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Chapter 95

ElcidDoyle’s late wife hadn’t liked being around guns. She had insisted her husband keep them in his study. For a while, he had got away with a standard gun safe, little more than a sturdy filing cabinet. But, after acquiring the pair of J. Purdey & Sons shotguns, his insurance company insisted on something with a higher security rating.

Rather than purchase an ugly safe, the owner of a German company, also an old grouse-shooting friend, had suggested a bespoke, concealed strong room instead.

The Germans had removed a bookcase and knocked through the wall into the back of the airing cupboard in the office’s en-suite. They made the airing cupboard smaller and reinforced the strong-room side with interlocking steel panels. They fitted a door that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a bank. The Germans then repurposed the original bookcase as a concealed Murphy door. When it was finished, the strong room, which was about the size of a telephone box, was rated for up to two million pounds.

‘I can’t believe we missed this,’ Lee said.

‘You didn’t know to look for it,’ Poe replied. ‘Ania said it was never a secret, but the craftsmanship is so good it’s unlikely you’d stumble upon it by accident.’

‘And the dogs must have been barking at the safe, not the smell of the gun discharge that killed Elcid.’

‘Probably both,’ Poe said, nodding.

He wasn’t out of the game yet …

‘Ania,’ Poe said, ‘we don’t know the combination to the strong-room door.’

‘Elcid didn’t write it down?’

‘If he did, we can’t find it.’

‘I’m due to see Estelle this afternoon. I’ll ask her if she knows it.’

Poe frowned. This afternoon meant losing time they didn’t have. ‘Didn’t you say you were managing the Doyle account because the senior partner was in his eighties, or something?’ he said.

‘I did,’ Ania replied. ‘Mr Howey.’

‘Would he have been involved in the installation of the strong-room door?’

‘He’d have liaised with the insurance company, certainly. Made sure it met their expectations. Probably negotiated a reduction on Elcid’s premium.’

‘Can you ask him if he knows the code?’

‘I’ll see if he’s in.’

‘Thanks, Ania.’

‘But, before I do, I have some bad news.’

‘Oh, well, we were due some,’ Poe said.

‘Yes, very funny. I couldn’t get to the clerk and the judge has read our bail application. He’ll see us at nine o’clock tomorrow morning.’

After Ania had hung up, Poe told Bradshaw and Lee about the judge in chambers application.

Bradshaw looked at her watch. ‘We have less than twenty-fours then,’ she said.

‘Tick tock,’ Lee said.