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Chapter 44

‘Shewas wanting to sell it to the press after we’d left,’ Flynn said into her phone. ‘… Yeah, sheisa moron. Wasn’t until we mentioned the search team that she remembered where it was … OK, I’ll sort it. See you soon, ma’am.’ She slipped the phone back into her pocket. Turned and faced the room. ‘Well, what are you waiting for?’ she said. ‘Everybody out. Now!’

The room began to clear. Karen Royal-Cross walked past Poe. He grabbed her arm.

‘Not you,’ he said.

‘I’m not bloody well staying here,’ she said.

‘What’s the problem, Poe?’ Flynn said.

‘We have no idea how he administers his poisons. She could be unwittingly carrying it now, for all we know. We can’t risk exposing anyone else.’

‘We can’t leave her here on her own, though.’

‘I’ll stay with her,’ he said. ‘At least until the hazmat guys clear her and the flat.’

‘Why you?’

‘You need to coordinate the response and Tilly will probably bore her to death with statistics about climate change.’

Bradshaw stuck her head around the door. ‘I heard that.’

‘Am I going to die, Sergeant Poe?’ Karen Royal-Cross asked.

Lying wasn’t the best option right now. He needed her scared. Scared people did as they were told.

‘Maybe,’ he said.

She sighed. ‘Well, my mother used to say there isn’t a problem in the world that can’t be solved with a nice cup of tea. I’ll put the kettle on.’

‘Have you been listening toanything? He’s threatening you with ricin. That’s a death sentence. There isn’t a cure. There isn’t a vaccine. If it gets into your system, you die. It’s that simple.’

‘What are you saying?’

‘I’m saying, you’re not putting the bloody kettle on.’

‘I assume you don’t have a problem with me taking my medication?’ she pouted.

‘What medication?’

Hunt had been using sildenafil for erectile dysfunction and Cummings had managed his high cholesterol with statins. Their tablets had been tested and come back clean but …

‘It’s private,’ she said.

Something embarrassing then.

‘Suit yourself,’ Poe said. ‘The search team will find it anyway.’

She reached into a garish, sequin-covered handbag and brought out a small cardboard box. He could see the white sticker all dispensed medications were required to have. She handed it to Poe.

He still had his forensic gloves on, but he struggled into a second pair. Doubling up was good practice. Karen Royal-Cross was being prescribed orlistat. Poe read the patient information leaflet. It was a lipase inhibitor, a drug designed to treat obesity. It prevented the absorption of one-third of the fat in your meal.

‘You think I’m fat, don’t you?’ Karen Royal-Cross said.

‘I don’t think about you at all,’ Poe replied.

‘Charming.’