Page 161

Chapter 89

‘Linseedoil, boss!’ Poe shouted into his phone. ‘Tilly knows what I’m talking about!’ He was running to his car, desperate to get back to Salt’s house.

‘Well I don’t, Poe,’ Flynn snapped. ‘Either calm down and tell me, or shut up until you get here.’

‘Hang on.’

Poe threw himself into the driver’s seat and pulled on to the road without checking his mirrors or signalling. He Bluetoothed his mobile to his car’s system. He was now hands-free.

He caught his breath and said, ‘When Tilly and I went to see Estelle at HMP Low Newton, we spoke to one of the cops who’d been first on the scene. I asked him if there was anything he hadn’t put in his report.’

‘And he said linseed oil?’

‘He actually said cricket bats, but yes, we narrowed it down to linseed oil. Tilly said some science stuff about why smell triggers such detailed memories.’

‘Go on.’

‘At Flat Bravo, one of the crime scene techs has just lifted two threads out of the carpet. One white, one red. They triggered a memory.’

‘Of linseed oil?’

‘No,’ Poe said, ‘of guns.’

‘Guns?’

‘I’m certain the threads are from a roll of cloth patches used to clean gun barrels.’

‘That’s weirdly specific.’

‘Hear me out. Keeping your assault weapon clean in the armywas a critical task. You were taught to clean it before you were taught to fire it. Dirty weapons jam, clean weapons don’t. Simple as that.’

‘Makes sense. Lots of moving parts on modern weapons.’

‘Exactly,’ Poe said. ‘And because of carbon fouling, the most important thing to clean was the barrel. If the barrel remains dirty, over time, the weapon becomes inaccurate. And to clean the barrel you use a pull-through.’

‘A pull-through?’

‘It’s a length of cord with a narrow weight at one end and a small loop at the other. You thread a patch of cleaning cloth through the loop, drop the weight down the barrel then pull it through. Do that a few times and the barrel is spotless.’

‘And you think these threads are from a cleaning patch?’

‘I do. And the reason I do is that British squaddies can be stupid. Time and time again they’ll use cloth patches that are too big, thinking it’s a short cut. The bigger the patch, the sooner the barrel will be clean.’

‘But it doesn’t work that way?’

‘It does. Sort of. The problem is, if you use a patch that’s too big it gets stuck. And then squaddies panic. They either snap the pull-through or they try to hammer it out with a thin rod. Jammed pull-throughs cause barrel bulges or scratches, or any other number of problems.’

‘I take it the army found a way around this?’

‘They did. The rolls of cloth patch are white, but they’re sectioned off every five centimetres by a single red thread. If you tear off one patch and it gets stuck, it’s not your fault. You were using the right size. If you use more than one patch and it gets stuck, you’re in deep shit.’

‘I’m still not seeing the link, Poe,’ Flynn said. ‘I assume you didn’t use linseed oil in your barrels?’

‘No, we used gun oil. Came in little plastic bottles. But the thing is, the whole gun industry started using white cleaning rolls with red cutting lines. Up in Cumbria, all fishing and sporting goods stores sell them.’

‘Poe, can you get to the—’

‘Elcid Doyle owned the biggest grouse moor in the north of England, boss. His study was full of game bird paintings. I’ll confirm it with Estelle’s solicitor, but he had a shotgun. I guarantee it. Probably had a collection. And they’ll have been valuable. Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth, probably.’