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“LOOK WHO WE FOUND IN the lift.” The concern underlying the playfulness in Daniel’s tone caught my attention and I turned away from the fifteen monitors in front of me.
Caelan was standing between Pink and Daniel. Juxtaposed to the two tall, muscular and older men, he looked young and lanky. He was wearing fresh clothes, had shaved and looked less overwhelmed than he had yesterday.
He walked into my viewing room and sat down in the chair Manny usually used. Daniel walked towards the kitchen where Colin was putting our mugs in the dishwasher. Colin turned and his eyes widened when he saw the painting in Daniel’s hands. He rushed over to an easel and waited impatiently for Daniel to place it there.
Pink was at Francine’s desk in the team room, handing her a set of eye glasses. I assumed those were Jace’s smart glasses—Francine’s enthusiasm when she grabbed them confirmed my suspicion.
I looked back at Caelan sitting next to me and narrowed my eyes when I noticed the dark shadows under his eyes. “Did you sleep?”
“A bit. I spent most of the night listing all the mountains on the planet, from tallest to shortest. Then the rivers from longest to shortest. Then islands from largest to smallest.”
“That’s gotta be worse than counting sheep.” Vinnie was leaning against the doorframe and winked at Caelan.
“Usually it helps me sleep, but it didn’t work last night.” Caelan scratched his thigh, then curled his fingers into a tight fist and slammed it on the same spot. “I don’t know how to cope with this. It feels like my brain is overloaded and is going to explode.”
“Overthinking seldom helps.” It usually made things worse for me and sent me into a long shutdown. “It might help to focus on something you can control. Like giving us information.”
Caelan’s fists relaxed and he straightened. “Information. What information? I can give you a lot of information about...”
“Geocaching.” I didn’t want him to give us useless facts about planets, stars and mountains. I turned back to the monitors in front of me. “Where can we find the geocaching site you and Jace used?”
“It’s on TOR.” Caelan took his backpack from his back and put it on the floor next to him. He reached into the backpack and came out with two stress balls. This was one of the many fidget toys people on the spectrum used to calm themselves when stimuli began to overwhelm them. He took one in each hand and squeezed. “Do you know how to get onto TOR?”
“Of course she does.” Francine walked into my viewing room, her tablet in her hand. “Most of the crimes we investigate have something to do with the dark web. But since I’m here, I’ll do it. What’s the address?”
“The site won’t be helpful.” Caelan shifted in his chair in a restless move typical of people on the spectrum. “The site is only for membership screening. Once you’re accepted as a member, you’re given access to the app. That’s where all the information is.”
“Okay, superman,” Vinnie said. “Can you give us access to your app?”
Caelan hesitated. “It’s private.”
“Will you use the app without Jace?” I asked.
“No.” Caelan hunched his shoulders. “We were a team. I don’t want to do this without him. I can’t do this without him.”
“You can do anything you want.” Daniel walked to the back of my room and leaned against one of the two antique-looking filing cabinets.
“Okay.” Caelan swallowed and gave Francine his log-in details in a hoarse voice. The increased tension in his body made me shift away from him.
“Give me a moment to download the app, sign in and put it all on the screen.” Francine sat down next to me in Colin’s usual chair, tapping and swiping her tablet screen.
“I checked the painting.” Colin walked in, glanced at Francine in his chair and went to stand by my antique-looking filing cabinets. Daniel joined him.
“And?” Manny walked into the room and stopped abruptly when he saw Caelan on my other side. He scowled. “You’re in my chair, young man.”
The room was feeling crowded now. I was used to the whole team in my room, but Manny’s hovering and Caelan’s fear took up a lot of space. Francine must’ve noticed my expression. She snapped her fingers at Manny. “Caelan’s our guest of honour. You’ll just have to stand next to Dan and Colin.”
“I’m not going to the back of the bloody classroo...” Manny’s eyes narrowed as he focused on Francine’s raised eyebrows. He looked at me and sighed. “Fine. I’ll go to the back.”
“This is not a classroom.” I raised my hand. “Don’t explain.”
I hoped Manny would see Caelan’s distress when confronted with neurotypical conversation. I’d become used to it over the years, but Caelan’s fragile mind at the moment wouldn’t be able to process this in addition to the stress of his friend’s death.
“I think now is a good time to tell you more about the painting.” Colin gave Manny a pointed look until the latter pushed his hands into his trouser pockets and joined Daniel and Colin at the filing cabinets. I exhaled in relief.
