Monkton Field 3: An Inspector Calls
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
(micro)
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A series of puzzle caches around Monkton Field. The cache is not at the above co-ordinates. Use the information on the cache pages and in some of the caches to solve the mystery of the body by the track. NB: Do them in order and take a pen to write things down!
Hand introduced himself to the assistant, whose lapel badge identified her as Alice. She didn’t look entirely surprised to see him, thought Hand as he asked to talk to the manager. She did though, seem troubled by his presence. She gave him sidelong glances as she called through on the phone. “There’s an Inspector Hand asking for you Mr York,” she said. “He says he wants to have a word”. The response was obviously short and immediate as she continued, to Hand, rather than down the phone, “He’ll be right here sir.”
Hand thanked her and stood looking idly at the display of cameras and other photographic paraphernalia. He still used a rather battered Olympus Mju that his mother had given him one birthday not long before her death. He knew the digital ones were more convenient, if you were computer-literate, which he wasn’t; but he kept the old film camera going, partly out of sentiment, partly because he wasn’t sure he was up to the new technology, but mainly because he just liked the whole business of waiting to see what had come out well and the satisfaction of having the copies in his hand rather than on a screen. Lost for a moment in reverie he was brought back to the present by a voice saying, “Michael York, Inspector. Owner and Managing Director of Eezee Printz.” Hand turned and saw a tall blond-haired middle aged man in an expensive blazer with blue striped shirt and matching silk tie and cuff-links. York smiled and the two men shook hands. “I’m sure you haven’t asked for me, just to seek my expert advice on a new camera, come on through to my office.” He led Hand past the sales counter, through a door with a one-way mirrored window in it, into a stock room which seemed, to Hand as they swept through, to be mainly grey and cardboard brown. A room of shelves and boxes. Turning the corner they came to some stairs and at the top was an open wood veneer door with Michael York’s name plate on it. Inside, the room was fairly small, especially considering that there were Eezee Printz shops in most of the major towns and cities in Britain. The office furniture though looked the part for a man who must have a reasonable bank balance. Sitting in the chair he was offered, Hand waited until York was sat down before he took the photograph from his pocket and slid it across the table.
“Do you recognise this sir?” he said. He thought things might get difficult and he liked to kick-off with a short simple question. York reached out and took the picture in its evidence bag and looked hard. A visit to an optician is somewhat overdue, thought Hand. York looked up and said, “Yes, this was our most recent annual team photo which we take on the fourteenth of June every year. It’s the anniversary of the founding of the company and there, behind you, are all the photos right back to 1978 when we started.” Hand turned and looked, and there, next to the door he’d just walked through, was a gallery of photos in neat rows covering the wall. At the bottom right hand corner was a larger framed copy of the one he’d just handed to Michael York. “If I might be so bold, Inspector, can I ask where did you get this? We only make enough copies for one for each staff member and one for this office.”
Hand took out his notebook and pen and immediately regretted it. His fingers were covered with ink from the leaking pen. As he smeared the ink over his fingers and made his rather grubby handkerchief even worse, Michael York leant forwards and held out a drinking glass in which were a number of Eezee Printz pens like the one they’d retrieved from the body.
“Here Inspector, have one of our pens - on the house!”
“Thanks,” said Hand. “I won’t get anywhere without one of those.”
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
chmmyr - craf ner hfrshy.
Pnpur - Vil gerr nobir urnq urvtug