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Chapter 40

‘PearlRigby was a thirty-three-year-old advertising exec from Chicago,’ Stahl explained. ‘She was flying to Australia to visit family and, during a layover at Amsterdam, she tweeted what she’d thought was a funny joke – “Don’t like airplane food so going to eat some fried chicken to remind me of home while I wait. Just kidding. I’m from River North, not Englewood.” She then got on a twenty-one-hour flight to Sydney. Some bloke retweeted it and, unbeknownst to her, while she was in the air the tweet went viral.’

‘I assume Englewood is a predominantly black area of Chicago?’ Poe said.

‘Over ninety per cent.’

‘Blimey.’

‘There was even a hashtag, Poe,’ Bradshaw said. ‘#HasPearl LandedYet.’

‘You know about this?’

‘Duh; it happened on the internet.’

‘Tilly’s right,’ Stahl said. ‘That Pearl was oblivious to her predicament became a form of entertainment. I’ve read articles that said people had refused to leave bars until she’d landed in Sydney. They were waiting for her to turn on her phone and realise her life was ruined. The next day she was fired and for a while she became unemployable. She had to go to East Africa to find redemption.’

‘So?’

‘Rigby’s commentwasoffensive, but you have to admit there’s a disconnect between her transgression and the severity of her punishment.’

‘You have a point, I take it?’ Poe said.

‘Can you imagine what it was like for me?’ Stahl said. ‘PearlRigby almost ruined her life with a racist joke.Iwas the man who’d hacked the parents of a dying child. That I hadn’t done it personally, or that I’d refused to write the story, was irrelevant. For a while I was the most reviled man in the country. I couldn’t go home and I couldn’t book into a hotel. I had to withdraw my life’s savings and basically go on the run. Went to Blackpool and rented rooms in the most disgusting B & Bs you can imagine. Blended in with the down-on-their-luck crowd. Started drinking even more. And once a week I had to schlep down to London to answer police bail, where my former colleagues, half of whom had also been hacking voicemails but hadn’t been caught, were waiting to photograph me.’

‘Alcohol became your crutch?’

‘Wasn’t long before it was the only thing I had in my life.’

‘When did you move back to London?’

‘I was sentenced in London so my probation officer was from here. Did my community service here. I could have applied for my case to be transferred to Lancashire Probation’s Blackpool office, but that would have made me a celebrity up there. The one good thing about London is the anonymity. It’s a curse for some but I welcomed it like a friend. Hugged and cherished it.’

‘And now a serial killer wants to talk to you.’

‘Apparently so.’

Stahl paused to finish his vodka. Poe drained his coffee. Bradshaw made some notes on her laptop.

‘What happens now?’ Stahl asked.

‘Based on what you’ve told us, and what Tilly has uncovered, she’ll now task the Mole People with drawing up profiles on anyone she thinks might be holding a grudge against you.’

‘Good luck with that,’ he grunted.

‘Thank you,’ Bradshaw said.

‘No, I meant there must be hundreds of people who fit that criteria.’

‘That’s incorrect, Henning Stahl.’

‘It is?’ he said. ‘That’s a relief, I suppose.’

‘Because I’m including the family and friends of the people whocan legitimately hold a grudge against you, the actual number is in the thousands.’

Poe laughed. Stahl didn’t.

The door swung open and Flynn stormed into the room. She was carrying a laptop and didn’t look happy. She put it on the table. A paused video filled the screen.

She pressed play and they watched in silence.

When the video had finished, Poe said, ‘What’s this bullshit?’