“Well?” Manny tapped his foot, his lips tightening even more as he glared at Colin.
Colin smiled. “Johan Klein is well-known in the Belgian art community for his excellent reproductions.”
“Reproductions? Not forgeries?” I asked.
“Yes, reproductions.” Colin nodded towards the painting on the easel. “Johan signed Roubaud’s name on the painting. Above his own. Comparing it to the original really shows Johan’s skill. The brushwork, the colours, the finest details.” He shook his head. “It’s as if someone took a photo of the original.”
“Have you contacted this Klim?” Manny asked. “I have questions for him.”
“Klein.” Colin lifted his smartphone. “My call went straight to voice mail so I left a message. I’ll follow up. Soon. I also have questions for him. For example, who bought or commissioned the painting that is now in our team room.”
Caelan was scratching his thigh again. “I need to give you information. I need to.”
“Okay, I’m in.” Francine pointed at the monitor in the centre. Then she leaned forward, looked past me at Caelan and winked at him.
I pushed back into my chair and looked at the display in front of me. I liked the design of the app. It was uncluttered. The background was a muted olive-green colour, the writing in an unadorned font and all the buttons in a clear layout and large enough for even Vinnie’s larger fingers to easily tap. “Show us the last cache you and Jace located. How do you find it on this app?”
“Click on the menu.” He stared at the monitor as Francine opened the menu on the app. “Some people never leave their homes, so some caches are online only. That’s the second tab. The last tab is the past caches. The first tab is new caches and their categories.”
“There are categories?” Colin asked.
“Four categories.” Caelan counted on his fingers. “Urban, suburban, nature and other. Other is for any place that doesn’t fit in those categories specifically. They’re also the most difficult to find. Jace and I only looked for caches in ‘other’.”
“How many people are part of this community?” I looked at the many language icons at the top of the page. “Is this international?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “This is why the internet caches are the most popular. Gifted people from all over the world look for them.”
“Gifted people?” Francine asked.
“People who are in the two percentile scale of intelligence and have certain characteristics.”
“What characteristics?” Francine glanced at me.
Caelan repeated word for word what he’d said earlier. Except this time he stopped after listing the characteristics. Then he looked at my shoulder.
“How can the site ensure that their members are gifted?” I asked. It was difficult for psychologists and psychiatrists to diagnose children and adults as gifted since there wasn’t any specific test that could determine that. Often gifted people were misdiagnosed as having ADHD, being on the spectrum or having even more severe mental health issues.
“We work on trust and honour.” Caelan shrugged. “I’ve already noticed three people I’m sure are not gifted, but as long as they don’t break the rules, no one will complain or withdraw their membership. They have to have higher intellect to take part in the hunts in any case.”
“You didn’t answer my first question.” I still wanted to know. “How many people?”
“This app has one thousand, seven hundred and twenty-three members.” Caelan shifted in his chair. “The other sites have the mundane hunts. This site only has caches with complicated riddles that we need to solve before we get the correct co-ordinates. Sometimes the solved riddle gives a secret clue that needs to be decoded and only then do we get the co-ordinates.”
“That seems like a lot of work just to get to a final cache,” Vinnie said from the door, a frown pulling his brow down.
Caelan looked at Vinnie’s shoulder. “It’s not about finding the final cache as much as it is about solving the riddles before anyone else. Or faster than anyone else.”
“Which then gives you a higher score.”
“When there’s a countdown, it’s even more challenging.” He took a shaky breath and lowered his gaze to look at both his hands squeezing the stress balls. “Jace loved the countdown caches.”
“Explain these countdown caches, superman.” Vinnie’s tone was soft with fondness.
“Sometimes when a solved riddle answer is entered into the app, a countdown starts. It could be an hour or maximum twenty-four hours. It’s a waiting period before the next GPS co-ordinates are revealed. This way, the cache owners keep the competition high. Even if we were the fastest with the first cache, we’d have to be the fastest with the second cache as well to get to the last cache first.”
“Cool.” Pink joined Vinnie by the door and looked at the monitors. “A fun way to keep the tension levels up and avoid anyone having a head start.”
“I don’t like it.” Vinnie crossed his arms. “If I worked hard to get a head start, I want the benefits.”
Colin waved Vinnie’s complaint away. “Caelan, I’ve been meaning to ask you about your communication with Jace.”
“We used his smart glasses and our phones.”
