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Poe opened his file and put on his reading glasses.

‘But this time you got it wrong. Stuart Wilson was from a wealthy family, and on the face of it, they weren’t going to garner much public sympathy. They’d got rich investing in the construction of Iran’s liquefied natural gas export facilities. As the self-declared sworn enemy of the United States, at best, anyone managing to do business there is seen as an opportunist.’

‘Are you going somewhere with this, Sergeant Poe?’ Notman said.

Poe ignored her, kept his eyes on Hartley-Graham. He was watching Poe now. Curious and nervous.

‘And this is the thing you missed. Because of his success, Mr Wilson, Stuart’s father, was in delicate but advanced negotiations to provide safety equipment for some of the state-owned oil and gas sector.’

Hartley-Graham said nothing.

‘

And that caught the attention of the US intelligence agencies,’ Poe continued. ‘They were very keen for this to happen. I’m not privy to all the details, but apparently they’d asked for some backdoors to be slipped in. Backdoors that would have allowed some of the American three-letter agencies unfettered access to raw data they’d previously struggled to get anywhere near.’

‘Spit it out, Sergeant Poe!’ Notman snapped.

‘OK then, I will. Long story short is that your stunt with his kid caused Mr Wilson to pull out of the Iranian deal. He needed time and money for his son’s court case. I also suspect he wasn’t feeling the love for his government right then either.’

Poe slid a piece of paper across the table.

‘We’ve shared what evidence we have with them and told them that Stuart Wilson was set up. The Americans are now taking the view that you deliberately sabotaged this Iranian deal.’

Hartley-Graham swallowed hard.

‘On the face of it, it’s a pretty reasonable interpretation of the facts,’ Poe said. ‘And, as you’ll be aware, in this day and age, to the Americans suspected terrorism is terrorism.’

‘I’m not a terrorist,’ Hartley-Graham whispered. He knew what was coming. Knew his options had become binary, neither of them good. He would have to deal.

‘I can see you’ve fast-forwarded to the next song. I’ve just passed Mrs Notman what’s called an “intention to apply for extradition”. The United States want you brought there under the Patriot Act.’

Poe paused while they read it.

When they’d finished, he said, ‘You have a simple choice to make, Oliver: where do you want to be prosecuted? In the UK for four murders or in the States for terrorism. I’ll be back in ten minutes. Read that extradition document. It’s real, it’s happening now.’

He stood and left the room without a backwards glance.

Chapter 85

Nightingale and Bradshaw had watched the interview on the monitor. Bradshaw’s eyes were ringed with fatigue but she was still staring unblinking at the screen. Oliver Hartley-Graham had almost killed everyone she cared about.

‘You did well in there, Poe,’ Nightingale said.

Poe grunted his thanks. He wasn’t taking plaudits until he knew who was behind it all. Hartley-Graham was someone’s employee. If he didn’t find out whose, Scrapper Flynn would never be safe. It didn’t matter how many ex-special forces people Jessica Flynn hired, a resourceful person would find a way through. They only had to be lucky once, Scrapper had to be lucky all the time.

Poe couldn’t have that.

‘You think he’ll talk?’ Nightingale said.

‘He’ll talk.’

‘You seem sure.’

‘You should have seen how quickly he gave up the baby’s location when he thought I was going to pull on that protruding bone,’ Poe said. ‘He has no tolerance for pain. The thought of being waterboarded will terrify him. He’ll do anything to avoid extradition and the only way he can do that is to ensure he’s convicted of the crimes he committed in this country. Hope that if he’s ever released he’ll be too old to be of interest to the Yanks.’

‘You’re not worried he’ll come after you for assault?’

Poe shook his head.