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Chapter 71

Unlikemost territorial forces, the Metropolitan Police has five ranks above chief superintendent: commander, deputy assistant commissioner, assistant commissioner, deputy commissioner and commissioner. Poe reckoned almost all of them were facing Mathers across the long table. Like the world’s worst job interview. He hadn’t seen so much back covering since the Jimmy Savile enquiry. Mathers would do well to come out of this ‘exploratory panel’ still wearing her crown. Everyone was back in London, but only Mathers had been invited to attend.

‘Talk us through it one more time, Detective Chief Superintendent Mathers,’ the commander asking the questions said. He had a wart on his eyebrow and a pockmarked face. His name was Ratfield, although Poe was referring to him as Ratface.

‘It was a disaster from start to finish, sir,’ Mathers said.

‘Where the hell is Chance’s Park?’ Mathers asked, clambering into the back of the command vehicle. Poe and Henning Stahl got in beside her. By the time Poe had shut the door, the four-by-four was already moving.

The Botanist had called with the location at five minutes to eleven.

‘West of the city, not far away, ma’am,’ Poe said. ‘It’ll take longer than five minutes to get there, but not much.’

‘Anything I need to know about it?’

‘Only that it makes no sense as a location.’

‘Why not?’

‘Chance’s Park isn’t on the outskirts of Carlisle, it’s hemmed in by city. It’s well maintained and has lots of paths and formal gardenareas. Not many trees. Absolutely nowhere to hide. Once he’s inside, we can put a ring around it.’

‘Why’s he doing this then?’

Bradshaw put her hand in the air. ‘I think I know, Detective Chief Superintendent Mathers.’

‘Why do you think he changed his modus operandi?’ Commander Ratface asked. ‘The old one was working well for him. Support was growing exponentially.’

‘No, sir, it wasn’t,’ Mathers said.

‘I’ve seen MOPAC’s data, Detective Chief Superintendent. His supportisgrowing.’

‘I had access to the data Miss Bradshaw provided. She’d been tracking it carefully and had concluded it was actually shrinking.’

‘And you trust the word of a single data analyst over that of MOPAC’s Evidence and Insight Unit?’

‘Yes, sir.’

MOPAC, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, was a functional body of the Greater London Authority. It was responsible for the oversight of the Metropolitan Police.

‘The Evidence and Insight Unit is internationally respected,’ Ratface said.

‘Yes, sir.’

‘And she’s just one analyst.’

‘Yes, sir. Tilly … I mean Miss Bradshaw says they got it wrong. That there was a definite decrease in social media engagement. She says if the Botanist didn’t do something different, he would find himself in a cycle of diminishing returns. Essentially, the public will get desensitised and move on to the next new thing.’

‘So, Chance’s Park was all about keeping him trending on Twitter?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘OK, we’ll come back to this later,’ Ratface said. ‘As I understand it, despite being a couple of minutes past eleven, you got to Chance’s Park first?’

‘That’s correct, sir. We thought we might have missed him butDetective Superintendent Nightingale, the silver commander from Cumbria, thought it unlikely. She said we had got there as quick as possible.’

‘It was you who made the decision to send in Henning Stahl?’

‘Yes, sir.’