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Chapter 76
‘Thatlooked rough, ma’am,’ Poe said to Mathers when she finally got away from Scotland Yard.
‘You’ve seen it?’
‘Tilly was given access to your systems when she was analysing Spring-heeled Jack’s freerunning moves. She never leaves a system without installing a backdoor. We watched it live.’
‘Might have known,’ she grinned. ‘And it wasn’t rough. Not really. We’re in a command and control organisation and something went wrong. Investigating why is an important part of what we do.’
‘Ratface didn’t need to be such a dick about it though.’
‘Who?’
‘The guy asking the questions.’
‘Commander Ratfield? He’s OK. Where is everyone?’
‘Tilly has gone to get some equipment she needs and the boss is downstairs with Douglas Salt. Henning Stahl is on his way back from his Chance’s Park debriefing. Thought it best to keep him with us. I doubt his part is over yet.’
‘I think that too,’ Mathers agreed. ‘Anyone could have taken delivery of that envelope. How’s Salt taking it?’
‘Not well. Keeps going on about his bloody shareholders.’
‘He taking it seriously?’
‘I had to tell him what we estimated his chances of survival were.’
She nodded. ‘Is your security detail here?’
‘They are.’
‘I think I’d better meet them then.’
Poe had said the definition of being a dickhead was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Flynnhad congratulated him on bastardising Einstein’s famous insanity quote. Bradshaw had said the quote had been misattributed to Einstein and it was now widely accepted as coming from a novel written by Rita Mae Brown in 1983. Poe had asked how she could possibly know that.
‘Because I don’t just read books by Carl Hiaasen, that’s why, Poe,’ she’d said.
‘Whatever,’ he’d replied. ‘The point is, when Harrison Cummings and Karen Royal-Cross died they were being protected by people we didn’t know. We trusted them because we were told they were trustworthy.’
‘And your point is?’ Flynn had said.
‘Would you trust a stranger to babysit Scrapper?’
Scrapper was the nickname he’d given Flynn’s son. He was born under the most appalling circumstances and the name had stuck. He wasn’t entirely sure he could remember hisactualname. He thought it might be Adam. Zoe, Flynn’s partner, glared at him every time he said Scrapper out loud.
‘Zoe and I occasionally pay for professional childminding,’ she had replied. ‘We don’t always know who they’ll send.’
‘Fair enough. But would you still trust an agency if you knew the child snatcher fromChitty Chitty Bang Bangwas in the area?’
‘Well, no, not then obviously. If we had to have childcare, we’d ask family or friends … Ah, I see. Who do you have in mind?’
Poe had grinned.
‘Ma’am, let me introduce you to Douglas Salt’s bespoke security detail,’ Poe said to Mathers.
They had assembled in Salt’s subterranean movie theatre. It had three rows of vintage cinema seats, even a popcorn machine. One of the team had asked if he could turn it on.
‘Of course you can,’ Poe had said. ‘I mean, the most cunning poisoner in history is trying to kill Mr Salt, but sure, go ahead, eat some of his popcorn.’
