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Chapter 42

‘Haveyou seen the news recently?’ Poe asked Karen Royal-Cross.

‘Why, was I on it?’ she replied, her eyes lighting up.

‘Why would you be on it?’

‘Because I’m a well-respected political commentator. I’m frequently on the news.’

‘You are?’

‘I am,’ she nodded.

‘Which papers do you write for? Which news programmes do you appear on?’

She tried to frown but couldn’t. Too much Botox in her forehead, Poe thought.

‘I’m more interested in social media these days,’ she said. ‘I can speak directly to my supporters without being censored by the lamestream news. But, I did have regular columns before the lefties took over.’ She handed Poe a well-thumbed scrapbook. ‘Have a look at that if you don’t believe me.’

It was full of press clippings. Some of the early ones were from local and national news, but more recently they all seemed to be from far-right fringe publications.

‘According to YWNRU,’ she said, ‘I’m England’s Conscience.’

‘YWNRU?’ Poe said. ‘The white supremacist slogan “You Will Not Replace Us”?’

‘Oh, my poor darling,’ she sighed. ‘White supremacists? How can someone as world-weary as you be so gullible?’

‘Oh do fuck off,’ Poe said.

‘Pack it in, Poe,’ Flynn warned.

‘Thank you, DI Flynn,’ Karen Royal-Cross said. ‘It’s time people like him realised diversity is just another name for white genocide.’

Flynn glared at her.

‘Oh do fuck off,’ she said, leaving the room.

The problem was this: Karen Royal-Cross, aka KRC, simply didn’t believe she was in any danger. She would seize on the smallest thing as proof that 99 per cent of the population loved her. She showed them her last tweet – something about Black History Month being another example of white oppression – and directed them to the number of comments, likes and retweets.

‘There’s a silent majority in this country who are as sick of the radical left agenda as I am,’ she explained.

‘Jolly good,’ Poe said. ‘But if we can get back to the matter in hand?’

‘That’s just fake news, darling,’ she said. ‘These loser snowflakes are always up to something. I try not to take them too seriously. They won’t actually do anything, not while this country pays them to smoke bongs all day.’

‘You must have taken some of those threats seriously; you’ve moved three times.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘When I get to be too much of a nuisance, the government hires crisis actors to protest outside my house,’ she said. ‘Probably the same lot who do the mass shootings in America.’

‘Crisis actors?’ Poe said before he could stop himself.

‘As if all those high-school massacres are real,’ she laughed. ‘The deep state stage a shooting every time they want to draw attention away from immigration. If you look carefully, you see the same actors over and over again. They change their clothes but the proof’s there, if you’re prepared to follow the breadcrumbs.’

Flynn walked back into the room.

‘Do wehaveto save her, boss?’ Poe said. ‘She’s a fucking pinhead.’

‘I’m calling your superior officer!’