“Only?” Colin narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. “Or did you maybe use another form of communication? Not just spoken and written words?”
“Of course. Jace used sign language all the time.”
“Bloody hell! Why didn’t you tell us this earlier?”
Caelan glanced at Manny’s shoulder. “Because signing his words isn’t any different than speaking or writing.”
I understood how this reasoning made sense to Caelan, but knowing that Jace used sign language was indeed useful information.
Francine had not stopped looking through the app and all the different options. She paused her tapping and leaned forward again to look past me at Caelan. “Are all the caches on the app?”
“Yes. They have to be. Else they don’t count.” He looked down at the stress balls. “Most caches are in the field, but a lot are only on the site or the app. Not all the members like to leave their homes.”
“Like you,” Colin said softly. “That’s why you teamed up with Jace. With him enjoying the caches outside, you could get to even more riddles.”
Caelan nodded. “Some of the clues are not in the app, but come from the surrounding location. That was also why Jace wore the smart glasses and streamed video from them. That way I could also see where he was and find clues that he might miss.”
“Huh.” Francine blinked a few times at her tablet screen. “Are there comments hidden in some of the caches’ html source codes?”
“What are you talking about?” Manny glared at Francine’s tablet.
She lifted it. “I’m fooling around on the app and clicked on the link to one of the caches. The html code looked funny and lo and behold!” She paused dramatically. “A hint.”
The corner of Caelan’s mouth lifted. “She’s right. Some cache owners hide hints or clues in the source code. To find a cache you really have to know where to look.”
I thought about this while Manny and Vinnie agreed on the outrageous amount of work to waste time with these silly hunts. With so many different places to look for clues, I let my mind wander over all the bits of information we’d gathered from the crime scenes.
“I have a question about the GPS numbers.” Pink smiled when Caelan turned to look at his shoulder. “We know that a geographic location has latitude and longitude. The numerical values for these come in different formats, some with fewer numbers. Which one does this app use?”
“All three.” Caelan directed Francine to a new cache and pointed at the monitor. “This cache owner used decimal degrees. See? There are only five numbers for north and five for west. But some of the others use degrees decimal minutes and others degrees minutes seconds.”
“What the bloody hell does this all mean?” Manny and Vinnie had similar frowns pulling their brows down.
“It means that it could be misleading.” The left corner of Caelan’s mouth lifted slightly. “If given only five numbers for north and west, a geocacher might think he’s using the decimal degrees format, but the cache owner could’ve given incomplete co-ordinates. Part of the riddle helps complete the co-ordinates, leading to the next cache. We have to figure it out. Add a countdown and it’s a really great challenge.”
Caelan droned on about co-ordinates, but I stopped listening. I looked at Pink, who was staring at me with an expression I’d seen every time he’d reached a pivotal conclusion. I gasped and turned to Caelan. “Would Jace have given you GPS co-ordinates as a clue?”
“Yes. Jace talked a lot about creating his own cache hunt. He wanted his riddles to be epic.”
Manny grunted. “What are you talking about, Doc?”
I searched through the photos of Jace’s crime scene and found the right one. The moment I put it on one of the monitors, Caelan uttered a keening sound, dropped the stress balls and started slapping his thighs.
“Bloody hell, Doc. Give a person some warning.”
I looked at the photo that I’d taken of the numbers Jace had written in the snow and sighed. I had looked at it enough times to have desensitised myself to the blood smears on the snow. “I apologise.”
“No need.” Caelan inhaled deeply, picked up his stress balls and squeezed them five times while staring at his hands. Then he lifted his eyes and studied the photos on the screen. I saw the moment his mind registered something important. “I know where this is! The Sahara desert expands at about one kilometre per month! The average iceberg weighs twenty million tonnes!”
“Take a breath, superman.” Vinnie walked closer and kneeled in front of Caelan. “Tell us what you know.”
Again Caelan looked at the stress balls as he squeezed them slowly and purposefully. He inhaled deeply. “This was Jace’s all-time favourite cache hunt. He loved the clues and the location made him very happy.”
“Where is it?” Manny turned to the door.
“Very close.” Caelan looked at my shoulder. “I don’t want to go there.”
“You don’t have to go anywhere, dude.” Vinnie got up. “You just tell us where it is and we’ll find whatever it is that Jace left for you.”
Caelan took a few deep breaths while staring at Vinnie’s torso. “It’s in a luggage locker at the train station.”
