Page 106

‘I disabled voicemail,’ he said.

She looked at him.

‘Someone disabled voicemail for me,’ he admitted. ‘Can you ring it back? It’ll come through on the car’s speakers.’

Bradshaw pressed return call.

‘Hello,’ a sleepy voice said.

‘This is Detective Sergeant Washington Poe. I think you’ve been trying to get in touch with me.’

‘Ah, Sergeant Poe,’ the voice drawled, ‘how y’all been doing over there?’

It was Special Agent Melody Lee.

Chapter 70

Melody Lee wanted an update. Poe told her what they knew – that with her prompting they’d been able to see the part of the story the Curator had tried to hide. That they now knew who his final target was.

‘So you don’t think he knew that this Cowell dude had the hots for his own sister?’

‘I don’t, no. Tilly says there was no malware on his computer so he couldn’t have known that Cow

ell had a video that exonerated himself. Tilly also says it’s possible he’d only intended to set Cowell up for the Rebecca Pridmore murder and had other Black Swan Challenge players in mind for the other two.’

‘But the yellow dot tracking tied him to all three,’ Melody Lee said.

‘Exactly. And when the video of his sister having sex cleared Cowell of the murder he’d been set up for, it inadvertently cleared him of them all.’

‘That’s some complicated shit you’ve got going down there, Sergeant Poe,’ she said. ‘You’ll keep me informed?’

‘I will.’

‘Good luck then. And be careful: I’ve found that when you think you’ve figured out what the Curator’s up to, you’re normally exactly where he wants you to be.’

‘Why did she have to say that, Tilly?’ Poe said. ‘It’ll be all I can think of now.’

Poe was worried and he didn’t know why. Montague Island was secure. Completely locked down. Flynn was watching the western approaches, Coughlan was watching the east. Now they had thermal imaging equipment, anyone approaching the island would stand out like dog balls. Armed cops were on standby, ready to be rushed wherever they were needed.

‘What are we missing, Tilly?’

‘I can’t think of anything, Poe,’ she said. ‘Apart from the Curator’s identity and the name of the person who hired him, of course. Other than that we have the complete picture.’

He nodded. They did have the complete picture.

And that was the problem. In a case this complicated there still should have been one or two things that didn’t make sense.

‘I’m calling Nightingale,’ he said.

‘It’s been too easy,’ Poe said.

‘Easy?’ Nightingale replied. ‘This has been the most challenging case I’ve ever worked.’

Nightingale was about to go into a briefing with the chief constable so she couldn’t give him long.

‘Has it, though? Really?’ Poe said. ‘It’s been shocking and distressing, but think about it: from the moment I found that kettle, which wasn’t exactly hidden, each clue took us nearer to where we are now. There are no gaps. We didn’t have to make any leaps of faith. There’s just an unbroken line of evidence leading directly to Edward Atkinson and Montague Island.’

‘None of the evidence was easy to find, though, Poe.’