Page 12

8.45 A.M.

With a second mug of coffee set before her, Kim felt that she was being fuelled for the day. If the police force ever kicked her out, she was coming here to apply for a job even though she hadn’t yet worked out if she liked Ryan Douglas.

‘You were saying?’ Kim prompted him.

While he’d been making the coffee, she’d checked her phone, but there were no emails or texts from the rest of her team. She hoped they were making progress on the clue as they were nearly two hours from the first deadline.

‘Aren’t you going to at least give me a clue why you’re asking?’ Ryan said.

‘Doesn’t work that way,’ Kim answered shortly. He was enjoying this just a little too much.

He sighed. ‘Okay, there have been occasions where the hobby has caused problems. It caused the evacuation of a busy street in Wetherby, Yorkshire in 2011. Another one in Alvaston, Derby in 2020. I think a school in Colorado was evacuated in 2009. Locations from rural cemeteries to Disneyland have been locked down due to strange packages being left in random locations.’

‘Any deaths?’ Kim asked.

His eyes widened. ‘You’re investigating a death?’

His excitement was pressing on the nerve that controlled her annoyance. ‘Please answer the question.’

‘A twenty-one-year-old experienced cacher died in 2011 attempting to find a cache in Washington. And some folks just get lost. I think one time three adults got trapped in a cave in Rochester, New York, and in 2015, a group of geocachers were spotted walking into the Severn Estuary off Clevedon looking for clues.’

‘Why take that kind of risk for a game?’ Bryant asked.

Ryan shook his head. ‘It’s more than a game. It’s a challenge; it’s an achievement. Once you’re invested, you push yourself to do the best you can.’

‘Even over cliffs?’ Kim asked.

‘Hey, caches have been helpful too,’ he said defensively. ‘About fifteen years ago, two lost hikers in Oregon stumbled across a cache; they phoned the co-ordinates to rescuers so they could be located.’

Kim waited.

Nothing.

‘That’s it? You can tell me about a few deaths but only one incident of usefulness?’

‘You can’t measure people’s enjoyment of the game,’ Ryan said defensively.

‘Yeah, about that. Is there any such thing as too invested?’ she asked.

‘Not sure what you mean.’

‘Is it competitive?’ she pushed.

‘Isn’t everything?’ he countered. ‘I mean, you have people that go seeking a couple of times per year. Others are out every minute they get, looking for the harder ones. If you’re invested, then you push yourself.’

Kim could understand about pushing yourself. Athletes trained for years to compete, but with them there was a goal, an endgame: Olympic gold, a world record, a place in history.

‘Do they get a trophy or something?’ she asked.

‘Just bragging rights in the chat rooms really.’

‘And these chat rooms…?’

‘Are on every caching forum. It’s a community, and very few enthusiasts are on one site.’

‘In your experience, are the people leaving the caches just as passionate about finding the ones logged by other people?’ Kim asked, wondering if they were looking more at leavers or finders.

Ryan thought for a minute before nodding. ‘I’d say so. Being a good leaver would naturally extend from being a good finder. You know what appeals to you, so you know how to entertain others.’

That made sense, although it didn’t help narrow her field at all.

Looked like one of her team was going to be joining a lot of geocaching sites.

Finally, the question she’d been waiting to ask.

‘Do you remember dating someone named Tracy Frost?’

Ryan frowned and began to shake his head. There were no obvious signs of deception, but there wouldn’t be if he’d been expecting the question.

‘Some time ago now. Tall, long blonde hair…’

‘You mean Peggy?’ he asked as recognition dawned on his face.

Kim felt herself bristle.

‘I called her Peg Leg because of the limp. She hated when I did that,’ he said with a fond smile.

No shit, Kim thought.

‘You called your girlfriend mean names?’ Kim queried.

Okay, now she’d made a decision. She didn’t like Ryan Douglas at all. But she did still need his co-operation.

‘Oh, she knew I was joking,’ he said, waving away her concerns. ‘Haven’t thought of her in years.’

‘When were you last in contact with her?’

‘Good grief, not for twenty years. Broke my heart when she left.’

‘Left where?’

‘My flat.’

Frost had really played this down. She’d made it sound like a brief encounter when instead they’d actually lived together when she was seventeen years old.

‘Can’t think for the life of me why you’re asking me about her now,’ he said, shaking his head.

And Kim couldn’t work out if he was lying or genuinely bewildered. It looked like she was going to need more detail from Frost after all.

‘Never mind. Are you aware of someone using your site that goes by the name of Jester?’

He opened up his hands. ‘Officer, we have in excess of fifty thousand registered users so one name isn’t?—’

‘But you don’t recognise it off the top of your head?’ she pushed.

‘No,’ he said emphatically. ‘Definitely not.’

It had been a slim hope. Looked like they were taking the long way round.

‘Okay, if I can just get a list of those site users, we can?—’

‘Not a chance,’ Ryan said, shaking his head.

All signs of the affable man talking about his hobby with enthusiasm had been replaced by the owner of a business responsible for the personal details of thousands of people held upstairs in the server room.

‘You do remember that we introduced ourselves as police officers?’ she asked tightly.

‘Absolutely, and you’ve given me no reason why you’re here.’

‘We’re carrying out a serious investigation,’ Kim offered, realising she couldn’t even say the word crime.

‘Did someone die?’ he asked. ‘Did Peg— Tracy die?’

‘Didn’t you say that people rarely die?’

He shrugged. ‘Just wanna know what’s going on.’

‘I can’t share any details right now, but we’d appreciate your co-operation with those names,’ she said, trying to engage his will to assist.

‘Not happening,’ he repeated, taking her half-full mug to the sink. It appeared that the time for niceties was over and they were being asked to leave.

‘What are you hiding, Mr Douglas?’

‘The privacy of my customers.’

‘You’re hardly running a child pornography ring or a dating site for married people. Is there any reason why your clients would object to their details being shared?’

‘That’s not really the point. I’m the gatekeeper of personal information, and you’ve given me no good reason to break that trust.’

Kim felt her frustration growing. One of her pet hates was people obstructing her ability to do her job. Even if legally they were doing nothing wrong.

‘I can get a warrant,’ she pushed.

‘No you can’t, and even if you could, it’s Sunday and I’m closing the office up right after you leave. I’ll be available along with my lawyer during normal business hours tomorrow.’

‘Why would you need your lawyer, Mr Douglas?’ she asked.

‘Because I’m not going to be bullied by you into giving up my customers’ personal data when you won’t even tell me why.’

He stood by the kitchen door and nodded to the front door, indicating that it was time for them to leave.

They stepped outside, and the door was closed firmly behind them.

‘It truly is a gift you have there, guv,’ Bryant said, heading back towards the car.

She said nothing.

‘I mean, who else can turn a completely willing and co-operative asset into an aggressively hostile enemy in under ten minutes? Seriously, it’s a joy to watch,’ he said, shaking his head.

Kim still chose not to respond. She was too busy wondering why a request for information had ruffled his feathers to that degree and why he’d been so emphatic in his denial of recognising the name of the Jester?

What exactly was Mr Douglas wanting to hide?