Bradshaw stood. She waved shyly and said, ‘We’re probably going to be here a few days, please don’t give Poe any doughnuts.’
Poe rolled his eyes. ‘Thanks, Tilly.’ He then raised his voice and said, ‘The moment I step down from this chair is the moment Tilly starts working on who sent that message. That person has between now and Tilly identifying them to step forward. Come to us and you’ll only lose your job. Let us come to you and you’ll lose your liberty as well.’ He checked his watch. ‘If you’re lucky, you have ten minutes.’
He jumped down and walked back to the NCA office, ignoring the eyes that were on him. Flynn and Bradshaw followed him.
‘You know I can’t do what you said?’ Bradshaw said the second Flynn shut the door.
Poe shrugged. ‘I’ve learned to never underestimate you, Tilly.’
‘But what if I can’t?’
‘It won’t matter,’ Poe said. ‘Everyone in that room assumes you can.’
‘Now what?’ Flynn said.
Poe looked at the trestle table. He tried to will the bowl of fruit into normal food. ‘As Tilly’s confiscated everything edible, we may as well have a brew.’
The kettle was just starting to steam when Mathers knocked on the door and entered the room. She put a small box on the trestle table. ‘I’m sorry, Tilly,’ she said, ‘but Poe gets a doughnut.’
‘Bitchin’,’ Poe said, reaching for the box before Bradshaw could grab it.
‘Someone fessed up?’ Flynn said.
‘Some prick from the Midlands,’ she said. ‘Came to see me within two minutes.’
‘Did he say why?’
‘Going through a divorce, drinking too much, a bunch of other stuff I don’t give a shit about. He’s been taken to Bethnal Green. I’ll charge him with enough to get him remanded. I don’t want him out until this is finished.’ She opened her mouth and yawned, a right jaw-stretcher. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Sleep is hard to come by right now.’ She took a moment then added, ‘But I think I’ll sleep tonight. Glad to have you onboard.’ She yawned again. ‘What’s your plan, Poe?’
Poe shrugged. ‘Wing it and see what happens.’
‘The usual then?’
‘He sticks to his strengths,’ Bradshaw said.
Poe licked some sugar from his lips. ‘We’ll start where we always do,’ he said. ‘With the victims.’
Chapter 13
The M6 was busy around Birmingham, hectic around Manchester, and then quietened down. By the time they got to Cumbria it was like the start of an apocalypse movie. Poe found the muscles in his neck and shoulders relaxing. They always did when he saw the fells and mountains that the M6 weaved its way through. There might be more attractive sections of motorway in the UK, but Poe seriously doubted it.
Flynn was driving, Poe was in the back. Bradshaw was in the front passenger seat. She always was. She had stats to prove it was the safest place to be in the event of a crash. Poe looked wistfully at the salt store at junction 39. A few years ago, a mummified corpse was discovered there, and the chaos that followed – a serial killer burning men alive in Cumbria’s myriad stone circles – had forged the three of them into the tightest team Poe had ever been part of. It felt good to be back together.
‘I assume we’re starting with the Gretna Green victim because it’s close to where your wedding rehearsal is?’ Flynn said, breaking into his thoughts.
Poe leaned forward, stuck his head between the two front seats. ‘Actually, no,’ he said. ‘We’re starting in Scotland because the people in that COBRA meeting don’t understand guns.’
‘And you do?’
‘I’m ex-army.’
‘That was years ago, Poe,’ Flynn said. ‘They probably don’t use muskets any more.’ She indicated, overtook a mud-splattered Range Rover, then added, ‘But go on, I’m listening.’
‘The politicians and most of Mathers’s cops might think this guy’s Dead Eye Dick the crack shot, but that’s because they don’t understand how guns work.’
‘What’s to understand? You point them, you fire them. The rest is just bullshit so they can sell more copies ofSporting Gun.’
‘Spoken like a true knob,’ Poe said. ‘Guns, particularlylongguns, need to be zeroed.’
