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In Hartley-Graham’s case it had hinged on whether it had been Bradshaw or Poe who’d been first in the shower after the snowstorm had trapped them at Herdwick Croft.
If it had been him then Hartley-Graham and Flynn’s baby would have disappeared without a trace and the murders of Edward Atkinson, Rebecca Pridmore, Amanda Simpson and Howard Teasdale would have remained unsolved.
But he hadn’t gone first. Bradshaw had.
And she wasn’t as tall as him …
‘The shower,’ Poe said. ‘I recently had a guest, and for the first time since it had been installed someone had lowered the shower on the shower rod. They aren’t as tall as me, you see. That was your mistake. If you’d stayed in role and used the shower chair like Edward had, you’d be a free man. But you didn’t stay in role. You wa
nted to stand in the shower and you raised the showerhead accordingly. When I readjusted my shower, it reminded me I’d seen witness marks on Atkinson’s shower rod that were way too high for a man sitting down. You’d put the shower back to where Edward had put it but it still left marks where you had it.’
‘That was it? You got the whole thing from a shower head?’
Poe shrugged. Of course that hadn’t been it. Until he’d brought everything together it was just one more thing without any context. But … when he put it alongside a trail of bread-crumbs that had been difficult but not impossible to follow, and Melody Lee’s warning that when you thought you knew what the Curator was doing he had you exactly where he wanted you to be, it had all pointed to a complex but brilliant plan to isolate a single person.
‘I knew it couldn’t have been me you were after,’ Poe said. ‘You’d had me alone for a whole night and hadn’t made a move. And me being the target didn’t explain the female abductions or the anaesthetic we found in their blood. That suggested there was a medical angle and her pregnancy made DI Flynn the obvious choice.’
Notman was staring, open-mouthed. Poe felt like leaning over and pushing up her lower jaw. Hartley-Graham said nothing.
‘It was enough for me to think that she could be at risk anyway.’
Hartley-Graham nodded thoughtfully.
‘But I was only sure when I confirmed that DC Coughlan had asked to do a double shift on the island. You could only escape at high tide but you couldn’t risk being on the water when the marine unit brought in DC Coughlan’s replacement. They’d have discovered what you’d done and, as it’s a four-hour journey to the Isle of Man, they’d have chased you down. No way could you outrun one of their RIBs. No, the only way it could be done was if you had that tide cycle to yourself, and the only way you could achieve that was if you found a way of cancelling DC Coughlan’s replacement. I assume it was you and not him who radioed in volunteering for the overtime?’
Hartley-Graham nodded. ‘It wasn’t difficult. No one wanted to do a long shift out there. I’d spent twenty-four hours with you so knew the callsigns and frequencies. The detective inspector I spoke to was delighted Coughlan wanted to stay on.’
‘It’s time for you to try and avoid black sites and Guantanamo Bay now, Mr Hartley-Graham,’ Poe said. ‘Give me your password.’
Chapter 87
After Bradshaw had confirmed the password was valid, Poe went back into the interview.
‘Tell me what happened. Just the highlights this time.’
‘I’m a problem solver,’ Hartley-Graham said. ‘Under my Curator alter ego I approach wealthy individuals and offer them a way out of whatever trouble they’ve managed to get themselves in. Until this job I have always sought out my clients. I research them, and when I’m convinced it’s safe to do so I offer a bespoke solution.’
‘This client approached you?’ Poe said.
Hartley-Graham nodded.
‘They did. At first, I was sceptical. There are a lot of cops out there working full time on this type of crime. It wasn’t until I was authorised to add one million pounds’ worth of bitcoin into my digital wallet that I sat up and took notice. My client said there would be another million if I took the job and a million more after its successful conclusion. I couldn’t turn down three million pounds. I set up an impenetrable firewall between the two of us and opened a dialogue.’
Before he continued, Poe flashed Hartley-Graham a warning look. Reminded him what they’d agreed on the island about what he could and couldn’t say.
‘What did they want?’
‘Revenge.’
‘For what?’
‘I didn’t ask.’
‘This revenge was in the form of stealing DI Flynn’s baby?’
‘And to make it clear to her that it was because of something she’d done at work. The wound’s crude stitching was to be her permanent reminder.’
‘But you hadn’t yet had instructions on what you were to do with the baby once you were off the island.’
