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Jake tapped on his phone, and the TV came to life. A few seconds later, lines of writing appeared on the screen.
Sam said to Maggie, “He’s casting this information from his phone.”
“He’s what? Has he turned into a wizard?”
Sam smiled. “Not quite. He’s got something on his phone which lets him send information to the TV. Jake, what are we looking at?”
“These are the comments on Harvey’s social media posts. I managed to track them down. These are the worst comments. I’ve blacked out the swearing for Maggie’s sake.”
Maggie looked at the many black boxes which covered words. Reading between them made Maggie’s skin crawl. The hate and spite in the words were overwhelming, and Maggie continued reading through half-closed eyes.
More comments appeared.
Maggie looked away. “They seem to be getting worse. How can people be so vicious? Was Harvey that bad? Did he really warrant such verbal attacks?”
Jake said, “People are nasty when they hide behind the anonymity of the internet. I’ve left some of the worst comments out.”
“You have?” Maggie said in an incredulous tone. “I can’t imagine what could be worse than those. Were these on Harvey’s social media posts?”
Jake nodded.
Maggie shook her head in disbelief. “What did Harvey write to get such responses?”
“Nothing that exciting. His posts were boring. He went on about recent hunts, and what he had planned for the future. But he did criticise people often, saying that certain hunters had broken the rules, and they weren’t professional hunters.”
“Did he name any of the hunters?” Maggie asked.
“He used their nicknames. Hunters sometimes know each other’s nicknames, so there’s a good chance they knew who Harvey was talking about.”
Maggie looked back at the nasty words on the screen. “But still. These are death threats. And graphic ones too. Are they all from different people?”
Jake sat up straighter. “This is where it gets interesting. I thought the posts were from different people at first, but then I noticed the same threats coming up under different names.” He highlighted a comment. “This theme comes up often.”
Maggie read the words out loud. “You’re too old for treasure hunting. Give it up old man. Do everyone a favour and die. Make the world a better place.”
Sam said, “That’s one of the milder ones. Jake, did you track down the IP address for this comment, and the ones similar to it?”
“I did.” Jake looked at Maggie. “Do you know what an IP address is?”
“Of course. It’s the identity of a particular computer, and where it lives. Isn’t it?”
“That’s the simple explanation. I chased the IP addresses of the person who posted this and similar threats.”
Maggie asked, “Did you find out who had posted them? Do you have an address?”
Jake grimaced. “Nope. The IP addresses have been bounced around the world. It makes them almost impossible to track.”
“Bouncing IP addresses? I didn’t even know that was a thing,” Maggie said. She shrugged. “But I don’t know much about computers. I should learn more about them. I suppose.”
Jake pointed to the TV. “I know a lot about computers, but I can’t do much about a bouncing IP address. Well, I can, but it takes a while. I do think one person has posted many threatening posts, and they sound personal as if they knew Harvey.”
Sam asked, “Did you find Harvey’s website?”
Jake rolled his eyes. “I did. I almost fell asleep reading his blog posts. He went on and on about the history of treasure hunting, and how good he was at it. He’s put many photos of himself on his sites too. I’ll show you.”
Images of a website appeared. Maggie started to read the long passages of words. Her eyes began to close.
Sam stifled a yawn. He said, “How many pages of this do we have?”
“Hundreds,” Jake replied. “I only managed to get through a few. Maggie, I’ll send these pages to you so you can read them later.”
“Thanks,” Maggie said unenthusiastically. “Can we look at the photos?”
“Let me scroll down.”
The images on the TV moved up. The long passages seemed never-ending. Maggie wasn’t looking forward to reading them. But it had to be done.
Jake stopped at a photo. It showed Harvey Chester grinning at the camera. He was wearing similar clothes to the ones he died in. Maggie thought they could even be the same clothes. Harvey was holding up a red pen triumphantly.
Maggie asked, “Is that the treasure? That pen?”
Jake gave her a nod. “Yep. He spent hours looking for that. Believe it or not, that’s one of the more exciting finds. Let me show you something more interesting.” He focused on his phone for a moment, and then looked at the TV. “Look at this photo. It’s a group one.”
Maggie stared at the image. Harvey wasn’t grinning in this photo. Nobody was. The sombre-faced people on the TV looked like they were attending a funeral. They were dressed in casual clothes, similar to what hunters at the café had been wearing.
Sam sat forward on the sofa. “Look, there’s that woman from the café who asked for our codes. The one who was wearing all khaki. And there’s Elliott and Toby. Elliott’s not looking at the camera.”
Maggie pointed. “Look at that woman next to Elliott. It’s Polly. Look at how she’s smiling at Elliott. She likes him.”
Sam frowned. “I wonder if they’re a couple? She was very flirty with Toby, calling him babe.”
Jake snorted. “Lots of people call each other babe. Even total strangers. Which one’s Toby?”
“The shorter one,” Maggie said kindly. “He’s a bit plump. That tall man next to him is Elliott. Can you zoom in a bit? I can’t tell who Elliott is looking at.”
Jake zoomed in until Elliott’s hard stare became clearer.
Maggie asked, “Is he looking at Harvey?”
Sam nodded. “He is. I wouldn’t like to be on the receiving end of that stare. That’s pure hate.”
Jake said, “This was taken at an annual meeting a few months ago. I don’t know why everyone looks so miserable. There are a few more group photos, but mainly it’s Harvey on his own with his finds.”
Maggie said to Jake, “We spoke to Elliott today. We know he didn’t like Harvey. He told us that. Did he hate him enough to kill him? How did he do it? He must have come back to the tree when I’d left the house. He must have been hiding in that tree waiting for Harvey to come along.”
“Like a spider with a fly,” Sam said. “Elliott must have left a trail of clues to lure Harvey to the tree.”
Maggie nodded. “Harvey might have written about Elliott in his notebooks. Maybe Elliott was one of the rule breakers. I’ll get in touch with Delia about the notebooks.” She gave Sam a smile. “Elliott is a suspect. I’ve got something to go on now.”
Sam’s look was full of concern. “Don’t talk to Elliott on your own. Please.”
“I won’t. But he did offer to help me with those codes if I got stuck. And he gave me his phone number. I could ask him to meet me to talk about the codes, but then steer the conversation to Harvey. If he agrees to meet me, that is.”
“Meet us,” Sam corrected her. “If he’s the killer, I don’t want you to meet him alone.”
Maggie bristled a little. “Sam, if I’m going to investigate Harvey’s death, I can’t expect you to hold my hand. I have to do things on my own. I’m not stupid. I won’t take unnecessary risks. You have to trust me.”
“I do trust you.” Sam let out a sigh. “I’m sorry. I worry too much about the people I care about.”
There was an uncomfortable silence.
Jake broke it by asking, “How did you two get on at the park? Did you say something about going into a café?”
“I’ll show you what happened,” Sam said. He cast the footage he’d taken earlier onto the TV.
Maggie had already seen it once, and she felt her eyes closing again. She forced them open.
Once the footage had finished, Sam ran the faces through some software. He explained what he was doing, but Maggie was finding it harder to concentrate. Her eyes were struggling to stay open. She told herself to go home before she fell asleep.
Sam matched the faces from the café to many online videos. Then he started to play the many, many videos of the hunters as they found treasure boxes.
That’s when Maggie’s eyes finally gave up the struggle.