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‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘And James, I want them here within the hour.’

Poe nodded in satisfaction. His phone beeped. It was a text from Bradshaw telling him that she was ready to brief him and he should get back to Cumbria.

‘I have to go,’ he said. ‘I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

‘Do you think he’ll talk?’ Jessica said.

‘Depends what Tilly’s found, I suppose. We’ll know soon enough. He won’t be in hospital much longer.’

‘How is he?’

‘In a pretty bad way actually. Eight broken bones in his hand, a shattered elbow, a fractured shoulder blade and dislocated socket. Oh, and a ruptured testicle.’

‘Your doing?’

‘The ruptured testicle wasn’t. I don’t think he got it all his own way. He might have caught Steph unawares but her training in Krav Maga has given her excellent reflexes. Given how close we came to being too late, I reckon the knee to the balls she gave him saved the day.’

Zoe smiled at that.

‘Good,’ she said. ‘And what about you? Will you come out of this OK?’

‘The official version of events will be kind to me,’ he assured them. ‘I know it will, as I’ll be writing it.’

He checked his watch.

‘Look, I can be back in Cumbria in five hours. If you keep your phones on I’ll let you know anything the second I know it.’

‘Make it four hours, Poe,’ Zoe said, throwing him a set of keys.

Poe caught them.

‘What’s this?’

‘There’s a Range Rover in the car park,’ she said. ‘Your director told us what you did. We know we can never repay you but Jess and I can certainly replace the car you lost.’

‘You didn’t have to do that.’ He then lied and added, ‘The insurance will cover it.’

‘You deliberately drove it into the sea. The insurance most definitely will not cover it. And anyway, it’s now registered in your name. If you don’t take it you’ll start racking up parking charges.’

Poe didn’t know what to say. He set

tled for, ‘I’ll keep it for now but only because of that shite thing the hire car company gave me.’

‘Leave the keys here and we’ll get someone to return it,’ Jessica said.

Flynn was sleeping and he saw no reason to wake her. Within seconds he was striding down the corridor.

He was at the front door when a voice called him back.

It was Zoe.

She had run to catch him.

‘One more thing, Poe,’ she said. ‘I know all about you. I know the things you’ve done and I know you’ll not rest until you find the person behind this.’

‘I’ll find them,’ he confirmed.

‘And when you do,’ Zoe said, her eyes monstrously calm, ‘you kill them. Do you understand me, Poe? You find the person who did this and you fucking kill them.’