FIFTY-FOUR

2.45 A.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.

‘Well, you took your bloody time.’

‘We’ve been waiting ages.’

‘We’ve already searched for the box.’

‘There’s nothing here.’

‘Move along,’ she said with her arms open wide, taking care not to touch anyone. The last thing she needed was a police brutality complaint.

‘Aww, come on. We want to see what the next clue is.’

She stopped moving when they were about a hundred feet away from the main gates.

‘Right, first of all, I’m not going to tell you anything about the next clue. Second, some of my colleagues are on their way to start taking names, so you might as well go home. Third, anyone who chooses to stay and crosses this invisible line right here where I’m standing will be arrested.’

‘You can’t arrest us for being on the pavement.’

Kim had no idea who had called that out so she spoke to the group as a whole. ‘That is true, but as I’ve now issued an instruction to stay back, anyone choosing to ignore that instruction will be arrested for obstruction.’

She waited for any more call-outs before heading back to the main gates. Could their sicko do anything more to make their life harder?

‘Are you sure we’re in the right place, guv?’ Bryant said, facing the crowd.

‘I think our little rentamob over there confirms it,’ she said, nodding towards the onlookers.

As yet, no one had stepped over the imaginary line. They might be curious about what was going on, but none of them wanted to spend the rest of the night in a police cell.

‘Know of any other iconic cones in the area?’ she asked, taking a look around.

‘But this place must have plenty of CCTV. I don’t think he’d risk it.’

‘Good point,’ she admitted. Located within the one-acre site were ten small businesses including glass artists, pottery, jewellers, a gift shop and a coffee house. The Jester wouldn’t have risked being caught on any of those cameras.

‘The box must be outside somewhere.’

They moved along the footpath in different directions using their phone torches to illuminate the ground, despite being told by the crowd there was no box to find.

‘Guv, there’s nothing,’ Bryant said as they met back at the metal gates.

‘I know it’s here,’ she insisted. ‘I know I’m right.’

‘Yeah but there was that one time back in?—’

‘Shush. Let me think this through.’

She stood at the gates, peering in. She was missing something, and the hope she’d had when they’d unravelled the clue was slipping away from her. It was now one minute after three o’clock.

Her phone rang. ‘Go ahead, Stace,’ she said, putting it on loudspeaker.

‘He’s posted the clue on Seekers, only he’s spelled everything correctly and spaced out the words.’

‘Damn it,’ Kim said. That was sure to bring even more people to the scene. ‘How many people are watching?’

‘Almost a thousand now.’

‘Jesus, don’t these people need sleep?’

‘Boss, some are already on their way.’

Kim swore again before ending the call. She was now even more against the clock than she’d thought.

‘Think, think, think,’ she told herself. How could he get a box into this location without being seen by the cameras?

Her gaze passed over every detail of what she could see. And then her torch hit on the object closest to the gate.

‘I know where it is,’ she said, raising her foot to begin climbing the gate.

‘Whoa, easy tiger. You’ve got quite the audience, and you’re gonna set off an alarm, and then we’ll be in a whole new heap of trouble.’

Despite the urgency, she couldn’t help but note that though it was she who was about to commit a criminal offence, by the use of the word ‘we’, Bryant had shown he’d happily share the shit that came their way. Her audience could join the queue of people waiting to lodge a complaint about her. Or they might just enjoy the show.

‘It’s in that bin. I know it is. The proximity of it to the gate means he could slip the box in there as he was passing and remain undetected by CCTV.’

If they were lucky, the cameras might have caught part of a forearm.

‘Guv, listen to?—’

‘You wanna wait until they open up tomorrow morning?’ she asked, raising her other foot and beginning her climb over the gate.