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Chapter 104

‘Areyou now saying shedidn’thave a flat tyre?’ Tai-young Lee asked.

‘Not at all,’ Poe replied. ‘I’m saying those aren’t the hands of someone who changed it herself.’

‘They could be gel nails.’

Poe looked at Bradshaw, who shrugged. ‘What are they?’ he asked.

‘A gel-based polish cured under UV light,’ Lee explained. ‘Harder wearing than regular polish. I suppose it would be possible to change a tyre without damaging them.’

Poe considered this. Decided she was probably right but that she’d missed the wider point.

‘For argument’s sake let’s say that’s true,’ he said. ‘But on discovering she had a flat in the hospital’s basement car park, she replaced it herself then drove straight here. She didn’t stop anywhere and she didn’t ask for help.’

‘That’s what her statement said,’ Lee agreed.

‘I’m quite prepared to accept there’s a super polish out there, and it’s entirely possible Estelle uses it, but I amnotprepared to accept that she could have changed a flat tyre without getting so much as a smidgen of oil or dirt on her hands.’

‘Agreed. So we go back to my earlier question: are you now saying she didn’t have a flat tyre?’

‘I don’t know,’ Poe said. ‘But there’s an easy way to find out.’

Doyle’s car was still in the police garage that CSI had used when they’d searched it for the murder weapon. It was due to go to the secure police pound the following day. Lee arranged for them to see it.

Poe had no idea what Doyle drove, although he doubted it would be anything vanilla.

He was right.

They were taken to a vintage MGB Roadster. The CSI tech told them it was a 1974 model, a rare edition, with blue-purple paint-work called aconite. Wire wheels, polished chrome and a black leather interior. It was sleek and small and sexy. It would growl when it was angry and purr when it wasn’t. If Doyle were a car, she would be a 1974 MGB Roadster.

‘It’s not locked,’ the CSI tech said.

Poe put on a pair of gloves and opened the boot. ‘Well, she definitely had a flat,’ he said.

Doyle hadn’t bothered putting the damaged tyre into the MGB’s spare wheel cover. No doubt she had flung it into the boot to get repaired later.

‘Why would she say she hadn’t had help to change it, if she had?’ Lee asked. ‘Surely this isn’t still about her not wanting to appear feckless in front of you?’

Poe didn’t answer. He was rooting through the contents of the boot, searching for something, anything that might offer an explanation. He picked up the jack and placed it on the garage floor. He checked his gloves. They had oil on them. He showed Lee and Bradshaw.

‘And all I did was lift it out the boot.’

A used Coke bottle filled with coolant joined the jack, as did a small container of engine oil, a first-aid kit and a bag full of spark-plugs and fuses. Doyle also kept a waterproof jacket and a pair of wellingtons in the boot. Poe put them on the floor along with everything else. The only thing left was a box of tissues. He reached in and grabbed them, realising his mistake as soon as he had them in his hand. They weren’t tissues in the box, they were disposable gloves. The blue ones doctors and nurses wore. He was about to throw them on the floor next to the jack when something made him pause.

Why were they in the boot at all? He knew some doctors kept a medical bag with them for emergencies, but Doyle didn’t appearto be one of those doctors. So why have a box of disposable gloves? And they weren’t even new; the gloves were crumpled up as if they had already been worn. He reviewed the contents of the boot again.

Oil.

Coolant.

Spark plugs.

Fuses.

This was a car she loved, but it looked like it needed lots of care and attention. Probably needed ad hoc repairs to keep it running, hence the spare parts she kept in the boot. The disposable gloves were there to protect her hands when she had to work on her car. One of the perks of being a doctor. She would have worn a pair when she changed her tyre –thatwas why her hands were still clean.

And Frederick Beck had gone to extraordinary lengths to frame her.

‘Can we check the insides of these please?’ he asked Lee quietly.

‘What for?’

‘Firearms discharge residue.’