‘Whodidleave the voicemail then?’
Poe held her eye. He said, ‘Wearside Jack.’
Chapter 12
‘I beg your pardon?’ Mathers said.
‘Wearside Jack,’ Poe repeated. ‘That moron with a Wearside accent who sent letters and taped messages claiming to be the Yorkshire Ripper to the police. The cops bought it and moved the investigation away from West Yorkshire. Extended the investigation by eighteen months because they used the potential suspect’s accent as one of the points of elimination.’
‘But he knows about the sugar at the crime scene,’ Mathers said. ‘That’s controlled information.Highlycontrolled.’
‘It’s a big investigation, ma’am,’ Flynn said. ‘And big investigations leak.’
Mathers put her head in her hands and groaned. ‘This is all I fucking need. I can’t ignore this and although the incident room is full of the best and brightest, I still don’t have enough. The last thing I want to do is put fifty of them on a hoax phone call.’
‘You don’t need fifty, ma’am,’ Poe said.
‘I don’t?’
Poe shook his head. ‘Just the one.’
‘Who?’
‘Me.’
Flynn’s eyes narrowed. ‘You already know who made that call, don’t you?’
‘I don’t,’ Poe said. ‘But I will in the next ten minutes.’ He pulled out a chair, stood on it and steadied himself. ‘With your permission, ma’am?’
Mathers nodded her approval.
Poe cupped his hands. ‘OK, listen up!’ he bellowed. ‘My name’s Washington Poe and I’m here representing the National Crime Agency. Nod if you can hear me.’
Silence. Not many nods.
‘I’m not making a public service announcement!’ Poe snapped. ‘Ordinarily I’m as lacka-fucking-daisical as the next man when it comes to audience participation, but right now I’m not in the mood. So, if you can hear me, bloody nod. If you can’t then move closer.’
Lots of nods this time.
‘Thank you,’ Poe said. ‘Now, you’ve all heard the message left on Detective Munro’s phone?’
More nods.
‘That was left by a cop.’ Poe did an Elon Musk – he let that sink in. The silence was crushing. ‘A cop who’s sitting in this room right now.’
Someone coughed. Someone else put down their mug. Loud in such a quiet room.
Poe cupped his ear, theatrically like he was on Broadway. ‘How? I hear you ask. Well, please allow me to explain. The caller knew about the sugar left at each scene. Now, my boss quite rightly said this is a big investigation with a lot of moving parts. Things get leaked, mistakes are made. But I’m looking at a sea of the best cops this country has to offer, a group who don’t make mistakes. Still, a bunch of cops this good will think I’ve made anassumption. That I’m, as Sherlock Holmes once said, twisting facts to suit theories instead of twisting theories to suit facts.’
Poe reached down for the directory he’d been looking at.
‘This is a list of names and contact numbers for all the detectives working this case. And because more and more cops are joining the investigation, it’s updated every morning at eight o’clock. Any officer who joinsaftereight a.m. is required to put their number on that whiteboard over there. It’s wherethe bloke updating the directory gets the new numbers from.’ Poe took a half-breath. ‘Thing is, Detective Munro only joined the investigation today. He’s not yet in the directory. It’s why his number is still on the whiteboard over there.’ Poe pointed towards the far wall. Some heads followed his hand, most didn’t. ‘Whoever made that call was in this room either yesterday or today. And, as Commander Mathers has this place sealed tighter than a frog’s arsehole, it must have been someone who isauthorisedto be here.’
Poe threw the directory back on the table. He looked at the cops. No one was trying to avoid catching his eye.
‘Now, when I told you my name, I could tell not everyone knew who I was,’ Poe continued. ‘That’s fine. It’s as it should be. No cop should be better known than the victims of the crimes he investigates. But those of you who don’t know mewillknow my colleague, Tilly Bradshaw.’
There were audible gasps. People craned their necks to see her.
