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Chapter 107
‘Iknew you’d found something, Poe,’ Doyle said. ‘When the governor came to get me he was absolutely furious. Only you can make someone that angry. I can’t tell you how relieved I was.’
‘Poe shouted at him this morning when he said he had no one to process you out,’ Bradshaw said. ‘He made the governor do it himself.’
‘Thank you, Poe. I’m not sure I could have coped with another night in there, not after Ania told me my bail had been authorised.’
‘He never stopped working on your case, Estelle,’ Bradshaw said. ‘Even when he was told not to.’
‘That sounds out of character, Tilly.’
‘And he even tried to pick a lock on your dad’s front gate, until he found out he didn’t know how to. He was going to climb over instead but Detective Chief Inspector Tai-young Lee caught him and said she was going to arrest him for breaking into a crime scene. Then Poe said he would arrestherfor withholding evidence, but said he wouldn’t if she showed us the inside of your ancestral home.’
Doyle smiled at her. Bradshaw’s innocence was a tonic. ‘It sounds like you’ve been busy.’
Poe caught her gaze in the mirror. ‘You didn’t think we were going to leave you in there, did you?’
‘What else did Poe do, Tilly?’ Doyle said.
‘Lots of things, Estelle. He also said you’re a lady now, but we shouldn’t bow as you wouldn’t like that.’
‘You know about that, Poe?’
‘I’m a detective,’ he said.
‘And?’
‘And what?’
‘What do you think about it?’
‘I’m puzzled as to why you thought I’d think less of you.’
‘You hate privilege, Poe.’
‘I hate theabuseof privilege, Estelle. And from what I’ve uncovered, your father was a decent person. And I know you are.’
Doyle let out a breath Poe didn’t know she had been holding. For some reason that little exchange had been important to her. He wondered why.
‘And even when we were at Douglas Salt’s house,’ Bradshaw continued, ‘Poe was reading your file, not his.’
‘Douglas Salt?’ Doyle said.
‘The Botanist’s next victim,’ Poe said. ‘I’ve put a team of oddballs together. See if we can do what no one else has been able to and keep him alive.’
‘Did you get my message? That I wanted to see you?’
‘I did. But that photograph of Tilly and me visiting you in prison hit the front pages for a day. It sort of grounded us in London. What were you after?’
‘I read the post-mortem reports you sent via Ania. Thank you for that. It did me good to think about things other than my father and my own predicament.’
‘You found something?’
‘No. The pathologist did a good job. I wouldn’t have done anything differently.’
‘Oh, well. It was a long shot.’
‘But it got me thinking.’
