following and commenting on Frost’s articles, but clearly at least thirty of them had seen and worked out the clue before they had.

‘Call for some uniforms,’ Kim instructed as she got out the car.

‘Move out the way, folks,’ she called out.

She ignored the comments being thrown at her as she attempted to shepherd them all into one group.