Page 128
Story: The Curator (Washington Poe)
In Hartley-Graham’s case it had hinged on whether it had been Bradshaw or Poe who’d been first in the shower after the snowstorm had trapped them at Herdwick Croft.
If it had been him then Hartley-Graham and Flynn’s baby would have disappeared without a trace and the murders of Edward Atkinson, Rebecca Pridmore, Amanda Simpson and Howard Teasdale would have remained unsolved.
But he hadn’t gone first. Bradshaw had.
And she wasn’t as tall as him …
‘The shower,’ Poe said. ‘I recently had a guest, and for the first time since it had been installed someone had lowered the shower on the shower rod. They aren’t as tall as me, you see. That was your mistake. If you’d stayed in role and used the shower chair like Edward had, you’d be a free man. But you didn’t stay in role. You wa
nted to stand in the shower and you raised the showerhead accordingly. When I readjusted my shower, it reminded me I’d seen witness marks on Atkinson’s shower rod that were way too high for a man sitting down. You’d put the shower back to where Edward had put it but it still left marks where you had it.’
‘That was it? You got the whole thing from a shower head?’
Poe shrugged. Of course that hadn’t been it. Until he’d brought everything together it was just one more thing without any context. But … when he put it alongside a trail of bread-crumbs that had been difficult but not impossible to follow, and Melody Lee’s warning that when you thought you knew what the Curator was doing he had you exactly where he wanted you to be, it had all pointed to a complex but brilliant plan to isolate a single person.
‘I knew it couldn’t have been me you were after,’ Poe said. ‘You’d had me alone for a whole night and hadn’t made a move. And me being the target didn’t explain the female abductions or the anaesthetic we found in their blood. That suggested there was a medical angle and her pregnancy made DI Flynn the obvious choice.’
Notman was staring, open-mouthed. Poe felt like leaning over and pushing up her lower jaw. Hartley-Graham said nothing.
‘It was enough for me to think that she could be at risk anyway.’
Hartley-Graham nodded thoughtfully.
‘But I was only sure when I confirmed that DC Coughlan had asked to do a double shift on the island. You could only escape at high tide but you couldn’t risk being on the water when the marine unit brought in DC Coughlan’s replacement. They’d have discovered what you’d done and, as it’s a four-hour journey to the Isle of Man, they’d have chased you down. No way could you outrun one of their RIBs. No, the only way it could be done was if you had that tide cycle to yourself, and the only way you could achieve that was if you found a way of cancelling DC Coughlan’s replacement. I assume it was you and not him who radioed in volunteering for the overtime?’
Hartley-Graham nodded. ‘It wasn’t difficult. No one wanted to do a long shift out there. I’d spent twenty-four hours with you so knew the callsigns and frequencies. The detective inspector I spoke to was delighted Coughlan wanted to stay on.’
‘It’s time for you to try and avoid black sites and Guantanamo Bay now, Mr Hartley-Graham,’ Poe said. ‘Give me your password.’
Chapter 87
After Bradshaw had confirmed the password was valid, Poe went back into the interview.
‘Tell me what happened. Just the highlights this time.’
‘I’m a problem solver,’ Hartley-Graham said. ‘Under my Curator alter ego I approach wealthy individuals and offer them a way out of whatever trouble they’ve managed to get themselves in. Until this job I have always sought out my clients. I research them, and when I’m convinced it’s safe to do so I offer a bespoke solution.’
‘This client approached you?’ Poe said.
Hartley-Graham nodded.
‘They did. At first, I was sceptical. There are a lot of cops out there working full time on this type of crime. It wasn’t until I was authorised to add one million pounds’ worth of bitcoin into my digital wallet that I sat up and took notice. My client said there would be another million if I took the job and a million more after its successful conclusion. I couldn’t turn down three million pounds. I set up an impenetrable firewall between the two of us and opened a dialogue.’
Before he continued, Poe flashed Hartley-Graham a warning look. Reminded him what they’d agreed on the island about what he could and couldn’t say.
‘What did they want?’
‘Revenge.’
‘For what?’
‘I didn’t ask.’
‘This revenge was in the form of stealing DI Flynn’s baby?’
‘And to make it clear to her that it was because of something she’d done at work. The wound’s crude stitching was to be her permanent reminder.’
‘But you hadn’t yet had instructions on what you were to do with the baby once you were off the island.’
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128 (Reading here)
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138