Daniel lifted his smartphone. “Is it one of the lockers where you have to enter a code into a keypad to unlock it?”
“Yes.” Caelan gave the number of the locker as well as the code. “I don’t think it’s possible someone would’ve changed the code. Jace wouldn’t have given me this clue then.”
Daniel nodded and left the room, already talking on his phone. Less than a minute later he walked back into the room, his phone still pressed against his ear, but looking at Pink. “Two officers are opening the locker. They’ll send you photos of whatever they find in there.”
No sooner had he said this than his eyes widened and his mouth opened slightly. “What? Are you serious?”
“What did they find?” Caelan was rocking in his chair.
Daniel looked at Colin. “A statue of a demon. They’re sending a photo.”
“Got it.” Pink tapped on his smartphone screen and a photo filled one of the monitors in front of me. Inside a locker large enough for a big suitcase was a statue filling most of the space. It appeared to be made of stone, but I doubted something that heavy would be stored in the locker. It could be a good facsimile. Its stooped shoulders revealed large wings folded along its back and it was crouching as if ready to jump. Pointed ears, a flat nose, claws and a sneer that revealed sharp teeth were typical of the images frequently portraying evil spirits.
“Holy hell!” Manny took a step back. “What in the blue blazes is that, Frey?”
“It’s a gargoyle.” Colin looked at Caelan. “Does it have any meaning to you?”
Caelan’s rocking increased. “No. The water of Antarctica is so cold that nothing can rot there. I don’t know what this means. I don’t know. Every year, Alaska has about five thousand earthquakes. I don’t know!”
“It’s okay, superman.” Vinnie looked at me and widened his eyes.
“What?” I wasn’t clear on his communication.
“Help the dude.” Vinnie nodded towards Caelan muttering to himself and rocking in the chair.
“I don’t know how to help him.” I leaned away from them, tightness pressing on my chest.
“It’s okay, girlfriend.” Francine got up and slapped Vinnie hard on the shoulder. “I got this. Vin, go bake some cookies.”
“No. No.” Caelan’s rocking slowed and he squeezed the stress balls a few times slowly, his focus completely on his hands. “I want to help.”
“Why don’t we take a walk to clear your head?” Pink pointed with his thumb over his shoulder to the elevator. “A bit of movement and you’ll be able to understand why Jace left you that gargoyle as a clue.”
“I’m okay. I will be okay. I will help.” He looked down at his hands, then glanced at me. “It’s a riddle. Jace might’ve created a cache before he died. If I figure out the answer to this riddle and enter it into the app, it should give me the next co-ordinates.”
“For the next riddle.” Francine tapped a manicured nail against her chin. “Is there a way to check if Jace really created a cache hunt?”
“No.” Caelan squeezed the stress balls. “I know all the caches on the app and this one isn’t there. That means that Jace hadn’t finished creating it.” He looked at my shoulder. “I won’t stop thinking until I know the answer to this riddle. I will help you, Doctor Lenard.”
“I know you’ll help.” I understood the need.
Francine sat down next to me and picked up her tablet and Manny glared at the image on the monitor. “That is just bloody ugly.”
“It’s art.” Colin smiled when Manny’s frown deepened. “There are examples found in ancient civilizations of gargoyles. That’s how far back their history stretches. Their mouths were used as water spouts on the roofs of Egyptian temples. The same on Greek temples, but those figures were often lions or other vicious beasts. The whole purpose of gargoyles on the roofs of buildings has always been decorative, but also practical as water spouts.”
“I don’t care.” Manny pushed his hands into his trouser pockets. “It’s ugly.”
Vinnie crossed his arms and looked at me. “Any ideas what the answer might be?”
I had none. I had no frame of reference for geocaching or these riddles. I didn’t even know if the gargoyle was a riddle. I had to trust that Caelan knew his friend well enough to be accurate in this supposition. And I hoped Caelan could calm down enough to allow his mind to find the answer.
Francine shifted next to me and tapped her tablet screen. Her procerus and corrugator supercilii muscles pulled her brow in and down. It felt as if my stomach turned. The only times I’d seen that expression on her face had been when she’d been about to share something disturbing. I cleared my throat. “What?”
“Hmm?” She looked up from her tablet and blanched at my expression. “Oh, you saw that.”
“Saw what?” Manny stepped closer, but Francine raised her hand to stop him. He grunted. “Talk.”
Francine leaned forward to look past me at Caelan. “I downloaded all the footage from Jace’s glasses.”
