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Chapter 26

‘Whatdo you think?’ Flynn asked.

Poe was lying in the bath in the same position Harrison Cummings had been discovered. Head leaning on the rim, feet underneath the gold-plated lever taps.

‘Dunno yet,’ he replied. ‘Just trying to get a feel for what he might have done while he was in here. He took a bottle of wine in with him so he obviously planned on staying a while. What else do you do when you’re in the bath?’

‘Read. Listen to music.’

‘Anything else?’

‘You’re not having a wank, if that’s what you’re thinking. Not while I’m standing here.’

Poe didn’t answer.

‘What is it?’ Flynn said.

‘He had a bottle of wine with him.’

‘You’ve just said that.’

‘No, you don’t underst … Look, I don’t drink wine, but how long to finish say … two glasses?’

She shrugged. ‘Wine this expensive is to be savoured,’ she said. ‘Not glugged down like a three-quid carton of gut-rotter.’

‘How long?’

‘Maybe quarter of an hour a glass.’

‘So he was in here at least half an hour.’

‘Probably longer, Poe, but we have no way of knowing when he got in. As soon as his detail confirmed the flat was empty, they stayed outside and left him alone.’

‘I’m not bothered about that,’ he said. ‘It’s the fact he was in the bath for a while that’s interesting.’

‘Why?’

‘What happens when you stay in the bath for longer than twenty minutes?’

‘You go wrinkly.’

‘And what happens to the water?’

‘The bubbles go flat.’

‘And?’

‘It gets cold?’

‘Does it though? How many times have you sat in a cold bath? The watercools, but it doesn’t get cold. And it doesn’t get cold because we top it up with hot water.’

‘Agreed,’ Flynn said. ‘Unless you’ve emptied the hot water tank.’

‘And how do you warm up the bath?’

‘By adding more hot water, obviously.’

‘Show me. Carefully.’

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