Page 199

Chapter 117

‘Toxicologyhave confirmed the floating tablet found in Salt’s stomach contained ricin,’ Mathers told the packed conference room.

It was jammed with Met detectives and uniformed cops. Poe was wedged between Doyle and Henning Stahl. Flynn and Bradshaw were still AWOL. He’d tried texting them but hadn’t received a reply.

Mathers’s commander had just finished his press conference, a pre-prepared statement about Beck’s methodology and a plea for information. To Poe’s dismay, there was also a brief line about how the investigation had been merged with one in Northumberland. He didn’t give details, but he didn’t have to. Beck would be watching and he’d know the ruse to frame Doyle was over. Poe made a mental note to not let her out of his sight.

Mathers held up one of the blister packs Doyle had used earlier in her demonstration.

‘Professor Doyle says putting tablets into blister packs isn’t complex or time-consuming and we know Frederick Beck already has the skillset needed to manufacture the poisons and the delayed-release barriers. And we now suspect he conducted human trials in Japan. We assume this was where he fine-tuned how fast the tablet’s barrier dissolved.’ She paused to take a drink of water. ‘What we don’t know is how he’s getting his modified medication into boxes that his victims don’t find suspicious. We don’t know how he knows what medication they take or how he gets it to them while simultaneously diverting their genuine prescribed medication. Questions so far?’

‘Are they with the same GP?’ a uniformed sergeant asked.

‘They all live miles from each other. Not only did they havedifferent GPs, until Karen Royal-Cross and Douglas Salt were treated at the infectious diseases unit, none of them had even been to the same hospital before.’

The same sergeant said, ‘Maybe he posts them?’

‘Which doesn’t answer what happens when the real medication arrives. No one reported receiving duplicates.’

There were more unanswerable questions before Mathers picked up a whiteboard pen and began tasking. ‘Greg, we don’t think it’s anything to do with their GPs, but check again, will you?’

A fresh-faced detective nodded and wrote something in his notebook.

‘Chloe, now we know the victims are taking the poison a couple of weeks earlier than we’d thought, you’d better get your team going through the CCTV footage again. I don’t know what you’re looking for, but I suspect you’ll know when you see it.’

A stern-looking, grey-haired cop stood and left the room. Before the door had time to swing shut, Flynn and Bradshaw entered. Bradshaw scanned the room for Poe but it was too crowded. They hurried to the front. Flynn whispered in Mathers’s ear.

‘Are you sure?’ Mathers said.

‘Tilly is.’

‘You’d better tell everyone then.’

Flynn faced the room. ‘We think we know how Beck’s doing it,’ she said.