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Chapter 86
‘How’sthe public vote going, Tilly?’ Poe asked as soon as he walked through the door. ‘Is Salt winning?’
‘He’s up by almost a million now, Poe,’ Bradshaw replied.
‘That many? Where is he?’
‘Downstairs, sulking.’
‘Why?’
Bradshaw reached for the remote and turned on the television.
‘It’s almost ten p.m.,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you watch for yourself?’
‘We’ll now go to Maria Dorey for a full update,’ the news anchor said.
Maria Dorey was standing outside the police cordon on Frederick Beck’s street. There was a fine drizzle in the air. She’d obviously been waiting a while for her cue as her head was wet.
‘Thank you, Charles,’ she said. ‘There was chaos earlier today when armed police raided an address on this street …’
A report heavy on supposition but light on facts followed. It was clear that, while the press knew there had been a breakthrough, no one had been briefing them. They didn’t even have the Botanist’s name. Poe suspected that Dorey’s wilder claims were simply an attempt to get someone to put the record straight.
She gave a quick update on the public vote before introducing pre-recorded biographies of Douglas Salt and Chrissie Stringer. Poe now understood why Salt was sulking. His bio was particularly unpleasant. The station’s American correspondent had spoken to families who had lost loved ones to multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis. They were only too happy to vent against the man who had hiked up the price of the drug that could have saved them.
The report went on for a couple more minutes before she started to wrap it up for the night.
‘This, of course, follows on from the bungled police operation in Chance’s Park in Cumbria. As the Botanist’s popularity grows, confidence in the police’s ability to apprehend him is at an all-time low—’
Bradshaw turned off the television. ‘Douglas Salt says we’re deliberately overreacting as revenge for him being a successful capitalist,’ she said. ‘He told DI Flynn that we had to leave.’
‘What did the boss say?’ Poe said, grinning.
‘She told him to stop being so immature. DI Flynn and Ian Gamble are asleep now, as their shift has finished. Detective Sergeant Andrew Rigg and Detective Constable Anne Hawthorne have taken over.’
‘Is there any goat left? I’m starving.’
‘You’re joking, aren’t you? No one’s touched it. In fact, we had to put it in the garden as it was making the house smell yucky.’
‘What did you have instead?’
‘Jefferson Black went to McDonald’s. I had a vegan wrap.’
‘You? You had a McDonald’s?’
‘I did. And I shan’t be having one again.’
‘Horrible, aren’t they?’
‘It’s the worst thing that’s ever been in my mouth,’ she agreed.
‘You can’t eat a whole goat, Poe.’
‘I can and I will.’
‘But you’ll suffer from crapulence.’
Poe didn’t immediately respond. ‘Potty mouth,’ he said eventually.
