TWENTY-SEVEN

2.30 P.M.

‘I can tell you’re pissed off,’ Bryant said, pulling up at a zebra crossing.

‘Just when I think I’m getting somewhere, I’m pulled away to go find another bloody clue.’

‘You think there was more to get from Eric Lane?’ he asked.

‘I would have liked to needle him further to find out,’ she admitted. There was barely a chance to follow any leads they uncovered before tearing off after the next damn box.

‘We gotta play the game at the same time, guv, so run that clue by me again,’ Bryant said as they neared their next location.

‘“Cubed chieftain slithers around Bonzo,”’ Kim answered. ‘And we have until three o’clock to find it.’

‘Oh yeah, so much clearer now. Can’t believe we didn’t get it the first time,’ he said, rolling his eyes. ‘And how the hell did Stacey link that to this place?’

‘Cubed is third, chieftain is another word for earl. Dudley Zoo was started by the third Earl of Dudley in the thirties. They had a gorilla named Bonzo until the mid-nineties.’

‘Whatever we pay Stacey, it ain’t enough,’ Bryant said, pulling into the crowded car park.

Mid-afternoon on a dry Sunday, the place would be heaving.

They headed for the turnstiles and showed their badges to a bored-looking teenager checking something on his phone. The peak time of entry would have happened hours ago, meaning thousands of people had already likely contaminated any box.

‘Where are we headed?’ Bryant asked.

‘Think about the clue,’ she said, walking towards the info board.

‘Ah, slithers, reptile house.’

‘Stands a chance,’ she said, locating attraction thirty-four on the map.

It came back to her that there was no way of getting anywhere around the zoo without climbing hills or negotiating steps.

She headed left, passing the fun fair and entrance to the chairlift. Next was a picnic area full of families sitting on both the benches and the grass. At least one child was screaming blue murder at the choice of sandwiches.

‘Long hill around or steep steps past the meerkats?’ she asked.

‘Steps,’ Bryant answered. ‘I love meerkats.’

She offered him a withering glance as she mounted the steps and took a left.

‘I’ll look inside, and you do out here,’ she said, marching into the reptile house.

The dark space was filled with people looking at the array of snakes, lizards and bigger, more frightening creatures. She was more interested in searching every inch of the floor, the corners that were being obscured by legs and feet.

She spotted something up ahead on the floor next to the enclosure of some kind of venomous creature. Short of physically pushing kids out of the way she had no choice but to join the throng of spectators and wait until she got to it.

Eventually, her foot made contact with the object and she bent down.

It was a Barbie lunch box, and she could tell by the weight it wasn’t empty.

She moved out of the stream of people to open it. Just because it wasn’t the same as the first one didn’t mean it wasn’t what she was after. Who knew how many different ways he was trying to mess with them? And who knew what would be inside this time?

She lifted the pink fasteners, silently readying herself for the contents.

She held her breath.

A tap on the shoulder startled her.

She turned.

A woman in a grey sweatshirt was looking from her to the open lunch box with her hand outstretched.

A little girl with a tearstained face visibly brightened on seeing the lunch box. The woman thrust her hand forward further.

‘Sorry,’ Kim said, handing back the box with its half-eaten sandwich and an apple.

The woman offered her a filthy look before grabbing her child with her free hand and exiting the building.

Kim had the urge to run after her and explain that she was a police officer and didn’t need to nick a kid’s lunch. But she was spared any such explanation when the faint call of the word ‘guv’ reached her above the excited chatter.

She traversed the path to the exit.

‘I think I’ve found it,’ Bryant said, heading back around the side of the building.

He pointed to a bunch of nettles within which something metallic winked back at them.

‘Good spot,’ she acknowledged.

‘I threw bricks at it and it tinged.’

She didn’t blame him for not reaching in. It had obviously been placed on the ground and then pushed into the nettles.

Kim was considering jumping into the stingers and kicking it out when a teenage boy wearing a zoo uniform approached pushing a cleaning trolley.

‘Yer okay?’ he asked, unsure, as though he knew they weren’t supposed to be back here but wasn’t really sure what to do about it.

‘I am now. Pass me that broom,’ she said, holding out her hand.

He did so without question after Bryant held up his badge.

Kim stood as close to the nettles as she could and used the end of the broom to bring the box forward.

As before, it was a petty cash tin with no key in the lock.

Kim handed back the broom and indicated for the staff member to leave.

Once out of sight, she carefully opened the lid.

‘Jesus,’ she said, seeing it contained another Dictaphone, an index card and another white stationery-set envelope. This time the blood of whatever was inside had seeped into the paper.

She lifted the flap tentatively.

‘Oh shit,’ she said upon seeing the teeth that appeared to have been crudely removed.

She counted five teeth, a mixture of molars and incisors. She cringed at the thought of the pain that must have been endured.

She closed the envelope and turned her attention to the Dictaphone.

‘Play it,’ Kim said, knowing exactly what they were going to hear but having no choice about doing it.

Bryant pressed the button, and the tape began.

They both strained to hear any background noise, but there was nothing until a small sharp sound broke the silence. They frowned at each other. Two seconds and the noise came again. Two seconds, noise, two seconds, noise.

‘Some kind of clicking?’ Bryant asked.

Kim shushed him, but she was also wondering if it was some kind of tool being readied for the torture.

The noise stopped when the screaming began.

The sound hit Kim straight in the stomach. The screams were agonising, fearful, desperate cries filled with terror.

The torture lasted for a good seven minutes before the tape ended.

‘Guv, I’m not gonna lie. I’d really like to get my hands on this bastard.’

Kim agreed wholeheartedly.

When they attended a crime scene, however horrific, the pain had gone. Whatever had been done to their victim was over, and there was nothing they could have done to prevent it. In this case, it appeared to be ongoing, and the only hope they had of stopping it was to do what this sicko wanted.

Bryant pressed Play on the tape again.

‘Don’t…’

‘Just the first bit,’ he said, listening to the rhythmic sound before the screams.

He cut it off before the screaming started, rewound it and started again.

‘Guv, I’m about to say something really stupid.’

‘That doesn’t normally stop you.’

‘It sounds to me like someone with the hiccups.’

‘Bryant…’

‘I know, but I’m just saying.’

The man was entitled to his opinion, but as the observation made absolutely no sense, she was going to ignore it. Everything this sicko did had some kind of meaning, and she was sure that wasn’t it.

Her thoughts returned to her recent meeting with Eric Lane. On the face of it, he appeared solid, stable, respectable, maybe even a little staid, but she knew from experience that looks could be deceiving. Was he capable of inflicting this level of torture on someone? She really would have liked more time to try and find out, but again she was in a new race against the clock.

‘What’s the next clue?’ she asked, taking out her phone.

‘“This might be a folly. Ramble high b4 you see the blackened hill. Find my next by 9 p.m. or…”’

‘Call the clue in to Stace while I contact Mitch.’

He stepped away with the card while she scrolled to the contact number for the forensic technician.

The call rang out and eventually went to voicemail.

No, she did not want to leave a message thank you very much. She wanted to talk to the man and arrange to meet.

The second time of calling she was sent straight to voicemail.

Oh, so that’s how he wanted to play it, was it? Kim thought.

‘All done?’ she asked as Bryant ended his call to Stacey.

He nodded.

‘Great, now where did Stacey say Mitch liked to go for lunch?’