Page 16 of 36 Hours

‘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?

THIRTEEN

9.30A.M.

‘Bloody hell,’ Stacey growled. She was still trying to make sense of the first damn clue. Her brain just wasn’t offering her any options. She could only pray the clues didn’t get harder or they were fucked.

It didn’t help that her brainstorming partner had left the office to go searching for information on any missing homeless people.

It was a community he’d explored during an earlier case, and Stacey wished him all the luck in trying to find someone amongst those lost souls. It wasn’t like there was a daily roll call where they all had to attend, raise their hand and shout ‘yep, still homeless’. Most likely a fruitless task but well worth exploring.

Unfortunately, that left her with only her own brain and no one, except Google, to bounce ideas off.

So far, she’d put every combination of the keywords she could think of into the search engine and got absolutely nowhere. On this occasion, Google was not being her best friend.

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